GRACE NOTES: Tuesday, August 17, 2021

 

Today’s Highlights:

  Jersey Boys, directed by Des McAnuff, featuring Ben Joyce (Franke Valli), Adam Bailey (Bob Gaudio), Karl James Wilson (Nick Massi), and Benjamin Yates (Tommy DeVito), Ben Irish (Bob Crewe,) Mark Isherwood (Gyp de Carlo), Koko Basigara (Lorraine), Melanie Bright (Mary Delgado), Jack Carl Douglas (Norm/Hank), Matteo Johnson (Joe Pesci), Jacob McIntosh (Barry Belson), and Helen Ternent (Francine), with Elliot Allinson, Jack Campbell, Huon Mackley, Bonnie Page, and Andy Smith, re-opens at London’s Trafalgar Theatre.

 Lincoln Center‘s BAAND Together outdoor dance performances, featuring Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem, opens at Damrosch Park.

  “Adam Pascal…So Far” concert begins streaming on demand at 9 PM ET on Stellar.

  A Little New Music concert, featuring the songs of Jessica Fleitman and rick Bassett, livestreams for FREE at 10 ET/7 PM PT here.

  “Original Cast Album: Company” new Blue-fay & DVD of the 1970 documentary, featuring John Mulaney,  Renée Elise Goldsberry, Richard Kind, Alex Brightman, Paula Pell, and more, released here.

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  Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enough will run in 2022 at a Broadway theatre TBA, directed by Camille A. Brown.

Dates, casting, and additional information TBA.

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  Video: Ben Platt performs “I Wanna Love You But I Don’t”

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Baltimore Center Stage has announced its 2021-22 season: 

  The Swindlers: A True-ish Tall Tale (Sept. 2-26), by Noah Diaz, directed by Will Davis.  Marie is plagued by the winter blues. Her boyfriend’s a dud, her bank statements are piling up, and her job at the local dry cleaners feels like a dead end. Oh, and the FBI has just seized her house and assets in their pursuit of her father, a notorious con man on the run for swindling families and businesses out of their money. When Marie is used as bait to lure her father in, she inexplicably finds herself stuck on a road trip with him to acquire stolen funds.

  Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities (Nov. 27 – Dec. 19), by Anna Deavere Smith, directed by Nicole Brewer.  In the late summer of 1991, long simmering tensions between Black and Jewish residents of Crown Heights Brooklyn erupted in a series of violent events. The playwright interviewed more than 100 people about those tension-filled days.

  The Folks at Home (Mar. 17 – Apr. 10, 2022), by R. Eric Thomas, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb.  Roger and Brandon, an interracial couple living in South Baltimore, are doing the best they can. Their mortgage is late, Roger’s been laid off for months, and there might be a ghost in the attic. It’s a lot. And that was before all of their parents had to move in with them.

  Dream House (Apr. 21 – May 15), by Eliana Pipes, directed by Laurie Woolery. Two Latinx sisters guest star on an HGTV-style reality show to sell their family home in rapidly gentrifying Hilo Villa, California. As they perform for the camera, one sister grapples with turmoil in the family’s ancestral past while the other learns how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the family’s future. What is the cultural cost of progress in America? And is cashing in always selling out?

  Bakkhai (June 1-19), by Euripides, adapted by Anne Carson, directed by Mike Donahue. This isn’t your English teacher’s Greek tragedy. Dionysus, the god of wine, is totally over everyone’s drama, sot he’s going to incite the women of the land to raise hell. A cautionary tale about the consequences of a civilization’s fear of the unknown.

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Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater has announced its FreshPlay Online Summer Festival:

  FMK (expires Aug. 19 at Midnight ET), by Anya Jiménez, directed by Victor Cervantes Jr. After weeks of slowing becoming close and closer with Kai’s friend group, Aliyah finally goes to her first sleepover with the girls. Sour patch kids, young lesbian love, and astrology chards build to an unforgettable night.

  It’s Ok (expires Aug. 19 at Midnight ET), by Anya Anya Jiménez, directed by Victor Cervantes Jr. In an unknown dreamscape, seemingly out of time, a grieving mother grapples with a dramatic shift in her reality.

  Fragments of the Mind (expires Aug. 19 at Midnight ET), by Genesis A. Barthelemy, directed by Amara Janae Brady.  Sometimes a stranger can be just the friend you need. What happens when you coincidentally keep meeting the same stranger and it begins to feel like fate more than happenstance? In a series of encounters, two visionaries find solace in each other and develop an unbreakable bond, despite their daily struggles.

  Why We Run (Aug. 18 at 12 PM ET – Aug. 21 at Midnight ET), by Christel Robinson, directed by Ashley C. Turner. The only constant is change. The play focuses on the relationship between two teens as they face pivotal moments in their futures: college transitions, death, estrangement, sexuality, and more.

  The Butterfly Effect (Aug. 18 at 12 PM ET – Aug. 21 at Midnight ET), by Destiny Rivera, directed by Julissa Contreras. Works, smiles and laughs are exchanged and take effect. Two young individuals learn how to be vulnerable together. They go on a journey of the heart and realize that it is ok to be open and trust and not let fear stand in the way of feeling something new.

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  Yeah, But Not Right Now, written & performed by A.J. Holmes, will run Sept. 9-19 at the SoHo Playhouse, directed by Caitlin Cook.

Will you still like A.J. Holmes after he tells you all the worst, most embarrassing, humiliating irredeemable parts about himself? The lies, the indiscretions, the fact that he legally changed his first name to “Broadway’s”?… as A.J. tries to move past his crippling need for constant validation… in front of an audience. He’s been on stage and screen, but has he ever been… himself? And really, should he?

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  Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre‘s outdoor concert production of Camelot, directed by Scott Schwartz has been extended through Sept. 5 at 2011 Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton.

Jeremy Kushnier (Arthur), Britney Coleman (Guenevere), Deven Kolluri (Lancelot), Amaya Grier (Tom of Warwick), and Aaron Dalla Villa (Mordred), with Kyle Lopez Barisich, Hope Hamilton, James Harkness, David LaMarr, Cecelia Ticktin, and Kevin Wang.

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  NY City Center has announced initial casting for its 2022 Encores! season:

  The Tap Dance Kid (Feb. 2-6), directed by Kenny Leon, with music direction by Rob Berman, and choreography by Jared Grimes, music direction by Joseph Joubert, and featuring Dulé Hill (Dipsey).

  The Life (Mar. 16-20), directed by Billy Porter, with choreography by Camille A. Brown, featuring Chuck Cooper (Old Jojo), Mykal Kilgore (Young JoJo), Ledisi (Sonja), and Ken Robinson (Fleetwood).

  Into the Woods (May 4-15), directed by Lear deBessonet, with choreography by Jamal Sims, and music direction by Rob Berman, featuring Sara Bareilles (Baker’s Wife), Christian Borle (Baker), Heather Headley (Witch), and Ashley Park (Cinderella).

  Spring Gala (May 4 opening night of Into the Woods), which includes a benefit dinner with the cast and creative team at The Plaza Hotel.

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  Yeah, But Not Right Now, written & performed by A.J. Holmes, will run Sept. 9 – Oct. 17 (opening Sept. 19) at Soho Playhouse, directed by Caitlin Cook.

Will you still like Broadway’s A.J. Holmes after he tells you all the worst, most embarrassing, humiliating, potentially irredeemable parts about himself?

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  “Reminiscence,” starring Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson, will premiere Aug. 20 on HBO Max.

A private investigator of the mind navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories in this uplifting sch-fi thriller.

  Trailer,

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A Sherlock Carol, written & directed by Mark Shanahan, will run Nov. 11 – Jan. 2, 2022 (opening Nov. 22) at New World Stages.

Casting TBA.

When a grown-up Tiny Tim asks Sherlock Holmes to investigate the peculiar death of Ebenezer Scrooge, the Great Detective must use his tools of deduction to get to the bottom of the crime. But it is a dark and treacherous Christmas Eve, and once again the holiday is haunted by the spirits of the past, present and future.

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  Off-Broadway’s New Georges has announced its 2021 Fall season:

  Islander (Aug. 19 – Sept. 4), by Liza Birkenmeier, directed by Katie Brook, featuring David Gould, Dick Toth, and Aksel Latham-Mitchell. A retelling of the New York Islanders’ abysmal 2017-18 season, using verbatim NHL coverage.

  Future Wife: Party in a Spreadsheet (Sept. 17-20), by ruth tang, directed by Sarah Blush. “You’re invited to a Very Heterosexual Wedding, but we can’t have a real wedding, so we made one out of spreadsheets. It’s a dance party, so I hope you’re in comfortable footwear. It’s a potluck so I hope you bring some food. It’s a vast and terrifying landscape. It’s a barn filled with massive machines. Did I not say that? Don’t worry. You could be the one swaying on the lawyn to the rasp of knives being sharpened. Welcome. ”

  Exits (Sept. 30 – Oct. 4), created by Rachel Gita Karp, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, Emierie Snyder & Dina Voysi. The soundwalk performance takes place in Fort Greene spaces for small guided audiences, and will be available in in October to be experiences in person anytime.  FREE.

 


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