Today’s Highlights:
* Uncle Vanya benefit reading, adapted by Neil LaBute, directed by Danya Taymor, narrated by Gabriel Ebert, and featuring Alan Cumming, Samira Wiley, Constance Wu, Ellen Burstyn, Manik Choksi, K. Todd Freeman, Mia Katigbak, and Anson Mount, streams at 8 PM ET. Pay-what-you-can -tickets at Today Tix.
* National Black Theatre’s Retreat virtual reading, by Tracey Conyer Lee, directed by Zhailon Levingston, featuring Brittany Bellizeare, Patricia R. Floyd, Jennifer Fouché, Kevin R. Free, Russell G. Jones, Lee, Erick Lockley, and Art McFalrand, begins streaming here (and available through Nov. 22).
*Harvey Granat’s “Rodgers & Hart” online class, with special guests Jamie DeRoy, Steve Ross, and Barry Kleinbort, streams at 12 PM ET at NYC’s 92Y.
* Scenes from Sweet Lorraine The Play, by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj & Adam Mace, featuring LeKae (Lorraine Hansberry) and Daniel J. Watts (James Baldwin), streams for FREE at 7 PM ET here, in support of World Cancer Day.
The special performance streams free above and on Playbill’s YouTube at 7 PM ET in honor of World Pancreatic Cancer Day and is available to watch through November 22. Donations are encouraged to support SU2C and the Equity in the Arts and Culture Committee of the Brooklyn NAACP. A limited-capacity discussion with the cast, directors and creative team follows at 8 PM. Donations and tickets for the talkback are available via Eventbrite.
* “Cast of Mentors,” by Ken Davenport, offering interviews with Lynn Ahrens, Michael Arden, Ben Brantley, Stephen C. Byrd, Ted Chapin, Kirsten Childs, Rick Elice, Sue Frost & Randy Adams, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Michael Greif, Mandy Gonzalez, Robyn Goodman, David Henry Hwang, Joe Iconis, Mara Isaacs, Jamil Jude, Lisa Kron, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Nine Lannan. Kenny Leon, Robert Lopez, Joe Mantello, Kathleen Marshall, Pam McKinnon, Terrence McNally, Lynne Meadow, Stacey Mindich, Rick Miramontez, Dominique Morisseau, Casey Nicholaw, Pasek & Paul, Diane Paulus, Eva Price, Tim Rice, Daryl Roth, Jordan Roth, Tara Rubin, Stephen Schwartz, Bartlett Sher, Leigh Silverman, Charlotte St. Martin, David Stone, Ali Stroker, Susan Stroman, Rebecca Taichman, Paul Tazewell, Jeanine Tesori, Sergio Trujillo, and John Weidman, released in hardcopy here.
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Nominations have been announced for The Audelco’s 2020 VIV Awards, celebrating the best of Black non-profit theatre during the 2019-20 season. Winners will be announced Mon. Nov. 30 at 7 PM ET here.
Click here for the complete list of nominees.
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The Last Five Years (filmed production at Southwark Playhouse), will be available Nov. 26-29 on Broadway On Demand, starring Molly Lynch and Oli Higginson.
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Red Bull Theater‘s reading of Ana Caro’s The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs continues through Fri. Nov. 20 at 7 PM ET, directed by Melia Bensussen.
Anita Castillo-Halvorssen, Helen Cespedes, Natasica Diaz, Carson Elrod, Anthony Michael Martinez, Sam Morales, Alfredo Narciso, Ryan Quinn, Luis Quintero, and Matthew Saldivar.
A comedy of wild intrigue and lively ingenuity in which Leonor crosses geographical boundaries and defies social expectations of gender in order to bring her fickle lover to justice and restore her lost honor.
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Audio: “The Fabulous Invalid” has launched Season 3, with special guest Vanessa Williams. (50:27)
Conversation topics include the work of Black Theatre United, Vanessa’s Broadway debut in Kiss of the Spiderwoman, her West End debut in City of Angels, the current shut down, her reflections on the work of Stephen Sondheim, and what she hopes to see when live performance returns.
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Off-Broadway’s Public Theater presents its next “Under the Radar Festival” to run Jan. 6-17, 2021:
* A Thousand Ways (Part One: A Phone Call (Dec. 21 – Jan. 7, 2021), written & created by Abigail Browde & Michael Silverstone. Pick up the phone. Someone is on the line. You don’t know their name, and you still won’t when the hour is over, but through this exchange — as you follow a thread of automated prompts — a portrait of your partner will emerge through fleeting moments of exposure.
* Capsule (Jan. 6-17), by Whitney White & Peter Mark Kendall, directed by Taibi Magar & Tyler Dobrowsky. A Kaleidoscopic reflection on isolation and longing, about the breaking apart and breaking free and the impossible nature of connection.
* Espiritu (Jan. 6-17), by Teatro Anónimo, directed by Trinidad González. A journey through the diverse stories that happen during the night of an unknown city, that involve anonymous individuals marked by the spiritual crisis unleased by the wild consumerism of the times and the exploitation of the neoliberal model in people’s consciousness, through power and the manipulation of their desires. The lack of answers that transcend money and the offer of material possessions will lead these characters to want to find the hidden devil that inhabits the city, and to catch it in a bottle.
* Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (Jan. 7-10 & 14-17), by Javaad Alipoof & Kirsty Housley. The global gap between rich and poor has never been greater. As the world decays, the spawn of the powerful dance like everyone is watching. A darkly comedic, urgent new play about entitlement, consumption and digital technology, that explores the ubiquitous feeling that our societies are falling apart.
* Borders & Crossings (Jan. 7-10), by Inua Ellams. The playwright returns to the theme of migration in his work, exploring his own life experiences and wider global and political questions.
* Disclaimer (Jan 7-11 & 14-17, by Tara Ahmadinejad. On a seemingly perpetual brink of war in Iran, Chef Nargis hosts a cooking class aimed to prevent the unthinkable. Without a clear path, she hopes that some good ole fashioned empathy might do the trick, in the face of the ever palpable doom and destruction.
* the motown project (Jan. 8-17), by Alicia Hall Moran. Musical traditions yearning for each other across race, class, and nation grace this meditation on the Motown songbook.
* Devised Theater Working Group’s INCOMING! (Jan. 6-7), by The Devised Theater Working Group Cohort Members (Savon Bartley, Nile Harris, Miranda Haymon, Eric Lockley, Raelle Myrick-Hodges, Mia Rovegno, Justin Elizabeth Sayre, and Mariana Valencia. The group was challenged to create individual digital expressions for a group compilation.
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Damian’s Pop-Up Panto, written & directed by Paul Hendy, will stream Dec. 16 – Jan. 3 (opening Dec. 18) at the UK’s Crucible Theatre, with music direction by James Harrison, and choreography by Simon Hardwick.
Damian Williams, Joe Tracini, Gemma Sutton, Deborah Tracey, and Lucas Rush.
This hilarious 75-minute extravaganza tells the story of what happens when a baddie attempts to steal the joy of pantomime.
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NYC”s 92Y has announced upcoming programming:
* George Gershwin: Bidin’ My Time (available through Nov. 25), featuring Farah Alvin, Allison Blackwell, James T. Lane, Kara Lindsay, and Zachary Prince. The event offers excerpts of letters and archival interviews with George & Ira Gershwin, Kay Swift, and Oscar Levant.
* Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt: Simple Little Things (available through Dec. 9), featuring Farah Alvin, Brandon Victor Dixon, Katherine Henly, Telly Leung, Zachary Piser, and Mariand Torres.
* Jule Styne and His Many Lyricists: Distant Melody (Dec. 7 – Jan. 6), featuring songs with lyricists Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Leo Robin, Bob Merrill, and Stephen Sondheim.
* The Theme From…:Songs Written for Film (Dec. 14 – Jan. 13, 2021), with performers TBA. A diverse concert of hits like “Moon River” and “The Man That Got Away,” mixed in with other songs from decades of film history, offers a look at the effect of these songs on an audience and how, even in a non-musical film, music is key to unlocking the emotional journey of storytelling.
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LA’s LGBT Center presents its next “The MisMatch Game” on 3 Saturdays — Dec. 5, 12 and 19, all at 8 PM PT, hosted by Dennis Hensley. Casting TBA.
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The Kennedy Center has canceled all previously scheduled program through Apr. 25, 2021, due to the ongoing pandemic. Washington National Opera’s spring productions and much of the late spring and early summer touring theatre programs have also been canceled.
The following 2021 national tour engagements at have also been canceled:
* Jesus Christ Superstar (May 23 – June 13)
* Freestyle Love Supreme (June 8-13)
* Oklahoma! (June 22-27)
* Dear Evan Hansen (June 29 – July 18)
* The Band’s Visit (July 28 – Aug. 8)
During this period, the Center will offer a limited number of in-person performances, as conditions allow, and expand its online offerings with a new platform called Digital Stage+. Stay tuned…
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Video: Paolo Montalban performs “Ten Minutes Ago” (from Cinderella), followed by a conversation with Laura Osnes. (21:21)
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Off-Broadway’s New York City Center’s Encores! staged presentation of Into the Woods will be presented on dates to be announced.
Casting and creative team members TBA.
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“Giving Voice,” which follows several teenage finalists for the 2018 August Wilson Monologues Competition, will premiere Dec. 11 on Netflix.
The film features footage of the late playwright, along with interviews of Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, among others, as they share the impact that Wilson’s artistry has had on their careers and their hopes for the young people carrying it forward.
Since 2007, thousands of students from 12 cities across the United States have performed the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner’s work for a shot to perform on Broadway, mentored by the competition’s co-founders Kenny Leon and Todd Kreidler as well as hundreds of educators. “Giving Voice” captures several 2018 finalists discovering themselves and the world around them through Wilson’s “Century Cycle,” the canon of ten plays (including Fences, Jitney, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) portraying the 20th century African American experience.