Today’s Highlights:
A Sherlock Carol, adapted & directed by Mark Shanahan, featuring Drew McVety (Sherlock Holmes), Byron St. Cyr (Ebenezer Scrooge), Joe Delafield (Dr. Watson/Mrs. Dilber/Henry Burke/Old Joe Brackenridge), Dan Domingues (Dr. Timothy Cratchit/Mr. Topper/Ralph Fezziwig/Constable Hopkins), and Isabel Keating (The Countess of Morcar/Martha Cratchit/Mary Morstan/Abigail Fezziwig/Caroler/Woman in Restaurant), and Sharone Sayegh (Emma Wiggins/Fan Gardner/Inspector Lestrade/Mrs. Windigate), opens at CT’s Westport Country Playhouse.
Lisa Howard’s Holiday Special concert, directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, opens at NYC’s 54 Below.
Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Prayer for the French Republic, world premiere by Joshua Harmon, directed by David Cromer, featuring Betsy Aidem, Francis Benhamou, Ari Brand, Molly Ranson, Nancy Robinette, Anthony Edwards, Aria Shahghasemi, Ethan Haberfield, Richard Masur, Nael Nacer, and Daniel Oreskes, begins previews at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
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Reviews for Appropriate at Broadway’s Haye’s Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): Think of the worst person you know: the kind who blabs people’s secrets, mocks their diction, dismisses their pain while making festivals of her own. Throw in a tendency toward casual antisemitic slurs, for which she thinks she has a free pass, and a “What’s the big deal?” approach to racism. Now add a deep wound and a wicked tongue and you’re almost partway to Antoinette Lafayette, the monster played by Sarah Paulson in the blistering revival of Appropriate … But even in Paulson’s eye-opening, sinus-clearing performance, Toni, as she’s called, doesn’t sum up the outrageousness of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s play, which has a deep wound and wicked tongue of its own. To get all the way to its sweet spot — and Lila Neugebauer’s production for Second Stage definitely gets there — you must further multiply Toni by her brothers, each awful in his own way…
New York Theatre Guide (Allison Considine): The piercing sound of cicadas at the start of Appropriate causes the audience at the Hayes Theater to stir… Appropriate, which first bowed off Broadway in 2014, has all the hallmarks of a great American drama — and then some… Set at a crumbling, stately plantation home in Arkansas, the play follows the Lafayette family as its members reunite to settle their late father’s estate… Director Lila Neugebauer carefully threads the complexities of grief and racism with humor and lightness. The characters lob sharp-tongued dialogue (and a few punches) at one another. It’s a thrilling match… Neugebauer and the all-around stellar cast are the perfect vehicle… In a remarkable display of range, Paulson’s portrayal of Toni is both razor-sharp and tender…
The Wrap (Robert Hofler): …First seen in 2014, the play receives its belated but totally riveting first Broadway production… The genius of Jacobs-Jenkins, as well as that of Letts and O’Neill, is that he keeps these three characters not only human but very relatable, especially if you happen to be of European descent and your family arrived to America a century or two or three ago. Jacobs-Jenkins gives each of his characters time to make his or her point, and, of course, each of them is rarely right… The incisiveness of Lila Neugebauer’s marvelous direction is most evident in her control of those three principals. Playing the eldest sibling, the archetypal older sister-caretaker of the family, Sarah Paulson is very alpha here. Pissed-off to the extreme, her Toni can’t take one more infraction from her two younger brothers (Corey Stoll and Michael Esper), and lets them and her sister-in-law, Rachel (Natalie Gold) know it in no uncertain and very loud terms. Paulson manages to find nuance in her almost nonstop screeching…
NY Stage Review (Frank Scheck): Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s acclaimed play makes its Broadway debut in a revelatory staging… Jacobs-Jenkins definitely ups the ante in Appropriate, his searing 2013 play only now receiving its belated Broadway premiere in a galvanizing staging by Lila Neugebauer. Featuring a stellar cast headed by Sarah Paulson, Corey Stoll, and, making her stage debut, Elle Fanning, this Second Stage Theater production about a family with enough skeletons in its closet to fill a dozen catacombs makes an already powerful play even more powerful. It’s the standout of the Broadway season thus far… Tensions arise in the play’s opening minutes and barely let up for a second, with decades worth of resentments and recriminations flaring up with white-hot intensity, audibly mirrored by the deafening sounds of cicadas buzzing from outside the house’s peeling walls…
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Adam Guettel & Craig Lucas’ Days of Wine and Roses will begin previews Jan. 6, 2024 and open Jan. 28 at Broadway’s Studio 54, directed by Michael Greif, with choreography by Sergio Trujillo & Carla Puno Barcia, and music direction by Kimberly Grigsby.
Kelli O’Hara, Brian d’Arcy James, Byron Jennings, Charon Catherine Brown, Bill English, Olivia Hernandez, David Jenning, Steven Booth, Nicole Ferguson, Kelcey Watson, Tabitha Lawing tony Carlin, David Manis, and Addie Manthey.
A couple falls in love in 1950’s New York and struggles against themselves to rebuild a family.
The complete cast album is available to stream HERE.
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The world premiere of Branden Jacob-Jenkins’ Purpose will run Mar. 14 – Apr. 21, 2024 (opening Mar. 24) at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, directed by Phylicia Rashad.
Harry Lennix (Solomon “Sonny” Jasper), Tamara Tunie (Claudine Jasper), Alana Arenas (Morgan Jasper), Glenn Davis (Solomon “Junior” Jasper), Jon Michael Hill (Nazareth “Naz” Jasper), an Ayanna Bria Bakari (Angela Houston).
For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son Nazareth returns home to Illinois with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the legacies of Black radicalism.
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Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s Our Class will run Jan. 12 – Feb. 4 (opening Jan. 17) at Brooklyn Academy of Music, directed by Igor Golyak.
Gus Birney (Dora), Andrey Burkovskiy (Menachem), Jack DiFalco (Zygmunt), José Espinosa (Rysiek), Tess Goldwyn (Zocha,) Will Manning (Heniek), Stephen Ochsner (Jakub Katz), Alexandra Silber (Rachelka/Marianna), Richard Topol (Abram), and Ilia Volok (Władek).
The piece follows 10 classmates — five Jewish and five Catholic — as they grow up as playmates, friends and neighbors, then turn on one another with life and death consequences. Inspired by real life events surrounding a horrific 1941 pogrom in the small village of Jedwabne, Poland, the play follows their lives from childhood through eight decades in a contemporary new production
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MA’s Barrington Stage Company has announced its 10X10 New Play Festival, to run Feb. 15 – Mar. 10 (opening Feb. 19), directed by Alan Paul and Matthew Penn.
Matt Neely, Peggy Pharr Wilson Robert Zukerman, and more TBA.
A Doubt My Play, by Glenn Alterman. A playwright is sitting terrified, waiting to hear the comments from the other playwrights in his playwriting group.
The Consultant, by Brent Askari. A couple works with the most personal of consultants.
Meeting Fingerman, by Mark Evan Chimsky. When novice writer Nate Crane shows his new short story, set in a small village in Eastern Europe, to his idol–-the literary lion of Yiddish fiction, Saul Fingerman–-things take an unexpected turn.
I Don’t, by Jordan Ealey. Erin is running away from her wedding. Her only option? Her ex-boyfriend, Aaron’s, apartment of course!
The Mount Greylock Fish Hawk Squawk, by john Mabey. Three couples are searching for the mysterious Mount Greylock Fish Hawk. But when you’re lost as well as in pursuit, sometimes being found is what really matters.
The Welcome, by Jennifer Maisel. When Greta invites Jana into her home, a shared experience – even though it’s a past and future one – becomes the link that will connect them through the night.
Snow FAlling Faintly, by James McLindon. A mother and son shovel their driveway, comparing techniques for snow clearance … and life.
High Time, by Diana Metzger. Expectations are subverted and biases are challenged when a retiree couple visits a new store in town.
can i tell you a story?, by Christopher Oscar Pena. In order to keep the memory alive, every year, Cory goes on a pilgrimage to revisit all the spots where he and his recently deceased friend spent time together.
The Open Door, by Jessica Provenz. Debbie and Dan have both been searching for love in the quagmire that is modern dating. But what happens if it’s just on the other side of the door?
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Complete casting has been announced for Christian Cantrell & Samantha Roberts’ Here I Am, to begin previews Mar. 1, 2024, and open Mar. 8 at AMT Theatre, directed by Roberts, with music supervision by Cantrell.
Samantha Roberts (Scarlett), Jack Baugh (Spencer), Cedrick Ekra (Kyle), and SLee (Camryn), with Melody Munitz, Rachel Madson, Laney Yoo, Jasmyn Johnson, Ebony Nixon, Christian Melhuish, T Anthony, and Nikolai Granados, with Brittany Lowery and Jake Thatcher as swings.
Centered around social media, Here I Am is a story of forgiveness, belonging, hope, and societal pressures forced upon young women told through the story of Scarlett, who struggles to balance her growing addiction to social media with the real people in her life.
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Karen Zacarías’ Native Gardens will run Jan. 12-27, 2024 at Utah’s Pioneer Theatre Company, directed by Timothy Douglas.
Katya Collazo (Tania Del Valle) Michael Kostroff (Frank Butley) and Kelly Coffield Park (Virginia Butley).
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York Theatre Company has announced casting for A Sign of the Times, by Lindsey Hope Pearlman, Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, and other 1960s artists, to run Feb. 7 – June 2, 2024 (opening Feb. 22) at Theatre at St. Jeans directed by Gabriel Barry, with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter, and music direction by Joseph Church.
Chilina Kennedy (Cindy), Ryan Silverman (Brian), Justin Matthew Sargeant (Matt), and Crystal Lucas-Perry (Tanya), with Cassie Austin, Erica Simone Barnett, Shawn Bowers, Alyssa Carol, Jeremiah Ginn, Kuppi Alec Jessop, Lena Matthews, Maggie McDowell, J Savage, Michael Starr, Edward Staudenmayer, and more TBA.
The year is 1965. One woman’s incredible journey begins to the soundtrack of a generation. In this era of Vietnam, equal rights, and social wrongs, one aspirational young woman finds herself in New York City – ready to dive into this brave new world.
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Video: Alli Mauzey and Bonnie Milligan perform “Sisters”
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Amy Holden Jones & Sandy Rustin’s Mystic Pizza will run Jan. 19 – Feb. 11, 2024 (opening Jan. 20) at CA’s La Mirada Theatre, directed by Casey Hushion, with choreography by Connor Gallagher, and music direction by Kristin Stowel.
Gianna Yanelli (Jojo Barboza), Kyra Kennedy (Katherine Kat Arujo), Krystina Alabado (Daisy Arujo), Rayanne Bonzales (Leona Silvia), Jordan Friend (Bill Montijo), Michael Thomas Grant (Charles GordonWindsor, Jr.), and Chris Cardozo (Tim Travers), with Domo D’dante, Michael James, April Josephine, Louis Pardo, Monika Peña, Alyssa M. Simmons, Jeff Skowron, Jake Swain, Rachel Wirtz, Chachi Delgado, and Tayler Mettra.
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Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater will host a one-night-only engagement, The Pressure on Press, on Mon. Jan. 8, 2024. Start time was not reported. The event is free and open to the public, but prior registration is required here.
Playbill Editor-in-Chief Diep Tran and co-editor Brittani Samuel will have a dialogue about the current state of theatre journalism, criticism, and advocacy, discussing different types of press, the importance of diverse voices, and the role of theatre publications and criticism within the theatre community.