Today’s Highlights:
How Long Blues, world premiere conceived, choreographed, and directed by Twyla Tharp, featuring Michael Cerveris, Piper Dye, Jourdan Epstein, Oliver Greene-Cramer, Kyle Halford, Colin Heininger, Daisy Jacobson, Claude CJ Johnson, Pomme Koch, Skye Mattox, Nicole Ashley Morris, Hugo Pizano Orozco, Ryan Redmond, Victoria Sames, Frances Lorraine Samson, John Selya, Reed Tankersley, Andromeda Turre, John Bailey, Justin Goldner, Wayne Goodman, Dan Lipton, Mark Lopeman, Jay Rattman, George Rush, and Paul Wells, opens at NYC’s’s Little Island.
Norm Lewis: Summertime (Special Tony Edition) concert, directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, opens at NYC’s 54 Below.
Broadway Today!: Broadway’s Modern Masters concerts, featuring Victoria Clark, Many Gonzalez, Joshua Henry, Darius de Haas, Bryce Pinkham, and Scarlett Strallan, opens at Boston’s Symphony Hall.
Porchlight Music Theatre‘s Broadway in your Backyard outdoor concert series, directed by Frankie Leo Bennett, featuring Lydia Burke, Tafadzwa Diener, Michael Earvin Martin, Luke Nowakowski, Juwon Tyrel Perry, and Bethany Thomas, opens at various outdoor Chicago venues.
The Abnormal Heart, written & performed by Parker Mills, directed by Marilyn McIntyre, opens at LA’s Matrix Theatre.
Troubadour Theater Company’s Duran Durantony & Cleopatra, adapted & directed by Matt Walker, featuring Beth Kennedy, Rick Batalla, Mike Sulprizio, Cloie Wyatt Taylor, John Paul Batista, Katie Kitani, Mark McCracken, Philip McNiven, Suzanne Jolie, previews at Burbank’s Colony Theatre.
Sam, written & performed by Sam Labrecque, begins previews at Hollywood’s Broadwater Studio.
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Reviews for Roundabout Theatre’s Home at Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theatre:
New York Times (Jesse Green): To say that Samm-Art Williams’s 1979 play Home is old-fashioned is to say that The Odyssey and The Wizard of Oz are too: They are all tear-jerking stories about lost souls working their way back to the proverbial place where the heart is. But another way to see them is as keen records of how we thought, at particular points in time, about our place in the universe. Is that ever old-fashioned?… For Home …the particular point in time is the tail end of the Great Migration, bringing millions of Black Americans to the North from the South in an attempt to escape racism and poverty… The nostalgic style, unfashionable for decades, may be why “Home” has not until now been revived on Broadway, despite its successful and much-praised premiere…
Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones): …very much a work about the search for personal peace and the time of life when travel and stress and striving no longer appeal and youthful memories start to exert a new forcefulness. It’s about the time when people often find they just want to go home, only to find that home as they understood it is gone forever…. it uses the metaphor of a man on a lifelong journey, forever moving on from one place to another, searching, seeking, trying to come home… Kittles’ superb performance ranges deep and wide and it comes with an intensity that has stuck with me these last couple of days, locking in as it does on why this man, like so many others in his situation, has a palpable magnitude. Both Inge and Ayers are excellent, too, rolling Williams’ poetry off their tongues and grabbing hold of the emotional resonance that Leon clearly wanted here.
Daily Beast (Tim Teaman): …Home is not a conventional play… The poetry and staging combine both expansion and contraction; Home only lasts 90 minutes, yet it feels a grander sweep than that… Home is a play meets lyrical ballad, where big themes—racism, resistance, identity, and, of course, home—are filtered through the trajectory of Cephus’ life, and the many stories, raw and real and tall and ridiculous, he and Woman One and Woman Two tell. The excellent and expressive Kittles, Inge, and Ayers both relate stories, and the rhythm of life, simultaneously—as if the text is music and they an orchestra as well as actors; as one talks, another may make the propulsive chugging of a train. As the play has it: “Time rushes by./So fast it rushes by.”
New York Theatre Guide (Amelia Merrill): …The fact that playwright Samm-Art Williams died just as the revival of his play Home began performances at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Todd Haimes Theatre is made all the more poignant by the play’s text. Home feels like a confessional, like protagonist Cephus Miles (Tory Kittles) is recounting his life before death as spiritual guides assess his piety and worthiness. Unfortunately for Cephus, he has long expressed the belief that God is on vacation, perhaps lounging in Miami, ignoring him when he calls…. This sense of alienation is perhaps intentional, mirroring how Cephus feels, but director Kenny Leon’s production still must bargain for the audience’s attention. Cephus’s return to Cross Roads — to his roots, and to the beautiful simplicity of Maldonado’s earlier set — is a balm not just for the character, but for us all.
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The American Popular Song Society‘s 3rd Annual Gala Benefit will take place Mon. June 17 at 5:30 PM at NYC’s Cutting Room, directed & music directed by Michael Lavine.
Marilyn Maye, Loni Ackerman, Danny Bacher, Barbara Blieier, Stephen Brinberg, Margery Cohen, Gretchen Cryer, Sean Harkness, Daniel Jenkins, Judy Kaye, Charlotte & Emily Maltby, Sally Mayes, Christiane Noll, Benjamin Pajak, Austin Pendleton, Steve Ross, Thom Sesma, Elena Shaddow, Jenny Lee Stern, Mark William, and Walter Willison.
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Shaun McKenna, Matthew Warchus, A.R. Rahma. & Christopher Nightingale’s The Lord of the Rings — A Musical Tale will run July 19 – Sept. 1 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, directed by Paul Hart.
Justin Albinder, Tom Amandes, Tony Bozzuto, Eileen Doan, Joey Faggion, Rick Hall, Suzanne Hannau, Mia Hilt, Will James, Jr., Michael Kurowski, Ben Mathew, Ian Maryfield, Spencer Davis Milford, Jarais Musgrove, Hannah Novak, Jeff Parker, Adam Qutaishat, Bernadette Santos Schwegel, Laura Savage, Carter Rose Sherman, Alina Jenine Taber, Arik Vega, Matthew C. Yee, and Lauren Zakrin.
As the Hobbits celebrate Bilbo Baggins’ eleventy-first birthday in the Shire, he gifts his nephew Frodo his most precious belonging—a gold ring. This fateful moment launches Frodo on a legendary and perilous quest across Middle-earth to the darkest realms of Mordor, to vanquish evil with his loyal Fellowship.
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The Group Rep‘s world premiere of Suzy London’s The Ghee Ghee Pik will run June 13 – July 14 at North Hollywood’s Lonny Chapman Theatre, directed by Kathleen R. Delaney.
Diana Angelina (Barbara Kelly), Davino Buzzotta (Trevor Dickson), Mandy Fason (Margaret Kelly), Doug Haverty (Joel Mackson), Cierra Lundy (Angela Donaldson), Jason Madera (Dr. Bennett Kenilworth), Kevin Michael Moran (Kendrick Gold), Helen O’Brien (Roberta Link), Stevie Stern (Dr. Jennifer Atchison) and Cathy Diane Tomlin (Judge Dana Smythe).
What can happen when Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) technology is implanted in the human brain? Inspired by actual events, the play dramatizes the true story of one woman’s quest to vastly improve her challenged life and the unexpected consequences of such a union.
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David Adjmi & Will Butler’s Stereophonic has been extended through Jan. 5, 2025 at Broadway’s Golden Theatre, directed by Daniel Aukin.
Will Brill (Reg), Andrew R. Butler (Charlie), Juliana Canfield (Holly), Eli Gel (Grover), Tom Pecinka (Peter), Sarah Pidgeon (Diana), and Chris Stack (Simon).
Stereophonic mines the agony and the ecstasy of creation as it zooms in on a music studio in 1976. Here, an up-and-coming rock band recording a new album finds itself suddenly on the cusp of superstardom. The ensuing pressures could spark their breakup — or their breakthrough.
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Master Class will run June 25 – July 20 (opening June 29) at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre, directed by Lisa Peterson.
Vicki Lewis, Stella Kim, Olivia Hernandez, Rodney Ingram, Brett Ryback, and Ben Rauch.
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Will Eno’s Middletown will run June 13-30 at Venice’s Pacific Resident Theatre, directed by Ann Bronston.
Marwa Bernstein, Oscar Best, Sarah Brooke, Rebecca Crandal, Tania Getty, Martha Hackett, John Johannessen, Zachary Kanner, Jeff LeBeau, Linda Lodge, James Morris, Melissa Paladino, Tony Pasqualini,Michael Redfield, and Miranda Wynne.
Will Eno’s loving response to Our Town follows its citizens while they go about their lives, interacting, connecting and misconnecting in poignant moments as the days and seasons pass. As if channeling Beckett and Satre, Eno has woven existential angst into the words and thoughts of his citizens as they struggle to find their footing on a spinning earth in a vast unknowable universe. Eno’s language is poetic, funny, sometimes sardonic, but always rich with ideas and gentle reminders of the moments of awe and mystery that are part of this everyday journey.
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An industry reading of Robert Barnett’s The Hiroshima Daughter will take place Fri. June. 7 at 3 PM at NYC’s Pearl Studios (500 8th Ave.), directed by Kimille Howard. 
Email: contact@visceral-entertianment.com
Jack Berenholtz, Janie Brookshire, Paul L. Coffey, Ryan F. Cupello, Ethan Dubin, Torsten Johnson, Kendyl Ito, and Gillian Williams.
The play picks up where the Oscar-winning blockbuster “Oppenheimer” ends, shifting the focus from the man responsible for the first atom bomb to one of its survivors. It’s the 1950s. Roz, a crusading journalist, brings horribly scared Miyoshi, a young Japanese artist, to the U.S. for reconstructive surgery. Miyoshi becomes a media darling after Roz introduces her to the nation on the popular television program “My Three Wishes”, but Brooks, a former diplomat and Roz’s wartime lover, warns her if Miyoshi puts a face to the consequences of nuclear warfare, Washington could block Roz’s fund-raising efforts to bring over additional young women disfigured by the bomb.
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A concert presentation of Nick Blaemire & Ethan Slater’s Edge of the World will take place Tues. July 16 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company.
Norbert Leo Butz (Henry), Lilli Cooper (Kath), and Ethan Slater (Ben).
When young Ben and his father Henry move to a geological research outpost in rural Alaska, the only other person for hundreds of miles is a fellow researcher named Kath. Ben uses his imagination to cope with his new surroundings, but as he learns more about the circumstances that brought him into isolation, the line between lie and reality begins to blur.
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Amas Musical Theatre will present NYC developmental readings of Samantha Caps & Annie Dillon’s Show Me Eternity directed by Daniella Caggiano, with music direction by Shane Dittmar. All presentations will take place at Ripley-Grier Studios – Room 210 (305 West 38th St.) here.
Mon. June 24 at 6 PM
Tues. June 25 at 1 PM
Tues. June 25 at 5 PM
Mia Angelique, Anne Elizabeth Miele, Ray Elizabeth Wilson, Isabel Gray, Rachael Chau, Chokwe Bennett, Milo Longenecker, and Aliza Ciara.
A new musical about everlasting erasure of queer identity, Show Me Eternity tells the long-hidden love story of Emily Dickinson and Sue Gilbert. With an ethereal folk-pop score and bewitching poetry, the show explores Emily’s legacy and the intimate conflict surrounding the publishing of her work.
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The world premiere of Greer DuBois’ The Year Without a Summer will run June 28 – July 21 at North Hollywood’s Loft Ensemble, directed by Maia Luer & Daniel J. Parker. General admission is donate what you want.
Lemon Baardsen, Andrea Casamitjana, Isaac Deakyne, Silas Jean-Rox, Kirsten Jones, and Bethany Koulias.
Set in 1816, a band of European misfits hides and collides in an Alpine villa during the eponymous summer-less summer of 1816, with salonnière Matilda Dembowski presiding over the mischief. Through games, stories, and philosophical conversations, and with the help of a ridiculous cast of characters pulled from history and farce, the recently separated Matilda tries to determine her uncertain future.