Today’s Highlights:
Pictures from Home, adapted by Sharr White, directed by Bartlett Sher, featuring Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein and Zoe Wanamaker, opens at Broadway’s Studio 54.
Queen of Basel, by Hilary Bettis, directed by Cristina Angeles, featuring Silvia Dionicio (Christine), Kelvin Grullon (John), and Christine Spang (Julie), opens at CT’s TheaterWorks Hartford.
The First Deep Breath, by Lee Edward Colston II, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, featuring Opa Adeyemo (AJ), Lee Edward Colston II (Abdul-Malik), Brandon Mendez Homes (Leslie Carter), Ella Joyce (Ruth Jones), Deanna Reed-Foster (Pearl Thomas), Candace Thomas (Dee-Dee), Tony Todd (Paster Albert Melvin Jones III), and Keith A. Wallace (Tyree Fisher), opens at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
Elyria, world premiere by Deepa Purohit, directed by Awoye Timpo, featuring Nilanjana Bose, Sanjit De Silva, Gulshan Mia, Bhayesh Patel, Sanskar Agarwal, Honit Gautam, Mahima Saigal, Khyati Sehga, and Omar Shafiuzzaman, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company.
Black Odyssey, by Marcus Gardley, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb, featuring James T. Alfred (Deus), Temídayo Amay (Benevolence), Harriett D. Foy (Aunt Tee), Marcus Gladney Jr. (Malachai Lincoln), Sean Boyce Johnson (Ulysses Lincoln), Adrienne C. Moore (Alsendra Sabine), Keith Randolph Smith (Paw Sidin, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company.
Patti LuPone: Don’t Monkey with Broadway concert, directed by Scott Whitman, at 8 PM Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center.
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Reviews for Pictures From Home at Broadway’s Studio 54:
New York Times (Jesse Green): …Sultan created a classic of visual polyphony. Whatever he believed the work to be — a family portrait, a marital inquest, a takedown of Reagan-era masculinity — it was so much more by being all of them at once… But a book of staged photographs, home movie stills and discrepant first-person narratives was also, by the nature of the medium, flat… That would seem to make Sultan’s “Pictures From Home,” however brilliant, an unlikely source for stage adaptation, the stage being where time can never stand still. And indeed, the play by Sharr White…, in a production directed by Bartlett Sher, has not made it all the way from two dimensions to three.
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): …the cool thing about playwright Sharr White’s intriguing and rather haunting Broadway play, Pictures From Home, which stars Nathan Lane, Zoë Wanamaker and Danny Burstein, is that it differs from every other play or musical I’ve seen of late in that it actually gives the family enough ammunition to fight back… drawn from the work of the photographer Larry Sultan (Burstein), who in the 1980s embarked on a project to photograph and interview his aging parents going about their normal lives… Pictures From Homes has its bumps and unusual choices and the shared narration is occasionally weird; it’s never entirely clear why the audience is in the living room, if that is where we are.
Theatermania (Zachary Stewart): …It’s about a lot more than father-son angst… In 100 minutes, White considers the durability of marriage, the fragility of myth, and the ways we determine what really matters in our limited time on earth… an adaptation of the 1992 photo book by Larry Sultan … Director Bartlett Sher wisely gives plenty of breathing room to these three veteran actors [Zoe Wanamaker, Nathan Lane and Danny Burstein] with a staging that is powerful and effective in its simplicity… Sharr’s script is further enhanced by fleshy and relatable performances, which make clear what this play is really about…
Theatrely (Juan A. Ramirez): …ably directed by Bartlett Sher… Though White seldom strays from the parent-centric outlines set by the original book’s project—but does stray into some formulaic familial dynamics—he achieves a moving meditation on the drive to question where we came from, and what we could even hope to learn from our findings… It’s all about the meaning we bring to things… The play is most compelling when investigating the stubborn desire to rub understanding parents’ noses in their imperfections for your own growth, at the cost of being kind or caring…
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NY City Center Encores has announced principal casting for Jerry Herman, Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee’s Dear World, to run Mar. 15-19, directed & choreographed by Josh Rhodes, with music direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.
Donna Murphy (Countess Aurelia), Brooks Ashmanskas (President), Andréa Burns (Constance), Christopher Fitzgerald (Sewerman), Ann Harada (Gabrielle), Kody Jauron (Artiste), Phillip Johnson Richardson (Julian), Samantha Williams (Nina), and more TBA.
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“Try Not to Hold It Against Me: A Producer’s Life,” a new memoir from Julian Schlossberg is now available here, and on all platforms.
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Lynn Nottage’s Clydes will run Mar. 24 – Apr. 23 at Boston’s Huntington Theatre, directed by Taylor Reynolds.
Wesley Guimarães (Rafael), Cyndii Johnson (Letitia), Louis Reyes McWilliams (Jason. April Nixon (Clyde), and Harold Surratt (Montrellous), with Lorraine Kanyike, Gunnar, and Javier David Padilla.
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The Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre ceremony is now available for FREE streaming through Feb. 16 on Broadway On Demand.
Alex Brightman, Lindsay Mendez, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Richard Maltby Jr, and Maury Yeston.
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Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell & Gordon Farrell’s The Lifespan of a Fact will run Feb. 15 – Apr. 2 (opening Feb. 18) at LA’s Fountain Theatre, directed by Jeremy Kareken.
Ron Bottitta, Inger Tudor, and Jonah Robinson.
This highly entertaining, very funny new play follows young intern Jim Fingal, whose first assignment at an elite New York magazine is to fact check an essay written by a highly celebrated and cantankerous author. What Jim finds turns his world upside down. It’s hard to imagine a play ever being more timely.
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Complete casting has been announced for Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s, to run Mar. 24 – Apr. 23 at Boston’s Huntington Theatre, directed by Taylor Reynolds.
Wesley Guimarães (Rafael), Cyndii Johnson (Letitia), Louis Reyes McWilliams (Jason), April Nixon (Clyde), and Harold Surratt (Montrellous), with Lorrain Kanyike, Gunnar Manchester, Javier David Padilla.
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MCC Theater‘s MISCAST 23 will take place Mon. Apr. 3 at 9 PM at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom. Director and music director TBA.
Vanessa Williams and Lianny Toval
Annaleigh Ashford, Denée Benton, Lorna Courtney, André De Shields, Josh Groban, LaChanze, Bonnie Milligan, Ben Platt, Eleri Ward, and more TBA.
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Mike Bartlett’s Cock continues through Mar. 4 at Hollywood’s LGBT Center, directed by Taubert Nadalini.
Annika Chavez, Dennis Delsing, Sean Hemeon, and Marly Phillips.
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Anything Goes will run Feb. 23 – Mar. 12 at San Francisco’s Gateway Theatre, directed by Nick Ishimaru, with choreography by Robyn Tribuzi, and music direction by Dave Dobrusky.
Kyle Arrouzet, Paige Cllazo, Tony Conaty, Jas Cook, Ashley Cowl, Renee DeWeese, Roy Eikleberry, Juanita Harris, Paul Hovannes, Catrina Manahan, Nick Nakashima, Heather Orth, Dustin Rigges, Matt Skinner, Jillian A. Smith, Gary Stanford Jr., Katherine Stein, and Chloe Wintersteen.
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The 2023 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced its 10 finalists:
Anupama Chandrasekhat (India) for The Father and the Assassin
Maryam Hamidi (UK) for Moonset
Karen Hartman (US) for New Golden Age
Katie Holly (Ireland) for Her Hand on the Trellis
Kimber Lee (US) for saturday
Sarah Mantell (US) for In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot
a.k. payne (US) for Amani
Francisca Da Silveira (US) for Pay No Worship
Zadie Smith (UK) for The Wife of Willesden
Ruby Thomas (UK) for Linck & Mulhahn
The winner will be announced at the Award Presentation and 45th Celebration on Mar. 27 at Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons.
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The Vineyard Theatre’s 40th Anniversary Gala will take place Mon. Feb. 13 at 6 PM at NYC’s Edison Ballroom, directed by Leigh Silverman, with music direction by Dan Lipton, and hosted by Bill Irwin.
Billy Crudup
Veanne Cox, Emily Skinner, Stephanie D’Abruzzo, Brandon Victor Dixon, Coleman Domingo, Victor Garber, An Harada, David Harbour, Holly Hunter, Michael R. Jackson, Sam Rockwell, Paula Vogel, and Tina Satter