Today’s Highlights:
Toni Stone, by Lydia R. Diamond, directed by Pam MacKinnon, featuring JaBen Early, Kenn E. Head, Rodney Earl Jackson Jr., Sean-Maurice Lynch, Jarrod Mims Smith, Gilbert L. Bailey II, Aldo Billingslea, and Santoya Fields, opens at DC’s Arena Stage.
Steve Tyrell in concert opens at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.
Yeah, But Not Right Now, written by & starring A.J. Holmes, directed by Caitlin Cook, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s SoHo Playhouse.
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Video: Stars in the House, offering House Calls with Dr. Jon LaPook, with special guests Kim Prather, Michael Mina, and Robert Schooley. (1:25:31)
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Complete casting has been announced for Keenan Scott II’s Thoughts of a Colored Man, which will begin previews Oct. 1 and open Oct. 31 at the Golden Theatre, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III.
Dyllón Burnside, Bryan Terrell Clark, Da’Vinchi, Luke James, Forrest McClendon, Tristan Mack Wilds, and Keith David, with Bjorn DuPaty and Garrett Turner.
As the sun rises on a single day in the pulsing heart of Brooklyn, seven Black men are about to discover the extraordinary – together. The piece blends spoken word, slam poetry, rhythm, and humor.
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The York Theatre will present a concert performance of Mimi Turque & Nancy Ford’s Blue Roses will take place Mon. Oct. 18 at 7 PM ET at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Jean’s (150 E. 76th Street), directed by Austin Pendleton, with music direction by Nancy Ford.
Anita Gillette (Amanda Wingfield), Piper Goodeve (Laura Wingfield), Jeff Kready (Jim O’Connor), and Howard McGillin (Tom Wingfield).
Based on The Glass Menagerie, this is the classic story of a frustrated writer and the memories of his overbearing mother, his troubled sister, and the gentleman caller who will shatter their world
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The world premiere of Joshua Allen’s October Storm will run Oct. 8-23 at NY’s Hudson Stage Company, directed by Cezar Williams.
Patricia R. Floyd, Yvette Ganier, Trevor Latez Hayes, Philipe D. Preston, and Courtney Thomas.
In 1960’s Southside Chicago, a troubled war veteran moves into an apartment building and the residents become caught in an emotional whirlwind that threatens to change their lives forever. In the center of the conflict are the building’s landlady, Mrs. Elkins, and her 16-year-old granddaughter, Gloria.
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Tammany Hall, a new site-specific, immersive theater experience created & directed by Darren Lee Cole & Alexander Wright, will run Oct. 15 – Jan. 9, 2022 (opening Nov. 2) at the SoHo Playhouse.
Casting TBA.
The play takes us back 92 years to Election Night, Nov. 2, 1929 for an up-close look at the corruption, scandal, romances and intrigue that brought New York’s most notorious political machine engage with 15 different rooms at one of New York’s historic Jazz Age hotspots. Jimmy Walker, Fiorello LaGuardia, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Legs Diamond, Betty Compton, Marion “Kiki” Roberts are just a few of the names and faces you’ll hear and see. Audiences observe their political machinations in the club room, spy on their trysts in the penthouse suite, peek in at Follies rehearsals on stage, and maybe even knock back a libation or two while conspiring with henchmen and government spies in the underground speakeasy. With all of these colorful characters roaming the halls, the venue itself is central to the story. For nearly two centuries, Tammany Hall was the behemoth political machine of New York’s Democratic Party. Though headquartered in Union Square, the Society of St. Tammany maintained a “clubhouse” in each of Manhattan’s electoral districts. Today, the façade of SoHo Playhouse is still marked as The Huron Club, Tammany’s presence in New York’s First Ward. Built in 1826 on property John Jacob Astor purchased from Aaron Burr, the building was reconfigured to its current layout in 1920. The meeting hall on the main floor was transformed into a theater, with a notorious clubhouse above, and a speakeasy below. It is rumored that Jimmy Walker and Betty Compton kept their love nest in the 4th floor penthouse.
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Verdi’s Il Trovatore will run Sept. 18 – Oct. 10 at LA Opera, conducted by James Conlon.
Guanqun Yu, Morris Robinson, Limmie Pulliam (Sept. 18 – oct. 3) and Gregory Kunde (Oct. 6-10).
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An Evening with Audra McDonald will take place Fri. Sept. 17 at 8 PM at Anaheim’s Grand California Hotel (at Disneyland).
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New Normal Rep will present the world premiere on-demand streaming production of the Julia Blauvelt’s F.I.R.E. Sept. 30 – Oct. 20, directed by Heather Arnson.
Jeffrey Bean, Kierra Bunch, Nathaniel P. Claridad, Ella Dershowitz, Aarom Matteson, Nygel D. Robinson, and Carol Todd.
It’s summer Drinks Night at an average Fifth Avenue hedge-fund, and, for the generally isolate back office accountants, the most important night of the year. But when an emergency audit comes crashing down on the team moments before the exodus, networking and free snacks are replaced with panic and chaos. If the gang is to get through the night unscathed, they will have to confront those all-too-avoidable truths that conveniently slip into the shadows of the corporate comfort.
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The world premiere of Whitney White’s Macbeth In Stride will run Oct. 23 – Nov. 14 (opening Oct. 29) at Cambridge’s A.R.T., directed by Whitney White, Tyler Dobrowsky Taibi Magar & Steven Cuevas, with music direction by Steven Cuevas, and choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.
Whitney White (Woman), Charlie Thurston (Man), Phoenix Best (Witch), Kira Helper (Witch), and Reggie D. White (Witch).
The piece examines what it means to be an ambitious Black woman through the lens of one of Shakespear’s most icon characters.
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The cast of Broadway’s Company will present a benefit concert for Darkness RISING on Mon. Sept. 20 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Birdland, with music direction by Paul Staroba.
Kathyrn Allison, Terence Archie, Nikki Renée Daniels, Matt Doyle, Claybourne Elder, Javier Ignacio, Christopher Sieber, Jennifer Simard, and Bobby Conte Thornton.
Darkness RISING is a non-profit organization composed of singers and musicians from the Black Broadway community and Black mental health providers whose purpose is to help those in both the Black community, as well as for Broadway show company members begin conversations about mental health, provide direct resources, and erase the negative stigma of mental health issues.
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An Intimate Conversation with Chita Rivera will take place Sat. Sept. 17 at 6 PM PT at Anaheim’s Grand California Hotel (at Disneyland).
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The Broadway production of Come From Away will stream Sept. 10 on Apple TV+.
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Chess in Concert will run Sept. 24-26 at San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon, directed by Daren A.C. Carollo & Danny Cozart, with music direction by Daniel Thomas.
Trixie Aballa, Jillian Bader, Faustino Cadiz, Sean Doughty, Nathanael Fleming, Katie Francis, Will Giammona, Cate Hayman, Lauren Jiang, Christopher Juan, Kamren Mahaney, Jennifer Martinelli, Nick Rodrigues, Johann Santos, B Noel Thomas, Katie Trim, and Jaron Vesely.
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5-Star Theatricals (link TBA) will present Mamma Mia! Oct. 15-24 at CA’s Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, directed by Richard Israel, with choreography by Stephanie Landwehr, and music direction by Anthony Lucca.
Kim Huber (Donna Sheridan), Eric Martsolf (Sam Carmichael), Nicolette Norgaard (Sophie Sheridan), Max Deloach (Sky), Brayden Hade (Harry Bright), Christopher Robert Smith (Bill Austin), Sandy Bainum (Tanya), Lisa Dyson (Rosie), Alexa Vennanoweth (Ali), Tyler Marie Watkins (Lisa), Christopher Jewell Valentin (Pepper), Anthony Broccoli (Eddie, and Julian Xavier (Father Alexandrios), with Parker Blakely, James Everts, Kristi Hawkesworth, Cassicy Love, Tyler Luff, Kaitlin Maxwell, Nathaniel Marks, AJ Morales, Taleen Shrikian, Stephanie Urko, and Racheal Yeomans.
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A Grand Night for Singing, a celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein, will run Sept. 24 – Nov. 8 at CT’s Goodspeed Musicals, conceived by Walter Bobbie, directed by Rob Ruggiero, with music direction by Adam Souza, and choreography by Lainie Sakakura.
Jasmine Forsberg, Mauricio Martinez, Jesse Nager, Mamie Parris, and Diane Phelan, with Kathryn Boswell and Kevin Schuering.
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A private industry reading of Byron Loyd & Susan Morse’s Rebel Boy Fireworks will take place Mon. Sept. 13 at NYC’s Open Jar Studios, directed by Jon Marans.
Arnie Burton (playing a multitude of characters).
Back in the 1960s, closeted Dennis Massey dreams of running away to Key West and becoming a solo pianist in a gay bar. But instead he finds himself unable to leave his small, sexually repressed hometown on the Alabama/Tennessee state line where he works as the town’s social correspondent, church organist, little theater director, and hair stylist. Some of the town’s eccentrics and albatrosses around Dennis’ neck include his slack-jawed Klansman brother, his brother’s chain-smoking bride, young flamboyant Cecil Chalmers, who longs to become an internationally renowned dramatic coloratura whom Dennis must protect from the town’s intolerance, and a county judge who thinks the problem with this country is that people have too many rights.