Today’s Highlights:
Soft Power, by Jeanine Tesori & David Henry Hwang, directed by Ethan Heard, featuring Steven Eng (DHH), Daniel May (Xue Xing), and Grace Yoo (Hillary Clinton), with Eymard Cabling, Andrew Cristi, Jonny Lee Jr., Quynh-My Luu, Christopher Mueller, Ashley D. Nguyn, Chani Werely, Nicholas Yenson, SumiéYotsukura, Olivia Clavel-Davis, Brian Dauglash, Emily Song Tyler, and Joey Urgino, opens at DC’s Signature Theatre.
Jitney, by August Wilson, directed by Ken-Matt Martin, featuring Steve H. Broadnax III (Doub), Victor Musoni (Youngblood), Ryan Broussard (Booster), Robert Cornelius (Becker), Anthony Irons ( Turnbo), Ireon Roach (Rena), Aaron Smith (Fielding), and Will Adams (Shealy), opens at Arkansas Rep.
Porchlight Music Theatre‘s Broadway in your Backyard outdoor concert series, directed by Frankie Leo Bennett, featuring Lydia Burke, Tafadzwa Diener, Michael Earvin Martin, Luke Nowakowski, Juwon Tyrel Perry, and Bethany Thomas, concludes its run at Chicago’s Washington Square Park.
**********************
Complete casting has been announced for Marco Pennette, Julia Mattison & Noel Carey’s Death Becomes Her, to begin previews Oct. 23 and open Nov.21 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, directed & choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, with music supervision by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.
Megan Hilty (Madeline Ashton) and Jennifer Simard (Helen Sharp), Christopher Sieber (Ernest Menville), and Michelle Williams (Viola Van Horn), with Marija Abney, Lauren Celentano, Sarita Colon, Kaleigh Cronin, Natalie Charle Ellis, Taurean Everett, Michael Graceffa, Neil Haskell, Kolton Krouse, Josh Lamon, Sarah Meahl, Ximone Rose, Sir Brock Warren, Bud Weber, Ryan Worsing, and Warren Yang. Swings Kyle Brown, Lakota Knuckle, Johanna Moise, and Amy Quanbeck.
Helen Sharp is the long-suffering author (just ask her) who lives in her shadow. They have always been the best of frenemies…until Madeline steals Helen’s fiancé away. As Helen plots revenge and Madeline clings to her rapidly fading star, their world is suddenly turned upside down by Viola Van Horn, a mysterious woman with a secret that’s to die for. After one sip of Viola’s magical potion, Madeline and Helen begin a new era of life (and death) with their youth and beauty restored…and a grudge to last eternity.
**********************
Young Frankenstein has been extended through Sept. 29 at Pittsburgh CLO, directed by Joel Ferrell.
Dan Deluca (Dr. Frederick Frankenstein), Tim Hartman (Monster), Theo Allyn (Frau Blücher), Susana Cordón (Elizabeth Benning), Daniel Krell (Inspector Hans Kemp/Bertram Batram, The Hermit), and Alex Sheffield (Inga), with J. Alex Noble and Mandie Patsy.
**********************
Michael John LaChiusa’s See What I Wanna See, directed by Emilio Ramos, will run Sept. 4-29 (opening Sept. 18), at 154 Christopher Street (formerly the New Ohio Theatre), directed by Emilio Ramos, and music direction by Adam Rothenberg.
Marina Kondo (Kesa, Klevin Moon Loh, Zachary Noah Piser, Ann Sanders, and Sam Simahk, with Aaron Albano and Bebe Browning.
Based on three short stories by Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Rashomon), OOTB’s production of See What I Wanna See features an all-AAPI cast of actors and elements inspired by traditional Asian theater practices, bringing LaChiusa’s Americanized adaptation into conversation with the Asian-American experience.
**********************
A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters will take place Sat. Aug. 24, 2024 at 2 PM at Theatre 40 (241 S. Moreno Drive), directed by Jules Aaron.
Juliet Mills and Maxwell Caulfield.
**********************
Manhattan Theatre Club‘s production of Jez Butterworth’s The Hills of California Sept. 11 – Dec. 8 (opening Sept. 29) at the Broadhurst Theatre, directed by Sam Mendes.
Laura Donnelly (Joan/Veronica), Leanne Best (Gloria), Ophelia Lovibond (Ruby), Helena Wilson (Jill), Nancy Allsop (Young Gloria), Sophia Ally (Young Ruby), Lara McDonnell (Young Joan), and Nicola Turner (Young Jill), with Bryan Dick, Richard Short, David Wilson Barnes, Richard Lumsden, Ta’Rea Campbell, Sawyer Barth, Ellyn Heald, Cameron Scoggins, and Max Roll. The company understudies will be Erin Rose Doyle, Sadie Veach, Liz Pearce, Jessica Baglow, Liam Bixby, and Q. Smith. Set in a swelteringly hot 1970s summer, the the Webb sisters return to their childhood home in the English seaside town of Blackpool. One sister hasn’t been heard from in two decades, but her siblings hope that with their mother close to death upstairs that she might reappear after all.**********************
Waiting for Godot will open in Fall 2025 at a theater TBA, directed by Jamie Lloyd. Click here for more information.
Keanu Reeves (Estragon) and Alex Winter (Vladimir).
**********************
Musical Theatre Guild has announced its 2024-25 season of concert presentations at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage. Creative teams and casting TBA.
The Light in the Piazza (Sept. 29 at 7 PM)
The Drowsy Chaperone (Mar. 23, 2025 at 7 PM))
**********************
Hot Summer Nights – The Musicals, featuring the world premiere of 4 new musicals, will run Aug. 10-25 at Write Act Rep. Casting TBA.
Infinite Summers, written & directed by Jorge A. Pulido. Three childhood friends venture into adulthood down paths that threaten to pull them apart.
Destination Wedding, by Susan C. Hunter & Tom Shleton. Luke and Cassie have planned the perfect destination wedding until it all falls apart and they turn to their parents to fix everything, just like they always do.
Interruptions in the Key of Everything, written directed by Alicia Marie Agramonte & Lenny Morales. Amidst a chaotic beach workday, Cynthia, an overworked witch, contends with her job, meddling sibling, and self-doubt, ultimately discovering that true fulfillment comes from embracing her own worth.
A collection of 4 one-act musicals, filled with romance, magic, memories, and renewal, with 4 playwrights, 4 directors, 5 musical creatives and a total cast of sixteen open at The Brickhouse Theatre. A rollicking offering of fresh new musicals that evoke the sizzling days and dreamy nights of summer.
**********************
The world premiere of Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal will begin previews Sept. 5 and open Sept. 30 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, directed by Bartlett Sher.
Robert Downey, Jr., Brittany Bellizeare, Rafi Gavron, Melora Hardin, Andrea Martin, Ruthie Ann Miles, and Saisha Talwar.
Good writers borrow, great writers steal. Jacob McNeal is a great writer, one of our greatest, a perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. But McNeal also has an estranged son, a new novel, old axes to grind and an unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence. Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar’s new play is a startling and wickedly smart examination of the inescapable humanity – and increasing inhumanity – of the stories we tell.
**********************
James Ijames’ Kill Move Paradise will run Sept. 11 – Nov. 3 (opening Sept. 14) at the Odyssey Theatre, directed by Gregg T. Daniel.
Ulato Sam, Aheki Togun, Jonathan P. Sims, and Cedric Joe.
Four Black men, torn from the world without warning, find themselves stuck in a cosmic waiting room in the afterlife. As they attempt to make sense of their new paradise, they play, sing, tease and uplift one another, even as they’re forced to confront how they arrived in this unearthly place. Inspired by the ever-growing list of slain Black men and women and the fear and threat of death they continue to face daily, Kill Move Paradise is an electrifying reminder of our collective humanity.
**********************
Pedro Anontio Garcia’s The Witness Room will run Sept. 16 – Oct. 6 (opening Sept. 21) at the AMT Theatre, directed by Will Blum.
Dave Baez, Moe Irvin, JD Mollison, Tricia Small, and Jason SweetTooth Williams.
This life and death drama detonates within the confines of a witness room in Manhattan Criminal Court as four hardened New York City police officers, led by a calculating district attorney, battle each other over charges of corruption, racism, morality, loyalties, and the blue wall of silence.
**********************
The world premiere of Joe DePietro, Daniel J. Watts & Crystal Monee Hall’s 3 Summers of Lincoln will run Feb. 18 – Mar. 23 , 2025 at La Jolla Playhouse, directed by Christopher Ashley, with choreography by Jon Rua & Daniel J. Watts.
Brian Stokes Mitchell (President Abraham Lincoln), Eric Anderson (George B. McCellland), Carmen Cusack (Mary todd Lincoln), Quentin Earl Darrington (Frederick Douglas), and more TBA.
is set in summer 1862 as the Civil War has been raging for more than a year, and President Abraham Lincoln must find a way to end the conflict. Enter powerful abolitionist Frederick Douglass. If he can meet Lincoln face to face, he can help the president cement a vision of the future that ends slavery along with the war, all while preserving the Union. Just three meetings took place between the two men—pivotal conversations between two brilliant leaders that shaped the course of history.
**********************
Evans & Denny Lawrence’s Honeyland will run Oct. 13 – Nov. 2 at the Triad Theatre, directed by Lawrence, with choreography by Michelle Lemon, and music direction by Clare Cooper.
TBA.
The coming-of-age musical follows a group of college graduates navigating the era’s defining moments—the civil rights movement, feminism, and the anti-Vietnam protests.