Today’s Highlights:
Three Days of Rain virtual production, by Richard Greenberg, directed by Evan Yionoulis, featuring Patricia Clarkson, John Slattery, and Bradley Whitford, begins FREE streaming at Manhattan Theatre Club.
The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus concert, Angels, streams for FREE at 6 PM PT.
“The Show Must Go On” short documentary, by Paul Grant & Nathan Crane Cohen, which commemorates one year since the beginning of the Broadway shutdown, streams for FREE at 8 PM ET here.
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Video: Stars in the House celebrates Broadway for Racial Justice, hosted by Laura Benanti, with special guests Brandon Michael Nase (founder of BFRJ), Cindy Tsai, and Celia Keenan-Bolger. (1:02:36)
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Off-Broadway’s Amas Musical Theatre will celebrate its 52nd anniversary with Amas – You Love!: A Heart to Heart Virtual Celebration on Mon. May 10 at 6 PM ET, written by Jonathan Cerullo and directed by Maria Torres, with music direction by Jaime Lozano. Casting TBA.
Lillias White
The evening will include performances from 4 Amas musicals:
* 4 Guys Named Jose
* una mujer named Maria!
* Distant Thunder MĀYĀ
* Hip Hop Cinderella.
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Walter Tevis’ 1983 novel “The Queens Gambit” is being adapted into a musical, now that the Netflix version has become such a huge hit.
Creative team, timeline, and additional information TBA.
The story centers around a woman who becomes one of the world’s greatest chess players.
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NYC’s Park Avenue Armory will welcome back in-person audiences starting this month, with Bill T. Jones Afterwordsness Mar. 24-31, created by Bill. T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.
With news of the reopening, Park Avenue Armory detailed its various health and safety protocols, which include operating at 10 percent of its normal capacity, mask requirements, physical distancing, electronic ticketing, and on-site rapid testing. Under state guidelines, indoor audiences are not to exceed 100 individuals (150 if theatregoers test negatively prior).
The piece
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The Importance of Being Earnest, adapted & directed by Michael Raver, continues through Mar. 21 at Laguna Playhouse.
Nathan Lee Graham (Lady Bracknell), with Lauren Molina & Nick Cearley as the rest of the characters.
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Apple TV has ordered 8 episodes of the adaptation of Laura Lipman’s “Lady in the Lake.” Timeline and additional information TBA.
Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o.
The limited series takes place in 1960s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Nyong’o), a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs, and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.
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Video: Nicholas Edwards performs “Shiksa Goddess” from The Last Five Years.
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Michael Orland has announced his new Masterclass, with Dan Micciche, which will take place Apr. 11 & 18 at 3 PM ET here. 
$88 (singer) or $35 (audit) here.
The focus of the class includes:
Marrying the vocal stylings of Pop music to Contemporary Music Theatre
A better understanding of the dynamics of auditioning in LA vs NYC
Song/vocal technique, and networking skills.
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Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will write & executive produce an FX pilot based on Octavia E. Butler’s novel “Kindred.” The timeline and additional information are TBA.
The novel is modeled on slave narratives and concerns a young Black writer, Dana, who relocated to Los Angeles, but is pulled back for in time to a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation where she meets her ancestors.
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Les Misérables – The Staged Concert will resume performances May 20 – Sept. 5 at 50% capacity at the Sondheim Theatre. At that time, the Sondheim will close for three weeks in order to remount the full production of the musical.
Jon Robyns (Jean Valjean), Bradley Jaden (Javert), Lucie Jones (Fantine), Shan Ako (Éponine), Harry Apps (Marius), Gerard Carey (Thénardier), and Josefina Gabrielle (Madame Thénardier). Note: Other celebrated Valjeans will play guest performances, with further casting TBA.
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Discovering Broadway is the new non-profit development program created to bring Broadway-bound musicals to the Midwest.
The creative team for The Devil Wears Prada recently traveled to the Carmel, Indiana location. Participants included Kevin McCollum (producer), Nadia DiGiallonardo (music supervisor), James Aslop (choreographer), Anna D. Shapiro (director), and JC Clementz (assistant director).
The musical has a book by Paul Rudnick, music by Elton John, and lyrics by Shaina Taub.
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Movie theaters in Los Angeles are poised to re-open at a limited capacity as soon as this Saturday.
The county has to meet several requirements, such as distributing 2 million vaccine doses to underserved populations and having fewer than 10 new cases a day per 100,000 people. Gov. Gavin Newsom says California should hit the vaccine milestone on Friday. Once the state reaches that threshold, county officials will have to sign off in order for movie theaters to re-open.
Given the quick turnaround, however, it’s unclear which theaters, if any, will be able to re-open this weekend. Privately, some major theater circuits believe their venues won’t open until Mar. 19.
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Hudson Stage Company presents a reading of Brenda Withers’ one-act, The Parrot Trap, to stream Sat. Mar. 20 at 8 PM ET, directed by Dan Foster.
Christopher Fitzgerald, Richard Hollis, and Peggy J. Scott.
A brief look at an eternal problem, the play examines our attachment to privilege and how hard it can be to let go of something that was never really ours.
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It looks like most Broadway national tours will go back on the road this Fall. Stay tuned for specific details…
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Netflix is developing its new 4-episode family series, “Lost Ollie.” The release date is TBA.
Jonathan Groff (Ollie), Mary J. Blige, Tim Blake Nelson, Jake Johnson, Gina Rodriguez, and Kesler Talbot.
The live-action and animation hybrid series is about a lost toy rabbit in search of his boy.
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Rock of Ages: All-Star Reunion Concert will stream Sat. Apr. 24 at 8 PM ET here, directed by Chris D’Arienzo & Kristin Hanggi.
Performers TBA.
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A reading of Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw, in support of The Actors Fund, will stream Thurs. Mar. 18 at 8 PM ET here, directed by Tim Realbuto.
Jennifer Damiano (Becky Shaw), Andy Mientus (Andrew Porter), Sheria Irving (Suzanna Slater), Nick Gaswirth (Max Garrett), and Rema Webb (Susan Slater).
A searing comedy that exposes the dark side of love in a myriad of ways. When an evening calculated to bring happiness takes a dark turn, crisis and comedy ensue in this wickedly funny play that asks what we owe the people we love and the strangers who land on our doorstep.
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The Young Vic’s 2018 production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is now streaming at National Theater at Home, directed by Benedict Andrews.
Sienna Miller (Maggie), Jack O’Connell (Brick), Colm Meaney (Big Daddy), Lisa Palfrey (Big Mama), Hayley Squires (Mae), Brian Gleeson (Gooper), Richard Hansell (Doctor), and Michael J. Shannon (Reverend)..
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Charles Kirsch’s next Broadway Trivia Night will stream Sat. Mar. 20 at 7 PM ET here, in support of Dancers Over 40.
Lee Roy Reams, Ken Kantor, Carolyn Kirsch, Michael Lavine, Lawrence Leritz, Todd Buonopane, Kevin David Thomas, Kevin Winkler, and Michael Colby.
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Video: “Seasons of Love” parody, with pandemic-inspired lyrics, performed by Bre Jackson, Nora Schell, Jennifer Chung, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Anthony Chatmon, Jay Donnell, Perry Young, Laura D’Andre, Charlotte Mary Wen, Phillip Brandon, Ruby Lewis, Keith Harrison Dworkin, Jahmaul Bakare, and Contstantine Maroulis.
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The Actors Fund has announced “Riders of the Purple Stage: The Making of a Western Opera,” directed by Kristin Atwell Ford, which will stream Mar. 25 – Apr. 11 here, to support creative professionals out of work due to the pandemic.
Peter Coyote, Karin Wolverton, Morgan Smith, Laura Wilde, Joshua Dennis, Joshua Jeremiah, Keith Phares, and Kristopher Irmiter.
The film follows a composer as he adapts a 1912 dime novel masterpiece into a modern America opera. Zane Grey’s tale, “Riders of the Purple Sage,” flew off bookshelves around the world. A century later, composer Craig Bohmler dives into Zane Grey’s cabin during a rainstorm and discovers a story with the grand dimensions of opera. What begins as a challenge between a composer and his librettist evolves into a creative posse of artists musicians, and singers sharing a singular vision.