Today’s Highlights:
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), opens at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre.
The Upstairs Department, world premiere by Chelsea Marcantel, directed by Holly Twyford, featuring Annie Grove (Colleen), Joy Jones (Shiloh), and Zach Livingston (Luke), with Anna Shafer, Anissa Parekh, and Taylor Witt, opens at DC’s Signature Theatre.
A Walk on the Moon, by Pamela Gray, Paul Scott Goodman & AnnMarie Milazzo, directed by Sheryl Kaller, featuring Jackie Burns (Pearl Kantrowitz), Jonah Platt (Marty Kantrowitz) and John Arthur Greene (Blouse Man Walker Jerome), with Jill Abromovitz, Carly Gendell, Cody Braverman, Maya Jacobson, Wesley Zurick, Blair Goldberg, Jonathon Timpanelli, David R. Gordon, Megan Kane, Stephanie Lynn Mason, and Dan Rosales, opens at NJ’s George Street Playhouse.
Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Golden Sheild, by Anchuli Felicia King, directed by May Adrales, featuring Cindy Cheung, Fang Du, Kristen Hung, Daniel Jenkins, Michael C. Liu, Max Gordon Moore, Ruibo Qian, and Gillian Saker, begins previews at NY CityCenter.
The Lucky Star, by Karen Hartman, directed by Noah Himmelstein, featuring Skye Alissa Friedman (Genka), Danny Gavigan (Joseph), Nina Hellman (Mania), Eva Kaminsky (Klara/Felicia), Alexa Shae Niziak (Luisa), Alexandra Silber (Dola/Vita), Steven Skybell (Richard), Sky Smith (Craig), Dale Soules (Berta/Arnold), and Stuart Zagnit (Salo/Blaustein), begins previews at Off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theaters.
Hadestown national tour, by Anais Mitchell & Rachel Chavkin, directed by Chavkin, featuring Nicholas Baraasch (Orpheus), Morgan Siobhan Green (Eurydice), Levi Kreis (Hermes), Kimberly Marable (Persephone), Kevyn Morrow (Hades), Belén Moyano (Fate), Bex Odorisio (Fate), and Shea Renne (Fate), with Lindsay Hailes, Chibueze Ihuoma, Will Mann, Sydney Parra, and Jamari Johnson Williams, Tyla Collier, Ian Coulter-Buford, Alex Lugo, Eddie Noel Rodríguez, and J. Antonio Rodriguez, previews at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre.
Oklahoma!, directed by Daniel Fish, featuring Arthur Daryill (Curly), Anoushka Lucas (Laurey), Patrick Vaill (Jud Fry), James Davis (Will Parker), Liza Sadovy (Aunt Eller), Marisha Wallace (Ado Annie), Stavros Demetraki (Ali Hakim), Raphael Bushay (Mike), Greg Hicks (Andrew Carnes), Rebekah Hinds (Gertie Cummings), Ashley Samuels (Cord Elam), and Marie Mence (lead dancer), begins previews at London’s Young Vic.
Write Out Loud: From Contest to Concert Volume 3, hosted by Taylor Louderman, with music direction by Benjamin Raulhala, featuring Chloe Geller, Taylor Fagins, Kat Siciliano, Anna M Johnson, Matthew Peña, Grant Albright, Aria Braswell, Suzanna Champion, Vaibu Mohan, Rebecca Murillo, Jordan Silver & Luke Steinhauer, SMJ & Sarah Flaim, Isabel Stein & Simone Coltile, Bebe Browning, Jerusha Cavazos, Madison Deadman, Linedy Genao, Arielle Jacobs, Olivia Kaufmann, Derek Klene, Hannah Kloepfer, Desi Oakley, Tee Boyich, Gabe Violett, Heath Saunders, and Eleri Ward, at 9:30 PM ET at NYC’s 54 Below.
“Jagged Little Pill: The Novel,” based on the musical, released in hardcover and Kindle here.
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Reviews for Lincoln Center Theatre’s The Skin of Our Teeth at Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre:
NY Times (Alexis Soloski): …An antic ode to human resilience… Lileana Blain-Cruz’s gorgeous, restive direction… “I hate this play and every word in it,” she [Sabina] says, before throwing down her duster like a mic drop… Roslyn Ruff, eternally excellent… in most productions, the Antrobuses are white, but here they are Black, which lends that choice particular resonance, twisting the knife of human cruelty. This strategy doesn’t warp the play so much as deepen it… The whole of humanity doesn’t fit tidily into three acts, even assuming as much frame-breaking foolery as Wilder allows. In Blain-Cruz’s maximalist hands, it gets even bigger…
NY Daily News (Chris Jones): …an admirably imaginative treatment of the play that alas does much too little to find a way in for its audience… There are ideas on fire in this production, which features a cast entirely made up of actors of color and a suite of revisions to Wilder’s play by the gifted modern-day scribe Branden Jacob-Jenkins…Jacob-Jenkins deftly updates all of the stuff spoken directly to the audience, as Wilder surely would have liked… some fascinating performances, including Gabby Beans as the maid Sabina, bringing the show to life every time she shows up, and rich work from Roslyn Ruff and James Vincent Meredith as the Antrobus parents. There’s a powerfully huge ensemble.
New York Post (Johnny Oleksinski): The set is the real star of The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder’s geezer of a play… The supersize environs liven up a 1942 comedy that, at over three hours long, can feel rather prehistoric itself… sporadically funny acts… Lileana Blain-Cruz’s energetic staging is reminiscent of the Marvel miniseries “WandaVision”… There are always two choices: Do the play or don’t do it… with its visual appeal and committed cast, the pessimistic asides are hardly necessary… The second act — the weirdest and most immobile — is a convention of mammals on the Atlantic City, New Jersey, boardwalk..
Variety (Ayanna Prescod): …bizarre, abstract and convoluted; it’s not to be taken seriously. Or so Sabina (Gabby Beans) tells the audience… courageously but unevenly directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz… The play is organized around a mystifying philosophical concept… a three-act lesson on survival and the ability to start anew… filled with loose biblical references… The events of the play are chaotic, but in this production they connect to the chaos of the here and now in ways that left me bewildered and a little frazzled. The show jolts from one act to the next with little ease… At the performance I attended, other audience members, too, could be overheard whispering to each other for help in understanding what was — or wasn’t — going on…
Video: Production highlights.
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The 75 Annual Tony Award nominations will be announced by Adrienne Warren and Joshua Henry on Mon. May 9 at 9 AM ET on YouTube.
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Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theater has announced its 2019 all-female production of Mac Beth, which will be available to stream May 16-29, directed by Erica Schmidt.
Isabelle Fuhrman, AnnaSophia Robb, Sharlene Cruz, Sophie Kelly-Hedrick, Ismenia Mendes, Lily Santiago, and Ayana Workman.
On an autumn afternoon, in an empty lot outside the city, seven girls meet up to do a play. School uniform tartan transforms in this American urban wasteland. The girls are witches, ghosts, and kings. They hurl headlong into the unchecked passions of Macbeth – in Shakespeare’s original text – as the line between real life and blood fantasy quickly blurs. Through prophecies and smartphones, unexpected resonances emerge from Shakespeare’s dark nightmare of ambition gone awry. These young women discover what’s done and cannot be undone.
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The 2022 Tony Award nominations will be announced Mon. May 9 at 9 AM ET.
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Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli & Tye Blue’s Titanique will run June 14 – Sept. 25 (opening June 23) at the Asylum Theatre, directed by Tye Blue, with choreography by Ellenore Scott, and music supervision by Nicholas Connell.
Marla Mindelle (Céline Dion), Constantine Rousouli (Jack), Frankie Grande (Victor Garber), Kathy Deitch (Molly Brown), Ryan Duncan (Ruth), Alex Ellis (Rose), John Riddle (Cal), and Jay Alexander (The Iceberg), with Courtney Bassett, Donnie Hammond, and Dimitri Moise.
A parody of “Titanic”
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Liz Callaway has announced her upcoming concerts:
Hear Your Song: Broadway Stars Sing Songs By Kids (May 12 at 7 PM ET) at 54 Below (also livestreamed). Liz will also perform a song with lyrics written by 8-year-old Holland. Additional performers TBA. Click here for livestream tickets.
Broadway the Calla-way (May 14 at 8 PM ET) at MA’s North Shore Music Theatre, featuring both Liz and Ann.
Liz Callaway: Broadway and Beyond (June 23 at 7:30 PM CT) at Arlington Heights, Ill’s Metropolis Performing Arts Center.
To Steve with Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim (June 28-29) at NYC”s 54 Below, with special guest Liz’s son Nick.
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The 2022 Drama League Awards nominations have been announced here.
The awards will be presented May 20 at NYC’s Ziegfeld Ballroom.
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Video: Trailer for the documentary “Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known.” The film will be released May 3 on HBO and HBO Max.
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The Public Theater has announced complete casting for Richard III, to run June 17 – July 17 (opening June 23) at NYC’s Delacorte Theatre, directed by Robert O’Hara.
Danai Gurira (Richard III), Wyatt Cirbus (Prince of Wales), Sanjit De Silva (Buckingham), Sam Duncan (Duke of York), Monique Holt (Duchess of York), Gregg Mozgala (king Edward IV/Richmond), Paul Niebanck (George), Michael Potts (Lord Stanley), Ariel Shafir (Lord Hastings), Heather Alicia Simms (Queen Elizabeth), Ali Stroker (Anne), Sharon Washington (Queen Margaret), and Daniel J. Watts (Catesby Ratcliffe), with Maleni Chaitoo, Thaddeus Fitzpatrick, Skyler Gallun, Sarah Nina Hayoon, Matthew Jeffers, Matt Monaco, Xavier Pacheco, Marcus Rae Perez, Grace Porter, and N’yomi Stewart.
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The world premiere developmental production of Frank Wildhorn, Rinne B. Groff & Robin Lerner’s The song of Bernadette, to run May 19 – June 11, 2023 at Milwaukee’s Skylight Music Theatre, directed & choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, with music supervision by Jason Howland.
Casting TBA.
Based on Fran Werfel’s 1941 novel, the musical tells the true story of Bernadette Soubirous, a young woman living in the French town Lourdes who sees a vision that will change everything forever.
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Luc Plamondon & Richard Cocciante’s adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) will run July 13-17 (opening July 14) at Lincoln Center, directed by Gilles Maheu, with choreography by Martino Müller. The production will be performed in French with English supertitles.
Casting and additional information TBA.
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Kinky Boots will run July 8-10 at the Hollywood Bowl, directed & choreographed by original Broadway director Jerry Mitchell.
Wayne Brady (Lola), Jake Shears (Charlie), Kelly Marie Tran (Lauren), and more TBA.
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Broadway Speakeasy has announced its upcoming concert series, feature Broadway stars performing sets honoring jazz icons, at NYC’s Paradise Club.
Dez Duron (May 13-14)
Max von Essen (May 20-21)
Jessica Vosk (May 27-28)
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Boston’s 2022 Elliot Norton Award nominations have been announced. Click here for the list of all nominees.
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The world premiere of “Broadway Rising” will take place Mon. June 13 at 5 PM ET at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, directed by Amy Rice. Click here to select a screening time.
The film follows theatre subjects, ranging from stage doorman to actors, on their journey back to the stage following the historical COVID-19 shutdown. The synopsis teased that it will “paint a full picture of the strength and diversity of the people on the stage and behind the scenes, and their resilience, hope, and dedication of being part of Broadway’s re-opening.
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Video: Matthew Broderick & Harvey Fierstein discuss Funny Girl, Plaza Suite, and more…
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Goodspeed Musicals will hold industry readings of Private Gomer Jones on May 2 in NYC, written & directed by Marshall Pailet, with choreography by Misha Shields, and music direction by Madeline Benson.
Ashley Pérez Flanagan, Henry Walter Greenberg, Pomme Koch, and Sarah Stiles, with Christina Marie Cogswell, Laura Dadap, David Aron Damane, Brandon Espinoza, Dickie Hearts, Sarah Killough, Jared Loftin, and Cash Maciel.
Based on true events, the new musical follows a young World War I sniper who has profound hearing loss. As he bonds with the various vibrant members in his unit, he faces the brutality of war and wrestles with the nature of violence.