Today’s Highlights:
Wish You Were Here audio play, by Sanaz Toossi, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, featuring Nikki Massoud, Marjan Neshat, Nazanin Nour, Artemis Pebdani, and Roxanna Hope Radja, begins streaming here.
Cynthia Ferrer & Randy Rogel benefit concert, begins streaming at Musical Theatre West.
“A Wonderful Guy: Conversations with the Great Men of Musical Theater,” by Eddie Shapiro, including Joel Grey, Michael Cerveris, John Collum, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Ben Vereen, Raúl Esparza, Christian Borle, Len Cariou, Michael Rupert, Terrence Mann, Howard McGillin, Marc Kudisch, Norm Lewis, Will Chase, Christopher Sieber, Norbert Leo Butz, Gavin Creel, Cheyenne Jackson, and Jonathan Groff, released in Hardcover and Kindle here.
Now or Never song cycle, by Matthew Harvey, featuring Eloise Davies, Ahmed Hamad, Matthew Harvey, Irvine Iqbal, Lucy St. louis, Katie Shearman, and Courtney Stapleton, livestreams at 2:30 PM ET at the UK’s Barn Theatre.
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Eric Rockwell & Joanne Bogarts The Musical of Musicals (The Musical) — an all-singing, all talking, all virtual event — will stream Apr. 18-21 at Off-Broadway’s York Theatre, directed by Tom D’Angora & Michael D’Angora, with music direction by Deniz Cordell. This event will raise funds to help The York recover and rebuild after devastating damage from a water main break on January 4, 2021.
Betty Buckley, Matthew Broderick, André De Shields, Jane Krakowski, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Mandy Patinkin, Chita Rivera, Lillias White, Mercedes Ruehl, Lewis Black, Richard Kind, Jose Llana, Isaac Mizrahi, Lesli Margherita, Debra Messing, Andrea McArdle, Brad Oscar, Ethan Slater, Giancarlo Esposito, Martha Plimpton, Randy Rainbow, Soara-Joye Ross, Christy Altomare, Colleen Ballinger, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Kelvin Moon Loh, Telly Leung, Christine Pedi, Jelani Remy, Jackie Sanders, Michael West, and Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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Article: Amada Kloots reflects on bringing Nick Cordero to the hospital one year ago.
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Broadway Barks, hosted by Bernadette Peters, will stream Sun. May 23 at 7 PM ET here.
Celebrity and shelter participants TBA.
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Video: A look back at Broadway’s Contact, with director/choreographer Susan Stroman, writer John Weidman, and original stars Boyd Gaines, Seán Martin Hingston, Deborah Yates, Karen Ziemba, and Tomé Cousin. (57:09)
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Wendy MacLeod’s Slow Food will stream Apr. 29 – May 16 (Thursdays – Sundays) at Long Beach’s International City Theatre, directed by Marya Mazor.
Stu James, Perry Ojeda, and Meridith Thomas
The play was inspired by a real evening spent with the playwright’s family. “Everybody was tired and hungry, and it was Sunday night and we found one restaurant still open and we sat down to order our meal, and we were encountered by the most extraordinary waiter I have ever met. And by that I mean bad. The worst waiter I have ever, ever had. And he seemed to kind of thrill to his power to control whether or not we got our food and drinks and when we got them and who got them first. It was just a fascinating character study.”
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Book writers Sas Goldberg & Gordon Greenberg have departed the in-the-works musical Mystic Pizza. Songwriter Melissa Ethridge, however, is still on board, although the stage adaptation will now also includes songs from Cyndi Lauper, John Cougar Mellencamp, Debbie Gibson, and Phil Collins.
The book will now be written by Sandy Rustin, and directed by Casey Hushion, which will include songs by Wilson Phillips, REO Speedwagon, Belinda Carlisle, Rick Astley, Robert Palmer, Berlin, Van Morrison, The Supremes, Kim Wilde, Mike and the Mechanics, Fine Young Cannibals, Tiffany, Bryan Adams, and Starship.
Stay tuned for further updates.
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A stage production of “Game of Thrones” is being written & adapted by Duncan Macmillan, and directed by Dominic Cooke. Casting, timeline, and additional information TBA.
The play will for the first time take audiences deeper behind the scenes of a landmark franchise event that previously was shrouded in mystery. Featuring many of the most iconic and well-known characters from the series, the production will boast a story centered around love, vengeance, madness and the dangers of dealing in prophecy, in the process revealing secrets and lies that have only been hinted at until now.
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A reading of Bekah Brunstetter’s Mother’s Day, will stream Apr. 9-11 at MA’s Barrington Stage Company, directed by Jennifer Chambers.
Debra Jo Rupp, Andy Lucien, Virginia Kull, and Edward Astor Chin.
Hope springs eternal. Mara, approaching her forties, clings to the hope that this time the nascent seed of a child will grow beyond the size of a raspberry, a grapefruit or a pineapple and finally make her a mother.”
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The Actors Fund and Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers have partnered with Christine Baranski for Stage & Screen, to take place Wed. Apr. 28 beginning at 10 AM ET.
The current, very impressive, selection of items can be viewed at the link above.
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Upcoming master classes have been announced. Click here for additional information.
Dana Steingold (Apr. 18 at 12 PM ET)
Kerry Butler (Apr. 19 at 7 PM ET)
Brittney Johnson (Apr. 25 at 2 PM ET)
Telly Leung (May 2 at 12 PM ET)
Jenn Colella (May 16 at 12 PM ET)
Kate Rockwell (May 23 at 12 PM ET)
Each class will include a limited number of participants who can sing, and receive feedback before singing again. Observation spots are also on sale to observe the class. Observers will not be able to participate in the class but can submit questions during the first hour for the Q&A portion which is the last half hour of the class!
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Long Beach Opera has announced its 2021 season of live drive-in operas:
Les Enfant Terrible (May 21-23), by Philip Glass, directed by James Darrah, conducted by Christopher Rountree.
desert in (June, dates TBA), a world series operatic miniseries, by Ellen Reid, Christopher Oscar Peña, and James Darrah, featuring Isabel Leonard, Talise Trevigne and Justin Vivian Bond.
Pierrot Lunaire / Voices From the Killing Jar (Aug. 14-15), by Arnold Schoenberg & Kate Soper, directed by Danielle Agami & Zoe Aja Moore, conducted by Jenny Wong.
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DC’s Signature Theatre presents After Midnight to stream on Broadway OnDemand (link TBA) from mid-June – early August (exact dates TBA), conceived by Jack Viertel, directed and choreographed by Jared Grimes, with music direction by Mark G. Meadows,
Christopher Jackson (Emcee) and Nova Y. Payton (Lady), with Sophia Adoum, Phillip Attmore, Jessica Bennett, DeWitt Fleming Jr., Jennie Harney-Fleming, Andre Hinds, Jodeci Milhouse, Solomon Parker III, Shayla S. Simmons, and Kanysha Williams.
A retrospective of Duke Ellington’s years at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club, featuring the poetry of Langston Hughes with songs by Harold Arlen, Cab Calloway, Harry Carney, Sidney Easton, Duke Ellington, Dorothy Fields, E.Y. Harburg, Johnny Hodges, Harry James, Ted Koehler, Jimmy McHugh, Bubber Miley, Irving Mills, Henry Nemo, Ben Pollack, Sippie Wallace, Ethel Waters, and Harry A. White.
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Becca, a benefit concert honoring Rebecca Luker, written by arah Rebell & Schonbert, hosted by Frank DeLella, will stream Tues. May 4 at 8 PM ET here.
Laura Benanti, Sierra Boggess, Michael Cerveris, Kristin Chenoweth, Victoria Clark, Santino Fontana, Judy Kuhn, Howard McGillin, Norm Lewis, Tam Mutu Kelli O’Hara, and Sally Wilfert.