Today’s Highlights:
Second Stage‘s To My Girls, world premiere by JC Lee, directed by Stephen Brackett, featuring Bryan Batt, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Carman Lacivita, Noah J. Ricketts, Maulik Pancholy, and Britton Smith, opens at Off-Broadway’s Tony Kiser Theatre.
Katie Webber begins her run as Rhonda in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
Macbeth, directed by Sam Gold, featuring Daniel Craig (Macbeth), Ruth Negga (Lady Macbeth), Phillip James Brannon (Ross), Grantham Coleman (MacDuff), Asia Kate Dillon (Malcolm), Maria Dizzia (Lady Macduff), Amber Gray (Banquo), Emeka Guindo (Fleance), Paul Lazar (Duncan), Bobbi MacKenzie (Macduff’s Child), Michael Patrick Thornton (Lennox), Danny Wolohan (Seyton), and Stevie Ray Dallimore (standby for Macbeth), with Che Ayende, Eboni Flowers, and Peter Smith, resumes previews at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre.
A Strange Loop, by Michael R. Jackson, directed by Stephen Brackett, featuring Jaquel Spivey (Usher), Antwayn Hooper (Thought 6), L. Morgan Lee (Thought 1), John-Michael Lyles (Thought 3), James Jackson (Thought 2), John-Andrew Morrison (Thought 4), and Jason Veasey (Thought 5), begins previews at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre.
A Case for the Existence of God, world premiere by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by David Cromer, featuring Kyle Beltran and Will Brill, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Signature Center.
Pan Asian Rep‘s Citizen Wong, by Richard Chang, directed by Ernest Abuba & Chongren Fan, featuring Bonnie Black, Shing Chung, Scott Klavan, Nick Jordan, Malka Wallick, and Tobias Wong, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s A.R.T./New York Theatres.
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Reviews for The Little Prince at Broadway’s Broadway Theatre:
NY Times (Elisabeth Vincentelli): Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, a megaselling classic of children’s literature… begins with a crash landing. Now, an adaptation of the beloved tale has made a similarly unfortunate entrance on Broadway… The show is trying to juggle theater, dancical, circus, cabaret and everybody’s favorite: philosophical musing… underwhelming mishmash… an uncomfortable hybrid… not strong enough to prevent the mind from wandering… despite a seemingly willing crowd…no one knew when or if to applaud. Reaction was not sought, connection was rarely made and the entire experience was more soporific than emotionally revealing.
NY Daily News (Chris Jones): In his allegorical 1943 French novella “The Little Prince,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote, “One sees clearly only with the heart.” So why, one might reasonably ask, is the new family-oriented…such a cold and removed affair?… But despite a seemingly willing crowd in the seats at Saturday’s performance, no one knew when or if to applaud. Reaction was not sought, connection was rarely made and the entire experience was more soporific than emotionally revealing… The screen just lives there, swallowing up humanity, the prince, the planets and this entire show.
NY Post (Johnny Oledsinski): The Little Prince, based on the old French novel, owes New York audiences a pleading désolé. Or, perhaps, NYC should apologize for booking it… The woeful touring dance show…does not belong whatsoever where it’s currently situated. In music, dance, design and storytelling, Little comes up short… The set, such as it is, is comprised of lazy, textureless projections. That said, nothing over the nearly two hours is as compelling as your average brainwashing cult leader.
Theatermania (Pete Hempstead): …You could …say that its new translation to the stage… is a kid’s show for grown-ups… High-flying theatrics and feats of agility would seem like an inspired way to tell the Little Prince’s tale of planet-hopping and self-discovery, but unfortunately this production fails to capture the imagination the way the book does, and for the most part it underwhelms… The vast stage of the Broadway Theatre does work for this show in one respect — it highlights the physical and existential isolation of the Little Prince. In another respect, however, the sheer size of the stage swallows the production…
Video: Highlights
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Reviews for The 47th at London’s Old Vic:
The Guardian (Arifa Akbar): Donald Trump’s inner circle has, in Mike Bartlett’s satire, turned into a Shakespearean court of a near future in which the former president is back in the game. The script, best in its granular moments of comedy, blends billionaire pomp with political chicanery, dynastic family drama and blank verse… Bertie Carvel’s Trump calls himself the devil and proceeds to have all the best lines… Tamara Tunie as Kamala Harris is just as magnetising in her performance… this play is partly spoken in iambic pentameter but despite the literary ingenuity in Bartlett’s script, it falls oddly flat.
Evening Standard (Nick Curtis): …Mike Bartlett’s blank-verse drama about Trump running for president (again) is eloquent and clever, but has surprisingly little to say… despite an astonishing, hideously transformative central performance from Bertie Carvel as the tangerine narcissist, the show lands disappointingly. The Shakespearean echoes – Lear, Macbeth, Richard III, Julius Caesar – are too pat, the dramatic events a rehash of the most egregious elements of Trump’s original campaign and his four years in power. Rupert Goold’s production is slick but also oddly weedy…
Independent (Anya Ryan): …[Bertie] Carvel is unrecognisable. Hunched and puckered lipped, he is the full embodiment of the 45th president – with rigid hand gestures, a blond-dyed quaffed hairstyle and all. More than just an impersonation, though, this is a whirlwind, career-defining performance… Writer Mike Bartlett has crafted an epic… Written in blank verse, it is a riff on a Shakespearean tragedy… It is in his writing of the everyman that Bartlett’s drama takes shape… let’s just hope things don’t play out the way Bartlett has written them.
Hollywood Reporter (Demetrios Matheou): It’s the nightmare scenario that is all too plausible: Donald Trump throws his hat back into the ring in the next U.S. presidential election. Still uninterested in serving the country. Out for revenge. British playwright Mike Bartlett dips his toe into that disturbing prospect with a new play that, like Trump himself, veers between the terrifying and the outrageously comic… Bartlett attempts to add a Shakespearean timbre to proceedings, with mixed success this time… a remarkable performance at its center from Bertie Carvel…
Video: Teaser
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Conrad Ricamora (Seymour) will depart Little Shop of Horrors on May 15 at the Westside Theatre.
He will be replaced by Skylar Astin on May 17.
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Article: Joel Grey looks back at his life in the theater.
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Gingold Theatrical Group, in honor of Shakespeare’s 458th birthday, will present a Shakespeare Sonnet Soiree on Sat. Apr. 23 at 6 PM ET on GTG’s Facebook page.
TBA.
A virtual open mic! Come as you are and share what you’d like: a Shakespeare Sonnet or quote or a song based on a sonnet. This is a birthday party – not a fundraiser!
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Video: Trailer for London’s Cabaret, starring Eddy Redmayne.
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Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center has announced its 2022-23 Broadway & concert season:
The Book of Mormon (Sept. 5-10)
Hamilton (Sept. 28 – Oct. 16)
Chris Mann in concert (Oct. 20-22)
Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Nov. 9-27)
Jessica Vosk in concert (Nov. 17-19)
Aaron Lazar and Kerry O’Malley in concert (Dec. 15-17)
To Kill A Mockingbird (Dec. 27 – Jan. 8, 2023)
Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery in concert (Jan. 19-21)
Frozen (Feb. 1-19)
Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway (Mar. 30 – Apr. 1)
Hairspray (Apr. 18-30)
Jason Robert Brown in concert (Apr. 27-29)
Chicago (May 16-21)
SIX (June 13-25)
Tina — The Tina Turner Musical (July 11-23)
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Due to a recent outbreak of COVID in the company of Plaza Suite, which necessitated shutting down the production for a few days, the producers have announced an extension through July 1 at the Hudson Theatre.
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Playbill: The Game Show. Click here to play along.
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Initial casting has been announced for Somi Kakoma’s Dreaming Zenzile, to run May 17 – June 16 (opening June 1) at New York Theatre Workshop, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz.
Kakoma (Miriam Makeba), Aaron Marcellus, Naledi Masilo, and Phumzile Sojola, with more TBA.
The life of South African music artist and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba, delving into her work and the ways she connected with people in the moment and the ancestors who called her.
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Anna Deveare Smith’s Twighlight: Los Angeles, 1992 will run Apr. 27 – May 15 (opening Apr. 29) at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre Company, directed by Chris Butler & Jenny Sullivan.
Chris Butler.
The production premieres on the 30th anniversary of the day the verdict was announced in an East Ventura County courtroom in the Rodney King Trail, triggering the L.A. Riots – one of the largest social explosions of the 20th century.
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Video: Joel Grey‘s 90th birthday in NYC.
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Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre has announced its 2022/23 season (dates, Creative teams & casting TBA)
The Griswold’s Family Vacation, world premiere by David Rossmer & Steve Rosen, directed & choreographed by Donna Reore.
Choir Boy, by Tarell Alvin McCraney, director TBA.
The Wiz, directed & choreographed by Kelli Foster Warder.
Into the Woods, directed by Bill Berry.
Sweeney Todd
Les Misérables
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The 2022 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to U.K. playwright Benedict Lombe for her debut play Lava.
A story about unravelling the patterns of chaos across history-questioning nationhood narratives, and the process of naming the unnamable. British Congolese woman, “Her,” receives an unexpected letter from the British Passport office and is forced to confront an old mystery: why does her South African passport not carry her first name? In her quest for answers, she finds a much bigger story.
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Ken Page: There’s So Much To Talk About… (And Sing About, Too) will take place (both live and livestreamed) Wed. May 4 at 7 PM ET at 54 Below, directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, with music direction by Joseph Joubert.
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Tyla Abercumbie’s Relentless, currently running at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, continues through May 8, directed by Ron OJ Parson.
Ayanna Bria Bakari (Anelle/Mother), Jaye Ladymore (Janet), Demetra Dee (Zhuukee, aka Annabelle Lee), Travis Delgado (Marcus), Rebecca Hurd (Mary Anna Elizabeth), and Exavier Edward King (Franklin).
The play weaves a mother’s past with her daughter’s present in a centuries-spanning tale of family, legacy, and progress.
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Proctors has announced its 2022-23 season in Schenectady:
Aladdin (Oct. 11-23). Casting and creative team TBA.
Hairspray (Dec. 6-11), featuring Andrew Levitt aka Nina West (Edna Turnblad), Niki Metcalf (Tracy Turnblad), and Sandie Lee (Motormouth Maybelle), with more TBA.
Hamilton (Mar. 14-19, 2023) national tour.
Tootsie (Apr. 11-16) national tour.
Jagged Little Pill (Ma 2-7) national tour.
Ain’t Too Proud (May 23-28) national tour.