Today’s Highlights:
Romeo + Juliet, directed by Sam Gold, featuring Kit Conner (Romeo), Rachel Zegler (Juliet), Gabby Beans (Mercutio/The Friar), Tommy Dorfman (The Nurse/Tybalt), Nihar Duvvuri (Balthazar), Sola Fadiran (Capulet/Lady Capulet), Daniel Bravo Hernández (Abraham, Taheen Modak (Benvolio, Jasai Chase Owens (Gregory), and Gían Pérez (Samson/Paris/Peter), with Missy Malek, Timothy Oh, Susannah Perkins, and Daniel Velez, opens at Broadway’s Circle in the Square.
The Devil Wears Prada, by Elton John, Shaina Taub & Kate Wetherhead, directed & choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, featuring Vanessa Williams (Miranda Priestly), Georgie Buckland (Andy), Amy Di Bartolomeo (Emily), James Darch (Christian), Matt Henry (Nigel), and Rhys Whitfield (Nate), with Debbie Kurup (Miranda Standby), opens at London’s Dominion Theatre.
Oedipus, directed by Robert Icke, featuring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, opens at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre.
BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop presentations, written by Amber Treadway & Sarah Nelson … Asher Muldoon & Joel Chapman … Celine Snippe & Jensen Krall … Diallo Adams & Chris Blacker … Diana Lawrence, George Merrick, Ginny Mohler & Connor Marsh … Jack Coen, Lauren Gundrum & Brandon Lambert … Mason McDowell, Pance Pony & Ernie Bird … Ray Bokhour & Simon Gray … Rick Rea, RJ Christian, Sair Kaufman & George Luton, and Tia DeShazor & Derrick Byars, at 3 & 6 PM at Off-Broadway’s Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater.
Red Bull Theater‘s Sardanapalus reading, by Lord Byron, directed by Raz Golden, featuring Amir Arison, Atra Asdou, Merritt Janson, Amir Malaklou, Paul Niebanck, Zachary Lopez Roa, Omar Shafiuzzaman, Sanjit De Silva, AhDream Smith, and Shayvawn Webster, at 7:30 PM at Off-Broadway’s Sheen Center. Also available on-demand Oct. 25-30.
Ben Jones: Let Me Be Frank – A Tribute to Frank Sinatra concert, with music direction by Ron Abel, at 8:30 PM at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.
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Reviews for Left on Tenth at Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre:
New York Times (Laura Collins-Hughes): …What’s strange is that, having warned us, the play doesn’t nearly go for broke… So an anodyne rom-com is for the most part what we get from this play… Peter Gallagher plays the widowed Peter, the calm Californian psychoanalyst for whom Delia falls by email, so suddenly that it feels fated… Susan Stroman’s production opens on a rom-com staple: the enviable Manhattan apartment… Margulies and Gallagher do have terrific chemistry… Everyone but Delia and Peter seems hastily sketched… this play, trying so hard to keep things bright, is fearful of totality. It is afraid of the dark…
New York Daily News (Chris Jones): …Ephron’s honest and deeply personal little memoir-as-play … features two fun secondary actors, Peter Francis James and Kate MacCluggage… But it’s also a portrait of what it’s like to lose a loving partner, in this case a man with whom the writer used to dance around the bedroom, and then have to reinvent your life anew… Margulies’ Delia narrates her circumstances throughout. Gallagher’s Peter doesn’t get to express much of a point of view… And while both of these actors are honest, vulnerable and appealing, which is no faint praise, they are not delivering bravura stage performances for which I’d argue such zig-zagging internal material does not really allow anyway…
New York Post (Jonny Oleksinski) …There is no doubt as to what the new play “Left on Tenth,” which opened at the James Earl Jones Theatre Wednesday night, wants to be: A romantic, funny and harrowing tale of a woman’s rebirth. Yet, after seeing Delia Ephron’s Broadway show starring Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher, different descriptors jump to mind: Sappy, sluggish and awkward… I felt bad — awful, really — that I disliked the dramedy about this real person’s heartbreak, illness and eventual triumph as much as I did. But the mangled tone, laughless jokes and emotional fakery are impossible to look beyond….
New York Stage Review (Frank Sheck): They say that a writer should write what they know. But in Delia Ephron’s case the advice may be a bit too on-the-nose. Left on Tenth, her new Broadway play based on her best-selling memoir, relates such life-changing events as the death of her first husband, her improbable late-in-life romance, and her battle with a rare form of cancer that almost killed her. By the end of the evening, you’ll have come to very much like Delia Ephron. The play, not so much… It’s not for lack of trying on the writer’s part… Delia, charmingly if at times too girlishly played by Julianna Margulies, narrates much of the proceedings, telling her story with endearing pathos and humor…
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Second Stage‘s Cult of Love, by Leslye Headland, will begin previews Nov. 20 and open Dec. 12 at the Helen Hayes Theater, directed by Trip Clullman.
Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Barbie Ferreira, Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell, Zachary Quinto, Christopher Sears, and Shailene Woodley, with Peter Bradbury, Billy Cohen, Vero Maynez, Rachel Prather, and Luisa Sermol.
It’s the holiday season for the Dahl family! The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. Will the love the Dahls have for each other be enough to get them through, or will this be their last Christmas together?
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Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends will run Feb. 8 – March 9, 2025 (opening Feb. 13) at the Ahmanson Theatre, directed by Matthew Bourne.
Bernadette Peters, Lea Salonga, Jasmine Forsberg, Kate Jennings Grant, David Harris, Bonnie Langford, Beth Leavel, Gavin Lee, Ryan McCartan, Jason Pennycooke, Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Maria Wirries, and Daniel Yearwood, with Kevin Earley, Paige Faure, Alexa Lopez, Peter Neureuther, and one more TBA.
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A Streetcar Named Desire will run Nov. 14 – Dec. 1 at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre, directed by Stephen Hamilton.
Daniela Mastropietro (Blanche DuBois), Katie Roders (Stella Kowalski), Katie Rodgers Stella Kowalski), Sawyer A. Spielberg (Harold “Mitch” Mitchell), Nicole Marie Hunt (Eunice Hubbell), Joe Pallister (Steve Hubbell), Carlos Barcia (Pablo Bonzalez), and Matthew Conlon (Doctor0O, with She Buckner and Adelaide Mestre.
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The Acting Company will present a reading of Seán O’Casey’s The Shadow of a Gunman on Mon. Nov. 4 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater, directed by Ian Belkap.
Hannah Cabell, Eddie Cahill, Owen Campbell, Gabriel Ebert, John Glover, John Keating, Patrick Kerr, Lauren Lee, David Manis, Peter McNally, and Kathryn Meisle, with more TBA.
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The Merchant of Venice, adapted & directed by Igor Golyak, will run Nov. 22 – Dec. 22 (opening Nov. 25) at Classic Stage Company.
T.R. Knight (Antonio), Richard Topol (as Shylock) Alexandra Silber (Portia), Gus Birney (Jessica), Tess Goldwyn (Nerisa), Jos
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Cockeyed Optimist: Where Hammerstein Found His Hope will run Oct. 26 (7:30 PM), Oct. 27 (2 PM) and Oct. 28 (7:30 PM) at NYC’s 92NY, directed by Dick Scanlan, with music direction by Joey Chancey, and choreography by Richard Stafford.
Malcom Gets, Kerstin Anderson, Mikaela Bennett, Patrick Breen, Eddie Cooper, Omar Lopez-Cepero, and Katie Mariko Murray.
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Jay Baer’s Love In Idleness will run Nov. 21 -24 at the Actors Temple Theatre, directed by Kyle Pleasant.
Stanton Morales, Mikey LoBalsamo, Josey Miller, Liam Searcy, Brett Bainer, Michael Hegarty, Duncan Smith, Haley Izurieta, Nicholas Joseph C. Ochoa, Jackson Kanawha Perry, Dan Follett, Jesse J Potter, and Kyle Munson.
A full-length musical comedy inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream set in 2025 NYC. Obie, a scientist for a pharmaceutical company, invents the title drug to reignite the spark in his long-term relationship with Tim, a drag performer at New York’s hottest gay club. Things go hilariously wrong, yielding absurdly mismatched pairings between Tim, Obie’s coworker and friend Hermione, her boyfriend, and more. While Obie grapples with these mismatched lovers, an evil right-wing group is conspiring to harness the drug’s power to serve its diabolical purposes. In the end, non-pharmacological love reigns and all is well.
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York Theatre Company‘s Founders Awards will be presented on Mon. Nov. 11 at 6 PM at NYC’s Edison Ballroom, directed by Stephen DeAngelis.
Bernadette Peters and producer Ted Snowdon
Andrew Rannells, Alex Newell, Jelani Remy, and more TBA.
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Michael Griffo’s Pen Pals will run Dec. 5 – 22 (opening Dec. 11) at Theater at St. Clement’s, directed by SuzAnne Baraba.
Johanna Day and Nancy McKeon.
Inspired by a true story, “Pen Pals” follows Bernie and Mags, who live by in two different countries, have never met, and yet they’re best friends… because they’ve been pen pals for over fifty years. Since they were teenagers, they’ve shared every aspect of their lives with each other. The trivial bits, the most intimate details, all the happiness, all the heartache. They’ve told each other things they wouldn’t dare tell another soul. Even though Bernie lives in New Jersey and Mags is from England, the women are closer to each other than anyone else in the world.