Today’s Highlights:
Second Stage Theatre‘s Spain, by Jen Silverman, directed by Tyne Rafaeli, featuring Marin Ireland, Zachary James, Erik Lochtefeld, Andrew Burnap, and Danny Wolohan, opens at Off-Broadway’s Tony Kiser Theatre.
York Theatre Company‘s The Jerusalem Syndrome, world premiere by Laurence Holzman, Felicia Needleman & Kyle Rosen, directed by Don Stephenson, featuring Farah Alvin, Dana Costello, Scott Cote, Andrea Fleming, James D. Gish, Alan H. Green, Danielle Lee James, John Jellison ), Josh Lamon, Garrett Long, Karen Murphy, Jeffrey Schecter, Jennifer Smith, Chandler Sinks, Pablo Torres, Curtis Wiley, Lenny Wolpe, and Laura Woyasz, opens at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Jeans.
Abingdon Theatre Company‘s Til Death, by Elizabeth Coplan, directed by Chad Austin, featuring Judy Kaye, Robert Cuccioli, Michael Lee Brown, Whitney Morse, Dominick LaRuffa Jr., and Amy Hargreaves, opens at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row.
New Stages Festival 2023 opens at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.
An Axemas Story, by Patrick Spencer, Charlie O’Leary & Anthony De Angelis, directed by Mackenna Goodrich, featuring Charissa Bertels, Alex Canty, RJ Christian, Cat Greenfield, John Alejandra Jeffords, Isabel Julazadeh, Lucy Rossi, Brandon Roth, Brooke Searcy, Atticus Shaindlin, and Chris Trombetta, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Players Theatre.
Ensemble Theatre Company‘s Ring of Fire: the Music of Johnny Cash, directed by Rand Redd, featuring Glenn Stanton, Valarie Larson, Sammy Linkowski, Kasper, and LJ Benet, begins previews at Santa Barbara’s New Vic.
Susan Edwards Martin: UNLIMITED! in Concert at 7:30 PM at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre.
Ode to the Wasp Woman, written & directed by Rider McDowell, featuring Sean Young, Douglas Everett Davis, Payton Georgiana, Jonathan Hartman, Josh Alscher, Anna Telfer, David Wenzel, and Rita Rehn, closes at Off-Broadway’s Actors Temple Theatre.
**********************
So Many Stars, conceived & directed by Victoria Lavan, will run Dec. 2-10 at LA’s Theatre West.
Alyssa Rupert, Constance Mellors, Harleigh Ford, Michal Van Duzer, Paul Cady, Rick Simone-Friedland, Scottie Nevil, and Victoria Lavan.
**********************
Stephen Cole’s “Mary & Ethel…and Mikey Who?” will be released Jan. 16, 2024 on most platforms. An audio book option will also be available, performed by Anita Gillette.
The Mary being Martin & the Ethel, Merman. It’s a wild rollercoaster ride of a novel that hurls the reader time-traveling through decades of Broadway & Hollywood history with Ethel Merman & Mary Martin, as a boy from Brooklyn gets to live out his dream with these two Broadway legends.
**********************
RIP: Frances Sternhagen passed away Nov. 27 at the age of 93.
Born Jan. 13, 1930, in Washington, D.C., Ms. Sternhagen showed an aptitude for nuanced performance from a young age. While a student at Vassar College, she was elected as the student head of the Drama Club following a particularly impactful performance as Richard III, which in time led her to public performance and leadership, two of her lifelong passions.
Ms. Sternhagen began her career as a teacher at the Milton Academy in Massachusetts, where she taught acting, singing, and dancing to school children. At the age 25, she was swept away to Broadway to star as Miss T. Muse in a revival of The Skin of Our Teeth.
The same year, she debuted Off-Broadway in Thieves’ Carnival and debuted on television in “The Great Bank Robbery.” Her meteoric ascent as one of the great stage performers of her generation was undeniable, and by the end of the 1960’s, she had starred to great acclaim in an additional seven Broadway productions, including The Carefree Tree, Viva Madison Avenue!, Great Day in the Morning, The Right Honourable Gentleman, You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running, The Cocktail Party, and Cock-a-Doodle Dandy.
On film, Ms. Sternhagen appeared in 26 films and 51 television programs, racking up multiple Emmy, Satellite, and Saturn nominations in addition to her 1981 win for the film Outland. She primarily played character roles, with notable appearances in Paddy Chayefsky’s “The Hospital” and Billy Wilder’s “Fedora,” as well as opposite Burt Reynolds in “Starting Over” and Michael J. Fox in “Bright Lights, Big City.” She played Farrah Fawcett’s mother in “See You in the Morning,” Richard Farnsworth’s wife in “Misery,” Lillian in “Doc Hollywood,” and John Lithgow’s psychiatrist in “Raising Cain.” Ms. Sternhagen’s final role came in the form of 2014’s “And So It Goes,” Rob Reiner’s 2014 comedy drama that centers on two elderly individuals finding purpose and connection later in life. She was also particularly well-known to TV fans as mom of Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) on “Cheers.”
In all, Ms. Sternhagen appeared on Broadway in a total of 26 productions, as well as an impressive expanse of Off-Broadway productions. She won two Tony Awards, the first in 1974 for Best Supporting Actress (Dramatic) for her performance in the original Broadway production of Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor, and the second in 1995 for her performance in the revival of The Heiress. She was nominated for an additional five Tony Awards for her work in the original Broadway casts of Equus and On Golden Pond, as well as in Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, the musical Angel, and the 2002 revival of Paul Osborn’s Morning’s at Seven.
Off-Broadway, Ms. Sternhagen was also heavily awarded, picking up three Drama Desk nominations for her work in On Golden Pond and Echoes of the War, as well as a special Irish Repertory Theatre production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night that co-starred her son, Paul Carlin.
Ms. Sternhagen’s final Broadway appearance was in 2005, when she starred in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Edward Albee’s Seascape. She continued to appear Off-Broadway through 2013, with her final stage production being The Madrid at at Manhattan Theatre Club. Also in 2013, Ms. Sternhagen was awarded the Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement
**********************
Dianne Fraser: YOU AND I – The Worlds and Music of Leslie Bricusse will take place Wed. Dec. 6 at 7 PM at NYC’s Don’t Tell Mama, directed by Laura Henry, with music direction by Todd Schroeder.
Tim Connell
**********************
Gordon Greenberg & Steve Rosen’s Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors continues through Jan. 7 at New World Stages, directed by Greenberg.
Jordan Boatman, Arnie Burton, James Daly, Ellen Harvey and Andrew Keenan-Bolger, with Kaitlyn Boyer and Sean-Michael Wilkinson. 
Taylor Trensch will replace Keenan-Bolger on Jan. 2
Bram Stoker’s horror classic gets a riotous makeover in this lightning-fast comedic reimagining that celebrates goth, camp, sexuality, and the magic of live theatre. This 90-minute, gender-bending, quick-change romp features a pansexual GenZ Count Dracula in the midst of an existential crisis. When he sets his sights on the brilliant young earth scientist Lucy Westfeldt, he meets his match for the first time – as well as a slew of other colorful characters including vampire hunter Jean Van Helsing, insect connoisseur Percy Renfield and behavioral psychiatrist Wallace Westfeldt, whose British country estate doubles as a free-range mental asylum.
**********************
Complete casting has been announced for Richard III, which will run Feb. 2 – Mar. 3, 2024 at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, directed by Edward Hall.
Katy Sullivan (Richard III), Scott Aiello (Clarence/Stanley), Debo Balogun (Ratcliffe), Mark Bedard (Murderer/Prince), Anatasha Blakely (Catesby), Yao Dogbe (Buckingham), Sean Fortunato (Lord Rivers/Duchess of Hastings), Erik Hellman (Lord Hastings/Duke of Norfolk), Tiffany Renee Johnson (Lady Anne), Ora Jones (Margaret), Mo Shipley (Edward, Prince of Wales), Demetrios Troy (ing Edward IV/Earl of Richmondz0), and Jessica Dean Turner (Elizabeth).
**********************
Audio: Mamie Parris (Jane Austen) & Olivia Hernandez Elizabeth Bennet) perform “When I Fall In Love” from Lindsay Warren Baker & Amanda Jacob’s Austen’s Pride.
The cast album of the musical’s Carnegie Hall concert (June 29, 2023) will be released today.
**********************
Industry presentations of Michael Bello & Jessica Kahkoska’s Letters to the President will take place Dec. 7 & 8 in NYC, directed by Michael Bello, with music direction by Patrick Sulken.
Whitney Bashor, Jared Dixon, Zoe Jensen, and Nathan Salstone
The multi-composer musical is based on real letters to United States presidents throughout history, with songs by Ari Afsar and Candace Quarrels, Preston Max Allen, Simone Allen, Dawn Avery, Nick Blaemire, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Elliah Heifetz, Anna K. Jacobs, Naomi Matlow and Teresa Lotz, Madeline Myers, Ronvé O’Daniel and Jevares Myrick, Rona Siddiqui, Mark Sonnenblick, Will Van Dyke and Jeff Talbott, Ben Wexler, and Zack Zadek.
**********************
A Sherlock Carol, adapted & directed by Mark Shanahan, will run Dec. 19-23 at CT’s Wesport Country Playhouse.
Drew McVety (Sherlock Holmes), Byron St. Cyr (Ebenezer Scrooge), Joe Delafield (Dr. Watson/Mrs. Dilber/Henry Burke/Old Joe Brackenridge), Dan Domingues (Dr. Timothy Cratchit/Mr. Topper/Ralph Fezziwig/Constable Hopkins), and Isabel Keating (The Countess of Morcar/Martha Cratchit/Mary Morstan/Abigail Fezziwig/Caroler/Woman in Restaurant), and Sharone Sayegh (Emma Wiggins/Fan Gardner/Inspector Lestrade/Mrs. Windigate).
Reunite with the characters you love from Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, now brought together in a story of intrigue and suspense, with a helping of holiday cheer. When a grown-up Tiny Tim asks Sherlock Holmes to investigate the peculiar death of Ebenezer Scrooge, the Great Detective must use his tools of deduction to get to the bottom of the crime. But it is a dark and treacherous Christmas Eve, and once again the holiday is haunted by the spirits of the past, present, and future.
**********************
Dianne Fraser: YOU AND I – The Words and Music of Leslie Bricusse, an album release concert, will take place Wed. Dec. 6 at 7 PM at NYC’s Don’t Tell Mama, directed by Laura Henry, with music direction by Todd Schroeder.
Tim Connell
**********************
A private industry reading of Crystal Skillman & Bobby Cronin’s Mary and Max will take place Dec. 1 in NYC, directed by Christopher Gattelli, with music direction by Anna Ebbeson.
Lauren Elder, Adam B. Shapiro, Nick Adams, Lena Marano, Anne Brummel, Michael Williams, Kennedy Kanagawa, Caleb Hartsfield, Yassi Noubahar, and Jazley Genovese.
Adapted from a 2009 Australian film, the musical centers on an unlikely long-distance friendship between two outsiders.