Today’s Highlights:
Pride & Prejudice* (*Sort Of), by Isobel McArthur, directed by McArthur & Simon Harvey, featuring Isobel McArthur (Darcy/Mrs. Bennet), Tori Burgess (Mr. Collins), Christina Gordon (Lady Catherine de Bourgh/Jane), Hannah Jarrett-Scott (Charlotte/Charles Bingley), and Meghan Tyler (Lizzie Bennet), opens at London’s Criterion Theatre.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, adapted by Joel Horwood, directed by Katy Rudd, featuring Ruby Ablett, James Bamford, Emma Bown, Charlie Cameron, Jeff D’Sangalang, Kieran Garland, Siubhan Harrison, Miranda Heath, Penny Layden, Tom Mackley, Charleen Qwaye, Grace Hogg-Robinson, Laura Rogers, Nicolas Tennant, Nia Towle, and Peter Twose, opens at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre.
The Visitor, world premiere by Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey & Kwame Kwei-Armah, directed by Daniel Sullivan, featuring Ahmad Maksoud (Tarek), David Hyde Pierce (Walter), and Alysha Deslorieux (Zainab), with Jacqueline Antaramian, Robert Ariza, Anthony Chan, Delius Doherty, C.K. Edwards, Will Erat, Brandon Espinoza, Sean Ewing, Crystal Joy, Marla Louissaint, Ahmad Maksoud, Sahar Milani, Dimitri Joseph Moïse, Takafumi Nikaido, Paul Pontrelli, and Katie Terza, opens at Off-Broadway’s The Public Theater.
Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation, by The Sherman Brothers, featuring Jake Bazel (Pooh), Chris Palmieri (Tigger), Kirsty Moon (Piglet/Roo), Emmanuel Elpenord (Eeyore/Rabbit/Owl) and Kristina Dizon (Kanga/Owl), opens at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row.
Pump Boys & Dinettes, directed by Daryl Brooks, featuring Rafe Bradford (Eddie), Shantel Cribbs (Prudie Cupp), Ian Custer (Jim), Frederick “Ricky” Harris (L.M.), Melanie Loren (Rhetta Cupp), and Billy Rude (Jackson), with Caitlin Dobbins, J.J. Smith, and Kelan Smith, opens at Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre.
A Little Night Music, directed by Brandon Jackson, featuring William Giammona (Count Carl-Magnus), Alison Ewing (Desiree), Shai Wolf (Henrik), Chloe Fong (Fredrika), Katrina Lauren McGraw (Charlotte), Cindy Goldfield (Madame Armfeldt), Trixie Aballa (Petra), Martin Bell (Frederik), Samantha Rose Cárdenas (Anne), Acqueline De Muro (Mrs. Segerstrom), Joshua Gonzales (Mr. Lindquist), Jennifer Mitchell (Mrs. Nordstrom), Jack O’Reilly (Frid), Stephanie Rhoads (Mrs. Anderssen), and Mark Robinson (Mr. Erlanson), opens at San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon.
Karen Mason: Vaccinatin’ Rhythm opens at Milwaukee’s Davenport’s Piano Bar & Cabaret.
The Drifters Girl, by Ed Curtis, directed by Jonathan Church, featuring Beverley Knight, Adam J. Bernard, Tarinn Callender, Matt Henry, and Tosh Wanogho-Maud, begins previews at London’s Garrick Theatre.
**********************
Reviews for Manhattan Theatre Club’s Morning Sun at Off-Broadway’s NY City Center:
NY Times (Jesse Green): Making the best of the little you’ve got may or may not be the theme of Morning Sun, the pianissimo new play by Simon Stephens that opened Off Broadway on Wednesday. But it’s certainly the problem… That these three not-so-tall women are played by three excellent stage actors — Blair Brown as Claudette, Edie Falco as Charley, Marin Ireland as Tessa — ensures that their crises come into clear focus. Abuse, affairs, alcoholism and abortion each get a believable turn… Yet for all the enjoyably detailed work, the play remains stubbornly tiny, as if Stephens, aiming small, overshot.
Theatermania (Hayley Levitt): A lot of playwrights are poets, but not many are craftsmen like Simon Stephens… it is a master class in theatrical precision… delivers a piece with so many rich particulars that it evokes countless universals… director Lila Neugebauer, who deftly maneuvers a piece that is so much about storytelling, but leaves the audience in a constant state of uncertainty about the reliability of the narrators, their reasons for detailing their history, and the mysteriously liminal realm from which they’re speaking to us and one another.
TimeOut (Adam Feldman): …a 100-minute meditation on aging that doubles as a Boomer nostalgia trip… starring three of the city’s most accomplished actors: Edie Falco, Blair Brown and Marin Ireland. What’s not to like? Nothing, really, but ultimately there’s not too much meat on this bone… As this extended episode of This Was Your Life moves forward, director Lila Neugebauer steers it with a capable hand… the show delivers several moments of poignancy… But Morning Sun doesn’t have the sense of mystery within the ordinary that energized such previous Stephens works as Heisenberg and Sea Wall.
**********************
Jeff Daniels (Atticus Finch) will depart To Kill a Mockingbird on Jan. 2, 2022 at the Shubert Theatre.
He will be replaced by Greg Kinnear on Jan. 5, 2022.
**********************
A special performance of Chicago, commemorating the Broadway revival’s 25th anniversary, will take place Tues. Nov. 16 at 6:30 PM ET at the Ambassador Theatre. The event will include appearances by original cast members and additional surprises.
Ana Villafañe (Roxie Hart), Biance Marroquín (Velma Kelly), Paulo Sxot (Billy Flynn), Lillias White (Matron “Mama” Morton), Raymond Bokhour (Amos Hart), and Ryan Lowe (Mary Sunshine), with David Bushman, Jennifer Dunne, Jessica Ernest, Jeff Gorti, Arian Keddell, Mary Claire King, Joseph London, Barret Martin, Sharon Moore, Drew Nellessen, Celina Nightengale, Brian O’Brien, Denny Paschall, Angel Reda, Jermaine R. Rembert, Michael Scirrotto, Christine C. Smith, and Brian Spitulnik.
**********************
The Apple TV series “High Desert,” written by Nancy Fichman, Katie Ford & Jennifer Hoppe, has announced additional casting.
Patricia Arquette, Bernadette Peters, Matt Dillon, Rupert Friend, Weruche Opia, Brad Garrett, and Christine Taylor.
Peggy is a former addict who decides to make a new start after the death of her beloved mother, with whom she lived in the small desert town of Yucca Valley, California, and makes a life-changing decision to become a private investigator.
**********************
After announcing that Tina Satter’s Is This A Room and Lucas Hnath’s Dana H would both close early, on Nov. 14, it was just announced that both productions have been extended two weeks due to an overwhelming demand.
Both productions will now close Nov. 28 at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre.
**********************
Douglas Carter Beane’s off-Broadway comedy Fairycakes will play its final performance Sun. Nov. 21 at Greenwich House Theater. It had originally been slated to run through Jan. 2, 2022.
Mo Rocca (Geppetto), Kristolyn Lloyd (Peaseblossom), Sabatino Cruz (Pinocchio), Jackie Hoffman (Moth), Kuhoo Verma (Cinderella), Julie Halston (Titania/Elizabeth), Ann Harada (Musterseed), Arnie Burton (Oberon/Dirk), Jason Tam (Prine/Cupid), Z Infante (Cobweb), Jamen Nanthakumar (Changeling), and Chris Myers (Puck).
**********************
The world premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s Candlelight will run Nov. 27 – Dec. 19 (opening Nov. 29) at The New Ohio Theatre, directed by Lori Kee.
John Cencio Burgos, Alfredo Diaz, Ivette Dumeng, Marc Reign, Darlene Tejeiro, and Christina Toth, with Taylor Grace and Randall Rodriguez.
A Nuyorican comic romantic tragedy covered with magic and dipped in Brooklyn blood. The story of two ten-year-old kids, Esperanza and Tito, who fall into something deeper and more dangerous than love.
**********************
CT’s Ridgefield Playhouse will present A Whole New World of Alan Menken on Sat. Nov. 6 at 8 PM ET.
**********************
Julianne Boyd, Barrington Stage Company Co-Founder and Artistic Director, will retire at the end of the 2022 season.
Under Boyd’s leadership, BSC has produced 41 world premieres, 17 of which have moved on to New York or major regional theatre productions, including three on Broadway and 10 Off-Broadway.
Boyd has created several educational programs and initiatives at BSC, including the Playwright Mentoring Project (a program for underserved youth), the Musical Theatre Lab (to help young artists develop and create new musicals), the 10×10 New Play Festival (now in its 11th season), and the Musical Theatre Conservatory (offering training for pre-professionals for careers in musical theatre).
**********************
Video: Rob McClure talks about Mrs. Doubtfire, the Broadway shutdown, working with Jerry Zaks, and more. (7:09)
**********************
The New Group presents the world premiere of Tariq Trotter & John Ridley’s Black No More, to run Jan. 11 – Feb. 27, 2022 (opening Feb. 8) at the Signature Center, directed by Scott Elliot, with choreography by Bill T. Jones, and music supervision by Daryl Waters.
Tariq Trotter, Brandon Victor Dixon, Lillias White, Jennifer Damiano, Tamika Lawrence, Theo Stockman, Tracy Shayne, Walter Bobbie, and more TBA.
The story of Max Disher, who’s eager to try the mysterious machine invented by Dr. Junius Crookman that guarantees to “solve the American race problem” by turning Black people white.
**********************
Gingold Theatrical Group presents A Scintillating Shaw Party, a companion piece to its current production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession!, on Mon. Nov. 15 at 7 PM ET NYC’s Symphony Space, offering a discussion of several Shaw-themed issues, moderated by David Staller.
Cast members from the production, along with James Armstrong, Stephen Brown-Fried, Ellen Dolgin, Adam Feldman, Chris Finan, Sarah Rose Kearns, Ethan E. Litwin, Martin Meisel, Svetlana Mintcheya, and Liam Prendergast.
**********************
Complete casting has been announced for the world premiere of Clare Barron’s Shhhh, to run Jan. 12 – Feb. 13, 2022 (opening Jan. 24) at the Atlantic Theatre Company, directed by Barron.
Janice Amaya, Anny Fang, Nina Grollman, Greg Keller, Clare Barron, and Constance Shulman.
Penny flirts at a morbid anatomy museum. Kyle tells stories of dismemberment. Sally turns you on with tea and biscuits, and Shareen prepares a mysterious potion. A study in kink, trauma, pleasure, and revenge…