GRACE NOTES: Thursday, December 4, 2025

 

Today’s Highlights:

 

   Merrily We Roll Along, the live-filmed version of the Broadway production, directed by Maria Friedman, featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez alongside alongside Krystal Joy Brown, Katie Rose Clark and Reg Rogers, opens in theaters nationwide.

 

  The American Soldier, a solo play written, conceived, directed & performed by Douglas Taurel, opens at Off-Broadway’s A.R.T. New York Theaters.

 

  Nepo Baby, by Nick Bisa, featuring Theodore Bouloukos  begins previews at Off-Broadway’s New Stage Performance Space (36 West 106 St.).

 

  Die Heart: The Director’s Cut, by the Troubadour Theater Company, directed & choreographed by Matt Walker, featuring Beth Kennedy, Rick Batalla, Mike Sulprizio, Clinton Roane, Chelle Denton, John Paul Batista, Trey McIntyre, Philip McNiven, Lara Lafferty, Benji Kaufman, Luis Martinez, Sofia JoAnna, and Matt Walker, begins previews at Burbank’s Colony Theatre.

 

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   Simon Rich’s All Out: Comedy About Ambition will run Dec. 12 – Feb. 15 at the Nederlander Theatre, directed by Alex Timbers, with a rotating cast.

 

  Eric Andre (Dec. 12-28) … Ike Barinholtz (Dec. 12-21) … Abbi Jacobson (Dec. 12-29-8) …  Jon Stewart (Dec. 12-21) … Jim Gaffigan (Dec. 22-Jan. 11) … Ben Schwartz (Dec. 22-Jan. 4 … Wayne Brady (Dec. 29-Jan. 18) … Cecily Strong (Dec. 29 – Jan. 18) … Beck Bennett (Jan. 2-18) …  Mike Birbiglia (Jan. 13-18) …Heidi Gardner (Jan. 20 -Feb. 15) … Jason Mantzoukas (Jan. 20 – Feb. 15) … Craig Robinson (Jan. 20 – Feb. 15 … Sarah Silverman (Jan. 20 – Feb. 15) … Nicholas Braun (Feb. 17 – Mar. 8) … Ashley Park (Feb. 17 – Mar. 8) … Ray Romano (Feb. 17 – Mar. 8) … and Jenny Slate (Feb. 17 – Mar. 8).

 

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   The world premiere of Robert Axelrod’s Lifeline will run Jan. 20 – Mar. 1 (opening Jan. 23) at North Hollywood’s Road Theatre, directed by Ken Sawyer.

 

 Brittany Visser (Jen), Tommy Dickie (Drew), Amy Tolsky (Patti), Clifton J. Adams (Kai), Naomi Rubin (Sarah Beth), and Xoë Sazzle (Maya).

 

 In the aftermath of an unforeseen, life-changing event, Patti, a well-meaning mother, becomes a volunteer at a suicide hotline. Over the course of the intense and emotional training, through laughter and tears, a new understanding bridges the divide between people from very different perspectives and walks of life.

 

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Red Bull Theater‘s Richard II, starring Michael Urie, has been extended again, now through Dec. 21 at Off-Broadway’s Astor Place Theatre.

 

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  The live filmed version of Broadway’s Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Maria Friedman, will  be released Dec. 5 in most theaters.

 

  Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez alongside alongside Krystal Joy Brown, Katie Rose Clark and Reg Rogers.
Audio:  Listen here to the cast recording.

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  Mark Shanahan’s A Sherlock Carol continues through Dec. 29 at Virginia Stage, directed by Steve Pacek.

 

  Scott Wichmann (Sherlock Holmes), Beatty Barnes (Ebenezer Scrooge), Patrick Halley, Sarah Manton, Seth Robert Patterson, and Rachel Fobb.

 

  Moriarty is dead, to begin with, and Sherlock is a haunted man. But when a grown Tiny Tim comes knocking on his door asking for an investigation into the untimely death of Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, the Great Detective must use his gifts to solve a Dickens of a Christmas mystery!

 

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  A Kidman Carol: A Gay Dementia on Australian Dames, written & directed by Kevin Zak, will run Dec. 17-21 at Theater 511.

 

  Marla Mindelle (Nicole Kidman) and Josh Sharp (Cate Blanchett), with Renée Albulario, Robi Hager, and Phillip Taratul.

 

  On Oscars Eve 2023, brilliant actress and Hollywood Scrooge Cate Blanchett (Tár Humbug!) is visited by three different spirits of Nicole Kidman in order to learn the true meaning of Awards Season. Will she not only save her own soul but also cinema as a human art form?

 

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   The world premiere of Shem Bitterman’s The Typist will run Jan. 27 – Mar. 9 (opening Jan. 30) at Hollywood’s Hudson Guild Theatre, directed by Jeremy Wechsler.

 

  Noah James and Evangeline Edwards.

 

 A jazz-infused love story, the play transports us to the Summer of ’61 in a Greenwich Village  basement apartment where a bourbon-soaked novelist racing to complete his manuscript for publishing hires a typist to commit his words to the page. What begins as a professional arrangement—dictation, typing, coffee, repeat—becomes something more combustible.

 

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  A workshop production of  Convention, written & directed by Danny Rocco, will run Dec. 12-21 at LA’s The Industry Loft (755  North Highland Ave).

 

Michael Agulio, Amaïa Andrea, Don Baldaramos, DeShawn Ball, Eli Barnes, Cameron Bell, J. Paul Boehmer, Monica Candio, Davide Costa, Austyn Elliott, Annalise Englert, James Fahselt, Tim Fannon, Jay Flaquer, Nathan Frizzell, Ashley Grubstein, Brady Grustas, David Gueriera, Anthony Hernadez, Qua’deer Jones, Jill Karrenbrock, Henry LeBlanc, Reynold Liang, Ari Litman-Weinberg, Jack Little, Kathleen Littlefield, Michael Malanga, Eric Maragoto, Herb Merriweather, Tom Miller, Kristen Montgomery, Turner Morehead, Trey Nichols, Nathan Norrington-Herr, Berenice Odriozola, Jeremy Ong, Lila Page, Michael Pantozzi, Jack Posey, Darryl Alan Reed, Melanie Reese, Donald Rizzo, Danny Rocco, Rush, Justin Brock Schantz, Peter Schiavelli, Elizabeth Schmidt, David Nathan Schwartz, Elizabeth Ivy Southard, Sam Stapp, Sarah Sutliff, Jimmy Thornton, Daniel James Tipton, Guy Turner, Charlie Weil, and Jamonte Williams.

 

  The startling true story of the 1944 Democratic National Convention. It’s shocking, immersive, and unhinged: 55 actors plunge the audience right into the middle of the chaos. So, you’re not just watching a play – you’re living the infamous 1944 convention in real time.

 

 


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