Today’s Highlights:
Shadow/land, world premiere by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, directed by Candis C. Jones, featuring Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Lynnette R. Freeman, Perri Gaffney, Lizan Mitchell, Christine Shepherd, and Joy-Marie Thompson, opens at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
the ripple, the wave that carried me home, by Christina Anderson, directed by Tamilla Woodard, featuring Jennean Farmer, Marcus Henderson, Chalia La Tour, and Adrienne S. Wells, opens at Yale Rep.
The Scottsboro Boys, directed by Brandon Jackson, featuring Michael Patrick Gaffney (Interlocutor), Jaiden Griffin (Eugene), Albert Hodge (Mr. Bones), Elizabeth Jones (The Lady), Kahlil Leneus (Andy), Miles Meckling (Willie), Royal Mickens (Leroy), Marcus Pagie (Haywood), Jon-David Randle (Charlie), Anthony Rollins-Mullens (Mr. Tambo), Mercury Van Sciver (Olien), Dedrick Weathersby (Clarence), and Alegandro Eustaquio (Ozzie), opens at San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon.
Roundabout Theatre Company‘s Primary Trust, world premiere by Eboni Booth, directed by Knud Adams, featuring Jackson Harper, April Matthis, Eric Berryman, and Jay O. Sanders, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Laura Pels Theatre.
Bees & Honey, by Guadalís del Carmen, directed by Melissa Crespo, featuring Maribel Martinez (Johaira) and Xavier Pacheco (Manuel), begins previews at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theatre.
Ebony Rep‘s Ain’t Misbehavin’, directed by Wren T. Brown, featuring Yvette Cason (Nell), Wilkie Ferguson III (Andre), Connie Jackson (Armelia), Marty Austin Lamar (Ken), and Natalie Wachen (Charlayne), begins previews at LA’s Nate Holden PAC.
Langston in Harlem concert, directed by Jerry Dixon, featuring Brenda Braxton, Branden Victor Dixon, Jeremy Collier, Garfield Hammonds, David Jackson, Anastacia McCleskey, Jasmine Overbaugh, Nattalyee Randall, Clyde Voce, and Virginia Woodruff, at 7 PM at NYC’s 54 Below.
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Susan Stroman is now tied With Bob Fosse as the Most Tony-Nominated Choreographer.
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Celebration Theatre‘s A New Brain, by William Finn & James Lapine, continues through June 24 at LA’s LGBT Center, directed by Khanisha Foster
Amanda Kruger (Gordon Schwinn), Yassi Noubahar (Roger Delli-Bovi), Gina Torrecilla (Mimi Schwinn), Sadé Ayodele (Rhoda), Richardson Cisneros-Jones (Mr. Bungee), Whitney Avalon (Lisa), Jason Ryan (The Minister), Mitchell Johnson (Dr. Jafar Berensteiner), Gabi Van Horn (Nurse Nancy/Waitress), and Ryan O’Connor (Nurse Richard), with Hannah Crews, Tal Fox, Emily King Brown, Laura Obiorah, Jason Ryan, Sal Sabella, and Mitchell Johnson.
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Judy on TV!: Celebrating “The Judy Garland Show” ,written & directed by Dick Scanlan, with music direction by Billy Stritch, will run May 6-8 at NYC’s 92Y.
Aisha de Haas, Gabrielle Stravelli, Alysha Umphress, and Max Von Essen.
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Video: In rehearsal for Spamalot at the Kennedy Center, featuring James Monroe Iglehart, Leslie Kritzer, Rob McClure, Michael Urie, Matthew Saldivar and more…
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RIP: Director Adam Brace has passed away at the age of 43 following a short illness. He will posthumously make his Broadway debut this summer, having directed Alex Edelman’s Just For Us, which will begin performances June 22 at the Hudson Theatre.
Adam was a dedicated director, playwright, dramaturg, educator script editor, and writer, across multiple artistic disciplines: namely comedy and theatre.
He wrote several plays throughout his lifetime, his first being Stovepipe, which transferred to London for an eight week-long engagement in collaboration with the National Theatre. Some of his other plays include Midnight Your Time, Electric Things, and A Real Humane Person Who Cares and All That. Mr. Brace’s first script for film, “Best,” won the Short Film Contest at London’s Sundance Film Festival 2013.
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A concert reading of Tatiana Pandiana, Melis Aker & Jacinta Clusellas’ AZUL: A Bilingual Musical will take place Wed. May 24 at 9:30 PM at Off-Broadway’s Joe’s Pub, directed by Florencia Cuenca.
Katerina McCrimmon, Robi Hager, Ana Villafañe, Joel Perez, Martín Solá, Henry Gainza, and Florencia Cuenca.
The musical weaves together two distinct realms to question the place of art in a capitalist society. Bluebird, a hungry and idealist poet, seeks a better life in a new land, and in a mundane post-9/11 and present-day Jackson Heights, Rita, a composer, struggles to forgive her father, understand her roots, and reconnect to a land she has never known.
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The Who’s Tommy, re-imagined by Pete Townhend & Des McAnuff, will run June 13 – July 23 (opening June 26), at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, directed by McAnuff, with choreography by Lorin Latarro, and music supervision by Ron Melrose.
Ali Louis Bourzgui (Tommy), Adam Jacobs (Captain Walker), Alison Luff Mrs. Walker), John Ambrosino (Uncle Ernie), Bobby Conte (Cousin Kevin), and Christina Sajous (Acid Queen), with Jeremiah Alsop, Stephen Brower, Haley Gustafson, Sheldon Henry, Aliah James, Gabriel Kearns, Tassy Kirbas Lily Kren, Nathan Lucrezio, Alexandra Matteo, Morgan McGhee, Mark Mitrano, Reagan Pender, Daniel Quadrino, Jenna Nicole Schoen, Zach Sorrow, Ayana Strutz, and Andrew Tufano. The role of Young Tommy will be in rotation with Ava Rose Doty, Presley Rose Jones, Annabel Finch, and Ezekiel Ruiz.
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Director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell will receive the 2023 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award at this year’s Tony Awards ceremony for his work on behalf of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
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Joel Grey and John Kander will both receive 2023 Special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
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RIP: Barbara Bryne, British-born Shakespeare and Sondheim favorite, passed away May 2 at the age of 94.
Ms. Bryne trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts before emigrating to Canada in the early 1960s. Once in North America, she became a regular fixture of Ontario’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival and at Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Guthrie Theater, performing in a wide range of Shakespearean productions, including starring roles in King Lear, Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and more. On Broadway, however, she became a Sondheim favorite, originating two maternal roles: George’s mother in Sunday in the Park with George, and Jack’s Mother in Into The Woods. On the regional circuit, she completed the Sondheim Maternal triple crown, playing Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music at the Kennedy Center in 2002. Ms. Bryne retired from public performance, with her final Broadway appearance being in the most recent revival of Noël Coward comedy Hay Fever, opposite Rosemary Harris.
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The world premiere of Madeline Myers’ Double Helix will run May 20 – June 18 (opening June 3) at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater, directed by Scott Schwartz, with choreography by Addy Chan, and music direction by Patrick Sulken.
Samantha Massell (Rosalind Franklin), Anthony Chatmon II (Maurice Wilkins), Matthew Christian (Jacques Mering), Max Chulmecky (James Watson), Anthony Joseph Costello (Raymond Gosling), Amy Justman (Adrienne Weill), Austin Ku (Francis Crick), Thom Sesma (John Randal), and Tuck Sweeney (William Bates), with Kate Fitzgerald and Ethan Yaheen-Moy Chan.
The true story of the race to discover the true story of the race to discover the structure of DNA in the 1950s and follows the brilliant young researcher, Rosalind Franklin, as she contends with adversity, anti-semitism, and love to uncover one of life’s great mysteries. The musical also features the real-life scientists James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins whose similar pursuit of scientific greatness weaves their stories throughout Rosalind’s passionate and at times heartbreaking journey. As Rosalind Franklin struggles to sacrifice what makes her human in order to discover what makes us human, the play asks: what is life, and what does it mean to truly live?
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Ray Didinger’s Tommy and Me will run May 19 – June 17 at PA’s Bucks County Playhouse, directed by Nick Corley.
Gordon Clapp, William Bednar, Jacob Beser, and Matthew Lamb, with Bruce Sabath and John Brodsky.
Magical things can happen when a boy meets his sports idol. Legendary Sports journalist Ray Didinger’s lifelong relationship with famously tough, Philadelphia Eagles star wide receiver, Tommy McDonald, led both down an unexpected path — straight to Canton, OH and the National Football League’s Hall of Fame.
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RIP: Multi-Tony and Grammy winner Don Sebesky has passed away after an extended struggle with post-stroke Parkinsonism. He was 85.
Mr. Sebesky was a legend in the music arena. Originally a jazz trombonist and keyboardist, he trained at the Manhattan School of Music and played with the jazz and swing legends Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill, Tommy Dorsey, Warren Covington, Maynard Ferguson and Stan Kenton. His work as a sideman to Kenton resulted in three successful albums for Capitol Records in 1959: Viva Kenton!, Standards in Silhouette, and Road Show.
As a bandleader, he released 13 albums, including 1991’s “Symphonic Sondheim.” On stage, he was a prolific orchestrator, working on the Broadway productions of Peg, Prince of Central Park, Tommy Tune Tonite!, The Boys Choir of Harlem and Friends, Cyrano – The Musical, The Life, Parade, Kiss Me, Kate, Minnelli on Minnelli, Bells Are Ringing, The Boys From Syracuse, Flower Drum Song, The Look of Love, Sweet Charity, Liza’s at the Palace, Pal Joey, Come Fly Away, Baby It’s You!, Honeymoon in Vegas, and An American in Paris. His original orchestrations for Parade can be heard in the currently running Broadway revival.