Today’s Highlights:
A Mirror, by Sam Holcroft, directed by Jeremy Herrin, featuring Jonny Lee Miller (Čelik), Tanya Reynolds (Mei), Geoffrey Streatfeild (Bax), and Samuel Adewunmi (Adem), opens at London’s Trafalgar Theatre.
Roundabout Theatre Company‘s Jonah, by Rachel Bonds, directed by Danya Taymor, featuring Gabby Beans (Ana), Hagan Oliveras (Jonah), Samuel Henry Levine (Danny), and John Zdrojeski (Steven), opens at Off-Broadway’s Laura Pels Theatre.
The Boy Who Listened to Paintings, by Dean Kostos & Paul Kirby, directed by Lissa Moira, featuring Michael A. Green, Milo Longenecker, Niko Zylik, Luka Zylik, Louisa Bradshaw, William Broderick, Thom Brown, Maude Elizabeth Burke, Anthony Cedeno, Donovan W. Counts, Alisa Ermolaev, Dominique Ernewein, Matthew James Fitzgerald, Alyson Reim Friedman, Patrick Kenner, Taryn Lynch, Zack Martin, Lissa Moira, Bradley Nowacek, Carlos Rodriguez Ortiz, Amelia Sasson and Toni Renee Taylor, opens at Off-Broadway’s Theater for the New City.
The Garbologists, by Lindsay Joelle, directed by directed by Rob Ruggiero, featuring Jeff Brooks (Danny) and Bebe Nicole Simpson (Marlowe), open at TheatreWorks Hartford.
Tiny Little Town, world premiere by Richard Alger, Tina Kronis & Wes Myers, directed & choreographed by Kronis, featuring Paula Rebelo, Prisca Kim, Nikhil Pai, Kasper Svendsen, Lamont Oakley, Nick Apostolina, Mark Doerr, Jesse Myers, Ishika Muchhal, Isaiah Noriega, Joey Auino, and Eddie Vona, opens at LA’s Broadwater Theatre.
Brushstroke, world premiere by John Ross Bowie, directed by Casey Stangl, featuring James Urbaniak (Ted), Malcolm Barrett (Marvin), Brendan Hines (Allan), and Evangeline Edwards (Susan), opens at LA’s Odyssey Theatre.
I love you so much I could die, written by & starring Mona Pirnot, directed by Lucas Hnath, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop.
Ensemble Theatre Company‘s The Pianist of Willesden Lane, adapted & directed by Hershey Felder, featuring Mona Golabek, begins previews at Santa Barbara’s New Vic.
**********************
Additional casting has been announced for City Center Encores! production of Titanic, to run June 11-23, directed by Anne Kauffman, with choreography by Danny Mefford, and music direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.
Bonnie Milligan (Alice Beane), Chuck Cooper (Captain E.J. Smith), Eddie Cooper (Henry Etches), Drew Gehling (Edgar Beane), Ramin Karimloo (Frederick Barrett), Emilie Kouatchou (Caroline Neville), Judy Kihn (Ida Straus), Brandon Uranowitz (J. Bruce Ismay), and Samantha Williams (Kate McGowan), and more TBA.
**********************
Clips from City Center Encores’ Once Upon a Mattress
Video: “An Opening for a Princess”
Video: “Very Soft Shoes”
Video: Highlights
Video: “Many Moons Ago” (in rehearsal)
Video: “In a Little While” (in rehearsal)
**********************
CT’s Goodspeed has announced its 2024 Summer season at the Terris Theatre:
A Complicated Woman (May 10 – June 2), by Ianne Fields Stewart, Jonathan Brielle & Sam Salmond,directed by Jeff Calhoun. Casting TBA.
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.
Ask for the Moon! (July 19 – Aug. 11, by Darko Tresnjak & Oran Eldor. Casting TBA.
Set sail on the Jewel of the Sea ocean liner with a scheming widow, a vengeful lawyer, and a volatile nurse. Enjoy the vocal stylings of Misha and Grisha, the squabbling Carpathian twins. Get the latest fashion tips from Persimmon De Vol, stylist par excellence. But only venture into the Poseidon Suite at your own peril…Madness and hilarity abound in a diabolical new musical comedy that is sure to make waves. Bon voyage!
TBA (Sept 27 – Oct. 27)
**********************
ME’s Ogunqit Playhouse has announced its 2024 season. Creative teams and casting TBA.
Waitress (May 9 – June 8)
Crazy for You (June 13 – July 13)
A Little Night Music (July 18 – Aug. 17)
Little Shop of Horrors (Aug. 22 – Sept. 21)
**********************
My Fair Lady will run Nov. 23 – Jan. 4, 2025 at the Leicester Curve, directed by Nikolai Foster.
Casting and creative team TBA.
**********************
Alex Edelman’s solo show, Just For Us, will return to LA’s Mark Taper Forum Mar. 26-31.
In the wake of a string of anti-Semitic rhetoric pointed in his direction online, stand-up comic Edelman decides to go straight to the source; specifically, Queens, where he covertly attends a meeting of White Nationalists and comes face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards. What happens next forms the backbone of the shockingly relevant, utterly hilarious, and only moderately perspirant stories that comprise Just For Us.
**********************
Reeve Carney: A Night at the Opera, a tribute to the rock group Queen, will take place Fri. Feb. 23 at 7 PM at NYC’s Chelsea Table + Stage.
**********************
DC’s Signature Theatre will present the 13th annual Stephen Sondheim Award to Nathan Lane at a gala benefit on Mon. Apr. 29 at 7 PM at the Embassy of Italy.
Performers and additional information TBA.
**********************
A reading of Jenny Sullivan & Barry Sullivan’s J For J will run Feb. 3-4 at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre, directed by Jenny Sullivan.
Jeff Kober, Eric Lange, and Nancy Travis
In this semi-autobiographical drama, Jenny Sullivan discovers a journal that her father, Hollywood film, TV and stage actor Barry Sullivan (“The Great Gatsby” and “The Tall Man”) started when her brother Johnny was born. The entries continue after Jenny’s birth, ending with the words, “Remember Johnny, you must take care of your sister Jenny – it’s J for J.” But over time, it becomes clear that Brother Johnny is “slow”, incapable of taking care of himself or anyone else. In this literate and lovingly conceived story, Sullivan explores the ache and anger of “not being enough”; the awesome, sometimes awful responsibility of feeling solely responsible for another’s physical and emotional well-being; and the strange, sweet surprise of being loved at an unexpected moment.
**********************
Sandy Rustin & Eric Price’s Clue will launch its national tour Feb. 27 at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre, directed by Casey Hushion.
Click here for the complete touring schedule.
John Treacy Egan (Colonel Mustard), Mark Price (Wadsworth), Mariah Burks (Cook), Michelle Elaine (Miss Scarlet), Joanna Glushak (Mrs. Peacock), Tari Kelly (Mrs. White), John Shartzer (Mr. Green), Jonathan Spivey (Professor Plum), Alex Syiek (Mr. Boddy), Teddy Trice (Cop), and Elisabeth Yancey (Yvette), with Greg Balla, Alison Ewing, Mary McNulty, and James Taylor Odom.
**********************
Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre has officially become the Todd Haimes Theatre, named in memory of Roundabout Theatre Company’s longtime artistic director who died in 2023.
Mr. Haimes, known for his tireless work transforming Roundabout from a 150-seat Off-Broadway company into one of the largest not-for-profit theaters in the country, led Roundabout for the last 39 years.
**********************
Steve Yockey’s Mercury continues through Feb. 18 at North Hollywood’s Road Theatre Company, directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky.
Meeghan Holaway (Pamela), Andrea Flowers (Heather), Justin Lawrence Barnes (Nick), Danny Lee Gomez (Brian), Billy Baker (Sam), Gloria Ines (Alicia), and Christina Carlisi (Olives).
Three stories cross outside of Portland, OR., in a pitch-black comedy with an illicit affair, a couple hanging on by a thread, bears a the window, the deadliest curiosity ship on the west coast, and a missing dog named Mr. Bundles. No one’s happy, people stop being nice, and blood spills. This mash-up of myth, missing empathy, and “good neighbors” explores what happens when the mercury rises.
**********************
A UK tour of Grease will launch Apr. 12 at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre, and continue through Nov. 16, directed by Nikolai Foster, with choreography by Arlene Phillips.
Marley Fenton (Danny), Hope Dawe (Sandy), Rebecca Stenhouse (Rizzo, George Michaelides (Kenickie), Kieran Lynch (Doody), Lewis Day (Roger), Sario Solomon (Sonny), Alicia Belgarde (Frenchy), Emerald B (Jan), India Chadwick (Marty), Jayd’n Tyrone (Eugene), Phoebe Roberts (Patty Simcox), Dominique Planter (Miss Lynch), Joe Gash (Vince Fontaine/Teen Angel, Deena Kapadia (Cha Cha), and Adam Davidson (Johnny Casino), with Zera Aitken, Dylan Gordon-Jones, Sergi Ibanez, Thomas Inge, Lauren Hampton, Imogen Malone, Ben Middleton, and Carly Miles.
