Today’s Highlights:
Cruel Intentions: The 90’s Musical, by Jordan Ross, Lindsey Rosin & Roger Kumble, directed by directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, featuring Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky (Kathryn), Daniel Bravo (Sebastian), Abbie Budden (Annette) Rose Galbraith (Cecile), Josh Barnett (Blaine), Jess Buckby (Ms. Bunny Caldwell/Dr. Greenbaum), Nickolia King-N’Da (Ronald), and Barney Wilkinson (Greg), opens at London’s The Other Palace.
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 Wooster Group‘s Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me, directed by Kate Valk, starring Eric Berryman, opens at Off-Broadway’s Performing Garage.
The Wooster Group‘s Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me, written & performed by Eric Berryman, directed by Kate Valk, opens at Off-Broadway’s Performance Garage.
Trouble in Mind, by Alice Childress, directed by Dawn M. Simmons, featuring Patrice Jean-Baptiste (Wiletta), Barlow Adamson (Al Manners), Allison Beauregard (Judy Sears), KadahJ Bennett (John Nevins), Davron S. Monroe (Sheldon Forrester), Bill Mootos (Bill O’Ray), Maconnia Chesser (Millie Davis), James Turner (Eddie Fenton), and Robert Walsh (Henry), opens at Boston’s Lyric Stage.
Cowbois, by Charlie Josephine, directed by Josephine & Sean Holmes, featuring Bridgette Amofah (Mary), Lee Braithwaite (Lucy/Lou), Shaun Dingwall (Frank/Tommy), Michael Elcock (George), Colm Gormley (John), Vinnie Heaven (Jack), Paul Hunter (Sheriff Roger Jones) Lucy McCormick (Jayne), Sophie Melville (Miss Lillian), Julian Moore-Cook (James), Emma Pallant (Sally-Ann) and LJ Parkinson (Charley Parkhurst), begins previews at London’s Royal Court Theatre.
Aristocrats, by Brian Friel, directed by Charlotte Moore , featuring Roger Dominic Casey (Tom), Meg Hennessy (Claire), Tom Holcomb (Casimir), Colin Lane (Uncle George / Father), Shane McNaughton (Willie Diver), Tim Ruddy (Eamon), Danielle Ryan (Judith), and Sarah Street (Alice), with Susan Davey and Ed Malone, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
Days of Wine and Roses concert presentation & talkback, featuring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James, at 8 PM at NYC’s 92NY.
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Roundabout Theatre Company has announced its 2024-25 Broadway & Off-Broadway seasons, the first in the newly renamed Todd Haimes Theatre (currently the American Airlines Theatre).
BROADWAY
Yellow Face (September – dates TBA), by David Henry Hwang, directed by Leigh Silverman, and starring Daniel Dae Kim. 
Inspired by real events, the playwright’s fictionalized doppelgänger DHH (Kim) leads protests against yellowface casting in Miss Saigon, but then mistakenly casts a white actor as the Asian lead in one of his own plays.
English (December – dates TBA), by Sanaz Toosi, directed by Knud Adams. The play takes place in an Iranian classroom where adult students practice for an English language proficiency exam.
The Pirates of Penzance (April 2025 – dates TBA), newly adapted by Rupert Holmes), and directed by Scott Ellis, with choreography by Warren Carlyle, featuring Ramin Karimloo (Pirate King), David Hyde Pierce (W.S. Gilbert/Major General), and more TBA. The action will now take place in New Orleans.
OFF-BROADWAY
The Counter (September), world premiere by Meghan Kennedy, directed by David Cromer. About an unlikely friendship between a waitress and a regular in a small town diner
Liberation (January 2025), world premiere by Bess Wohl, directed by Whitney White A memory play about six women who meet on a basement basketball court and the breakup of their friendship.
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The world premiere of Matthew Paul Olmos’ A Home What Howls (Or the House What Was Ravine) will run Feb. 7 – Mar. 2 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, directed by Laura Alcalá Baker.
Tim Hopper, Charín Álvarez, Leslie Sophia, Isabel Quintero, and Eddie Torres.
Olmos’ modern myth drawn from the real-life struggles of displaced communities around the globe follows Soledad Vargas, who is fighting for her family’s right to live on their land. When hope starts to dwindle, how far will she go, and what will she be forced to leave behind?
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Broadway’s Leading Men: A Musical Celebration! will take place Sat. Feb. 23 at 7:30 PM at DC’s Howard University (Cramton Auditorium),with the American Pops Orchestra.
Christian Borle, Jacob Gutierrez, Christopher Jackson, Telly Leung, Norm Lewis, Alexis Michelle, Matthew Morrison, Nic Rouleau, André De Shields, and Paulo Szot.
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Dean Kostos & Paul Kirby’s The Boy Who Listened to Paintings will run Feb. 1-18 at Theater for the New City, directed by Lissa Moira.
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.
The story of a young, sensitive visual artist growing up in the 1960s in a highly dysfunctional family. Bullied to the point of suicide, he contends with his budding gay sexuality, a flirtation with hard drugs and other confusing exigencies of life. He is saved by discovering he has the gift of synesthesia: the production of a sense impression relating to one sense by stimulating another sense.
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The world premiere of Matthew Paul Olmos’ A Home What Howls (Or the House What Was Ravine) will run Feb. 7 – Mar. 2 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, directed by Laura Alcalá Baker.
Tim Hopper, Charín Álvarez , Leslie Sophia Pérez, Isabel Quintero, and Eddie Torres.
Olmos’ modern myth drawn from the real-life struggles of displaced communities around the globe follows Soledad Vargas, who is fighting for her family’s right to live on their land. When hope starts to dwindle, how far will she go, and what will she be forced to leave behind?
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John Ross Bowie’s Brushstroke will run Jan. 23 – Mar. 3 (opening Feb. 1) at the Odyssey Theatre, directed by Casey Stangl.
James Urbaniak, Malcolm Barrett, Brendan Hines, and Evageline Edwards.
The Lower East Side, 1956. Marvin (Malcolm Barrett), a young art patron with a secret, meets Ted (James Urbaniak), a middle-aged painter with a secret. Enter a world of espionage, abstract expressionism and egg creams in John Ross Bowie’s Cold War comedy thriller. Based on a story so crazy it has to be (a little bit) true.
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John Grissmer’s The Perfect Game: A Slam Dunk New Musical will run Jan. 19-27 (opening Jan. 21) at Theatre Row, directed by Danny Salles, with choreography by Ashley Marinelli, and music supervision by Russ Kassoff.
Anthony Sagaria, David Beach, Tyler Belo, Nick Bernardi, Milena J. Comeay, Jesse Lynn Harte, Akina Kitazawa, Alec Ludacka, Steve McCoy, Lukas Poost, Elena Ricardo, Jamal Shuriah, Danielle J. Summons, Scott Whipple, and EJ Zimmerman.
A new musical that weaves together the historic story of Jim Naismith, a young teacher who invents a new indoor game for the YMCA – basketball – with the modern day story of two basketball coaches, Nancy & Frank, who are struggling with person and professional issues. Jim and his wife, Maud, enter the modern world to help the two coaches get back on track and rediscover their love of the game as they prepare for the fin final match of the season.
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Claybourne Elder: If the Stars Were Mine will take place Mon. Jan. 29 at 7:30 & 9:30 at DC’s Signature Theatre.
A hilarious, heartfelt, and surprisingly filthy evening that’s part cabaret and part stand-up. Using his favorite music from Sondheim, the Great American Songbook, Whitney Houston, and beyond, Claybourne explores sex, fatherhood, and what exactly happens when you eat the body of Christ.
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An audio-immersive play adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984, by Joe White, will be released Apr. 4 on Audible. Pre-orders are now available here.
Andrew Garfield (Winston), Cynthia Erivo (Julia), Andrew Scott (O’Brien), and Tom Hardy (Big Brother), with Chukwudi Iwuji, Romesh Ranganathan, Natasia Demetriou, Francesca Mills, Alex Lawther, Katie Leung, Ian Abeysekera, Rachel Atkins, Grace Baker, Joanna Brookes, Clare Corbett, Doug Devaney, Imogen Front, Sam Garioch, Raj Ghatak, Frances Jeater, Mason Moore, Yasmin Mwanza, Harry Myers, Kaelum Nelson, John Sackville, Sienna Sangha, Sam Stafford, Jo Troy, Jenny White, Sarah Whitehouse, and Alix Wilton Regan.
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Lindsay Joelle’s The Garbologists will run Feb. 1-25 at TheaterWorks Hartford, directed by Rob Ruggiero.
Jeff Brooks (Danny) and Bebe Nicole Simpson (Marlowe)
A heartwarming, surprising, and outside-the-box comedy that pairs Danny: a gruff blue-collar NYC sanitation worker hiding a heart of gold, and Marlowe:a determined Ivy-League-educated “newbie” who is assigned to his route. When this unlikely pair is thrown together to pick up what the world has discarded, they unexpectedly find common ground in uncommon times.
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The original cast recording of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are, will be released this Spring (date TBA).
The production is currently playing at Off-Broadway’s Griffin Theater (545 W 30th St.) through Jan. 21.
Francois Battiste, Tracie Bennett, Bobby Cannavale, Micaela Diamon, Amber Gray, Jin Ha, Rachel Bay Jones, Denis O’Hare, Steven Pasquale, David Hyde Pierce, and Jeremy Shamos.
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Royal Family Productions will present Chris Henry’s Women on Fire, directed by Henry, with choreography by Lorna Ventura, to run Jan. 19-29 at the Royal Family Performance Arts Space (45 West 46th Street, 3rd FL).
Gina Naomi Baez, Kathleen Chalfant, Charlotte Cohn, Maddie Corman, Linedy Genao, Julie Halston, Ann Harda, Melissa Leo, Kristolyn Lloyd, Lois Robbins, Dale Soules, Constance Shulman, Lianah Sta. Anna, Mary Testa, Desi Waters, with a dance ensemble of Emily Anne Davis, Kayla Hsu, Madison McLean, and Lily Sledge.