GRACE NOTES: Thursday, May 23, 2024

 

Today’s Highlights:

  Romeo & Juliet, directed by Jamie Lloyd, featuring Tom Holland (Romeo), Francesca Amewudah-Rivers (Juliet), Freema Agyeman (Nurse), Michael Balogun (Friar), Tomiwa Edun (Capulet), Mia Jerome (Montague), Daniel Quinn-Toye (Paris), Ray Sesay (Tybalt), Nima Taleghani (Benvolio), and Joshua-Alexander Williams (Mercutio), with Harriet Bunton, Nathaniel Christian, Shardé Neikaiya, and Philip Olagoke, opens at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre.

  Molly Sweeney, by Brian Friel, directed by Charlotte Moore, featuring Rufus Collins (Mr. Rice), John Keating (Frank Sweeney), and Sarah Street (Molly Sweeney), opens at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.

  The Explorers Club, by Nell Benjamin, directed by Melanie MacQueen, featuring David Hunt Stafford, Matt Landig, Christopher Franciosa, John Combs, Meghan Lewis, Hovannes John Babakhanyan, Kevin Dulude, Daniel Leslie, and Michael Mullen, opens at LA’s Theatre Forty.

  Gatsby, world permiere by Florence Welch, Thomas Bartlett & Martyna Majok, directed by Rachel Chavkin, featuring Isaac Powell (Gatsby), Charlotte MacInnes (Daisy), Ben Levi Ross (Nick), Cory Jeacoma (Tom), Eleri Ward (Jordan), Solea Pfeiffer (Myrtle), Matthew Amira (Wilson), Adam Grupper (Wolfsheim), and Sam Simahk (standby for Gatsby), with Nick Bailey, Kailey Boyle, Runako Campbell, Jada Clark, Joshua Grosso, Alex Haquia, Gabriel Hyman, Matt Kizer, Lorenzo Pagano, Chris Ralph, Christopher M. Ramirez, Shea Renne, Aliza Russell, Shota Sekiguchi, Maya Sistruck, Cameron Burke, Jacob Burns, Mia DeWeese,  Paige Krumbach, and Justin Gregory Lopez, begins previews at Cambridge’s A.R.T.

  Assisted invitation-only reading, by Adam Chanler-Berat & Julian Hornik, directed by Annie Tippe, featuring  Peter Friedman, Mary Beth Peil, Barbara Walsh, Tina Fabrique, Keilly McQuail, Stephen Bogardus, and Samantha Williams, in NYC (time & location not reported). Richard is a playwright embarking on a docu-theatre project set in the memory care unit of an assisted living facility. As Richard’s work progresses, he grows closer to his interview subjects, and faces destabilizing truths about himself and the facility.

  Open Door Playhouse’s Mothers and Other Strangers fpodcast, by F.J. Hartland, directed by Miranda Stewart, featuring Carol Goldman, Noelle Evangelisti, and Omari Williams, begins streaming for free here.

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  Red Bull Theater‘s The Running of the Red Bulls 20th Anniversary Gala will take place Mon. June 3 at NYC’s Bowery Hotel, directed by Marc Vietor, and hosted by Patrick Page.

  Alfred Molina and K. Ann McDonald

  Michael Cerveris, Robert Cuccioli, Paige Davis, Stephen DeRosa, Tovah Feldshuh, Zainab Jah, Mark Linn-Baker, Ismenia Mendes, Miriam Silverman, Julie Taymor, Mary Testa, John Douglas Thompson, Marc Vietor, and more TBA.

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  Barnum will run July 2 – Sept. 8 at the UK’s Watermill Theatre, directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, with choreography by Oti Mabuse.

  Matt Rawle (P.T. Barnum) Monique Young (Charity Barnam), Penny Ashmore (Jenny Lind), Fergus Rattigan (General Tom Thumb, Tania Mathurin (Joice Heth), Josh Barnett (James Bailey), and Tom Sterling (Edgar Templeton), with Emma Jane Morton, Tom Sowinski, Jessica Jolleys, Charis Alexandra, and Elena Bluck, plus onstage swings Kaine Hatukai and Laura Sillett, and circus performers Kiera Brunton, Emily Odunsi, Dan Holland, and Andre Rodrigues.

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  City Center Encores! Titantic will run July 11-23 , directed by Anne Kauffman, with choreography by Danny Mefford, and music direction by Rob Berman.

  (with some cast changes):Ashley Blanchard (Kate Mullins), Adam Chanler-Berat (First Officer Murdoch), Chuck Cooper (Captain E.U. Smith), Eddie Cooper (Henry Etches), Lilli Cooper (Kate Murphey), Andrew Durand (Jim Farrell), Drew Gehling (Edgar Beane), Alex Joseph Grayson (Harold Bride), Ramin Karimloo (Frederick Barrett), Emilie Kouatchou (Caroline Neville), Judy Kuhn (Ida Straus), Jose Llana (Thomas Andrews), Bonnie Milligan (Alice Beane), Ari Notartomaso (Bellboy) Nathan Salstone (Frederick Fleet), (A.J. Shively (Charles Clarke), Brandon Uranowitz (J. Bruce Ismay), Samantha Williams (Kage McGowan), and Chip Zien (Isador Straus), with Colin Anderson, Daniel Beeman, Brandon Contreras, Ali Ewoldt, Leslie Donna Flesner, Evan Harrington, Leah Horowitz, Amy Justman,  Michael Maliakel, Timothy McDevitt, Grace Morgan, Kent Overshown, Lindsay Roberts, Matthew Scott, and Daniel Torres.

  Video: The orchestra in rehearsal.

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  The cast album of The Outsiders, by Adam Rapp, Justin Levine, Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance, has been released on most platforms.

  Brody Grant (Ponyboy), Brent Comer (Darrel), Jason Schmidt (Sodapop), Sky Lakota-Lynch (Johnny), Joshua Boone (Dallas Winston), Emma Pittman (Cherry Valance), Kevin William Paul (Bob Sheldon), and Dan Berry (Paul Holden), with Jordan Chin, Milena J. Comeau, Barton Cowperthwaite, Tilly Evans-Krueger, Henry Gendron, RJ Higton, Wonza Johnson, Sean Harrison Jones, Maggie Kuntz, Renni Anthony Magee, SarahGrace Mariani, Melody Rose, Josh Strobl, Victor Carrillo Tracey, and Trevor Wayn.

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  Private Parts, a collection of personal true stories, will run May 31 – June 2 at Theatre West, directed by Laura James.

 David Baer, Apurv Khanna (A.K.), Mimi Kmet, Christopher Landis, Pamela Najera, Alexandria Sanders, Rick Simone-Friedland, Megan Smith, and Monika Vidakovic.

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  Nine will run Aug. 2-11 at DC’s Kennedy Center, directed & choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler, with music direction by Lily Ling.

  Steven Pasquale ( Guido Contini), Shereen Ahmed (Claudia), Carolee Carmello (Liliane La Fleur), Sasha Hutchins (Our Lady of the Spa), Lesli Margherita (Saraghina), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Guido’s Mother), Jen Sese (Stephanie Necrophorus), Elisabeth Stanley (Luisa Contini, Michelle Veintimilla (Carla Albanese), and more TBA.

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  Video: “My Days,” from Broadway’s The Notebook Musical, featuring Joy Woods.

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  The upcoming auction from the estate of Stephen Sondheim, featuring more than 450 lots, will take place, has been updated, to offer a much better look at what will be up for bidding on  June 18.  Click here to view the the entire collection.

  The vast majority of the collection is household items, including including a large collection of antique games he had collected.

  There are several mementos from his incredible career, including several collections of show posters (including one with a rare window card from a Parisian production of West Side Story), a mirror gifted to Sondheim to commemorate the London premiere of Follies, two caricatures of the Broadway writer from the pen of Clive Francis (one featuring Elaine Stritch), Sondheim’s collection of books on Sunday in the Park With George subject Georges Seurat, his personal score to Gypsy (plus a copy of the published edition inscribed by composer Jule Styne), a group of rhyming dictionaries and thesauruses (notably and sadly sans Clement Wood’s The Complete Rhyming Dictionary, reportedly his favorite), figurines of the logo caricatures used for the original production of Sweeney Todd, a Sondheim-created bespoke game in which players produce Broadway shows, and lots, lots more.

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  Zoe Sarnak & Rachel Bond’s The Lonely Few has been extended through June 9 at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater, directed by Trip Cullman & Ellenore Scott.

Damon Daunno, Taylor Iman Jones, Peter Mark Kendall, Lauren Patten, Helen J. Shen, and Thomas Silcott, with Billy Cohen, Christine Dwyer, with DeWitt Fleming Jr, Taloria Merricks, and Rose Van Dyne.

  A queer love story between two musicians: Lila and Amy. Lila has a band called the Lonely Few, who have a standing gig at Paul’s Juke Joint in Kentucky. Sparks fly when an established musician, Amy, gives the Lonely Few a chance to join her on tour.

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  Little Shop of Horrors will run June 28 – Aug. 18 at Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater, directed & choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

  China Brickey (Audrey), Will Roland (Seymour), David Darrow (Orin Scrivello), Gabrielle Dominique (Crystal), Robert Dorman (Mushnik), Erica Durhan (Chiffon), T. Mychael Rambo (Voice of Audrey II), and Vie Boheme Ronnette), with Time Brickey, Yvonne Freese, Koko, Laureano, and Joey Miller.

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   Broadway and Vine’s 2024 Concert Series will run July 9 – Oct. 13 in Nappa Valley.  Click here for details.

  Ariana DeBose (July 9-10 at 7:30 PM)

  Darren Chris (July 25 at 7:30 PM)

  Aaron Lazar (Aug. 28 at 7 PM

  Shoshanna Bean (Sept. 23 at 6:30 PM)

 Alan Cumming (Oct. 13 at 5 PM)

 


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