Today’s Highlights:
I Need That, world premiere by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, featuring Danny DeVito, Lucy DeVito. and Ray Anthony Thomas, opens at Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre.
The New Group‘s Sabbath’s Theater, by John Turturro & Ariel Levy, directed by Jo Bonney, featuring John Turturro (Mickey Sabbath), Elizabeth Marvel (Drenka), and Jason Kravits (additional roles), opens at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre.
New Works Free Festival of readings opens at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
Baggage at the Door, created & performed by Dana Aber, directed by Joe Langworth, opens at Off-Broadway’s AMT Theatre.
Mame directed by Becky Potter, featuring Cindy Goldfield (Mame), Pam Drummer-Williams (Vera), Azzy David (Young Patrick), Elise Youssef (Agnes Gooch), Kurt Tijamo (Patrick), Joey Alvarado (Beau/Mr. Upson), Jessi Caldwell (Babcok), Nick Ishimaru (Ito), Tania Johnson (Mother Burnside/Mrs. Upson), and Larissa Kelloway (Sally Cato), Nick Nakashima (Lindsay), Joel Ochoa (Junior Babcock), and Sara Schori (Pegeen), with Lillian Kurtz (Lindsay),and Jillian A. Smith, opens at San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon.
Joshua Henry: Get Up, Stand Up! concert, at 8 PM at Northridge, CA’s Soraya.
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Reviews for Manhattan Theatre Club’s Poor Yella Rednecks at Off-Broadway’s New York City Center:
NY Times (Naveen Kumar): Playwright Qui Nguyen has made a career of imagining marginalized people as heroic leads. That includes his parents, who emigrated from Vietnam and met in an Arkansas refugee camp, a story Nguyen chronicled in his raunchy rom-com-style play Vietgone. Poor Yella Rednecks, which opened Wednesday in a rollicking, comic book-inspired production at New York City Center, picks up five years later, in 1980, when their marriage hits the rocks and the playwright is a 5-year-old struggling to learn English…. Nguyen has become…a wizard of language and form… a crowd-tickling comedy that squashes preconceptions in order to place hearts in a vise grip….
Theatermania (Zachary Stewart): …the exuberant and often hilarious theatricality… Nguyen grippingly charts the twists and turns in his family’s American dream, which is as exciting as any Hollywood action flick… May Adrales delivers an appropriately cinematic staging that conveys the author’s fabulist voice while never losing sight of the personal stakes at the heart of the story… The small theatrical miracle of Poor Yella Rednecks is its ability to embrace the mythic style Nguyen pioneered with his off-off-Broadway company, Vampire Cowboys, while highlighting the real and persistent struggles immigrants to this country have faced and continue to face in 2023. It’s a strange and intoxicating mix that makes this play a rare and satisfying watch.
Time Out (Raven Snook): Qui Nguyen’s latest play reheats his stylistic melting pot to tell the story of his Vietnamese parents’ post-war immigration to the United States… a merry mashup of hip-hop, pop culture, cursing and kung fu, buoyed by winning performances and plenty of heart… Under May Adreles’s unflaggingly inventive direction, a committed, chameleonic cast of six portrays dozens of characters in this raucous romantic dramedy… Nguyen’s approach won’t be a surprise for those who saw Vietgone. Poor Yella Rednecks uses the same gleeful gimmicks and a comparable dramatic template, though the other play was about Quang and Tong getting together and this one is about them almost uncoupling…
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Jonathan A. Abrams & Tyler Mitchell’s The Heart of Rock and Roll will begin previews Mar. 29, 2024, and open Apr. 22 at the James Earl Jones Theatre, directed by Gordon Greenberg, with choreography by Lorin Latarro, and music supervision by Brian Usifer.
Casting TBA.
A raucous rom-com wrapped in pure musical joy, the musical centers on a couple of thirty-somethings who know exactly what they want from life—until they find each other. It’s going to take “The Power of Love” — and a little help from their friends — to show them the way. Jam-packed with Huey Lewis megahits like “Workin’ For A Livin’,” “Stuck With You,” and “If This Is It,” this is Broadway’s newest feel-great musical.
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Irving Berlins White Christmas will run Nov. 25 – Dec. 24 (opening Dec. 1) at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, directed by David Armstrong & James A. Rocco, with choreography by Rocco, and music direction by Matt Perri.
Ashley Day (Bob Wallace), Phillip Atmore (Phil Davis), Cayman Ilika (Betty Haynes), and Taryn Darr (Judy Haynes), Reginald André Jackson, Candice Song Donehoo, Gia Pellegrini, Beatrice Cramer, Brandon O’Neill, Seán G. Griffin, Ty Willis, Cristin Hubbard, Ania Briggs, Trina Mills, Shelby Willis, Ashley Lanyon, Carolyn Willems Van Dijk, Katy Tabb, Jaclyn Wheatley, Kristin Burch, Richard Peacock, John David Scott, Charlie Johnson, Rico Lastrapes, Jonathan Luke Stevens, Davione Gordon, Eric Polani Jensen, Michael Sharon, Cayel Tregeagle, Miranda Antoinette, Mallory Cooney King, Ann Cornelius, Jordan King, Christopher Sweet, Katie Marshall, and Maggie Darago.
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Video: Broadway’s MJ celebrated Halloween with an encore performance of the “Thriller” finale.
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Mike Birbiglia’s The Old Man and the Pool will be available to stream beginning Nov. 21 on Netflix.
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Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot: Holmes for the Holliday will run Nov. 10 – Dec. 17 at Boston’s Lyric Stage Company, directed by Fred Sullivan Jr.
Remo Airaldi (Fexlis Geisel), Kelby T. Akin (William Gilette), Dana Garcia (Simon Bright), Maureen Keiller (Daria Chase), Pamela Lambert (Madge Geisel), Gabrielle McCauley (Aggie Wheeler), Peter Mill (Inspector Goring), and Sarah Sinclair (Martha Gillette).
It’s a blustery December night in 1936 at the Connecticut mansion of actor William Gillette, whose life was recently threatened by a rogue gunshot while he was onstage performing his most celebrated role, Sherlock Holmes. A cavalcade of quirky friends arrive upon his request for a weekend of revelry all with the intent of finding out who pulled the trigger. But when one of Gillette’s glitzy and glamorous guests is stabbed to death, the survivors are trapped inside a fun house of hidden passageways and trick mirrors where any of them could be the killer. From the director that brought you The Play That Goes Wrong, slapstick and hilarity ensues amid the murder and mayhem that will keep you laughing and guessing until the moment the killer is revealed.
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Michael Feinstein: Coming Home – The Holiday Celebration will take place Sun. Dec. 3 at 7 PM at LA’s Mark Taper Forum.
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Justin Mortelliti & Shannon Hunt’s The Ladies Man will have a private NYC industry reading on Fri. Nov. 3, directed by Matt DiCarlo, with music direction by Ben Cohn.
Kate Rockwell (Mom), Anthony Norman (Julian), Amber Ardolino (Tina), Bryan Fenkart (Dad), John-Michael Lyles (Jamie), Alexa Moster (Holly), Brent Comer (Jake/Jordan), Josh Jordan (Tommy/Lucas), Bryan J. Cortes (Andy/Sparrow), Tasia Jungbauer (Courtney), Kyra Belle Johnson (Donna), Erica Sweany (Aunt Jean), Peter Dager (Vinnie), Wes Zurick (Craig/Steve), and Scott Doyal (Young Julian).
The musical spans the late ’80s to the 2010s as it follows Julian, an Italian American boy from New Jersey who is coming out and coming-of-age under the watch (and guilt) of strict Roman Catholicism.
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Rosie Dart & Finola Southgate’s We’ll Have Nun of It will run Feb. 22 – Mar. 11, 2024 at The Other Palace (link TBA), directed by Dart, with music direction by Honor Halford-MacLeod.
Angel Lema (Eliza), Chaya Gupta (Sarah), Heather Gourdie (Bernie), Juliette Artigala (Mary), and Michaela Murphy (Caragh).
Set in 1967, the new musical takes place in the ’60s, as four friends navigate convent school life, with a background of pop, soul, and folk music.
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The St. Louis Muny has announced its 2024 Summer season:
Les Misérables (June 17 – July 3)
Dreamgirls (June 27 – July 3)
The Little Mermaid (July 8-16
Fiddler on the Roof (July 19 – 25)
Waitress (July 30 – Aug. 5)
In the Heights (Aug. 9-15)
Anything Goes (Aug. 19-25)
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Video: Nichelle Lewis (Dorothy) performs “Wonder, Wonder Why” from the upcoming pre-broadway run of The Wiz.
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Jonathan Abrams & Tyler Mitchell’s jukebox musical, The Heart of Rock and Roll, will begin previews Mar. 29, 2024 and open Apr. 22 at the James Earl Jones Theatre, directed by Gordon Greenberg, with choreography by Lorin Latarro, and music supervision by Brian Usifer.
Casting TBA.
With chart-topping songs such as “Hip to Be Square,” “Do You Believe in Love,” “Workin’ for a Livin’,” and “The Power of Love,” the musical follows a former rock singer who has traded in his guitar for a stable job in corporate America. He’s on the verge of closing the ultimate business deal and winning the girl of his dreams (who’s also the CEO’s daughter) — that is, if he doesn’t jeopardize everything by reuniting with his band for another shot at rock-and-roll glory.
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Hello, Dolly! will run July 6 – Sept. 18, 2024 at the London Palladium, directed by Dominic Cooke, with choreography by Bill Deamer, and music direction by Nick Skilbeck.
Imelda Staunton (Dolly), Andy Nyman (Horace Vandergelder), Jenna Russell (Irene Molloy), Tyrone Huntley (Barnaby Tucker), Harry Hepple (Cornelius Hackl), and more TBA.
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Clueless, a new stage musical adaptation of the film, by KT Tunstall, Glenn Stalter & Amy Heckerling, will premiere Feb. 12 – 24 at the UK’s Bromley’s Churchill Theatre, directed by Sarna Lapine.
Casting, additional creative team members, and more, are TBA.