Today’s Highlights:
Poirot and More, A Retrospective, by Sir David Suchet & Liza McLean, starring David Suchet, opens at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre.
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& 
Irish Rep has announced its Winter 2022 season:
IN PERSON:
. The Streets of New York (currently running through Jan. 30), by Dion Boucicault, adapted & directed by Charlotte Moore.
Made by God (Feb. 11-Mar. 20), world premiere by Ciara Ni Chuirc, directed by Olivia Songer, featuring Ciaran Byrne, McKenna Quigley Harrington, Erica Henandez, Daniel Marconi, and Brianna Gibson Reeves. 
A present-day podcaster travels to Ireland to learn more about a woman who was found dead in 1984, alongside her newborn baby.
A Touch of the Poet (Feb. 26 – Apr. 17), directed by Ciarán O’Reilly, featuring Belle Aykroyd, Robert Cuccioli, Kate Forbes, Mary McCann, Andy Murray, James Russell, David Sitler, John C. Vennema, and more TBA.
STREAMING:
A Girl is A Half-formed Thing (Jan. 14-30), by Eimear McBride, adapted by Annie Ryan, directed by Nicola Murphy, and starring Jenn Murray.
Transatlantic Living (Jan. 18), written & performed by Clare O’Malley.
Love Songs for the Hopeless Romantic (Jan. 25), by violinist Gregory Harrington.
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Video: “Cyrano” behind the scenes look and interviews with director Joe Wright and cast members Peter Dinklage (Cyrano), Haley Bennett (Roxanne), and Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Christian).
The film opens in select cities on Jan. 28 and everywhere else on Feb. 11.
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Dab Gillespie Sells & Tom MacRae’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will run Jan. 16 – Feb. 20 (opening Jan. 21) at the Ahmanson Theatre, directed by Jonathan Butterell.
Layton Williams, Roy Haylock (aka Bianca Del Rio), Melissa Jacques, Shobna Gulati, Gillian Ford, George Sampson, Hiba Elchikhe, Marlon G. Day, Leoon Craig, David O’Reilly, James Gillan, Richard Appiah-Sarpong, Zion Battles, Kazmin borrer, Ryan Hughes, Jodie Knight, Talia Palamathanan, Harriet Payne, Adam Taylor, Simeon Beckett, Emma Robotham-Hunt, and Rachel Seirian.
Jamie doesn’t quite fit in, he’s terrified about the future and he’s going to be a sensation. Supported by his loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies, and steps out of the darkness and into the spotlight.
Video: Teaser
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50 Years of Broadway at the Kennedy Center will run Feb. 11-12 at 7:30 PM ET, directed by Marc Bruni, with music direction by Rob Berman, choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter, and hosted by James Monroe Iglehart.
Stephanie J. Block, Alfie Boe, Sierra Boggess, Gavin Creel, Christopher Jackson, LaChanze, Beth Leavel, Norm Lewis, Andrew Rannells, Frances Ruffelle, Vanessa Williams, and Tony Yazbeck, with more TBA.
The event will pay homage to the legacy of Broadway musicals at the Kennedy Center, and will include a special tribute to Stephen Sondheim.
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Due to the surge of new Covid cases in the Boston area, Speak Easy Stage‘s production of People, Places, and Things, by Duncan Macmillan, and directed by David R. Gammons, originally scheduled to run Jan. 7 – Feb. 5 at the Calderwood Pavilion, has been rescheduled to Feb. 11 – Mar. 4.
Marianna Bassham, Kadahi Bennett, Darya Denisova, Evelyn Howe, Adrianne Krstansky, Joyn Kuntz, Mal Malme, Nael Nacer, Shanelle Chloe Villegas, and Sharmarke Yusuf.
Emma is a thirty-something actress who thinks she is having the time of her life, until she finds herself in rehab. Though her first step is to admit she has a problem, Emma just wants to escape—through drugs, alcohol, performing – anything that allows her to avoid her own reality. To fight for her recovery, though, Emma will need to face the truth; yet she’s smart enough to know that there’s no such thing. And when intoxication feels like the only way to survive, how can she ever hope to sober up?
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Chris Evans is currently in talks to play Gene Kelly for an upcoming biopic about the star. John Logan is attached as screenwriter.
The film is based on an original idea by Evans, following a young teenager working on the MGM Lot during the ‘50s who makes Kelly his imaginary friend.
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The LA Philharmonic presents Symphonic Duke Ellington Jan. 15 & 20-23 at the Disney Concert Hall, conducted by Thomas Wilkins.
Wilkins examines the composer’s Black American history and expressive life, as well as his hopes for a more just and compassionate future, which continue to resonate.
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The Fred Ebb Foundation has awarded $2.6 million to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, topping the foundation’s previous donation and cementing its place as the largest single donor in Broadway Cares history.
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Bard at the Gate presents Lloyd Suh’s Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery for 24 hours only, starting Jan. 26 at 7:3o PM ET, directed by Ralph Peña.
Eric Sharp, Jeena Yi, Jeff Biehl, Karoline, Peter Kim, and Mia Katigbak.
Set in Berkely in 1967 against the backdrop of the War in Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement, the play skewers the depiction of Asiam-Americans in pop culture. Frank Chan, a college dropout, and his activist girlfriend, Kathy Ching, find themselves in a cultural time warp – from the ancestral railways to the legacy of Charlie Chan stereotypes — and a murder mystery
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Assassins will run Feb. 17 – Mar. 20 (opening Feb. 20) at East West Players, directed by Snehal Desai, and music direction by Marc Macalintal.
Gedde Watanabe (Charles Guiteau), Joan Almedilla (Sara Jane Moore), Adam Kaokept (Balladeer/Lee Harvey Oswald), Trance Thompson (John Wilkes Booth), Max Torrez (The Proprietor), Christopher Chen (Samuel Byck), George Xavier (Leon Czolgoz), Astoncia Bhagat (Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme), Arvin Lee (John Hinckley, Jr), Aric Martin (Giuseppe Zangara), and Kym Miller (Emma Goldman), with Andrea Somera, Jalen Lum, and Michael Cavinder.
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Chicago’s Goodman Theatre has updated its 202-22 season:
Gem of the Ocean (Jan. 22 – Feb. 27), by August Wilson, directed by Chuck Smith. Tensions flare into riots across Pittsburgh’s Hill District as chaos threatens a city desperate for freedom. It’s 1904, the dawn of the new century—yet slavery’s shadow looms large. There is solace to be found at the home of 285-year-old Ester Tyler, keeper and transmitter of African American history and cleanser of souls. When a suspicious traveler appears at her door in search of a new life, Aunt Ester guides him on a journey of spiritual awakening.
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (Feb. 11 – Mar. 20), adapted & directed by Mary Zimmerman. In a production composed entirely of words from his notebooks and various treatises, da Vinci’s ideas on topics from mathematics, anatomy, architecture and engineering, to philosophy, love and the human spirit come to vivid life.
Good Night, Oscar (Mar. 12 – Apr. 17), by Doug Wright, directed by Lisa Peterson, starring Sean Hayes. It’s 1958, and Jack Paar hosts the hottest late-night talk-show on television. His favorite guest? Character actor, pianist and wild card Oscar Levant. Famous for his witty one-liners, Oscar has a favorite: “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity; I have erased this line.” Tonight, Oscar will prove just that when he appears live on national TV in an episode that Paar’s audience—and the rest of America—won’t soon forget.
Swing State (Apr. 1 – May 1), by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Robert Falls. Feuds erupt between once-friendly neighbors when an out-of-state power company starts a land grab in a rural Wisconsin community. Peg, a retired teacher, fights to save the land she loves – but it’s hard to know who your friends are in a world where politics are more polarized than ever.
Life After (June 11 – July 17), by Britta Johnson, directed by Annie Tippe. Frank Carter famously authored self-help books. But Alice, his 16-year-old daughter, finds cold comfort in his positivity platitudes when he tragically never comes home one night. As she puzzles out the events of the day that changed her family forever, Alice’s relentless search for the facts reveals a more complicated truth.
…and one more production TBA.
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The Drama League has announced casting for its DirectorFest 2022, which will run in person Jan. 19 – Feb. 5 at Off-Broadway’s A.R.T/New York Theatres.
She Talks to Beethoven (Jan. 19-22), by Adrienne Kennedy, directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant, featuring Caro Guzmán and Milton Lyles. In a newly independent Ghani in 1961, an American writer is facing both the disappearance of her husband and he own mysterious illness, In her feverish state, dream and reality merge as Suzanne conures Beethoven — who is preparing for the 1803 premiere of his opera, Fidelio.
Girlfriend (Jan. 19-22), by Todd Almond & Matthew Sweet, directed by Leo Shull, with music direction by Sivan Battat, featuring Sushma Saha (Will) and Alyssa Cassese (Mike). In small-town Nebraska during the summer of 1993, two guys are moving on from high school towards… whatever comes next. Baseball star Mike is college-bound; Will is less sure of his next step. As they find themselves drawn to each other, the exhilaration and confusion of first love begins a journey that may change them both in unexpected ways.
The Seventeenth Chapel (Feb. 2-5), by Aditi Brennan Kapil, directed by Reena Dutt, featuring Reya Sehgal (Lon) and Lisha McKoy (Tin). After a cataclysmic event, the Hudson is a barren desert, the skyline casts no shadows from the red sun, and the only organisms thriving in this post-apocalyptic world are a malicious new species of unknown origin. When Lon and Tin encounter each other in an abandoned apartment, they must choose how long to hide, when to run… and whether a sacrifice must be made.
A Number (Feb. 2-5), by Caryl Churchill, directed by Ryan Dobrin, featuring Sid Ross (Salter), Ema Zivkovic (B1, B2), and Michael Black. In a not-too-distant future, a regretful father attempts to fix the mistakes he made in raising his son by starting over. Is it possible to atone for the sins of the past? As they reconnect, shocking lies are uncovered, revealing a horrifying truth.