Today’s Highlights:
Velour: A Drag Spectacular, by Sasha Velour & Moses Kaufman, directed by Kaufman, featuring Sasha Velour, Ezra Reaves, Moscato Sky, and Amber St. James, with Shaun Tuazon, begins previews at CA’s La Jolla Playhouse.
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Reviews for Once Upon a Mattress at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre:
New York Times (Elizabeth Vincentelli): …in Once Upon a Mattress, it’s the funny people who rule, both literally and figuratively. All the more so since Winnifred and Dauntless are played by Sutton Foster and Michael Urie in symbiotic performances that are highly controlled and precise while maintaining the appearance of off-the-cuff abandon. And with the rest of the cast mostly following suit, it is refreshing to see actors so actively dedicating themselves to entertaining their audience… Once Upon a Mattress turns out to be surprisingly sturdy in the right hands… The production just barrels forward under the direction of Lear deBessonet — who adds to her streak of successfully staging musicals riffing on fairy tales…
Theatermania (Kenji Fujishima): …this Broadway transfer also reminded me of the subtle depths underlying the fluffy surface of Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer’s take on fairy tales… great parodies often exude genuine affection for their original material…. Even as the narrating Jester (Daniel Breaker) cracks jokes at the tale’s expense, we’re also invested in seeing Dauntless break free from his mother’s clutches and in seeing Fred puncture the patina of royalty with cathartic glee… That’s the quiet strength of director Lear deBessonet’s no-frills staging, which allows subtle themes to shine through… deBessonet’s handling of the cast that stands out the most… All the actors,…turn in deliciously over-the-top comic performances. But this is Foster’s show, and even more amazing than her vocal pipes, physical dexterity, and attention to emotional detail is the way all of it feels spontaneous…
Variety (Daniel D’addario): Sutton Foster Is an Awkward Fit in a Musical That’s Not Quite Broadway Royalty… has precious little story to speak of… Amy Sherman-Palladino …tends to try to solve for the play’s deficiencies with an attitude that is something less than winning… a somewhat relentless period of setting up the stakes and political environment of the kingdom… the wait for Foster’s arrival grows tedious. Similarly, once the test is set up, the second act spins its wheels, with musical numbers tangent or basically unrelated to the plot of the show… when Foster is onstage, an element of her fundamental miscasting clangs… We feel her trying, though, and this effort gives Once Upon a Mattress an unsettled, nervous-making quality.
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David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross will opens in Spring 2025 (dates and theater TBA), directed by Patrick Marber.
Keiran Culkin (Richard Roma), Bob Odenkirk (Shelly Levene), Bill Burr (Dave Moss), and more TBA.
The play follows four Chicago real estate agents. Over two days, the group stops at nothing to make the next sale, primarily the prime real estate in Glengarry Highlands that they want to turn into a repeat of their past success with Glen Ross Farms.
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TheatreWorks Silicon Valley‘s annual New Works Festival, presenting plays and musicals in their early stages of development, continues through Aug. 18 at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre.
5 & Dime, by Ashley Robinson, Dan Gillespie Sells , Shakina, directed by Giovanna Sardelli. Set in a small Texas town in 1975, the all-female fan club of ’50s heartthrob James Dean hosts a reunion commemorating the 20th anniversary of the actor’s death, recalling the life-changing period when Dean, along with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, were in nearby Marfa, Texas filming Giant.
Molly Bell’s Hysterical, written by & starring Molly Bell, directed by Timothy Near. A one-woman madcap musical ride through motherhood.
Liebling, by Vichet Chum, directed by Jeffrey Lol. A drama about two American writers confronting their separate German and Cambodian war-haunted heritages.
A Driving Beat, by Jordan Ramirez Puckett, directed by Shannon R. Davis. A play about identity and self-discovery brought to light by a mother-son cross-country road trip, set to the teen’s hip-hop beat.
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The Best of Broadway, in support of Sandy Hook Promise, will take place Sun. Sept. 22 at 6 PM at Fairfield, CT’s SHU Community Theater, hosted by James Naughton & Rex Fowler, with music direction by Beth Ertz.
James Naughton, Craig Schulman, Alton Fitzgerald White, Gay Wilis , Robert Cuccioli, Terry Eldh, and Paul Schoeffler, with Joseph Gray, Rex Fowler, Dodie Petitt, Joseph Gray, Grace Backus, Scott Mikita, Paige Backus, Grace Hutchinson, and Frank Mastrone.
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Kevin Murphy & Dan Studney’s Reefer Madness the Musical continues through Sept. 15 at LA’s Whitley Theatre (6555 Hollywood Blvd.), directed & choreographed by Spencer Liff, with music direction by David Lamoureux
Anthony Norman (Jimmy Harper), Darcy Rose Byrnes (Mary Lane), J. Elaine Marcos (Sally De Bain), Nicole Parker (Mae Coleman), Thomas Dekker (Ralph Wiley), and Bryan Daniel Porter (The Lecturer/Jack/Jesus), with Andre Aultman, Claire Crause, Jane Papageorge, Alex Tho, David T. Crane, and Natalie Holt MacDonald.
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A 2-city tour of Annie will run Nov. 12 – Dec. 1 at the Chicago Theatre, followed by a Broadway run Dec. 4 – Jan. 5, 2025 at Madison Square Garden, directed by Jenn Thompson (who, at the age of 10 stepped into the role of “Pepper” in the Original Broadway production), with choreography by Patricia Wilcox, and music direction by Matthew Smedal. The tour will then continue to more than 25 cities. Click here for the tour schedule.
Whoopi Goldberg (Miss Hannigan), and more TBA.
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Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold on to Me Darling will run Sept. 24 – Dec. 22 (opening Oct. 16) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, directed by Neil Pepe.
Adam Driver (Strings mcCrane), Heather Burns (Nancy), Adelaide Clemens (Essie), Keith Nobbs (Jimmy), CJ Wilson (Duke), and Frank Wood (Mitch).
On learning of his mother’s death, country music icon Strings McCrane (Driver) finds himself in an existential tailspin. The only way out, he decides, is to abandon superstardom in favor of the simple life, so he moves back to his hometown in Tennessee. The simple life turns out to be anything but simple in this brilliantly observed tragicomedy, as the consequences of Strings’s success and mind-bending effects of his fame prove all but impossible to outrun.
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Liza Minnelli will be bringing her life story to the page in a new memoir, due to be published in the Spring of 2026. Additional details TBA.
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Complete casting has been announced for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, to begin previews Sept. 28 and open Oct. 20 at the St. James Theatre, directed by Jamie Lloyd, with choreography by Fabian Aloise, and music direction by Alan Williams.
Nicole Scherzinger (Norma Desmond), Tom Francis (Joe Gillis), Grace Hodgett Young (Betty Schaefer), and David Thaxton (Max Von Mayerling), Mandy Gonzalez (Norma Desmond at select performances), Caroline Bowman (Norma Desmond standby), Olivia Lacie Andrews (Nancy Brandon Mel Borkowsky (John), Shavey Brown (Finance Man/Stan/DeMille), Hannah Yun Chamberlain (Young Norma), Cydney Clark (Joanna/Guard), Raúl Contreras (Finance Man/Frank), Tyler Davis (Sheldrake), E.J. Hamilton (Lisa), Sydney Jones (Dorothy), Emma Lloyd (Mary/Heather),Pierre Marais (Sammy),Shayna McPherson (Camera Operator/Katherine), Jimin Moon (Morino(Hog Eye), Justice Moore (Jean), Drew Redington (Myron/Jones/Camera Operator), and Diego Andres Rodriguez (Artie), with Giuseppe Bausilio, Kristina Garvida Doucette, Brandon LaVar, Maggie Likcani, Abby Matsusaka, and Rixey Terry.
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Charles Kirsch, the 16-year-old host of the podcast Backstage Babble, has been documenting the stories and insights of legends in the theater industry for over four years. Recently, Backstage Babble marked its 200th episode with a two-part celebration.
An exclusive, in-depth interview with director Jack O’Brien, the recent recipient of the 2024 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, is available here.
The entire backlog of interviews can be accessed here.
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Chris Thile & Claire Coffee’s The Manhattan Variations will run Aug. 14 -18 (opening Aug. 15) at NYC’s Little Island.
Tenzin Donsel, Julia Gu, Kewulay Kamara, Malcolm Opoku, Shubhra Prakash, Irwin Sánchez, and Dmitris Stefanidis.
A musical memoir that revolves around the legendary Lower East Side cocktail bar Milk & Honey. With a tapestry of music and stories, Thile recalls his younger self – a hungry artist, fresh to New York– searching for a drink and finding instead something more like home behind Milk & Honey’s velvet curtain. Throughout the original score by Thile, his quintessentially intricate mandolin work recalls the delicacy and precision with which a great cocktail is made.
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Video. Highlights from Nine at the Kennedy Center, featuring Steven Pasquale, Lesli Margherita, and more.
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Complete casting has been announced for Scott Elmegreen & Drew Fornarola’s Ghost of John McCain, to run Sept. 3 – Nov. 10 (opening Sept. 24) at the Soho Playhouse, directed by Catie Davis, with choreography by Sunny Min-Sook Hitt.
Jason Tam (John McCain), Luke Kolbe Mannikus (Donald Trump), Aaron Michael Ray (Donald Trump’s Brain), Zonya Love (Kamala Harris/Eva Peron/Karen), Lindsay Nicole Chambers (Hillary Clinton/Daughter-Wife/Sexy Lady Fox News Anchor, and Ben Fankhauser (Roy Cohn/Lindsey Graham/Joe Biden), with Anthony Zambito, Gisela Adisa, Joshua David Robinson, and a TBA actress (Kamala Harris).
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Steve Ross: I Remember Him Well – The Songs of Alan J. Lerner concert, at 7 PM at NYC’s Birdland.