Today’s Highlights:
The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, world premiere by Joe Iconis & Gregory S. Moss, directed by Christopher Ashley, featuring Gabriel Ebert (Hunter S. Thompson), George Abud (Nixon), Jeanette Bayardelle (Jann), Giovanny Diaz de Leon (Kidd), Marcy Harriell (Sandy), Lorinda Lisitza (Virginia), Lauren Marcus (Flower Child), George Salazar (Oscar), Ryan Vona (Juan), and Jason SweetTooth Williams (Ralph), with Summer Broyhill, Josiah Cajiudo, and Kürt Norby, opens at La Jolla Playhouse.
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The next Musi-Cal concert will take place Mon. Sept. 18 at 7 PM at Hollywood’s Bourbon Room, featuring songs from new musicals, co-hosted by Clayton Farris & Laura Schein.
Mirror Image, by JJ Warshaw & Laura Winters
Big Ass Secret, by Justin Anthony Long
What’s the Word, King?, by Ferman Suero Jr. & Pete White
Performers TBA.
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RIP: Lyricist and librettist Ellen Fitzhugh passed away July 14 at the age of 81, due to a battle with lung cancer.
Ms. Fitzhugh was best known for her work as lyricist for the Broadway musical Grind, which earned her a Tony nomination for Best Original Score and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Lyrics, both in 1985. Fitzhugh was also an occasional collaborator of Lapine, who notes that Stephen Sondheim was a great fan of her work.
Her additional stage work includes Paradise Found with Richard Nelson co-directed by Harold Prince and Susan Stroman; Herringbone with Tom Cone and Skip Kennon; Muscle with Lapine and William Finn; book and lyrics to Los Otros and The Nine Fathers of Ariel with Michael John LaChiusa. Her most recent musical was Los Otros, written with LaChiusa, which played Off-Broadway in 2022.
Fitzhugh also wrote the title song for MGM’s That’s Dancing with Larry Grossman and Henry Mancini, and songs for Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective with Grossman and Mancini. She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1989 for Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics for Shining Time Station on PBS.
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Peter Pan Goes Wrong has been extended through Sept. 17 at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre.
Neil Patrick Harris will join the cast for its final week Sept. 12-17.
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“Cabaret Conversations” will return to NYC’s 92NY this Fall:
James Jackson, Jr. & John-Andrew Morrison (Sept. 12)
Faith Prince: Sing the Authentic You! (Sept. 22 & 23), with Michael Kirk and Alex Rybeck.
Lucie Arnaz (Oct. 23)
Ginger Minj (Nov. 20)
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The Hudson Valley Dance Festival, in support of Dancers Responding to AIDS, will take place with two performances on Sat. Oct. 7 at both 2 & 5 PM at NY’s Catskill Point.
Choreographers and dancers TBA.
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Assassins will run Sept. 15 – Oct. 15 (opening Sept. 17) at Boston’s Lyric Stage, directed by Courtney O’Connor, with music direction by Dan Rodriguez, and choreography by Ilyse Robbins.
Christopher Chew, Shonna Cirone, Teddy Edgar, Kristian Espiritu, Daniel Forst Sullivan, Arthur Gomez, Jackson Jirard, Lisa Kate Joyce, Jacob Less, Darren Paul, Dan Prior, Robert St. Laurence, Kayla Shmizu, Jeffery Song, Phil Taylor, and Caleb Chew.
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Video: Matt Doyle as Frank Sinatra in Sinatra the Musical at the UK’s Birmingham Rep.
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San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon has announced its 2023-24 season. Casting and creative teams TBA.
Mame (Nov. 2-19), directed by Becky Potter.
Falsettos (Feb. 29 – Mar. 17, 2024), directed by Dennis Lickteig.
Forever Plaid (Apr. 18 – May 5), directed by Daniel Thomas
Bright Star (June 6-23), directed by Cindy Goldfield
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The world premiere of Renae Simone Jarrett’s Daphne will run Oct. 7 – Nov. 19 (opening Oct. 23) at Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater, directed by Sarah Hughes.
Jasmine Batchelor (Daphne) and Keilly McQuail (Winona), with Denise Burse, Naomi Lorrain, and Jeena Yi.
Daphne has left the city to live with her girlfriend Winona in the woods, and things in the house are beginning to sour. As the days slip through her fingers and a series of unsettling incidents make her question the boundaries of her reality, a strange transformation takes hold of Daphne’s body. Daphne is a surreal and moving new work about the stories we tell ourselves, and the moments we’re forced to choose between difficult truths and comfortable illusions.
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Jake Heggie & Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking will run Sept. 26 – Oct. 21 at NYC’s Metropolitan Opera, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Joyce DiDonato (Sister Helen Prejean), Ryan McKinny (Joseph De Rocher), Latonia Moore (Sister Rose), and Susan Graham (De Rocher’s Mother).
The story of a nun and a death row inmate in the weeks leading up to his execution.
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New dates have been announced for Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…BOOM!, which will now run Jan. 26 – Feb. 4 at the Kennedy Center, directed by Neil Patrick Harris.
Casting and additional information TBA.
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Audio: Ann Harada, Deb Radloff and Devil Ilaw perform “Closer, Higher, Thicker” from Crew Larimore & J. Oconor Navarro’s The New Peggy.
The new musical chronicles a very ordinary secretary named Peggy who has been stuck at her desk for the past 25 years, pining after her very ordinary boss.
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The Metropolitan Opera‘s annual Summer HD Festival continues this week, offering free screenings of operas from the Met’s catalogue, on the Lincoln Center Plaza.
Falstaff (Aug. 29 at 8 PM) Satyagraha (Aug. 30) Der Fliegende Holländer (Aug. 31) Marnie (Sept. 1) Wozzeck (Sept. 2) Resurrection (Sept. 4 & 5) Il Trovatore (Sept. 6)**********************
Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Being Alive will take place Thurs. Sept. 28 at 8 PM at CT’s Westport Country Playhouse.
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Selina Fillinger’s POTUS will run Oct. 13 – Nov. 12 (opening Oct. 19) at DC’s Arena Stage, directed by Margot Bordelon.
Naomi Jacobson (Harriet), Natalya Lynette Rathnam (Jean), Felicia Curry (Margaret), Kelly McAndrew (Bernadette), Megan Hill (Stephanie), Yesenia Iglesias (Chris), Sarah-Anne Martinez (Dusty), and Peregrine Teng Heard, Jasmine Joy, and Janet Greer.
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Cast changes have been announced for Little Shop of Horrors at the Westside Theatre.
Constance Wu (Audrey) and Corbin Blue (Seymour) begin their runs on Sept. 26.
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Video: “The Sondheim Legacy” is now available as part of its “THEATER: All the Moving Parts,” with Patrick Pacheco. (55:55)
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Hollywood’s Actors Co-op Theatre has announced its 2023-24 season (casting TBA):
Lewis and Tolkien (Sept. 22 – Oct. 29), world premiere written & directed by Dean Batali. Set in Oxford, England in the autumn of 1963 at the famous “Rabbit Room” of the Eagle and Child Pub, this play is something of a return to the familiar for C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Filled with humor, rousing debate, and reconciliation, the two men learn the true value of their friendship with a little help from a few pints of beer and the energetically curious barmaid, Veronica.
The Human Comedy (Oct. 29 – Nov. 5), written & directed by Thom Babbes.
Twelfth Night (Feb. 16 – Mar. 30, 2024), directed by Jesse Corti.
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The world premiere of Scott Elmegreen & Drew Fornarola’s Tiananmen: A Brave and Necessary New Musical will run Oct. 4-29 at the Phoenix Theatre (Link TBA), directed by Darren Lee, with music direction by Kevin White, and choreography by Kristine Bendul.
Zachary Noah Piser (Peiwen), Ellie Wang, Sami Ma, Brandon Chu, Kennedy Kanagawa, Austin Ku, Michael Ching, Marc Oka, Sy Chounchaisit, Brandon Gille, Kuppi Jessop, Danielle Mendoza, Emma X. O’Loughlin, Andrea Somera, Raymond Dimaano, Rommel Pierre O’Choa, and Cindy Tsai.
A love story against the backdrop of the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square that were violently suppress by the Chinese Communist Party.