Today’s Highlights:
Real Women Have Curves: The Musical, by Lisa Loomer, Joy Huerta & Benjamin Velez, directed & choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, featuring Lucy Godínez (Ana), Shelby Acosta (Prima Flaca), Satya Chávez (Izel), Florencia Cuenca (Estella), Janet Dacal (Mrs. Spitz), Sandra Valls (Prima Fulvia), Carla Jimenez (Pancha), Justin Machado (Carmen), Edward Padilla and (Raúl), Sage (Henry), Jennifer Sánchez (Rosali), with Shadia Rairuz, Elisa Galindez, Michael Keyloun, Christopher M. Ramirez, Arusi Santi, Amy Lizardo, Kayla Quiroz, and Gus Stuckey, opens at Cambridge’s A.R.T.
Holiday Spectacular, created & directed by Sam Pinkleton & Randy Blair, featuring MaryAnn Hu, Lesli Margherita, George Salazar, and Jason Michael Snow, opens at Pasadena Playhouse.
OY! To the World ~ Christmas With a Twist!, by Gregory Thirloway & Maurice Godin, directed by Maurice Godin, featuring Kelley Dorney, Tonoccus McClain, Yamuna Meleth and Jay Brian Winnick, opens at North Hollywoods El Portal Theatre.
Jaime Lozano’s Navidad en Familia FREE holiday concert, with special guests Krystina Alabado, Mayelah Barrera, Cedric Leiba Jr., Shereen Pimentel, Mario Tadeo, and Migguel Anggelo. at 7:30 PM at Lincoln Center‘s David Rubenstein Atrium.
**********************
Encores! concert adaptation of Once Upon a Mattress will run Jan. 24 – Feb. 4, 2024 at NY City Center, directed by Lear deBessonet, with choreography by Lorin Latarro, and music direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.
Newly announced Harriet Harris (Queen Aggravain), along with Sutton Foster (Princess Winnifred), Michael Urie (Prince Dauntless), Nikki Renée Daniels (Lady Larken), J. Harrison Ghee (Jester), Cheyenne Jackson (Sir Harry), Francis Jue (Wizard), and David Patrick Kelly (King Sextimus), with Shavey Brown, DeMarius R. Copes, Kaleigh Cronin, Cicily Daniels, Ben Davis, Ta’Nika Gibson, Gaelen Gilliland, Jaquez, Paul Kreppel, Morgan Marcell, Abby Matsusaka, Adam Roberts, Ryan Worsing, and Richard Riaz Yoder.
**********************
The world premiere touring production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will launch Sept. 10, 2024 – Feb. 1, 2025 at Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre (link not yet available), directed by John Tiffany.
Casting, tour dates, and additional information TBA.
**********************
Off-Broadway’s Labyrinth Theatre Company will present LAB: STRIPPED, offering peak at 2-week runs of new works in progress (casting TBA):
The Complicated (Feb. 20 – Mar. 3, 2024), by Cusi Cram, directed by Dina Janis. 
A Dark comedy about an eccentric, cultural-melting-pot of a family struggling to survive New York in the 1980’s. It is a wild ode to folks from mixed backgrounds who were raised by wolves, single mothers, teachers, god brothers, and their own killer instincts. 
here.
Lolita Lolita (Mar. 12-14), by Elizabeth Narciso, directed by Alfreo Narciso. A time-traveling joyride through the history of the patriarchy! Helen of Troy, Salome, and Lolita employ all the powers at their disposal: poetry, pop culture, and cherry cake to set the record straight. here.
**********************
Max Wolf Friedlich’s Job will return Jan. 19 – Mar. 3, 2024 at the Connelly Theater, directed by Michael Herwitz.
Peter Friedman (Loyd) and Sydney Lemmon (Jane).
In this psychological thriller, Jane, an employee at a big tech company, has been placed on leave after becoming the subject of a viral video. She arrives in the office of a crisis therapist, Loyd, determined to be reinstated to the job that gives her life meaning.
**********************
Chryssie Whitehead: In My Own Little Corner: My World in Progress with Bipolar Disorder will take placeMon. Jan 22 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Abrons Art Center, directed by Bryan Knowlton, with musical direction by Nick Wilders,
**********************
Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s Our Class will run Jan. 12 – Feb. 4 (opening Jan. 18) at BAM, directed by Igor Golyak.
Gus Birney, Andrey Burkovskiy, Jack Di Falco, José Espinosa, Tess Goldwyn, Will Manning, Stephen Ochsner, Alexandra Silber, Richard Total, Ilia Volok, and Igor Golyak.
The play is based on real events and follows ten classmates — five Jewish and five Catholic — as they grow up as playmates, friends and neighbors, then turn on one another with and death consequences. Inspired by real life events surrounding a horrific 1941 pogrom in the small village of Jedwabne, Poland, the play follows their lives from childhood through eight decades in a contemporary new production.
**********************
Tony Menéses’ La Cocina will run Jan. 19 – Feb. 11, 2024 at North Hollywood’s Loft Ensemble, directed by Adam Chambers.
Biniyam Abreha, Ben Anderson, Emilie Crotty, Paul L. Davis, Berenice Diaz, Emelie Felina, Carlos Gomez Jr., Leah Haile, Jay Hoshina, Kirsten Jones, Sean Alan Mazur, Alejandro Mungaray, Elena Nicholson, Sarah Nilsen, Bree Pavey, Max Reed III, Rose Scalish, Matthew Scheel, Chloe Scott, Nate Thurman, Dani True, Esteban Vasquez, and Paige Willis.
The play looks at the back of house of a modern-day NYC restaurant kitchen as cooks and waitstaff juggle orders, dishes, and their own dreams of a better life.
**********************
George Street Playhouse and Primary Stages will present the world premiere of Charles Busch’s Ibsen’s Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasy, to run Jan. 16 – Feb. 4, 2024 at the NJ New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, directed by Carl Andress.
Charles Busch (Suzannah Thoresen Ibsen), Thomas Gibson (Wolf Dahlquist), Jen Cody (Gerda), Christopher Borg (George Elstad/The Rat Wife,) Judy Kaye (Magdalene Kragh Thoresen), and Jennifer Van Dyck (Hanna Solberg), with Kate Hampton (understudy for Susannah Thoresen Ibsen).
The play is about the legendary Norwegian playwright’s wife Suzannah the week after the great man’s state funeral and the predicaments she faces, including her husband’s long lost illegitimate son, his former protégée peddling a libelous diary, and an enigmatic rodent exterminator.
**********************
The national tour of Broadway’s Parade will launch in Jan. 2025 (dates TBA) at Schenectady’s Proctors, directed by Michael Arden.
Casting, tour schedule and additional information TBA.
**********************
Based on the film, David Horsby, Chris Hoch, Kyler England, AG & Gabriel Mann’s musical adaptation of The Lost Boys is currently in development, directed by Michael Arden, with music supervision by Ethan Popp.
Timeline, casting, and additional information TBA.
The piece follows two teenage brothers who move with their divorced mother to the fictional town of Santa Carla, California, only to discover that the town is a haven for vampires.
**********************
RIP: Michael Blakemore, the Tony Award-winning stage director, has died following a brief illness. He was 95.
Blakemore initially studied medicine before entering the theatrical arena as a press agent for Robert Morley in 1949. At Morley’s suggestion, Mr. Blakemore then traveled to London, where he trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He worked as an actor for 12 years, making his professional debut at the Theatre Royal and working for the Birmingham Repertory Company, Stratford’s Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, but by the mid 1960’s, he had shifted his focus to directing.
After directing many productions at Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Mr. Blakemore became the co-artistic director of the Citizens Theatre in 1968, with his production of Peter Nichols’ A Day in the Death of Joe Egg proving to have international legs, transferring first to London before arriving on Broadway in 1968, where Mr. Blakemore earned his first Tony nomination.
On the West End, Mr. Blakemore directed Noël Coward’s Design for Living starring Vanessa Redgrave, David Hare’s Knuckle, and Arthur Miller’s The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, before turning his sights on New York, making a notable Broadway splash throughout the 1990’s as the director of City of Angels, Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage starring Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack, The Life, and, finally, the 1999 revival of Kiss Me, Kate.
Mr. Blakemore’s Kiss Me, Kate was a runaway success, redefining the classic musical for a new generation. That same season, Mr. Blakemore’s production of Frayn’s Copenhagen transferred to Broadway, leading Mr. Blakemore to be the only director in Tony Awards history to win both Best Direction of a Play and Best Direction of a Musical in the same season.
Following his tour de force run at the end of the century, Mr. Blakemore continued to work with his preferred collaborators, bringing Ember by Christopher Hampton to the Duke of York’s Theatre in London in 2006, and a handful of final productions to Broadway, including Deuce by Terrence McNally and Blithe Spirit, both of which starred his beloved Angela Lansbury. In 2007, he brought Mark Twain’s never-before-produced comic play Is He Dead? to Broadway.
**********************
Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West (link to this project TBA) has announced selections for its 2024 New Works Program, with an invitation-only festival (dates TBA),
Broken Ground, by Christine Toy Johnson & Jason Ma
The Dark Lady, by Veronica Mansour, Sophie Boyce.
Māyā, by Cheeyang Ng & Eric Sorrels.