GRACE NOTES: Thursday, January 29, 2026

 

Today’s Highlights:

 

  Julie Benko begins her run as Emma Goldman in Ragtime at Broadway’s Lincoln Center Theatre.

 

  The Porch on Windy Hill, by Sherry Stregack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse & David M. Lutken, directed by directed by Sherry Stregack Lutken, featuring Tora Nogami Alexander, David M. Lutken, and Morgan Morse, opens at Off-Broadway’s Urban Stages.

 

  Debbie Gravitte: Big Band Broadway concert opens at CT’s Westport Country Playhouse.

 

   An Evening with Laura Benanti concert & conversation, at 7:30 PM at NYC’s 92Y.

 

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  The Porch on Windy Hill, by Sherry Stregack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse & David M. Lutken, continues through Feb. 22 at Urban Stages, directed by Lutken.

 

  Tora Nogami Alexander, David M. Lutken, and Morgan Morse.

 

  The play blends Old Time and Bluegrass songs with a deeply personal, contemporary story of discovery and reconciliation.The show follows Mira, a bi-racial Korean American clasical viollinist, and her folk-song-collector boyfriend as they escape pandemic isolation in Brooklyn and journey to the mountains of western North Carolina. When the unexpectedly reconnect with Mira’s estranged grandfather, Edgar, they uncover a tangled legacy of love, loss, and music — and discover the unforseen harmony that can arise when generations and genres collide.

 

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  In advance of Musical Theatre Guild’s presentation of Applause, the  Guild will present an online conversation, “Hitting All the Notes” Hitting All the :Music”on Mon. Feb. at 8 PM ET/5 PST.  Click here to sign up for the livestream.

 

  Brad Ellis and additional Music Directors TBA.

 

  The conversation will put the spotlight on the value and importance of live music by hosting an online conversation of Musical Directors from across the country.

 

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  John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In From The Cold will launch a UK tour Mar. 12 -Aug. 2026, directed by Jeremy Herrin. Complete schedule TBA.

 

Ralf Little  (Alec Leamas) and more TBA.

 

  British intelligence officer Alec Leamas is weary, hardened, and ready to come in from the cold. But when spymaster George Smiley presents one final mission — dangerous, deceptive, and deeply personal — Leamas agrees to stay in the game. Dispatched into enemy territory, he finds his convictions tested and his defences breached by Liz Gold, a quietly defiant librarian whose compassion threatens to thaw his frostbitten heart.

 

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  Jake Brasch’s The Reservoir will run Feb. 5 – Mar. 5 at Atlantic Theatre Company, directed by Shelley Butler.

 

  Noah Galvin (Josh), Carolinw Aaron (Beverly), Heidi Armbruster (Patria), Peter Malonyey (Hank), Mary Beth Peil (Irene), Matthew Saldivar (Hug0), and Chirp Zien (Shrimpy).

 

   Josh’s life is a mess. He’s moved home to Denver to get sober, but after years of drinking, the fog in his brain won’t lift. Struggling with memory loss, confusion, and shame he finds himself strangely in step with his four aging grandparents. The Reservoir is a funny, human play about memory, recovery, and the joys of cross-generational connection.

 

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 Musical Theatre Guild‘s Applause concert presentation, directed by Trance Thompson, will take place Sun. Feb. 15 at 7 PM at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage.

 

  featuring Barbara Carlton Heart (Margo), Ashley Moniz (Eve), Brian Kim McCormick (Bill), Taubert Nadalini (Duane), Joshua Finkel (Buzz), Leslie Stevens (Karen), Robert Yacko (Howard), and Melissa Lyons Caldretti (Bonnie), with Patrick Beller, Jennifer Bennett, Jasmine Ejan, Kevin Matsumoto, Benny Perez, George Xavier, and guest artists Roma Scarano and Chantal Tribble.

 

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  Shem Bitterman’s The Typist will run Jan. 30 – Mar. 9 at the Hudson Guild Theatre, directed by Jeremy Wechsler.

 

   Noah James and Evangeline Edwards.

 

  A jazz-infused love story, the play transports us to the Summer of ’61 in a Greenwich Village basement apartment where a bourbon-soaked novelist racing to complete his manuscript for publishing hires a typist to commit his words to the page. What begins as a professional arrangement—dictation, typing, coffee, repeat—becomes something more combustible.

 

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  National Theatre Live and The Wallis will present a world premiere screening of “Dr. Strangelove” on Tues. Feb.3 at 7 PM at LA’s Wallis. Director not announced.

 

  Steve Coogan (playing 4 roles).

 

   An explosively funny satire, about a rogue U.S General who triggers a nuclear attack.

 

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 Complete casting has been announced for  Cats: The Jellicle Ball, will which will run Mar. 18 – Sept. 6 (opening Apr. 7)  at the Broadhurst Theatre,  directed by Zhailon Levingston & Bill Rauch, with choreography by Omari Wiles & Arturo Lyons.

 

  André De Shields (Old Deuteronomy), Chasity Moore (“Tempress” Chasity Moore – Grizabella), Junior LaBeija (Gus the Theatre Cat), Leiomy (Cacavity), Sydney James Harcourt (Rum Tum Tugger), Jonathan Burke (Mungojerrie), Baby Byrne (Victoria), Dava Huesca  (Rumpleteazer), Dudney Joseph Jr. (Munkustrap), Robert “Silk” Mason (Magical Mister Mistoffelees), Primo Thee Ballerino (Tumblebrutus), Xavier Reyes (Jennyanydots), Nora ShNora Schell (Bustopher Jones), Bebe Nicole Simpston (Demeter), Emma Sofia (Cassandra/Skimbleshanks),  Garnet Williams (Bombalurina), Tedd Wilson (Mr. Sillabub), Ken Ard (DJ Griddlebone), Bryson Battle (Jellylorum), and Kya Azeen (Etcetera)m with Tara Lashan Clinkscales, Phumzile Sojola, Kalyn West,  Sherrod T. Brown, Bryce Farris, Kendall Grayson Stroud, B. Noel Thomas, Donté Nadir Wilder.

 

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   The world premiere of Shem Bitterman’s The Typist continues through Mar. 9 at Hollywood’s Hudson Guild Theatre, directed by Jeremy Wechsler.

 

  Noah James and Evangline Edwards.

 

   A jazz-infused love story, the play transports us to the Summer of ’61 in a Greenwich Village basement apartment where a bourbon-soaked novelist racing to complete his manuscript for publishing hires a typist to commit his words to the page.

 

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  National Theatre Live will present a screening of London’s Hamlet, directed by directed by Robert Hastie, starring Hiran Abeysekera, on Sat. Feb. 7 at 3 PM at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater.

 

 

 

 


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