GRACE NOTES: Thursday, July 6, 2023

 

Today’s Highlights:

  The Wizard of Oz, directed by Nikolai Foster, featuring Georgina Onuorah (Dorothy), Jason Manford (Cowardly Lion), Ashley Banjo (Tin Man), Dianne Pilkington (Wicked Witch of the West), Louis Gaunt (Scarecrow), Christina Bianco (Glinda The Good Witch), Gary Wilmot (Wizard/Professor Marvel), and Ben Thompson (Toto), with Annie Southall, Charlotte St. Croix, Claire O’Leary, Eamonn Cox, Emily Ann Potter, Geoff Aymer, Harrison Wilde, Jacqui Dubois, Jessica Daley, Jonathan Dryden Taylor, Lauren Stroud, Marley Fenton, Michael Lin, and Sam Stones, opens at the London Palladium.

  Uncle Vanya, directed by Jack Serio, featuring David Cromer (Vanya), Will Brill (Astrov), Julia Chan (Yelena), Will Dagger (Telegin), Martin Ireland (Sonya), Bill Irwin (Serebryakov), Nathan Malin (Yefim), Ann McDonough (Maria), and Virginia Wing (Marina), opens at a private loft in NYC’s Flatiron District.

  Liz Callaway: Screen Gems concert, opens at NYC’s 54 Below.

  Cuckoo, by Michael Wynne, directed by Vicky Featherstone, featuring Michelle Butterly, Emma Harrison, Sue Jenkins, and Jodie McNee, begins previews at London’s Royal Court Theatre.

  Love + Science, by David J. Glass, directed by Allen MacLeod, featuring Jonathan Burke and Matt Walker, with Thursday Farrar, Ryan Knowles, Tally Sessions, Imani Pearl Williams, and Adrian Greensmith, closes at Off-Broadway’s New York City Center.

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  Broadway Grosses for the week ending July 2, 2023.   Click here for the complete analysis.

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  Noel Coward’s Private Lives will run Aug. 31 – Nov. 25 (opening Sept. 13) at the Ambassadors Theatre, directed by Christopher Luscombe.

  Nigel Havers, Patricia Hodge, Dugald Bruce-Lockheart and Natalie Walker.

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  MA’s Barrington Stage has announced its upcoming concert series (all at 8 PM):

  Donna McKechnie: Take Me to the World: The Songs of Stephen Sondheim (July 9-10)

  An Evening with Lillias White (Aug. 13-14)

  Todd Almond Loves You (July 16)

  Hugh Panaro (Aug. 21)

  An Evening with Jason Robert Brown (Aug. 31 & Sept. 1)

  Alan H. Green: Finally (Sept. 2-3)

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  Gingold Theatrical Group‘s Pygmalion script-in-hand performance will take place Mon. July 24 at 7 PM at NYC’s Symphony Space, directed by David Staller.

Kate Hamill (Eliza Dootlittle), David Lee Huynh (Freddy Enysford-Hill), Laura Patinkin (Mrs. Eynsford-Hill), Mary Beth Peil (Mrs. Higgins), Robert Petkoff (Henry Higgins), Ryann Redmond (Clara Eynsford-Hill), Justin Robertson (Narrator and others), Thomas Jay Rayan (Alfred Doolittle), Thom Sesma (Colonel Hugh Pickering), and Jennifer Van Dyck (Mrs. Pearce),

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  An Evening with Norm Lewis will take place Tues. July 11 at 7:30 PM at at NYC’s 92NY, with music direction by Billy Stritch.     

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  The Rubicon Theatre will present “Dine & Delight: A private Winemaker’s Dinner” on Tues. July 25 at 5:30 PM at Ventura’s Water’s Edge Restaurant, featuring a 5-course menu, followed by  a live auction for a chance to win a trip for two to the wine country.

  Jennifer Leigh Warren

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  Peter Lefcourt’s Group Therapy will run July 21 – Aug. 20 (opening July 22) at North Hollywood’s Theatre 68 Arts Complex, directed by Terri Hanauer.

Andy Hoff, Ashley Platz, and Marnina Schon, with Sawyer Fuller and Cat Masterson.

A serious comedy about three people trapped in a therapist’s waiting room, where they learn things about one another that they would rather not know.

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Rent in Concert,  will run July 26-28 at the Kennedy Center, directed by Sammi Cannold.

  Ali Stroker (Maureen), Myles Frost (Benny), Jimmie Herrod (Angel), Lorna Courtney (Mimi Márquez), Andrew Barth Feldman (Mark Cohen), Alex Boniello (Roger Davis), Ali Stroker (Maureen Johnson), Myles Frost (Benjamin “Benny” Coffin III), and Jimmie Herrod (Angel Dumott Schunard).

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  Video:  Watch the complete “PBS: A Capital Fourth” concert (90 min.), conducted by Jack Everly.

Ruthie Ann Miles, Adrienne Warren… the Broadway company of A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical, Will Swenson and Robyn Hurder… Renée Fleming… the rock-and-roll band Chicago… Boyz II Men… Belinda Carlisle… Babyface… Maddie & Tae… Charles Esten… and Elmo & Cookie Monster.

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  Jean-Philippe Daguerre’s Farewell Mister Hoffmann will run Aug. 24 – Sept. 23 (0pening Aug.31) at the Bath Theatre Royal, directed by Lindsay Posner.

Alexander Hanson, Lisa Dillon Ciarán Owens, Josefina Gabrielle, and Nigel Lindsay.

  Originally named Adieu Monsieur Haffmann, the play is one of the longest-running pieces in France. Set in 1942 Paris during Nazi occupation, the play centers on a Jewish shop owner and his long standing employee as they change roles in an attempt to survive occupation with their personal and professional lives intact.

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  Lillias White: Blissfully Thankful will run Nov. 22-25 at NYC’s 54 Below, with music direction by French-Malagasy.

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  Theatre Royal Bath’s 2021 revival of Noël Coward’s Private Lives will transfer to London’s Ambassadors Theatre Aug. 31 – Nov. 25 (opening Sept. 13), directed by Christopher Luscombe.

  Nigel Havers (Elyot), Patricia Hodge (Amanda), Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, and Natalie Walker.

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   Boston’s Barrington Stage Company has announced its upcoming cabaret series (all at 8 PM):

 Donna McKechnie (July 9-12)

  Tod Almond (July 16)

  Lillias White (Aug. 13-14)

  Hugh Panaro (Aug. 21)

  Jason Robert Brown (Aug. 31 & Sept. 1)

  Allan H. Green: Finally (Sept. 2-3)

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  Casting has been announced for Week 2 of the Blank Theatre‘s Young Playwrights Festival, to run July 13-16 (Friday and Saturday at 8 PM, and Sunday at 2 PM) at LA’s Skylight Theatre.

  An Actor Recalls, by Anna Parker, directed by Cate Caplin, featuring Tess Aubert, Kameron J. Brown, and Nevin Millan.  During a theatre rehearsal, two actors are confronted with the challenges of vulnerability until the director sends them into a spiral as he confronts his own failures. Yes, it’s meta, but it’s also hilarious.

  Dinner on the Champs-Élysées, by Sammy Shames, directed by Carol Jones Potter, featuring Jacquelyn Rosati and Jeff Witzke. Two old friends rekindle in Paris – Danny, a former actor who now prides himself on having a stable, boring career, and Martha, a woman who had a midlife crisis at 35 and now resides in the 5th Arrondissement. They exchange anecdotes and discuss what it means to be friends, begging the question, “Can you change someone after they’ve already decided who they are?”

  Life Review, by Lola Podolner, directed by Michael Shepperd, featuring Shalini Bathina, Cade Holbrook, Helen Madelyn Kim, and and Pej Vahdat. What’s it like when your life flashes before your eyes? Ange has fallen off her bike and is about to find out.

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     Fifty Key Stage Musicals: The Concert! — Part Three will take place Sun. July 16 at 7 PM at NYC’s 54 Below, with music direction by Michael Lavine.

 Christine Andreas, Paige Davis, Stephen Mo Hanan, Lee Roy Reams, Steve Ross, Talia Suskauer, Mark William, and more TBA.

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Currently on a short break, the national tour of To Kill a Mockingbird will announce its 2023-24 season soon.  Click here for the current schedule, with more cities TBA.

  Richard Thomas, and more TBA.


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