Today’s Highlights:
Empire: The Musical, by Caroline Sherman & Robert Hull, directed by Cady Huffman, featuring Danny Iktomi Bevins, Monique Candelaria, Devin Cortez, Morgan Cowling, Kaitlyn Davidson, Joel Douglas, Joseph Fierberg, Alexandra Frohlinger, Matt Gibson, Albert Guerzon, Julia Louise Hosack, Kiana Kabeary, Howard Kaye, TJ Newton, April Ortiz, Kennedy Perez, Paul Salvatoriello, J Savage, Robbie Serrano, and Ethan Saviet, opens at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages.
Broadway in Bryant Park, offering free lunchtime concerts, (12:30 – 1:30 PM) opens its summer season. Click here for the complete schedule. The concerts are also available on 106.7 LITE FM.
West Side Story, directed & choreographed by Baayork Lee, featuring Sabina Collazo (Maria), Spencer LaRue (Tony), Adriana Negron (Anita), Giuseppe Bausillio (Bernardo), Davis Wayne (Riff), Grace G. Arnold (Braziella), Jenniellen Beattie (Margarita), Ken Bolden (Doc), Bianca Bulgarelli (Consuelo), Emanuel Cologne (Pape), Ixchel Cuellar (Teresita), Joy Del Valle (Rosalia), Maggie McCown (Velma), Macy McKown (Anybody’s), J. Alex Noble (Krupke), Maile C. Oravitz (Pauline), Coty Perno (Toro), Eric Rivas (Luis), Ronan Ryan (Snowbaby), Maya Santiago (Francisca), Allan Snyder (Schrank), BB Stone (Minnie), and Dixie Surewood (Gladhand), Cole N. Zeiser (Diesel), and David Grindrod (John E. Viso), with Drew Tanabe, David Grindrod, and John E Viso, opens at Pittsburgh CLO.
The Blank Theatre‘s 32nd Annual Young Playwrights Festival opens at Hollywood’s Skylight Theatre.
Eisenhower: This Piece of Land, by Richard Hellesen, directed by Peter Ellenstein, starring John Rubinstein, opens at Santa Barbara’s New Vic.
The Journals of Adam and Eve, by Ed Weinberger, directed by Anders Corcoran, featuring Hal Linden and Marilu Henner, previews at Off-Broadway’s Sheen Center.
Ragtime, directed by Michael Lluberes, featuring Ben Cherry (Tateh), Jaden Dominique (Sara), Eric Davie (Mother), Bill English (Father), Clyde Voce (Coalhouse Walker Jr.), Tori Bligen & Gemma Phipps (alternating as Coalhouse Walker III), Greg Bostwick (Harry Houdini/Henry Ford), Kemari Bryant (Harlem Man), Sydney Carmona (Evelyn Nesbit), Richard N. Coleman (Booker T. Washington), Dexter Conlin (Youner Brother), Enaw Elonge (Instrumentalist), Hugo Lloyd (Little Boy), Gabriella Rubacky (Little Girl), Ephraim Takyi (Harlem Man), Crystal Renee Wright (Sarah’s Friend), and Audrey Rose Young (Emma Goldman), previews at Ithica’s Hangar Theatre.
Linda Purl in concert at 7 PM at Ithica’s Triphammer Arts Festival.
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Principal casting has finally been announced for Once Upon a Mattress, which will run July 31 – Nov. 30 (opening Aug. 12) at the Hudson Theatre, adapted by Amy Sherman-Palladino, and directed by Lear deBessonet, with choreography by Lorin Latarro.
Sutton Foster (Princess Winifred), Michael Urie (Prince Dauntless), Nikki Renée Daniels (Lady Larken), David Patrick Kelly (King Sextimus the Silent), Ana Gasteyer (Queen Aggravain), Will Chase (Sir Harry), Daniel Breaker (Jester), Brooks Ashmanskas (Wizzard), and more TBA.
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This Summer, tour Doylestown, PA.’s Highland Farm, where Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Oklahoma!
The 45-minute tours, available on Fridays at 11 AM and Sundays at 3 PM, will include stories about Hammerstein’s family, discussions on his groundbreaking impact on the modern book musical, and insights into his humanitarian work. Click here for more information.
Hammerstein purchased the farm in 1940, just as he was beginning his landmark collaboration with composer Richard Rodgers, as a quiet place to work outside of Manhattan. The property would become Hammerstein’s creative epicenter.
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Chilini Kennedy will temporarily cover the role of Myrtle in Broadway’s The Great Gatsby from July 15 – Sept. (date TBA) at Broadway’s Broadway Theatre.
Kennedy will temporarily cover the role while original cast member Sara Chase is on a medical leave of absence through the summer. Chase is expected to re-join the company in September.
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Lea Salonga at Christmas will take place Sun. Dec. 15 at 2 & 7 PM at Northridge, CA’s Soraya.
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Red Bull Theater‘s Medea Re-Versed, by Luis Quintero, will run Sept. 12 – Oct. 13 (opening Sept. 23) at the Sheen Center, adapted & directed by Nathan Winkelstein,
Sarin Monae West (Media), Siena D’Addario, Melissa Mahoney, Mark Martin, Jacob Ming-Trent, Luis Quintero and Stephen Michael Spencer.
An ice-cold, high-octane adaptation of Euripides’ play written in Battle Rap verse, this brand new hip hop version of Medea sheds contemporary light on the classic tragedy. This story reignites the sacred rage of our ancestors and explores the destruction that comes when a society suppresses and silences women.
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Chicago’s Goodman Theatre has announced updates for its 2024-25 season.
Inherit the Wind (Sept. 14 – Oct. 13), directed by Susan V. Booth, featuring Henry Godinez, featuring Harry Lennix Henry Drummond), Alexander Gemignani (Matthew Harrison), and more TBA.
Primary Trust (Oct. 5 – Nov. 3), by Eboni Booth, directed by Malkia Stampley. Casting TBA.
A Christmas Carol (Nov. 16 – Dec. 20), directed by Jessica Thebus. Casting TBA.
Fat Ham (Jan. 11 – Feb. 23, 2025), by James Ijames, directed by Tyrone Phillips.
Betrayal (Feb. 8 – Mar. 16), by Harold Pinter, directed by Susan V. Booth, featuring Helen Hunt (Emma Downs), Ian Barford (Robert Downs), and more TBA.
BUST: An Afrocurrentist Play (Apr. 19 – May 18), by Zora Howard, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. It’s not only hell that breaks loose in this ground-breaking, form-defying, laugh-out-loud new drama from Pulitzer-Prize finalist playwright Zora Howard. It’s not only hell that breaks loose in this ground-breaking, form-defying, laugh-out-loud new drama.
The Color Purple (June 21 – July 27), directed by Lili-Anne Brown.
The Antiquities (May 3 – June 1), by Jordan Harrison. A play for anyone whose computer has asked them to prove that they’re a human. Which is to say, everyone.
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Dancers Responding to AIDS‘ Fire Island Dance Festival, in support of BC/EFA, will run July 19-21 at Fire Island Pines, NY.
Three performances will be presented. Performers TBA.
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Hudson River Park’s inaugural Broadway by the Boardwalk series will run on Mondays July 15 – Aug. 5 (all at 6:30 PM) at Hudson River Park’s Clinton Cove.
Eden Espinosa (July 15), Ramin Karimloo (July 22), Bradley Gibson (July 29), and Adam Jacobs & Arielle Jacobs (Aug. 8).
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Billy Recce & Yoni Weiss’ Fowl Play will run Aug. 8-17 at the AMT Theater (link TBA), directed by Tye Blue.
Selma Nilla, Jayke Workman, Stephen Brower, Mamie Parris, Max Clayton, Darius Rose, William M. Martin, Daniel Quadrino, Burgandy Williams, and Maya Lagerstam.
Best friends Xander and Archie, are two unsuspecting, unemployed queers hungry to make a big, earnest, musical theatre-y difference in the world — and what better time to make a difference than Pride month! When the duo is tasked with writing an apology musical for a notoriously homophobic fried chicken chain, their friendship is put to the test by Kimberly Chickadee, the fast-talkin’ CEO with a new recipe and an appetite for change.
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The Blank Theatre‘s 32nd Annual Young Playwrights Festival will run July 11 -Aug. 4 at LA’s Skylight Theatre (1816 N. Vermont Ave.).
Click the link above for casting and additional details.
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July 9, 2024, marked the end of an era.
After nearly 37 years of continual distribution (minus the shutdown year), the name of the iconic director-producer Hal Prince can no longer be found within printed Playbills.
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The world premiere of Mario Correa’s N/A has been extended through Sept. 1 at Off-Broadway’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, directed by Diane Paulus.
Holland Taylor (N) and Ana Villafane (A), with Peggy J. Scott and Jamie Ann Romero.
A whip-smart battle of wills — and wits — between N, the first woman Speaker of the House, and A, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Inspired by real people and events, this riveting two-hander illuminates the person whom many consider the most powerful woman in American history… and the once-in-a-generation political talent who defied her.
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Pam Tanowitz’s Little Island will run July 17 – 21 (opening July 18 at Little Island, directed & choreographed by Tanowitz.
Morgan Amirah Burns, Marc Crousillat, Lindsey Jones, Brian Lawson, Victor Lozano, Sarah Miele, Maile Okamura and Melissa Toogood.