Today’s Highlights:
The Great Gatsby, adapted by Kait Kerrigan, Jason Howland & Nathan Tysen, directed by Marc Bruni, featuring Jeremy Jordan (Jay Gatsby), Eva Noblezada (Daisy Buchanan), Noah J. Ricketts (Nick Carraway), Samantha Pauly (Jordan Baker), Sara Chase (Myrtle Wilson), John Zdorieski (Tom Buchanan), Paul Whitte (George Wilson), and Erica Anderson (Wolfsheim), with Raymond Edward Baynard, Austin Colby, Curtis Holland, Traci Elaine Lee, Dariana Mullen, Ryah Nixon, Pascal Pastrana, Kayla Pecchioni, Mariah Reshea Reives , Dan Rosales, Dave Schoonover, Derek Jordan Taylor, Tanairi Sade Vazquez, and Katie Webber, Kurt Csolak, Carissa Gaughran, Samantha Pollino, Alex Prakken, Jake Trammel, and Jasmine Pearl Villaroel, opens at Broadway’s Broadway Theatre.
Second Stage Theater‘s Mother Play, by Paula Vogel, directed by Tina Landau, featuring Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jim Parsons, and Jessica Lange, opens at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre.
The Hope Theory, world premiere written & performed by master illusionist Helder Guimarãese, begins previews at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
92Y on Broadway: Back to the Future – Performance and Conversation, featuring Roger Bart, Casey Likes, John Rando, Glen Ballard and Bob Gale, at 8 PM at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre.
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Reviews for Uncle Vanya at Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): Why is it called “Uncle Vanya”? All the man does is mope, mope harder, try to do something other than moping, fail miserably and mope some more… If Vanya is properly no hero in this amusing but rarely deeply affecting production, it’s because he’s no one at all. He despairs and disappears… Lila Neugebauer’s sleek, lucid staging, you barely notice Vanya even as he makes his first entrance… in Heidi Schreck’s smooth, faithful yet colloquial new version, his first words, naturally, are complaints… But Carell is no ham: He’s precise, natural, unimposing… Neugebauer is such a detailed director, honing every moment and movement to a chic polish, that this typically gorgeous Lincoln Center Theater production offers a hundred things to enjoy… The supporting roles are just as vividly filled. Alfred Molina as the professor is especially luxurious casting…
Theatermania (David Gordon): …with a to-die-for assortment of talent. The unpretentious new translation, written by Heidi Schreck… Vanya is a perfect role for (Steve Carell), whose cinematic drollery is often layered with an undercurrent of Chekhovian despondency. But this Uncle Vanya is only enjoyable in fits and starts. It’s modern, but not completely; brisk, while still feeling too long… There’s little ensemble-like cohesion in this melancholic tale of Russian weariness; a group of people who should be relating to each other seem like they’ve just met… Neugebauer… makes the whole thing quite languid instead… Trapped in the middle are the actors, who deliver performances in a variety of styles that also rarely mesh.
Variety (Trish Deitch) …breathtaking new Broadway production… in current-day America rather than Russia around 1898.. What a difference 126 years can make! And yet, judging by the state of the world and the human psyche depicted in Chekhov’s play, nothing at all has changed… Uncle Vanya is a very dark play. And yet, under Neugebauer’s direction, — and played by a cast featuring Steve Carell, William Jackson Harper, Anika Noni Rose, Alfred Molina and Alison Pill — every moment of this production shimmers with beauty, mirth, and, at least for the audience, hope… Well, this play could, in fact, be a stiff, empty, misanthropic soap opera in lesser hands. But with Heidi Schreck’s gorgeous, colloquial translation, and a flawless, fully engaged ensemble cast, the play is as entertaining as it is heartbreaking and profound.
New York Post (Johnny Oleksinski): And my noting of that unconditional love is not meant to diminish the talented Carell, who, making his Broadway debut, turns out to be a splendid theater actor who is shrewdly cast as the bitter rural Russian… While the production has got the jokes down pat, it is quite a bit shakier when it comes to the pathos and hardship that spring from them… These depressed Slavs’ unrequited love and unrealized potential should be, simultaneously, hilarious and upsetting. And playwright Heidi Schreck’s colloquialish adaptation doesn’t go overboard with changes to tamp that down. This half-there staging, on the other hand, has us in stitches in the first half and then exhausted after intermission when the drama revs up…
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Idina Menzel: Take Me or Leave Me Tour will launch Fri. July 19 at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre.
Click here for the complete tour schedule.
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Macbeth will transfer from the Donmar Warehouse to the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre, to run Oct. 1 – Dec. 14, directed by Max Webster.
David Tennant (Macbeth), Cush Jumbo (Lady McBeth), Moyo Akandé (Ross), Annie Grace (Musician/ Gentlewoman), Brian James O’Sullivan (Donalbain/Soldier/Murderer/ Musician) Casper Knopf (Fleance/Young Siward), Cal MacAninch (Banquo) Kathleen MacInnes (The Singer), Alasdair Macrae (Musician), Rona Morison (Lady Macduff), Noof Ousellam (Macduff) Raffi Phillips (Macduff’s Son/ Fleance/ Young Siward/), Jatinder Singh Randhawa (The Porter/Seytan) Ros Watt (Malcolm), and Benny Young (Duncan and Doctor.
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Pittsburgh CLO has announced its 2024 Summer season (casting TBA):
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (May 17 – June 20), directed by Tome’ Cousin, with music direction by Kenney Green-Tilford.
West Side Story (June 11-16), directed & choreographed by Baayork Lee, with music direction by Anthony T. Edwards.
The Color Purple (June 25-30), directed by Chrisopher D. Betts, with choreography by Tislarm Bouie, and music direction by Ilana Atkins.
The Music Man (July 9-14), directed by Sara Edwards, with choreography by Mara Newberry Greer, and music direction by Robert Neumeyer.
Young Frankenstein (July 19 – Sept. 1, directed by Joel Ferrel, with music direction by Rober Neumeyer.
. Seussical (July 30 – Aug. 4), directed by Michael Heitzman, with choreography by Robbie Roby, and music direction by Catie Brown.
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Sex Anyone The Musical, written & directed by John Freed, will run May 3-11 at Hollywood’s Hudson Theatre.
Casting TBA.
Mike is a sex addict looking for love. He’ll need a miracle to succeed…and finds one. Think of “South Pacific,” but about sexual obsession instead of interracial marriage.
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The world premiere of Marla Mindelle’s The Big Gay Jamboree will begin previews Sept. 14 and open Oct. 1 at the Orpheum Theatre, directed & choreographed by Connor Gallagher.
Marla Mindelle, and more TBA.
Stacey, after blacking out from 18 Jägerbombs, wakes up hungover in the most terrifying place of all: an Off-Broadway musical. With no memory of how she got there, Stacey is forced to put her BFA in theater to use, belt her face off, and figure out how the hell she’s gonna escape this 1940’s golden age musical…while a live audience watches.
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The 24th annual Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards will be presented on Thurs. June 6
Click here to nominate (beginning Apr. 26).
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The world premiere of Florence Welch, Thomas Bartlett & Martyna Mjok’s Gatsby, will now run May 23 – Aug. 3 (opening June 5) at Cambridge’s A.R.T., directed by Rachel Chavkin, with choreography by Sonya Tayeh.
Isaac Powell (Gatsby), Charlotte MacInnes (Daisy), Ben Levi Ross (Nick), Cory Jeacoma (Tom), Eleri Ward (Jordan), Solea Pfeiffer (Myrtle), Matthew Amira (Wilson), and Adam Grupper (Wolfsheim), with Nick Bailey, Kailey Boyle, Runako Campbell, Jada Clark, Joshua Grosso, Alex Haquia, Gabriel Hyman, Matt Kizer, Lorenzo Pagano, Chris Ralph, Christopher M. Ramirez, Shea Renne, Aliza Russell, Shota Sekiguchi, Maya Sistruck. Cameron Burke, Jacob Burns, Mia DeWeese, Paige Krumbach, Justin Gregory Lopez and. Sam Simahk.
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The Road to Masada: Anti-Semitism and Me, written, produced & performed by Mitchell Feinstein, will take place Sat. June 22 (6:30 PM) and Thurs. June 27 (8:30 PM) at the Zephyr Theatre, directed by Jessica Lynn Johnson.
Anti-Semitism has been called The Oldest Hatred, and Mitchell Feinstein investigates its origins with the aid of a History Machine (and multimedia), portraying multiple characters and covering some 2000 years of history in a clear, comprehensible, concise, and compact 75 minutes. Mitchell explores anti-Semitism in the hopes of understanding its history and the history of all forms of hatreds, with the objective of helping us all to find understanding of one another.
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Beautiful: The Carole King Musical will run June 5-30 (opening June 9) at NJ’s Paper Mill Playhouse, directed by Casey Hushion, with choreography by Jennifer Werner, and music direction by Wendy Bobbitt Cavett.
Kyra Kennedy (Carole King), Marrick Smith (Gerry Goffin), Samantha Massell (Cynthia Weil), Jacob Ben-Shmuel (Barry Mann), Brian Fenkart (Don Kirshner), and Suzanne Grodner (Genie Klein), with Tavis Cunningham, Seth Eliser, Kevin Hack, Jana Djenne Jackson, Andrea Levinsky, Prentiss E. Mouton, Jay Owens, Olivia Palmer, Thomas Ed Purvis, Isaiah Reynolds, Tavia Riveé, Aaron Robinson, Danielle Summons, Bronwyn Tarboton, Giselle Amarisa Watts, and Mikayla White.
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The 2024 Chita Rivera Awards will take place Mon. May 20 at 7:30 PM at NYC’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (566 La Guardia Place)
Bernadette Peters will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Joel Grey.
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August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, directed by Chuck Smith, has been extended through May 19 at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.
A.C. Smith (Herald Loomis), Harper Anthony (Reuben Mercer), Anthony Fleming III (Jeremy Furlow), TayLar (Bertha Holly), Gary Houston (Rutherford Selig), Kylah Jones (Zonia), Nambi E. Kelley (Mattie Campbell), Krystel V. McNeil (Molly Cunningham), Tim Rhoze (Bynum Walker), Shariba Rivers (Martha Loomis) and Dexter Zollicoffer (Seth Holly), with Sean Blake, Stacie Doublin, Kristin E. Ellis, Anthony Irons, Bill McGough, Jean-Luc Nazaire, André Teamer, and Riley Lauren Wells.
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Ianne Fields Stewart, Jonathan Brielle & Sam Salmond’s A Complicated Woman will run May 10 – June 2 (opening May 29) at CT’s Goodspeed, directed & choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, with music direction by Debra Barsha.
Nora Brigid Monahan (John/Jean), L. Morgan Lee (Nina Mae), Christian Brailsford (Oscar), Klea Blackhurst (Myrtle), Danny Rutigliano (Lee Shubert), Dashiell Gregory (Carl), Zachary A. Myers (Muhlaysia), and Arewá Basit (Diamond), with Siena Rafter and Bryan Munar.
John Kenley was a theatre impresario who brought Hollywood stars like Gene Kelly and Ann Miller to Ohio’s summer stock stages. But when summer ended, he wintered in Florida where John disappeared… and Jean came to life. This new musical features a Golden Age score and a gender-diverse cast. Follow the intriguing story of a theatre legend who had to navigate the joy, pain and pitfalls of leading a double life.