Today’s Highlights:
Doubt, directed by Scott Ellis, featuring Amy Ryan (Sister Aloysius), Liev Schrieber (Father Flynn), Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Mrs. Muller), and Zoe Kazan (Sister James), opens at Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre.
42nd Street Moon‘s Falsettos, directed by Dennis Lickteig, featuring Gary Brintz (Mendel), Will Biammona (Marvin), Cindy Goldfield (Charlotte), Ariela Morgenstern (Trina), Samuel Prince (Whizzer), and Madelyn Simon & Monica Yuval Weissberg (alternating as Jason), opens at San Francisco’s Gateway Theatre.
POTUS:, Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, by Selina Fillinger, directed by Courtney Young, featuring Julie Cardia (Harriet), Michelle Liu Coughlin (Jean), Shannon Mary Dixon (Dusty), Ramika Katon Dongal (Chris), Cas Koenig (Bernadette), Emily Nash (Stephanie), and Marlo Denise Stroud (Margaret), opens at CA’s Coachella Valley Rep.
An Adult Evening with Shel Silverstein comedy show, written by Jewish-American playwrights Ethan Coen, Wendy Wasserstein, and Shel Silverstein, featuring Sarah Natochenny, Harry White, Elliot White, Cooper Mcadoo, Will Fulginiti, Rona Johnson, Rachel Troy, Scott Thiede, Eden Rousso, Mariluna Beacy, Mia Schachter, Isabella Costa, Lizzy Rudakas, and Clark Pavlik, opens at Hollywood’s 905 Cole Theatre.
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Reviews for Manhattan Theatre Club’s Brooklyn Laundry at Off-Broadway’s New York City Center:
New York Times (Laura Collins-Hughes): …Starring Cecily Strong as Fran and David Zayas as Owen, John Patrick Shanley’s enticingly cast, rather lumpy new play, Brooklyn Laundry, can get you thinking about warning labels — those heads-ups that we all ought to come with, so people know what they’re in for when they encounter us… Facing up to sorry reality is a central theme of Brooklyn Laundry, a romantic comedy with a penchant for the resolutely dismal. It isn’t advertised as a rom-com, mind you; the marketing suggests it’s about three sisters and a laundry guy. What it’s truly about is one sister and the laundry guy she falls for, with terrible timing, just as her two sisters are really going through some stuff… I wonder what Brooklyn Laundry might have become if Shanley hadn’t staged it himself — if there had been a director to push him where text needs strengthening; to find a tone that breathes life into Fran’s one scene with Trish; to steer away from visual grimness in design rather than, with the exception of the restaurant scene, straight into it. That, however, is not on the menu.
Theatermania (David Gordon): …Brooklyn Laundry isn’t afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve. The overwhelming charm of Owen and Fran (Zayas and Strong are endearing enough to instantly have us on their side) is balanced with tragedy … Shanley, in his 13th Manhattan Theatre Club production, knows exactly how to get the subscribers tsking and tutting, and there are moments in this play, mostly related to the wrenching performances of Syglowski and Lozano, which seem specifically built to get an audible reaction from a studio audience … Shanley’s staging is swift and beautifully rendered… Does all that a satisfying evening make? Not quite. Brooklyn Laundry is short enough to get you out in time for dinner, and I’m thankful for at least one playwright who’s still willing to create an unabashed romance for our cynical world. But there’s something about it that’s completely lacking in consequence. The lights come up, you say, “Oh, that was nice,” and then you go about your life…
The Guardian (Gloria Oladipo): It’s hard to discern a higher meaning from John Patrick Shanley’s latest play, Brooklyn Laundry. Is it a play about the precariousness of human connection? A lesson on the sacrifices women make?Any intelligible destination is unclear as the play languishes under a vagueness. Shanley uses a cascade of circumstances – terminal illness, the burden of caretaking – to counterfeit emotional response. Instead of crafting specific female characters, Shanley, who writes and directs, introduces an onslaught of unhappiness that goes nowhere and is seemingly only curable by men… Shanley has said his own trips to a local laundromat served as the play’s fodder. But Brooklyn Laundry is startlingly two-dimensional. It doesn’t work as a charming boy-gets-girl romance. Two-hander scenes between Owen and Fran lack intimacy, with the subtle dance of courtship and flirtation overwhelmingly absent within Shanley’s direction…
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Soul Picnic: The Songs and Legacy of of Laura Nyro will run Mar. 2-4 at NYC’s 92NY, co-conceived & written by Judy Kuhn, Trip Cullman & Kevin Carillo, directed by Cullman & Carillo.
Judy Kuhn
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NYC’s 92NY has announced upcoming events:
The Ally: Josh Radnor & Playwright Itamar Moses in Conversation (Mon. Mar. 18 at 7:30 PM), available in person and online.
An important conversation about this fierce drama (The Ally) and the issues it explores. When college professor Asaf (Josh Radnor) is asked by a student to sign a social justice manifesto, what seems at first like a simple choice instead embroils him in an increasingly complex web of conflicting agendas that challenge his allegiances as a progressive, a husband, an artist, an academic, an American, an atheist, and a Jew. With tensions at an all-time high, Asaf is forced to confront the age-old question: “If I am only for myself, what am I?” 
here.
Phillipa Soo and Maris Pasquale Doran in Conversation: Piper Chen Sings, (Mon. Apr. 7 at 7 PM), available in person and online. Join Phillipa Soo with her sister-in-law and co-author Maris Pasquale Doran for a conversation about resilience, the soul-sustaining power of singing, family, and their new picture book, “Piper Chen Sings.” here.
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The 78th Theatre World Awards ceremony will take place Mon. June 10 at 7 PM at a theater venue TBA, hosted by Peter Filichia, with music direction by Michael Lavine.
In addition to the awards announced on June 10, special awards will also be announced:
Len Cariou: 11th Annual John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
Peter Felicia: 2024 TWA Special Award for his quarter-century of service to the organization
TBA: 15th Annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater. 2024 Theatre.
TBA: Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performancs
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Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater will host a discussion with Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton about their new book,“Waiting in the Wings,” on Sun. Apr. 28 at 3 PM at the theater. The reading will be followed by a Q&A.
A charming celebration of the arts born from a true story. One spring, outside of the Bay Street Theateron Long Island, NY, a family of ducks nested and hatched in a nearby planter and paraded down to the water while theater staff looked on. As co-founder of the theater, Emma was front and center that day.”Waiting in the Wings“ takes that inspiration to depict a fun, kid-friendly story that highlights the wonders of theater – co-written by one of the greatest icons of stage and screen. “I’m thrilled to be moderating this incredible true story that took place at Bay Street, the theater that Emma co-founded. It seems that like the ducks, everything has come full circle with this book launch being held at Bay Street,” said Tracy Mitchell.
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A full performance benefit reading of Larry Kirwan’s All The Rage, in support of Emerging Artists Theatre, will take place Tues. Mar. 12 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s TADA Theatre (15 West 28th Street), directed by Karen Carpenter, with music direction by Mark Fifer.
Chilina Kennedy and Constantine Maroulis.
It is 2009, when Shelley suddenly shows up, unannounced, at Rick’s East Village apartment. They had been bandmates and lovers in the 80’s – twenty-three years have passed since their tumultuous break-up. Their reunion is a roller coaster ride of emotions; can Rick and Shelley bridge the gap of decades apart? Is it too late for them? Will love and music prevail? An intimate, two-character musical journey into the world of rock ‘n roll, All The Rage is a universal story of love lost and found again.
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A staged reading of Toxic Murder will take place Sat. Apr. 13 at 1 PM at LA’s Theatre 40, written & directed by David Datz.
Susan Damante, Chris Franciosa, Steven Hart, Leda Siskind, Alana Webster, and Jeffrey Winner.
In a town dominated by one chemical company, the CEO has gathered to her rustic mountain home the company’s chief legal officer, a state haz-mat regulator, the mayor, a professional meeting facilitator, and a whistle-blower who alleges that the company has long been aware of chemical leaks that are sickening the population. The CEO intends to have a discussion about that situation—until one of her guests dies in an apparent murder. A sudden storm isolates the house and severs all communication, and as another guest is victimized, the whole party must face the reality that among them is a murderer—but they do not know who.
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Off-Broadway’s Amas Musical Theatre‘s A Lotta Night Music: 55th Anniversary Gala Benefit Concert will take place Mon. May 13 at Off-Broadway Baruch Performing Arts Center, directed by Jonathan Cerullo.
Patricia Birch, Len Cariou, and Butler Tibbets.
Performers and additional information TBA.