Today’s Highlights:
Hangman, by Martin McDonagh, directed by Matthew Dunster, featuring Alfie Allen, David Threlfall, Tracie Bennett, Own Campbell, Jeremy Crutchley, Gaby French, Josh Goulding, John Hodgkinson, Richard Hollis, John Horton, and Ryan Pope, with Sebastian Beacon, Peter Bradbury, Katie Fabel, Colin McPhillamy, and Andy Nyman, opens at Broadway’s Golden Theatre.
Marys Seacole, by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Nadia Latif, featuring Kayla Meikle (Mary Seacole), Déja J. Bowens (Mamie), Llewella Gideon (Duppy Mary, Esther Smith (Miriam, Olivia Williams (May), and Susan Wooldridge (Merry), opens at London’s Donmar Warehouse.
!Americano!, by Carrie Rodriguez, Jonathan Rosenberg & Fernanda Santo, directed by Michael Bernard, featuring Sean Ewing (Valdovinos), Legna Cedillo, Yassmin Alers, Johanna Carlisle-Zepeda, Joseph Paul Cavazos, Lucas Coatney, Devin Cortez, Juan Luis Espinal, Justin Figueroa, Ruben Eduardo Flores, Megan Elysa Fulmer, Henry Gendron, Anne-Lise Koyabe, Alessandro J. Lopez, Edgar Lopez, Carolina Miranda, Alex Paez, Ryan Reyes, Lannie Rubio, Nicole Paloma Sarro, Robbie Serrano, Maria Cristina Posada Slye, and Pablo Torres, opens at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages.
Islander, by Amy Draper, Stewart Melton & Finn Anderson, directed by Draper, featuring Kirsty Findlay and Bethany Tennick, opens at Off-Broadway’s St. Luke’s Theatre.
Fun Home, directed by Tracy Ward, featuring Rinabeth Apostal (Alison), Jennifer Boesing (Med Alison), Teresa Attridge (Med Alison), Jason Vesely (Bruce), McKenna (Small Alison), Keenan Moran (John), Royal Mickens (Christian), and Rudy Guerreo (Man), with Sophi Introna, opens at San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon.
Azad, by Sona Tatoyan, a multi-media theatrical experience, directed by Tatoyan & Jeremy Boxer, opens at LA’s Pico Playhouse.
Anthony Rapp: Without You, directed by Steven Maler, closes at Off-Broadway’s Royal Family Performing Arts Space.
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Reviews for for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf at Broadway’s Booth Theatre:
NY Times (Laura Collins-Hughes): …a Broadway homecoming celebration that you will not want to miss… Triumphant, that is, because the director-choreographer Camille A. Brown’s thrilling and exuberant revival breathes warm, kinetic life… Brown’s staging is so attuned to the words and cadences of Shange’s choreopoem, yet so confident in its own interpretive vision, that the characters blossom into their full vibrancy… If you’ve never thought of “For Colored Girls” as a funny show, be prepared for Brown’s seven splendid performers to persuade you otherwise. They will also pierce your heart, because this production does not shy from the emotional and existential lows that coexist with the play’s highs.
NY Daily News (Chris Jones): …a masterful piece of writing, a work so layered with targeted poetry as to form a kind of manifesto of the unheard, one foot in Greek tragedy, one in ordinarily difficult American life. The stakes of its subject matter are written right there in the title, as is what Shange saw as the solution… Great feats of writing (as this one) always have continuing relevance because they mold to any modern situation, being as human behavior tends not to change as much as we think… To say “Colored Girls” was a prescient work hardly does justice to the word… more people now get to sing its song, which is heartening and affirmative. It makes the audience feel like the text is alive and breathing.
Variety (Ayanna Prescod): …Shange’s delicate marriage of dance, music and monologues gives Black women the stage to be unapologetically human and vulnerable — to be seen in all their complicated glory… Camille A. Brown now serving as both director and choreographer (the first Black woman to do so on Broadway in 65 years)… Brown and her design team skillfully command the audience to engage solely with the women on stage and their stories… themes of visibility filter through every enunciated breath and rhythmic melody… the impressive ensemble of seven performers seamlessly works in tandem to create a kaleidoscope of dazzling Black femininity, making it impossible to look away…
Hollywood Reporter (Lovia Gyarkye): …Her [Ntozake Shange] soft, excited wishes fill the intimate space of the Booth Theater… it’s a joy to witness…. Brown’s version of the production injects Shange’s already electrifying work with a distinctive and vivid energy… She has kept much of the original choreopoem…intact, but with the help of her dynamic cast, Brown, who both directs and choreographs this revival, remixes for colored girls, manipulating sound and movement to reveal even deeper layers… Brown’s opening sequence captures the thrill of double dutch on a breezy afternoon, the secrets tucked into nursery rhymes and hand games, the laughs and whispers of budding friendships…
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Matthew López, Amber Ruffin, Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman’s Some Like It Hot will begin previews Nov. 1 and open Dec. 11 at the Shubert Theatre, directed & choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, with music direction by Darryl Archibald.
Christian Borle (Joe / Josephine), J. Harrison Ghee (Jerry / Daphne), Adrianna Hicks (Sugar), Kevin Del Aguila (Mulligan) and Mark Lotito (Spats), with more TBA.
Note: A pre-Broadway tryout, originally set for 2021 in Chicago, has been scrapped, and the musical will have it’s world premiere on Broadway.
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Into the Woods will run Aug. 17 – Sept. 10 (opening Aug. 25) at Theatre Royal Bath, directed by Terry Gilliam & Leah Hausman, with choreography by Hausman, and music direction by Stephen Higgins.
Alex Young (Baker’s Wife), Audrey Brisson (Cinderella), Nicola Hughes (Witch), Julian Bleach (Mysterious Man), and Rhashan Stone (Baker), Gillian Bevan (Jack’s Mother), Nathanael Campbell (Wolf / Cinderella’s Prince), Maria Conneely (Rapunzil), Lauren Conroy (Little Red Riding Hood), Phoebe Fildes (Lucinda), Samuel Holmes (Steward), Charlotte Jaconelli (Florinda), Henry Jenkinson (Rapunzel’s Prince), and Barnet Wilkinson (Jack).
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RIP: Robert Morse has died at the age of 90.
Morse made his Broadway debut as Barnaby Tucker in the original 1955 production of The Matchmaker, a role he also re-created on screen. He earned his first Tony nomination for Say, Darling (1959). He won his first Tony as Best Actor in a Musical for Take Me Along, which he followed with How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (winning another Tony for Best Actor in a Musical). Morse would also go on to play Finch on screen.
Additional stage credits include Sugar, So Long, 174th Street, Tru (1990, winning a Best Actor in a Play Tony Award), and the 2016 revival of The Front Page.
TV credits include “That’s Life,” “Night Gallery,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” and many more, including “Mad Men” (playing Bert Cooper, for which he received 5 Emmy nominations during the show’s 7-year run).
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The Ojai Playwrights Conference will celebrate its 25th Anniversary Season with a benefit performance of Caring and Daring Together on Sat. June 4 at 6 PM PT at LA’s Kirk Douglas Theatre, directed by Robert Egan.
(highlighted): Luis Alfaro, Jon Robin Baitz, Kimberly Belflower, Bill Cain, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Danai Gurira, Zora Howard, Lisa Kron, Jiehae Park, Nikkole Salter, Jeanine Tesori, Charlayne Woodard, and more…
Additional details TBA…
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Dave Davidson’s That It Not Who I Am will run June 10 – July 16 (opening June 16) at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Lucy Morrison.
Casting TBA.
When Ollie has his identity stolen on the internet, it’s bad enough. But soon it’s not just his online life collapsing – his real life is being stolen, too. Who is the person really doing and saying all these awful things? And who can Ollie trust to see the real him when the world sees him as a monster? Did the real him ever exist in the first place? A slippery new thriller in which nothing is as it seems and nobody is who they are.
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VA’s Signature Theatre will present Broadway in the Park on Fri. June 24 at 8 PM ET at Wolf Trap, directed by Matthew Gardiner, with music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch.
Kelli O’Hara and Adrienne Warren.
Erin Driscoll, Vincent Kempski, Rayshun LaMarr, Kevin McAllister, Donna Migliaccio, Nova Y. Payton, Awa Sal Secka, and Bobby Smith.
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Video: New clips of Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse in Broadway’s How I Learned to Drive.
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“Jesus Christ Superstar: Highlights From the All-Female Studio Cast Recording” will be released Apr. 29 on all digital music services. 
To pre-save the album, click here.
Morgan James (Jesus Christ), Shoshana Bean (Judas Iscariot), Cynthia Erivo (Mary Magdalene), Ledisi (Simon), Bridget Everett (King Herod), Orfeh, Debbie Gravitte, and more.
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An Evening with Fran Lebowitz will run Apr. 28 – May 1 at the Broad Stage.
Pet peeves: Tourists, baggage-claim areas, after-shave lotion, adults who roller skate, children who speak French, on anyone who is unduly tan.
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Porchlight Music Theatre presents Stew & Heidi Rodewald’s Passing Strange May 18-19 at Chicago’s Ruth Page Center for the Arts, directed by Donterrio, with music direction by Akira Kono, and choreography by Terri K Woodall.
Michael Maurice Ashford, Rueben Echoles, Reneisha J Jenkins, MJ Rawls, Nolan Robinson, Byron Willis, and Jasmine Lacy Young.
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LA’s Blank Theatre has announced the winner of the 2nd annual Ucross+ The Blank Theatre Future of Playwrighting Prize, honoring early-career playwrights nationwide.
The winner is Katherine Gwynn. Two additional finalists, Andrew Sianez-De La O and Gage Tarlton will each receive a cash prize as well.
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Sister Act will run June 1-26 (opening June 5) at NJ’s Paper Mill Playhouse, using Jerry Zaks’ Broadway staging, restaged by Steven Beckler, with choreography re-staged by Anthony Van Laast, and music direction by Christopher Babbage.
Nicole Vanessa Ortiz (Deloris Van Cartier), Jennifer Allen (Mother Superior), Akron Watson (Curtis), Belinda Allyn (Mary Robert), Diane J. Findlay (Mary Lazarus), Kara Mikula (Marty Patrick), Jarran Muse (Eddie Souther), John Treacy Egan (Monsignor O’Hara), Anthony Alfaro (Pablo), Ryan Gregory Thurman (TJ), and Jacob Keith Watson (Joey), with Rachelle Rose Clark, Steve Czarnecki, Madeleine Doherty, Denzel Edmondson, Dion Simmons Grier, Kolby Kindle, Ashley Masula, Stephanie Miller, Alaina Mills, Heather Parcells, Chandler Reeves, Michael Schimmele, Alyson Snyder, Anne Fraser Thomas, Ariana Valdes, and Zuri Washington.
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The world premiere of Arthur Holden’s Beloved will run May 9 – June 19 (opening May 13) at The Road on Magnolia, directed by Cameron Watson.
Sam Anderson (Stephen), Taylor Gilbert (Dorothy), and Cherish Duke (Sylvia / Miriam / Marika).
Dorothy and Stephen are married co-owners of a failing real estate company. They’re shocked when they learn their teenage son has committed a disturbing crime – and they’re devastated when they find out why.