Today’s Highlights:
* Goodman Theatre‘s Fannie Lou Hamer, Speak On It!, adapted by Cheryl L. West, directed by Henry Godinez, starring E. Faye Butler, opens at various Chicago outdoor locations.
* Bulrusher FREE Zoom reading, written & directed by Eisa Davis, featuring Andre Holland, Kara Young, Tanis Parenteau, Edmund Donovan, and Cody Stoll, streams at 7 PM ET here.
* “BPN Town Hall: My Broadway Memory” live podcast, with guests Jennifer Ashley Tepper & Joe Iconis, streams at 7 PM ET here.
* “Nick Cordero: Live Your Life – Live At Feinstein’s / 54 Below,” with special guests Kathryn Ghallagher, Drew Gehling, Sara Chase, and Zach Braff, released on CD here.
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Video: “Stars in the House,” a “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” reunion, Part 2, with Rachel Bloom, Skylar Astin, Kat Burns, Donna Lynne Champlin, Peter Gardner, David Hull, Erick Lopez, Vella Lovell, Michael McMillan, Clark Moore, Burl Moseley, Esther Povitsky, Vincent Rodriguez III and Gabrielle Ruiz. (2:03:05)
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Darren Star’s dramedy, “Emily in Paris,” will premiere Oct. 2 on Netflix.
Lilly Collins and Ashley Park, with Philippine Leroy Beaulieu, Lucas Bravo, Samuel Arnold, Camille Razat, Bruno Gouery, Kate Walsh, William Abadie, and Arnaud Viard.
20-something Emily, an American from the Midwest, relocates to Paris for a job with a French marketing firm, and becomes friends with ex-pat Mindy, an au pair. The two have starkly different experiences adjusting to life in a new country.
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TUTS presents its Lights Up Houston gala on Sat. Nov. 7 at 8 PM CT, hosted by Ernie Manouse.
Brian Stokes Mitchell
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CA’s Rubicon Theatre will present the world premiere of Taylor Fagins’ A Song, to stream Sat. Sept. 19 at 7 PM PT and Sun. Sept. 20 at 2 PM PT, directed by Chris Butler.
Preston Butler III, Greta Oglesby, Krystle Rose Simmons, and Joe Spano.
One man’s struggle to find peace and purpose in a world wracked with civil unrest, racial injustice, and a public health crisis. A conversation about race, responsibility, hope and belonging in these uncertain times. Taylor takes us inside the life of Gill, and artist, a son, a lover and a young Black man in American who is fighting to find his footing in society and to create his own song.
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Video: Red Bull Theater’s reading of The Revenger’s Tragedy, adapted & directed by Jesse Berger, featuring Jason C. Brown, Denis Butkus, Saudia Davis, Ryan Farley, Claire Lautier, Paul Niebanck, Petronia Paley, Naomi Peters, Matthew Rauch, Russell Salmon, Yaegel Welch, Cecil Baldwin, Geraint Wyn Davies, Ryan Garbayo, Anthony Michael Martinez, Howard Overshown, Derek Smith, and Chauncy Thomas. Available until 7 PM ET on Sept. 18.
Written a few years after Hamlet, this thriller is a searing examination of humankind’s social need for justice and our animal desire for vengeance. Vindice, the “Revenger,” sets off a chain reaction of havoc in a corrupt and decadent Venice that exposes outrageous indulgences and government hypocrisy, and ends in a massacre of epic proportions. A gleefully macabre plot-twisting blender full of Shakespeare’s greatest hits.
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Article: Robert Westenberg‘s decision to continue on with a production of The Secret Garden at Missouri State University, despite Covid-19.
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Video: Lena Hall sings “My Funny Valentine” at R&H Goes Pop
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The Fabulous Chickies in Concert – A Benefit for the Actors Fund, will take place Sat. Oct. 3 at 5 PM PT here.
Eileen Barnett, Michele Brourman, Nancy Dussault, Julie Garnyé, Shelly Goldstein, Ilene Graff, Dana Meller, Karen Morrow, Valerie Perri, Joan Ryan, and Lisa Vroman.
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Pasadena Playhouse has announced its Fall 2020 Programming for PlayhouseLive, a first-of-its kind streaming platform to showcase theatrical productions to a national and international audience, which will launch Sept. 30. PlayhouseLive productions will offer a broad range of voices and perspectives while ensuring that access to the program will remain accessible to the widest possible audience.
* Still, starring Javon Johnson. A timely one-man performance about the complexities of the Black experience.
* Jerry Herman: You I Like, a new musical revue (casting TBA)
* New works from Ojai Playwrights Conference.
Pilot episodes of new series:
* In Development. An insiders’ look at unproduced theatrical works as they are introduced to the world for the first time.
* Intermission with Hashtag Booked features celebrity interviews (Alfred Molina is up first)
* Page to Stage takes you behind the curtain to explore the theatrical journey from conception to opening night.
* From the Archives celebrates the unique impact regional theater has had across generations in shaping American culture.
…and much more
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Project Shaw presents a reading of Caesar and Cleopatra, in support of The Actors Fund, adapted & directed by David Staller, on Sun. Sept. 27 at 2 PM ET on “Plays in the House” (link TBA). The reading will then be available for 4 days.
Jeff Applegate, Rajesh Bose, Brenda Braxton, Robert Cucioli, Dan Domingues, Jonathan Hadley, and Mirirai Sithole.
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Off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre has announced its 2020-21 season, with indoor performances expected in 2021.
* Lessons in Survival (begins Oct. 6 — ongoing), digital production, conceived by Marin Ireland, Peter Mark Kendall, Tyler Thomas, and Reggie D. White, directed by Thomas. The ongoing piece, which will develop throughout the season. In it, a collective of over 40 theatre artists—which includes Kyle Beltran, Brandon Dirden, Joe Morton, Deirdre O’Connell, Ryan Spahn, Myra Lucretia Taylor, and Thomas’ co-creators—explore conversations, speeches, and more of such Black voices as James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, Lorraine Hansberry, and Bayard Rustin.
* The Busking Project (select days Sept. 23 – Oct. 3). Bill Irwin returns to his street performing roots, taking place cross Union Square and the Flatiron district with reserved, socially-distanced spots for Vineyard Members.
Provided it is deemed safe to do so, the Vineyard will present three titles at its indoor venue in 2021 all dates TBA:
* Dana H., a return engagement, starring Deirdre O’Connell
* This Land Was Made, world premiere by Tori Sampson, directed by Whitney White. Oakland in 1967 was a powder keg of social activism ready to boil over into radical action. For patrons of Miss Trish’s bar, it’s all just talking points — until the full, seductive and explosive force of the revolution walks through the door.
* Sandra, world premiere by David Cale & Matthew Dean, directed by Leigh Silverman
Additionally, the Vineyard has granted mini-commissions to Ngozi Anyanwu, Kirsten Childs, Jared Mezzocchi, Polly Pen, and Madeline Sayet, who will develop digital or alternative theatre works throughout the season.
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Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company has announced additional titles to its short audio plays (each appx. 6 min.) – “Dream Boston.“
* Joy, by Elle Borders, directed by Melinda Lopez, featuring Jade Guerra and James Milord. A couple and their sleeping baby rush to the festivities in Franklin Park on Juneteenth 20205. Now available.
* The Rainman, by John Oluwole ADEkoje, directed by Rebecca Bradshaw, featuring Kadahj Bennett, Chris Tarjan, and Ricardo Pitts-Wiley. A former policeman meets a man from his past as he waits in a dreamscape 2024 version of a bus stop on Malcolm X Boulevard. Available Sept. 23.
* The View from MemChurch, by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro, directed by Caley Chase, featuring Emily Kuroda and Alberto Isaac. Two friends from the class of 1960 reunite in Harvard Yard on Commencement Day, May 24, 2025. Available Sept. 30.
* Virtual Attendance, by Miranda ADEkoje, directed by Pascale Florestal, featuring Becca A. Lewis and Ivy Ryan. Two white women in the 20s are on their way to an exercise class in a gentrified Nubian Square. Available Oct. 7.
* feeling now, by J. Sebastián Alberdi, directed by Caley Chase, featuring Cristobal Paulino and Adrian Peguero. Two freinds decide whether to part for the night after dancing at Machine, right outside Fenway Park on Aug. 23, 2023. Available Oct. 14.
* Echoes, by Patrick Gabridge, directed by Rosalind Bevan, featuring Omar Robinson and Rachel Cognata. Two friends make a late-night visit to the Old House on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre on Mar. 5, 2025. Available Oct. 21.
* The Moment Before the Lights Went Out on the Rothkos, by John Kuntz, directed by Rebecca Bradshaw. Two museumgoers encounter two Rothko paintings and discover the mystery of each other at the Harvard Art Museums on Jan. 22, 2022. Available Oct. 28.
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The Kennedy Center will present An Evening with Renée Fleming and Vanessa Williams: A Time to Sing on Sat. Sept. 26 at 8 PM ET, with music direction by Rob Mathes.
This concert will mark the first in-person performance at the Center since the pandemic began. The evening, which will also be live streamed and offered for on-demand viewing, will include a new song written for the concert by Andrew Lippa.
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The new comedy, The Extinction of Fireflies, written & directed by James Andrew Walsh, is currently being developed, and will be streamed on dates TBA.
Michael Urie, Tracie Bennett, Drew Droege, and Kario Marcel.
The play is set over Labor Day Weekend in New England, when James, a self-imagined playwright, invites longtime friend, TV diva Charlotte Christian, and occasionally-working actor Jay to read his latest dramatic effort. Jay brings along his new (and younger) lover Callisto.
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Laguna Playhouse will present Get Happy: Angela Ingersoll Sings Judy Garland (live from Chicago) on Sun. Oct. 11 at 4 PM PT.