Today’s Highlights:
Private Lives, directed by Christopher Luscombe, starring Patricia Hodge and Nigel Havers, opens at the UK’s Theatre Royal Bath.
Macbeth in Stride, by Whitney White, drected by Tyler Dobrowsky & Taibi Magar, featuring Whitney White, Charlie Thurston, Phoenix Best, Kira Helper, and Reggie D. White, with Billy Finn and Yewande Odetoyinbo, opens at Cambridge’s A.R.T.
Hamlet, directed by Greg Hersov, featuring Cush Jumbo (Hamlet), Jonathan Ajayi (Laertes), Joana Borja (Guildenstern/Osric), Adrian Dunbar (Claudius/The Ghost), Tara Fitzgerald (Gertrude), Norah Lopez Holden (Ophelia), Jonathan Livingstone (Horatio), Joseph Marcell (Polonius), Adesuwa Oni (Bernardo), Taz Skylar as (Rosencrantz / Fortinbras / Marcellus), and Leo Wringer (Fortinbras Captain / Player / Gravedigger), begins livestreaming at London’s Young Vic.
Song for Nature concert, conceived to raise awareness of climate change, directed by Dominic Dromgoole, featuring Janie Dee, Rob Brydon, Sheila Atim, Kerry Ellis, David Suchet, Akram Khan, Michelle Terry, Brian May, Danielle De Niese, Gerald Finley, Beth Porch, Nathan Evans, and more, begins streaming at the London Coliseum.
Hocus Pocus: I Put a Spell on You – The Sanderson Variant Halloween filmed benefit concert in support of BC/EFA, directed by Jay Armstrong Johnson, featuring Jay Armstrong Johnson (Winifred), Allison Robinson (Sarah), and Amanda Williams (Mary), with Jonathan Burke, Nick Rashad Burroughs, Gavin Creel, J. Harrison Ghee, Todrick Hall, Robyn Hurder, Eva Noblezada, Heath Saunders, and Ahmed Simmons, Will Swenson. with Jasha Benedicto, Jimmy Brewer, Brittany Bohn, Cemiyon, Hayden Clifton, Jai’Quin Coleman, Cara Diaz, Brian Duke, Tyler Eisenreich, Taurean Everett, Zachary Flores, Zuri Noelle Ford, Lilli Froehlich, Taylor Isaac Gray, Allison Griffith, Gabriel Hyman, Brittany Jenkins, Karma Jenkins, Erin Kei, Sarah Kleist, Kourtni Lind-Watson, Danny Marin, Emilio Ramos, Jennifer Reed , Austin Reynolds, Ana Riley-Portal, Kellie Rodriguez, Sydnie Roy, Alanna Saunders, Claire Saunders, Cassy Surianello, Michael Sylvester, and Kris Ward, livestreams at 8 PM ET here.
CO/LAB: With a Little Help From My Friends benefit concert, featuring Jerusha Cavazos, Ben Freeman, Kuppi Jessop, Yamuna Meleth, Sarah Naughton, Ramone Nelson, Emily Olcott, Samantha Parrish, and Rachel Tuggle Whorton, along with CO/LAB actors Emanuel Frowner and Jenny Shakarov, at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Green Room 42.
“The Rainbow Lullaby,” the world’s first LGBTQ lullaby album, with songs by Bauer-Walsh, Marc Shaiman, and Debra Barsha, and many more, featuring Michael Buchanan, Ryan Bauer-Walsh, Matt Doyle, Jenn Colella, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Chilina Kennedy, Michael Longoria, Kyle Dean Massey, Lauren Patten, Jelani Remy, Chris & Clay Rice-Thomson, Marissa Rosen, Marty Thomas. Klea Blackhurst, Jonathan Burke, Jamie Cepero, Jenn Colella, Madge Dietrich, Christine Dwyer, Taylor Frey, Zachary James, Natalie Joy Johnson, Aury Krebs, Caitlin Kinnunen, Jo Lampert, L. Morgan Lee, Richie Leone, Michael Longoria, John Charles McLaughlin, Susie Mosher, Shakina Nayfack, Kyler O’Neal, Lauren Patten, Ernie Pruneda, Jelani Remy, Chris Rice-Thomson, Clay Rice-Thomson, Marissa Rosen, Katie Thompson, and The First Presbyterian Church of New York City Choir, released here.
Randy Rainbow in concert closes at CT’s Ridgefield Playhouse.
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Reviews for Caroline, or Change at Broadway’s Studio 54:
NY Times (Jesse Green): …No musical has ever faced its country’s history, its creators’ history and the history of its genre — which has often caricatured both groups — as unblinkingly as Caroline… That was true when it premiered at the Public Theater in 2003 and feels truer now in the electrifying Broadway revival… Tony Kushner’s book and lyrics, no less than Jeanine Tesori’s flood of ’60s-style music, remain models of thematic concision, wonders of imagery, daring pileups of incompatible emotions… But the world around “Caroline” has changed in ways that make it seem more prescient, more painful and — despite a performance of tragic grandeur in the title role by Sharon D Clarke — more hopeful now than it did back then…
Broadway News (Charles Isherwood): …as the title character in the superlative Broadway revival of the musical Caroline, or Change, she [Sharon D Clarke] commands the stage with such towering authority that it is almost surprising to see anyone else work up the nerve to step on it… Clarke imbues the character with a quiet but smoldering intensity that galvanizes the musical into vivid, almost nerve-rattling life whenever she is center stage… For this viewer, who has now seen the show five times since its debut at the Public Theater in 2003, Caroline, or Change remains a musical that is easier to admire than to fully warm to… He’s [Tony Kushner, more interested, here and in much of his work, in stimulating the mind and stirring the conscience t]an tugging at the heart.
New York Daily News (Chris Jones): …a wonderfully sung and mostly successful new production from the British director Michael Longhurst, is Kushner’s memoir of growing up in Louisiana in the 1960s… When I first saw Caroline in 2004, the musical couldn’t decide whether this was Noah’s story or Caroline’s or both… In this production, which appears to use a slightly revised text, the transition is complete… In the end, the production is clearly saying that Caroline’s existential struggles in this riven, deeply unfair America can be rationalized only as a gift to the next Black generation. It’s both a clear and a moving point of view.
Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney): ,,,Any work of art about the socioeconomic divide, particularly with regard to inequities rooted in race, class and power, is bound to land differently now than it did in, say, 2004… Everything about Michael Longhurst’s production feels more emotionally charged, starting with Sharon D Clarke’s mighty performance in the title role…. The same text by librettist and lyricist Tony Kushner, which had seemed so stiffly fragmented in that earlier production, finds a fluid cohesion here that makes not only Caroline’s solitude but the isolation of almost everyone around her profoundly affecting.
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A Little Night Music will run Nov. 4-21 at San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon, directed by Brandon Jackson, with choreography by Allison Paraiso-Silicani, and music direction by Daniel Thomas.
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).
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The world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s King James will run June 1 – July 23, 2022 (opening June 8) at the Mark Taper Forum (link TBA), directed by Kenny Leon.
Casting TBA.
Basketball great “King” LeBron James’s reign in Cleveland brings promise, prosperity and renewal to a city in desperate need of all three. It also brings together two friends who communicate best when they are talking and arguing about sports. This is an intimate exploration of the place that sports and athletes occupy in our emotional lives and relationships. It explores the star player’s impact on Cleveland, from his rookie season to the city’s historic championship, and the lives of these two unlikely friends whose turbulent relationship is best navigated through their shared love of the sport in a verbal game of one on one. Though he is never seen in the show, LeBron James serves as a symbol for the hopes, desires and fears that they have bottled up since childhood.
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Jennifer Nettles: Broadway Under the Mistletoe has announced tour dates from Nov. 30 – Dec. 16 here.
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“Caroline, or Change — Then and Now,” with Anika Noni Rose and Samantha Williams. Listen to the Stagecraft conversation here. (43:55)
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Rajiv Joseph’s King James will run June 1 – July 3, 2022 at the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Kenny Leon.
Casting TBA.
The play is about basketball superstar Lebron James, who brings together two friends who communicate best when they are talking and arguing about sports. An intimate exploration of the place that sports and athletes occupy in our emotional lives and relationships. It explores the star player’s impact on Cleveland, from his rookie season to the city’s historic championship, and the lives of these two unlikely friends.
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Talking of Noël Coward will take place Wed. Nov. 3 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s The Players.
Dana Ivey, Steve Ross, Shana Farr, Jeffrey Hardy, Liam Forde, Michael Lavine, and Barry Day.
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Venice, CA’s Pacific Resident Theatre has announced its 2021-22 season:
Stalled (Winter 2022), by Liesl Wilke & Andy Marsh. Seattle. A high end executive ladies room. Using music, song, and spoken word, Stalled follows four women, all stuck, but ready-to find their way forward.
The Rose Tattoo (Spring 2022).
One more production (Summer 2022) TBA.
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The Last Five Years will run Nov. 12 – Dec. 12 at Boston’s Lyric Stage, directed by Leigh Barrett.
Jared Troilo (Jamie) and Kira Troilo (Cathy).
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Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul will run Nov. 17 – Dec. 23 (opening Dec. 6 at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Tyne Rafaeli.
Dario Ladani Sanchez (Taroom), Francis Benhamou (Leyla), Mattico David (Jawid), and Marjan Neshat (Afiya).
Taroon once served as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Now it is 2013, and the Americans — and their promises of safety — have begun to withdraw. Taroon spends his days in hiding, a target of the increasingly powerful Taliban. On the eve of his son’s birth, he must remain in his sister’s apartment, or risk his life to see his child. With shattering precision, Sylvia Khoury’s tense drama traces the human cost of U.S. immigration policy and the legacy of our longest war.
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LA’s Geffen Playhouse has announced the selection of 8 local writers to participate in the 2021-22 cycle of The Writers Room, a forum for engagement and collaboration between Los Angeles playwrights.
Vivian Barns, Lisa Sanaye Dring, Weston Gaylord, Nicholas Pilapil, Michael Shayan, and the musical-writing team of Alexandra Kalinowski, Tova Katz & Katie Lindsay.
Playwright members gather monthly to share their work and receive feedback from their peers in a forum facilitated by Geffen Playhouse Director of New Play Development Rachel Wiegardt-Egel.
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The Actors Fund Virtual Gala will livestream Mon. Nov. 1 at 7 PM ET.
Debbie Allen, Niko Elmaleh, Stacey Mindich, and Seth Rudetsky & James Wesley,
Jason Robert Brown, Megan Fairchild, Santino Fontana, Syncopated Ladies, Jose Llana, Kelli O’Hara, Zachary Noah Piser, Michael Rosen, and Brian Stokes Mitchell, livestreams ET here.