Today’s Highlights:
Roundabout‘s …what the end will be, by Mansa Ra, directed by Margo Bordelon, featuring Emerson Brooks (Maxell Kennedy), Gerald Caesar (Tony Kennedy), Randy Harrison (Charles), Keith Randolph Smith (Bartholomew Kennedy), Ryan Jamal Swain (Antoine), and Tiffany Villarin (Chloe), opens at Off-Broadway’s Steinberg Center.
Noir, world premiere by Duncan Sheik & Kyle Jarrow, directed by Darko Tresnjak, featuring Christy Altomare (Scarlet), Adam Kantor (The Neighbor), Morgan Marcell (The Wife), Sinclair Daniel (The Kid), David Guzman (The Husband), Clifton Samuels (The Boss), and Voltaire Wade-Greene (The Goon), opens at Houston’s Alley Theatre.
Corsicana, by Will Arbery, directed by Sam Gold, featuring Jamie Brewer (Ginny), Will Dagger (Christopher), Deirdre O’Connell (Justice), and Harold Surratt (Lot), begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons.
The Pajama Game, directed by Annie Potter, featuring Nicholas Yenson, Nicole Tung, Katherine Stein, Tiana Paulding, Ben Jones, Renee Deweese, Jesse Caldwell, Tony Conaty, Tracy Camp, Ashley Garlick, James Mayagoitia, Nick Nakashima, and Daniel Thomas, begins previews at San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon.
INTERSTATE, by Melissa Li & Kit Yan, directed by Jesca Prudencio, featuring Jupiter Lê (Dash Koi), Gillian Han (Adrian Tong), Jaya Joshi (Henry Ahuja), Michelle Noh (Mom), Reuben Uy (Dad), Stefan Miller (Pastor Fred), Natalie Holt MacDonald (Madison), and Krystle Simmons (Carly), begins previews at LA’s East West Players.
Change the Story: The Artists of Live & In Color benefit concert, hosted by BD Wong, featuring Juan Danner, Samy Nour, Younes Figaredo, Crystal Joy, Gabriella Mancuso, Stephen Mark, Ryan Morales, Janet Noh, Evan Michael Smith, Riki Stevens, and Sonya Venugopal, directed by Devanand Janki, at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Green Room 42.
Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall concert & discussion, a tribute to Garland’s 1961 concert, with special guests Lea Michele and Molly Ringwald, in person & streaming, at 7:30 PM ET at NYC’s 92Y.
Spring Awakening, directed & choreographed by Brenda Didier, featuring Ariana Burks (Martha), McKinley Caret (Adult Women), Jack DeCesare (Melchior), Maya Lou Hlava (Wendla), Quinn Kelch (Moritz), Maddy Kelly (Thea), John Marshall Jr. (Hanschen), (Adult Men), Juwon Tyrel Perry (Georg), Kevin James Sievert (Otto), Kelan M. Smith (Ernst), and Tiffany T. Taylor (Ilse), with Isis Elizabeth, Desiree Gonalez, Ryan Hamman, Drew Mitchell, Michael Joseph Mitchell, Sydney Monet Swanson, Genevieve Thiers, and Anthony Whitaker, closes at Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre.
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Reviews for The Glass Menagerie at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre, starring Amy Adams:
NY Times (Matt Wolf): A treasured figurine isn’t the only thing that gets smashed in The Glass Menagerie… The best productions should leave the audience as shattered as the unicorn that gets toppled from its perch at the play’s devastating climax. And yet my eyes remained pretty much dry… This production’s quieter, less urgent approach comes into its own in the second act, but elsewhere, it is too removed from the play’s intensifying sadness… What’s lacking is the gathering sense of fury from Amanda at a lifetime of betrayal and disappointment… Adams’s natural appeal makes Amanda’s account of the gentleman callers that once brought her cheer believable, but she, like the production itself, could do with being less subdued…
The Guardian (Arifa Akbar): Tennessee Williams’s narrator begins by speaking of all the ways a “memory play” conjures its effects: dim lighting, sentimentality, a lack of realism. This production uses those artifices and also boasts central star casting in Amy Adams, yet stops short of putting us under its spell. Adams’s West End debut is solid but unremarkable… Under the direction of Jeremy Herrin, the first half feels flat-footed and without Williams’s heady mix of yearning, passion and despair… The actors on the whole deliver their lines efficiently enough but the emotional centre is just not there… One of the biggest problems is the size of the stage, which looks vast and works against the intimacy of this story…
WhatsOnStage (Frey Kwa Hawking): this production murmurs rather than sparks. It has a couple of tricks up its sleeve, but largely, Jeremy Herrin’s production is dedicated to preserving the sense of smallness of this story… This production dials up the fondness for her [Amanda] old-worldly character: her querulously thin voice works, with just how still everything else is… Nick Powell’s sensual, wistful composition often has a character begin a motif on the piano then immediately move it to be seemingly looped by a tape, as if always growing more distant… it’s a production which handles its audience and characters carefully, unafraid of its own quietness. The lasting impression is more of a mood than any revelation.
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Broadway.com 2022 Audience Choice Award winners:
Click here for the complete list of winners.
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The acclaimed Young Vic production of Death of a Salesman will begin performances Sept. 19 at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre, directed by Miranda Cromwell. Additional information TBA.
Wendell Pierce (Willy Loman) and Sharon D. Clarke (Linda Loman), with more TBA.
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C.P. Taylor’s Good will run Oct. 6 – Dec. 24 (opening Oct. 12) at the Harold Pinter Theatre, directed by Dominic Cooke.
David Tennant, Elliot Levey, and more TBA.
The play re-imagines the WWII-set drama about a German professor who must rationalize his decision to join the Nati party.
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Video: First trailer for “Trevor: The Musical” on Disney+, which begins streaming on June 24.
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Anthony McCarten’s The Neil Diamond Musical: A Beautiful Noise will begin previews Nov. 2 and open Dec. 4 at the Broadhurst Theatre, directed by Michael Mayer, with choreography by Steven Hoggett. Tickets will go on sale June 6 at 10 PM ET.
Will Swenson (Neil Diamond) and more TBA…
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Video: New footage from Broadway’s Funny Girl.
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Encompass New Opera Theatre will present a Benefit Concert for Ukraine on Sat. June 18 at 3 PM ET at NYC’s Christ and Saint Stephen’s Church (120 W. 69th St.), featuring Ukrainian singers.
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Baltimore Center Stage has announced its 2022-23 season. Casting and additional information TBA.
Our Town (Sept. 15 – Oct. 9), directed by Stevie Walker-Webb
Ain’t No Mo’ (Oct. 27 – Nov. 20), by Jordan E. Cooper, directed by Lili-Anne Brown.
Tiny Beautiful Things (Mar. 9 – Apr. 2, 2023), adapted by Nia Vardolos, directed by Stori Ayers.
Life is a Dream (May 4-21), adapted by María Irene Fornés, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb.
…and more TBA…
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Gingold Theatrical Group continues its Speakers’ Corner New Play Development Plays-In-Progress 29-hour Workshops. 
Note new dates and times.
Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte (June 3 at 7 PM ET), by Aeneas Hemphill, directed by Arpita Mukherjee, featuring Rajesh Bose, Shawn Jain, Mahima Saigal, Salma Shaw, Khyati Sehgal, and Imran Sheikh.
There Goes the Neighborhood (June 5 at 5 PM ET), by Marcus Scott, directed by Dev Bondarin, featuring Philip Burke, Savana Calder, Broderick Clavery, Anthony Godd, Ashley Jossell, Olivia Kinter, Monique Robinson, and Cliff Sellers.
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The national tour of Emojiland will close after its opening in Columbus this weekend.
However, the production will now play a special event performance on June 4 at 8 PM in Columbus, which will be filmed for a live-capture of the musical. Details for the live-capture release are TBA.
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Broadway Bares/San Franciso Strips V: FairyTales will take place Sun. June 19 at 8 PM PT at San Francisco’s DNA Lounge, directed by Deb Leamy.
Performers TBA.
The show will feature favorite fairy-tale characters in a series of specially choreographed dances.
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Video: “Turn My Life Around” from Paradise Square.
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Penguin Rep‘s Mr. Parker, by Michael McKeever, continues through June 25 at Theatre Row, directed by Joe Brancato.
Mia Mattews, Davi Santos, and Derek Smith.
At 54, Terry Parker is at a crossroads. After the loss of his partner of 30 years, he finds him unable to adjust to a world that has moved on without him. After a heavy night of drinking, he wakes up with a 28-year-old bartender/Uber-driver. These two very different people begin a tentative relationship, and what starts out as a one-night stand becomes a journey of self-discovery for a man trying to let got of his past and move on, while dealing with the pleasures of being middle-aged, gay, and alone.
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Broadway’s The Music Man has added a performance on Sun. Aug. 28 at 8 PM ET to benefit the Entertainment Community Fund (aka The Actors Fund) at the Winter Garden Theatre.