Today’s Highlights:
Antonio’s Song / I Was Dreaming of a Son, world premiere by Dael Orlandersmith & Antonio Edwards Suarez, directed by Mark Clements, featuring Antonio Edwards Suarez, opens at Milwaukee Rep.
NYC Opera‘s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, world premiere by Ricky Ian Gordon & Michael Korie, directed by Michael Capasso & Richard Stafford, featuring Rachel Blaustein (Micól Finzi-Contini), Brian James Myer (Alberto Finzi-Cortini), Mary Phillips (Mama), Franco Pomponi (Papà), Anthony Ciaramitaro (Giorgio), and Matt Ciuffitelli (Malnate), with D’Marreon Alexander, Robert Balonek, Adam Cioffari, Peter Kendall Clark, Dani Goldstein, Spencer Hamlin, Kristee Haney, Rebecca Hargrove, Sarah Heltzel, Adam Klein, Meredith Krinkle, Melanie Long, Violet Paris, Gabe Ponichter, Sami Sallaway, Drew Seigla, Markos Simopoulos, Rosy Anoush Svazlian, Tim Roller, and Rachel Zatcoff, begins previews at NYC’s Museum of Jewish Heritage.
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Reviews for Manhattan Theatre Club’s Skeleton Crew at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): …It’s so adroitly built and written — and, in the Manhattan Theater Club production that opened on Wednesday, so beautifully staged and acted — that you hardly have time to decide, until its brisk two hours have passed, whether it’s a comedy or a tragedy. Even then, as in life, you may not know for sure… Phylicia Rashad in a wonderfully ungrand performance… the terrific Brandon J. Dirden… you can certainly sense Morisseau’s debt to August Wilson in her dramaturgy… characters are not just building blocks in a moral tale but a pleasure for actors to perform and thus for audiences to experience.
Broadway News (Charles Isherwood): …Dominique Morisseau’s closely observed, eloquent and deeply compassionate drama… a studiously unflashy play, and the better for; it depicts the warm if sometimes tense relationships among its four characters in fine detail… The characters’ simmering anxieties are deftly revealed without being overdrawn by the superb cast, under the discreet but focused direction of Ruben Santiago-Hudson… “Skeleton Crew” resolves the conflicts and tensions that arise in an appropriately understated key…
Theatermania (Pete Hempstead): Some plays never really feel out of date. Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew takes place as the American economy was crumbling in 2008 and Detroit’s auto plants were going under one by one… the play resonates perhaps even more now than it originally did… a phenomenal cast led by Phylicia Rashad and Brandon J. Dirden. With hard times facing blue-collar workers around the country, Morisseau’s play feels more than anything like a tribute to the workers who get far too little recognition for what they do… Santiago-Hudson lets Reggie’s and the others’ lives and secrets quietly bubble to the surface as we sit on the edge of our seats, and Morisseau’s conversational language makes us feel like we know them too.
Deadline (Greg Evans): …theater can remind us of, or point the way to, some sense of emotional generosity, of expansive spirit, of connection. Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew does all that and more, finding hope in the unlikeliest of places… performed by an ensemble cast that matches a powerful Phylicia Rashad… a play that feels even more pertinent now than it did when it landed in a stellar Off Broadway production back in 2016. The play was terrific then. It’s essential now.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Jan. 23. Click here.
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Dennis Kelly’s After the End will run Feb. 25 – Mar. 26 (opening Mar. 2) at Theatre Royal Stratford East, directed by Lyndsey Turner.
Nick Blood (Mark) and Amaka Okafor (Louise).
A city under attack from a nuclear blast. As the dust settles, Louise wakes to find herself in a fallout shelter with Mark, the colleague who has saved her life. They have enough water and food to last two weeks. Now they just need to find a way of surviving each other.
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Video: Space Dogs featurette, now running at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater.
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Gingold Theatre Group presents its Valentine Slam on Mon. Feb. 14 at 6 PM ET. Come as you are and share anything you like – a poem, sonnet, song, toast, excerpt, limerick, or quote – within a 3-minute limit. This is a party, not a fundraiser.
Brenda Braxton, Charles Busch, Robert Cuccioli, Tyne Daly, Joel Grey, Jefferson Mays, Renée Taylor, and Bruce Vilanch.
Learn more and register here, or watch on Facebook livestream.
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Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer’s “Maestro,” a biopic about Leonard Bernstein, will begin filming in May, directed by Cooper, and released on Netflix (date TBA).
Bradley Cooper (Leonard Bernstein), Carey Mulligan (Felicia Montealegre), and more TBA.
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The “28th annual SAG Awards” will air Sun. Feb. 27 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on TNT and TBS.
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IAMA Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Celestial Events, written & directed by members of the IAMA ensemble, which will run Feb. 25 – Mar. 13 at Hollywood’s Actors Company LA, co-directed by Tom Amandes & Adrian Gonzale.
Alex Alcheh, Ryan Garcia, Tina Huang, Bailey Humiston, Andria Kozica, Melissa Jane Osbourne, Kacie Rogers, Adriana Santos, Sonal Shah, Lexi Sloan, Margaux Susi, and Jamie Wollrab.
A feel-good comedy about friendship, love, and shared experience in the city of L.A. We are introduced to 12 Angelenos whose paths cross in mysterious ways on the eve of a once-in-a-millennia meteor shower.
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Video: Phoenix Best performs “Perfect” from A.D. 16.
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Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick will stream exclusively Feb. 3-27 at Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Mortiz von Stuelpnagel.
Shannon DeVido, Louis Reyes McWilliams, Gregg Mozgala, Portland Thomas, Emily Townley, and Zurin Villanueva.
An irreverent and hilarious take on Richard III re-imagines the most famous disabled character of all time as a 16-year-old outsider in the deepest winter of his discontent: his junior year at Roseland High. Bullied for his cerebral palsy, Richard plots his revenge – as well as his glorious path to senior class presidency. This sharp-witted production is at once everything you’d imagine and nothing you’d expect. Buckle up.
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Lindsay Joelle’s TRAYF will run Mar. 1- Apr. 10 (opening Mar. 10) at the Geffen Playhouse, directed by Maggie Burrows.
Ilan Eskenzai (Zalmy), Ben Hirschhorn (Shmuel), Louisa Jacobson (Leah), and Garrett Young (Jonathan).
Zalmy lives a double life. By day, he drives a Chabad “Mitzvah Tank” through 1990s New York City, performing good deeds with his best friend Shmuel. and by night he sneaks out of his orthodox community to roller-skate and listen to rock and roll. But when a curious outsider offers him unfettered access to the secular world, is it worth jeopardizing everything he’s ever known? This road-trip bromance is a funny and heartwarming ode to the turbulence of youth, the universal suspicion that we don’t quite fit in, and the faith and friends that see us through.
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Tony Voters will be required to complete an “Unconscious Bias Training Course.“
Beginning this season, members of the Tony Awards voting committee will take a free, online training session, led by inclusion strategist Vernã Myers, which will teach them how to identify unconscious or implicit bias in their decision-making processes and how to correct it.
The Exploring Unconscious Bias course introduces the concept of unconscious bias and addresses the impact it has. on building and retaining a diverse and inclusive workplace where people of all backgrounds can thrive. Throughout the learning sessions, participants will be asked to look inward to better understand some of their own unconscious biases and learn to recognize and interrupt bias.
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ME’s Ogunquit Playhouse has announced its 2022 season:
The Cher Show (May 12 – June 25), by Rick Elice, directed by Gerry McIntyre, with choreography by Jane Lanier. The musical will include a dazzling array of Bob Mackie’s original designs.
The Nutty Professor (July 1 – Aug. 6), by Rupert Holmes & Marvin Hamlisch, directed by Marc Bruni.
Mr. Holland’s Opus (Aug. 12 – Sept. 17), by BD Wong, Patrick Sheane Duncan & Wayne Barker, directed by Wong, with choreography by Darren Lee.
Clue (Sept. 22 – Oct. 30), by Sandy Rustin, Hunter Foster & Eric Price, directed by Casey Hushion.
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Casting has been announced for the national tour of Moulin Rouge!, to launch Mar. 19 – May 14 at Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre, directed by Alex Timbers, with choreography by Sonya Tayeh.
Courtney Reed (Satine), Conor Ryan (Christian), Austin Durant (Harold Zidler), Andre Ward (Toulouse-Lautrec), David Harris (Duke of Monroth, Gabe Martinez (Santiago), Libby Lloyd (Nini), and Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer (Satine Alternate), with Nicci Claspell, Harper Miles, Andres Quintero, Adrienne Balducci, Andrew Brewer, Jack Cahill-Lemme, Sam J. Cahn, Darius Crenshaw, Alexander Cruz, Alexa De Barr, Tamrin Goldberg, Alexis Hasbrouck, Jordan Fife Hunt, Justin Keats, Tyler Logan, Tanisha Moore, Brayden Newby, Kent Overshown, Amy Quanbeck, Adéa Michelle Sessoms, Jenn Stafford, Denzel Tsopnang, Travis Ward-Osborne, Sharrod Williams, Jennifer Wolfe, and Ricardo Zayas.
Click here for the complete tour schedule.
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As You Like It will run Feb. 15 – Mar. 20 at Milwaukee Rep, adapted & directed by Daryl Cloran.
Morgan Matthew Bernnard (Assassin/Hymen), Lizzy Brooks (Celia), Adam Wesley Brown (Touchstone), Tony Carter (Oliver), Michael Dashefsky (Silvius), Savannah L. Jackson (Rosalind), Heidi Kettenring (Phoebe/Eleanor Rigby), Trish Lindström (Jaques/Le Beau), Justin Gregory Lopez (Orlando), Kieran McCabe (William/Jacques de Boys), Norman Moses (Adam/Sir Oliver), Sophie Murk (Audrey/Mother Russia), Don Noble (Duke Senior/Duke Frederick), Kurt Schweitz (Assassin/Amiens), Nancy Voigts (Corin/Duke’s Assistant), and Marquis Wood (Charles the Wrestler/Forest Lord).