Today’s Highlights:
The Father and the Assassin, by Anupama Chandrasekhar, directed by Indhu Rubasingham, featuring Sagar Arya, Ayesha Dharker, Shubham Saraf, and Peter Singh, opens at London’s Olivier Theatre.
Belfast Girls, by Jaki McCarrick, directed by Nicola Murphy, featuring Labhaoise Magee (Ellen Clarke), Aida Leventaki (Molly Durcan), Mary Mallen (Hannah Gibney), Caroline Strange (Judith Noone), and Sarah Street (Sarah Jane Wylie), opens at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
Queen, by Madhuri Shekar, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar, featuring Ben Livingston, Keshav Moodliar, Stephanie Janssen, and Avanthika Srinivasan, opens at New Haven’s Long Warf Theatre.
Between Two Knees, by The 1491s sketch comedy group, directed by Eric Ting, featuring Edward Chin-Lyn, Rachel Crowl, Derek Garza, Justin Gauthier, Shyla Lefner, Wotko Long, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, and Sheila Tousey, opens at Yale Rep.
White Rose The Musical – We Will Not Be Silent benefit concert presentation, by Brian Belding & Natalie Brice, directed by Will Nunziata, featuring Mauricio Martinez, Wren Rivera, Nic Rouleau, Chad Burris, Troy Iwata, and Nathan Salsone, at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Green Room.
An Intimate Evening with Carol Connors concert, at 7 PT at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.
Porchlight Revisits Passing Strange, directed by Donterrio, featuring Michael Maurice Ashford (Explorer), Jos N Banks (Creator), Reneisha J Jenkins (Mother), MJ Rawls (Rebel), Nolan Robinson (Youth), Byron Willis (Narrator), and Jasmine Lacy Young (Lover), streams at 1:30 & 7:00 PM CT at Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre.
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Reviews for Passion at the UK’s Hope Mill Theatre, starring Ruthie Henshall:
The Guardian (Mark Fisher): …When an all-male chorus of soldiers strike up under the musical direction of Yshani Perinpanayagam, the force of their singing is thrilling. Yes, it seems eccentric of director Michael Strassen to play the opening scene so far forward only the front row can see it, but in those moments when the performers sing directly out to the audience, they make a special connection… Giorgio’s fractious relationship with Fosca is ultimately more rewarding than his carefree affair with the married Clara. That is a sophisticated idea for a Broadway show, but in making the point, it pushes Fosca to hysterical extremes and makes Clara seem shallow. Caught in the middle, Giorgio can do no wrong.
London Theatre 1 (Chris Omaweng): …Passion isn’t quite as wordy as some of his [Sondheim’s] other shows. And it isn’t any old love triangle – Giorgio, an army captain (Dean John-Wilson) is in love with Clara (Kelly Price). But there’s Fosca (Ruthie Henshall), who is in love with Giorgio… Henshall’s Fosca moves around without difficulty, so I can only assume it’s a psychological rather than a physical issue… Persistence pays, at least for Fosca, and Henshall does well to portray such a dislikeable and barely sympathetic character with poise and persuasion… I wasn’t entirely convinced the interval was strictly necessary… Passion doesn’t try to be anything other than a story about the power of love…
The Stage (Francesca Peschier): …Michael Strassen’s production maintains the melodrama of the original… The production values are high and cast stellar. Dean John-Wilson is pure matinee-idol goodness…Henshall is as good as you would expect from an artist of her calibre, and there is serious talent in the all-male soldier chorus. Danny Whitehead’s subtle vulnerability and Juan Jackson’s swaggering turn as Count Ludovic are highlights… Yet, despite this and Strassen’s well-paced and fluid direction, the emotion is overwrought and the characters without complexity… However, it is difficult to sustain empathy for anyone over two hours when James Lapine’s book doesn’t create any space for introspection.
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Reviews for Roundabout’s Exception to the Rule at Off-Broadway’s Steinberg Center:
NY Times (Naveen Kumar): …As for the show’s conceit, the playwright, Dave Harris, borrows from both “Waiting for Godot” and John Hughes’s classic portrait of detained and misunderstood youth, “The Breakfast Club.” It’s doubtful that the students’ savior will ever come, and discovering what they’re in for, and what that says about their stations in life, propels the story forward. Throw in a few romantic sparks between opposites, and it’s all a bit too familiar. But what appears at first like a mundane exercise in remedial discipline sours into something more sinister…. Under the direction of Miranda Haymon, the performances have an exaggerated quality that keeps the characters at a distance…
Theatermania (Kenji Fujishima): …what an invigoratingly confrontational and uncompromising debut it turned out to be! If Harris’s newer play slightly disappoints those who saw Tambo & Bones, that’s because matching a work as incendiary and inflammatory as that one is a tall order. But rest assured, Exception to the Rule provokes plenty… the excellent ensemble… all of them much more volatile in nature, all of them operating with a kind of fearful yet resigned acceptance of being trapped in a cycle of misbehavior and punishment… That vicious cycle gives Exception to the Rule its heft as an allegory… the play is well-served by its production…
New York Theatre Guide (Juan Michael Porter II): …provocative playwright Dave Harris takes audiences into the broken carceral system that exists within predominantly Black high schools across the nation. The only problem…is that it gilds the lily by presenting the action as if it were a thriller, when the play is actually documentary theatre… Harris’s point is that in Black-majority K-12 education, detention often approximates prison… Miranda Haymon directs Exception’s many explosive, schadenfreude-inducing, and hilarious moments with a clear hand… However, she falters with the play’s quieter moments, resulting in a yo-yo between saggy inertia and manic highs.
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Anthony McCarten’s A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical will begin previews Nov. 2 and open Dec. 4 at The Broadhurst Theatre, directed by Michael Mayer, with choreography by Steven Hoggett.
The pre-Broadway engagement will run June 21 – July 31 at the Emerson Colonial Theatre.
Will Swenson (Neil Diamond), Marc Jacoby, Robyn Hurder, Llinda Powell, and more TBA.
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Gingold Theatrical Group has announced its Speakers Corner 22 – New Play Labs, offering a new play development workshop (with AEA-approved Showcases of this year’s Speaker’s Corner Writers Group), to run May 19 – June 6.
Space for each final presentation is extremely limited and reservations must be made, so to request the opportunity to attend any of these events please email info@gingoldgroup.org.
This year, the works will be in response to prompts from the revolutionary activist humanitarian writings and precepts of George Bernard Shaw.
Howl From Up High (May 19 at 6 PM ET), by Mallory Jane Weis, directed by Lily Riopelle, featuring Purva Bedi, Tori Ernst, Jacqueline Guillen, Sarah Rose Kearns, Adam Langdon, and Collin McConnell.
Vigil-Aunties (May 20 at 7 PM ET), by Divya Mangwani, directed by Arpita Mukherjee, featuring Anya Banerji, Aadya Bedi, Sayali Niranjan Bramhe, Rahoul Roy, Mahima Saigal, Salma Shaw, and Rita Wolf.
There Goes the Neighborhood (June 3 at 7 PM ET), by Marcus Scott, directed by Dev Bondarin, featuring Phillip Burke, Savanna Calder, Anthony Godd, Ashley Jossell, Olivia Kinter, Monique Robinson, David Rowen, and Cliff Sellers.
Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte (June 6 at 2 PM ET), by Aeneas Hemphill, directed by Arpita Mukherjee, featuring Shawn Jain, Sean Devare, Salma Shaw, Khyati Sehgal, Mahima Saigal.
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Complete casting has been announced for the world premiere of Lessons in Survival: 1971, co-conceived by Marin Ireland, Peter Mark Kendall, Tyler Thomas, Reggie D. White, and created with The Commissary, to run May 26 – June 30 (opening June 9) at the Vineyard Theatre, directed by Tyler Thomas.
Carl Clemons-Hopkins (James Baldwin) and Crystal Dickinson (Nikki Giovanni).
In 1971, 28-year-old poet Nikki Giovanni interviewed renowned novelist James Baldwin, 47, on America’s first “Black Tonight Show,” SOUL! Fifty years later, Lessons in Survival: 1971 reintroduces their candid, provocative dialogue on race and liberation in America to our present moment.”
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Due to breakthrough cases of COVID-19, Titanic The Musical has canceled performances of the remaining 2 weeks of its run at Milwaukee Rep. However, the production will be remounted at some time during the theater’s 2022-23 season.
Directed by Mark Clements, the cast featured Emma Rose Brooks (Kate McGowan), Lillian Castillo (Alice), Matt Daniels (Pitman/Etches), Kelly Faulkner (Caroline), Nathaniel Hackman (Barrett), Evan Harrinton (Murdoch), Jeremy Landon Hays (Andrews), David Hess (Captain smith), Carrie Hitchcock (Ida Straus), Philip Hoffman (Isador Straus), Brian Krinsky (Jim Farrell), Steve Pacek (Bride), Tim Quartier (Charles), Julio Rey (Fleet), Rána Roman, Andrew Varela (Ismay), and Steve Watts (Edgar), with Jamey Feshold, Jared Brandt Hoover, Kyle Johnson, George Lorimer, Kelty Morash, Sophie Murk, Max Pink, Ogunde Snelling Jr., Vivian Vaeth, Paxton Haley, Zoah Hirano, James LaRoque, and Lainey Techtmann
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A private NYC industry reading of Ben Andron, John McDaniel, Jonnie Rockwell & Bill Russell’s Brave New World: The Musical will take place May 23, directed by Karen Carpenter.
Joshua Henry, Solea Pfeiffer, Ephraim Sykes, Mary Testa, and Mike Wartella, with Corey Brunish, Emma Degerstedt, Gabriel Sidney Brown, Gary Cooper, Tim Fraser, Sofia Khwaja, Kate Marilly, Ashley Matthews, Cal Mitchell, Anthony Sagaria, Deanne Stewart, Michael Wordly, and Claudia Yanez.
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Todd Kreidler’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner will run June 3 – July 17 at Santa Monica’s Ruskin Group Theatre, directed by Lita Gaithers Owens.
Paul Denk (Monsignor Ryan), Lee Garlington (Christina Drayton), Brad Greenquist (Matt Drayton), Dan Martin (John Prentice Sr.), Mary Pumper (Joanna Drayton), Vickilyn Reynolds (Matilda Binks), Mouchette van Heldsingen (Hilary St. George), Vincent Washington (Dr. John Prentice), and Renn Woods (Mary Prentice.
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The original studio cast recording of Danny Abosch & John Maclay’s “Goosebumps The Musical: Phantom of the Auditorium” will be released June 24 on CD here.
Krystina Alabado, Alex Brightman, Noah Galvin, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Will Roland, Stephanie Styles, and R.L. Stine, with Arianny Escalona, Alex Gibson, AJ Lewis, Armenia Sarkissian, Shuba Vedula, and Aika Zabala.
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Video: First look at Mr. Saturday Night cast recording, which will be released June 10.
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An industry reading of Aaron Morrill’s Food Fighters will take place Thurs. May 26 at 12 PM ET at Off-Broadway’s Jerry Orbach Theater, directed by Joe Barros.
Jimmy Nicholas, Miguel Angel Vasquez, Daniel Stewart Sherman, Tamara Torres, Darian Peer, Alli Ryan Motley, John F. Higgins, Alysha Deslorieux, Jill Abramovitz, and Sarah-Anne Martinez.
The musical concerns a young Asian woman with a start-up food business, a Colombian journalist who works in a natural food store, an overbearing mother, a ruthless competitor, a predatory store manager, a narcissistic investment banker, a tough-talking but big-hearted Dominican lesbian, and a self-mythologizing CEO.
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Casting Aspersions, written & performed by Jeffery Passero, will run May 21-22 at Venice, CA’s Pacific Resident Theatre, directed by Elizabeth Hayden.
Mr. Passero is a prominent casting director and the show’s conceit is that he’s looking back at his career on his last day in the profession as he cleans up his cluttered office.
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The 2022 Theatre World Awards ceremony will take place Mon. June 6 at 7 PM at NYC’s Circle in the Square, hosted by Peter Filichia.
for the Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater
* Michael Oberholtzer (Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater)
* Harvey Fierstein (John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre)
for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance during the 2021-2022 theatrical season:
Patrick J. Adams, Take Me Out
Yair Ben-Dor, Prayer for the French Republic
Kearstin Piper Brown, Intimate Apparel
Sharon D. Clarke, Caroline, Or Change
Enrico Colantoni, Birthday Candles
Justin Cooley, Kimberly Akimbo
Crystal Finn, Birthday Candles
Gaby French, Hangmen
Myles Frost, MJ The Musical
Jaquel Spivey, A Strange Loop
Shannon Tyo, The Chinese Lady
Kara Young, Clyde’s
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An industry-only reading of Janine Turner & Raina Murnak’s BELVA – Don’t Give Up Before the Miracle will take place Fri. June 10 at NYC’s Pearl Studios, directed by Karen Carpenter, with music direction by Lance Horne.
Casting has not been announced.
A true story. Belva was more than a suffragette and a fighter for justice. After fighting for the right for five years, Belva became the first woman to be admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court, winning the landmark Trail of Tears reparations case. Belva Lockwood was the first woman to run for President, actually on the ballot, winning thousands of votes — in an era when women couldn’t even vote! The musical, however, is more than a story about accomplishments, it is a love story between Belva and her daughter, Lura.
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. Rogue Machine Theatre presents the world premiere of Tim Venable’s The Beautiful People, to run June 11 – July 25 at the Matrix Theatre, directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos.
Alexander Neher and Justin Preston.
It’s the late ’90’s and you’re hanging out in the basement of an average home, somewhere in suburban America, with two teenagers as they stay up on a school night; chugging soda, watching MTV and preparing for the future. As the morning approaches, their seemingly innocent sleepover reveals another purpose…what are they doing down here?