Today’s Highlights:
Ye Bear & Ye Cubb, byWilliam Darby, directed by Ryan Emmons, featuring Amara J. Brady (Tavernkeeper/Justice), Julie Congress (Ursa Day), Steven Conroy (William Darby), Erin Lamar (Philip Howard), Anthony Michael Martinez (Cornelius Watkinson), and Joseph Medeiros (Edward Martin), opens at Off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theaters.
Vanessa Williams in concert opens at NYC’s 54 Below.
Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations national tour, directed by Des McAnuff, featuring Jalen Harris (Eddie Kendricks), Harrell Holmes Jr. (Melvin Franklin), James T. Lane (Paul Williams), Marcus Paul James (Otis Williams), and Elijah Ahmad Lewis (David Ruffin), with Michael Andreaus, Gregory Carl Banks Jr., Brian C. Binion, Reed Campbell, Lawrence Dandridge, Shayla Brielle G., Treston J. Henderson, Najah Hetsberger, Devin Holloway, Antwaun Holley, Kyshawn Lane, Traci Elaine Lee, Brett Michal Lockley, Harris Matthew, Amber Mariah Talley, Andrew Volzer, and Nazarria Workman, begins previews at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre.
Obsessed, The Story of Diane Warren…so far private industry reading, by Joe DiPietro, directed by Kathleen Marshal, with music supervision by Lon Hoyt, featuring Shoshana Bean (Diane Warren), Elizabeth Teeter (Young Diane Warren), Lauren Cipoletti (Cher/Trisha Yearwood), Natalie Gold (Mom), David Pittu (Dad), Andrew Kober (Jerry Bruckheimer), Paul Alexander Nolan (Guy), Jeb Brown (Clive Davis), Kayla Davion (Toni Braxton), and Matthew Hydzik (Stephen Tyler), with Eli Tokash, Ephie Aardema, Jakeim Hart,and Grace Yoo, today in NYC.
Other Lives: The Story Songs of Michael Colby concert, directed by Sara Louise Lazarus, with music by Andrea Colby, Larry Hochman, Paul Katz, Peter Millrose, Gerald Jay Markoe, Alex Rybeck, Steven Silverstain, Joseph Thlaken, and Herman Yabaloff …… featuring Janet Aldrich, Ari Axelrod, Bethe Austin, Klea Blackhurst, Steven Bogardus, Ladonna Burns, David Edwards, Sarah Rice, Luke Nephat, Jane Seaman, Jake David Smith, Megan Styrna, Marianne Tatum, Maureen Taylor, Deborah Jean Templin, Deborah Tranelli, Joshua Turchin, and Stuart Zagnit, with Lauren Baker, Talia Cutulle, and Heeya Kim, at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Urban Stages.
Gypsy in Concert, directed by A.C. Carollo, featuring Melinda Meeng (Rose), Will Giammona (Herbie), Marah Sotelo (Louise), Danny Cozart (Jocko/Driver/Weber/Mr. Goldstone/Cigar/Bougeron Couchon), Colette Goodman (Baby June), Chloe Fong (Baby Louise/Edna Mae), Emery Cozart (Ballon Girl), Vivienne Davis (Charlie/RichBoy), Dresden Davis (Vladimir/Boy Scout), Erik Davis (Georgie/Pop/Pastey/Phil), Victoria Stewart Davis (Mom/Mazeppa), Laurie Strawn (Mom/Tessie Tura/Waitress/Miss Cratchitt/Renee), Catrina Manahan (Dainty June), Kayla Yee (Betsy Ann), Zanna Wyant (Mom/Agnes/Electra), Gwen Herdon (Marjory May), Katie Maupin (Geraldine), Edward Im (Yonkers), Alejandro Eustaquuio (L.A.), and Jacob Henrie-Naffaa (Tulsa), closes at San Francisco’s Alcazar Theatre.
The Skivvies: Sleigh My Name concert, starring Lauren Molina and Nick & Cearley, closes at Laguna Playhouse.
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Reviews for Merrily We Roll Along at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop:
NY Times (Jesse Green): …The revival that opened on Monday… after earlier iterations at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London and the Huntington Theater Company in Boston, comes closer to meeting that goal than any of the many I’ve seen before. Maria Friedman’s staging brings the intelligence of the songs fully alive and justifies the baroque construction. Her framing snaps the picture almost fully into focus. And with Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez as the show’s central trio of backward-tumbling friends, it is perhaps for the first time perfectly cast… Is that enough to make it great, the way it never was? The question resonates with the material… Friedman clarifies this rangy structure from the first image…
Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney): …It’s directed with great affection for the material — if not always with equal finesse — by Maria Friedman… Casting the infinitely likeable Jonathan Groff allows us to see the regret in his choices and the yearning for the young dreamer he once was… Groff has a wistful way of revealing that all the achievements, the comforts and the fashionable entourage of Franklin’s high life can’t match the vitality of his youth, when everything was about struggle and promise and hope. There’s a contained anguish in his performance that’s very moving… Mary Flynn, played by the terrific Lindsey Mendez… Friedman’s revival makes a strong case for Merrily as a deeply affecting play… The score sounds glorious here…
Theatermania (David Gordon): … Merrily We Roll Along, that famous flop, has never completely worked …not fully in any of the five subsequent revivals I’ve seen… And now, at New York Theatre Workshop, this aspiration is finally realized… Maria Friedman’s reputation-redefining Merrily… The result is musical-theater heaven… I didn’t want it to end. Err…start… refocuses it as a memory play, where Frank’s past experiences come to life around him in his house in the Hills… This choice not only makes sense of the unconventional storytelling, but makes the back half of the show, before the three friends have been corrupted by life and success, even more devastating than usual, especially in the hands of the three best pals at the center… Groff, Mendez, and Radcliffe are the other reason for the production’s sterling success… Groff, Mendez, and Radcliffe…giving career-best performances…
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Times are tough on Broadway. Since KPOP and Ain’t No Mo have announced closings, it was also announced that Roundabout Theatre Company will not present a Winter/Spring production at Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre for the first time (pandemic excluded) since the space opened in 2000.
In fact, Roundabout will not be presenting anything at its three Broadway houses this Spring.
Roundabout has presented more at Studio 54, which is the only Broadway house it owns, but Studio 54 has also been frequently used for rental income. This winter/spring it will house the commercial production Pictures From Home. It is the American Airlines, which opened in 2000, that has never been rented for a full commercial run. The American Airlines — which is owned by the city and state governments and leased to the non-profit New 42nd Street which leases it to the Roundabout — is considered Roundabout’s premier theater. So, when FAT HAM was announced for the theater, the excitement over that transfer was mixed with shock that Roundabout would not be presenting a show there. Nothing had been announced for the theater (current resident 1776 is closing Jan. 8), which was perplexing. But the belief was always that something Roundabout-related would come — a one-person show, a small play, something.
The last Roundabout financials available publicly are for the period ending Aug. 30, 2021, so it is impossible to know the current financial state of the non-profit. 1776, a costly musical co-produced with A.R.T., has not been a hit, grossing less than $300,000 per week all last month. It is less clear how Roundabout’s off-Broadway offerings are doing, but it is a hard time for theater in general.
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Warren Leight’s Home Front will run Jan. 7 – Feb. 19 (opening Jan. 13) at Burbank’s Victory Theatre Center, directed by Maria Bogetti.
Jonathan Slavin, Austin Highsmith Garces, and C.J. Lindsey
VJ Night, 1945. On a night like this, anything can happen — the world is never going to be the way it was. A white woman and an African-American soldier fall in love on the night World War II ends — a time of euphoria for Americans after years of devastating conflict, But can that sense of good will and new beginnings wipe away the racial mistrust and discrimination in a country sill deeply mired in the Jim Crow era?
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Get ready to spend another Night at the Museum.
Alan Menken & Shawn Levy’s adaptation of the film is currently in development, and is expected to have it’s first production in the next 4-5 years, having just completed its first workshop. Additional details TBA.
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Jason Moran and Christian McBride will take place Fri. Dec. 16 at 7 & 9 PM at the Kennedy Center.
The concert will also air on PBS in 2023 (exact date TBA).
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Christopher Hampton, Michael Kunze & Slvester Levay’s Rebecca will run Sept. 4 – Nov. 18, 2023 at Charing Cross Theatre, directed by Alejandro Bonatto.
Casting and additional information TBA.
Video: Promo for 2012 London production.
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Vineyard Theatre and Second Stage Theater have announced complete casting for the world premiere of Michael R. Jackson’s White Girl in Danger, to begin previews Mar. 14 and open Apr. 10 at the Tony Kiser Theater, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, with choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.
Liz Lark Brown (Diane W/Barbara W/Judith W), Kayla Davion (Florence), Latoya Edwards (Keesha Gibbs), Jennifer Fouché (Abilene), Morgan Siobhan Green (Carolline), Molly Hager (Megan White), Vincent Jamal Hooper (Tarik Blackwell), James Jackson, Jr. (Clarence), Tarra Conner Jones (Nell Gibbs), Alyse Alan Louis (Maegan Whithall), Lauren Marcus (Maegan Whitehead), and Eric William Morris (Matthew S/Scott M/ Zack Paul Gosselar), with LaDonna Burns, Melessie Clark, Alexis Cofield, Shane Donovan, Jon-Michael Reese, and Natalie Walker.
The musical transports audiences to the soap opera town Allwhite, where Keesha Gibbs and other “blackgounds” look to enter their own narratives while avoiding certain death at the hands of the Allwhite Killer.
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Grease will run Jan. 20 – Feb. 12 (opening Jan. 21) at CA’s La Mirada Theatre, directed by Karie Hayter, with music direction by Ryan O’Connell, and choreography by Christopher M. Albrecht.
Jenna Lea Rosen (Sandy Dumbrowski), Ryan Reyes (Danny Zuko), Dominque Paton (Betty Rizzo), Bella Hicks (Frenchy), Melissa Musial (Marty, Rianny Vasquez (Jan), Grant Hodges (Kenickie), Steven-Adam Agdeppa (Doody), Max Torrez (Sonny LaTieri), Jalon Matthews (Roger), Suzanna Guzmán (Miss Lynch), Todd Adamson (Vince Fontaine), Desmond Newson (Johnny Casino/Teen Angel), Monika Peña (Patty Simcox), James Tolbert (Eugene), and Taleen Shrikian (Cha-Cha DeGregorio), with Kristen Daniels and Adrian Villegas.
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The cast album of Shaina Taub’s As You Like It, directed by Laurie Woolery, which ran in August 2022 at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater, has been released. Click here to stream or download the album.
Damion Allen (William), Tristan André (De Boys/Attendant), Ato Balankson-Wood (Orland0), Lori Brown-Niang (Agent), Brianna Cabrera (Silvia), Darius de Haas (Duke Senior), Bianca Edwards (Phoebe), Rebecca Naomi Jones (Rosalind), Jonathan Jordan (Andy), Renrick Palmer (Oliver), Eric Pierre (Duke Frederick), Idania Quezada (Celia), Christopher M. Ramirez (Touchstone), and Shaina Taub (Jaques), with Amar Atkins, Sean-Michael Bruno, Danyel Fulton, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Pierre Harmony Graves, Trevor McGhie, Mike Millán, Bobby Moody, Edwin Rivera, Kevin Tate, and Claudia Yanez, with Amar Atkins, Sean Michael Bruno, Danyel Fulton, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Pierre Harmony, Trevor McGhie, Mike Millán, Kevin Tate, and Claudia Yanez.