Today’s Highlights:
MJ, by Lynn Nottage, directed & choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, featuring Miles Frost (Michael Jackson), Quentin Earl Darrington (Joseph Jackson/Rob), Whitney Bashor (Rachel), Gabriel Ruiz (Alejandro), Walter Russell III & Christian Wilson (alternating as Little Michael), Antoine L. Smith (Berry Gordy/Nick), Joe Sorge (Dave), Tavon Old-Sample (Michael), John Edwards (Jackie Jackson), Ayana George (Katherine Jackson), Appollo Levine (Quincy Jones), Lamont Walker II (Jermaine Jackson), Zelig Williams (Marlon Jackson), and Devin Trey Campbell (Little Marlon), withRaymond Baynard, Kali May Grinder, Oyoyo Joi, Carina-Kay Louchiey, Renni Anthony Magee, Aaron James McKenzie, Aramie Payton, Kamille Upshaw, Ryan VanDenBoom, and Darius Wright, opens at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre.
Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Prayer for the French Republic, by Joshua Harmon, directed by David Cromer, featuring Betsy Aidem, Yair Ben-Dor, Francis Benhamou, Ari Brand, Pierre Epstein, Peyton Lusk, Molly Ranson, Nancy Robinette, Jeff Seymour, Kenneth Tigar, and Richar Topol, opens at Off-Broadway’s New York City Center.
Daphne’s Dive, by Quiara Alegria Hudes, directed by Paige Hernandez, featuring Rayanne Gonzales (Daphne), Yesenia Iglesias (Inez), James Shalen (Acosta), Jonathan Atkinson (Pablo), Jefferson A. Russell (Rey), Quynh-My Luu (Jenn), and Jyline Carranza (Ruby), with Dylan Arredondo, Deidre Staples, and Elizabeth Ung, opens at DC’s Signature Theatre.
The Alchemist (2021 filmed production), by Ben Johnson, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, directed by Jeffrey Berger, featuring Nathan Christopher, Stephen DeRosa, Carson Elrod, Manoel Feliciano, Teresa Avia Lim, Jacob Ming-Trent, Louis Mustillo, Reg Rogers, Jennifer Sánchez, and Allen Tedder, begins pay-what-you-can on-demand streaming at Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theater.
Fly, by Trey Ellis & Ricardo Kahn, directed by Clinton Turner Davis, featuring Yao Dogbe, Trevor McGhie, Jeremiah Packer, Calvin Thompson, Omar Edwards, Torsten Hillhouse, Shayne David Cameris, and Ryan Fuchs, opens at Syracuse Rep.
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Reviews for Intimate Apparel at Off-Broadway’s Mitzi Newhouse Theatre (Lincoln Center):
NY Times (Jesse Green): … Esther…is too serious and too ambitious to descend to the parlor and cakewalk with the revelers. So is Intimate Apparel… Ricky Ian Gordon, working with a text by Nottage herself, wants more for Esther than a quick dance and a slick tune. A woman so bent on betterment in an age that makes it almost impossible deserves the most serious and ambitious musical treatment available — and gets it in the knockout Lincoln Center Theater production, directed by Bartlett Sher… Many plays sewn so tightly unravel completely as they stretch toward their crisis. Not Intimate Apparel… it maintains both its integrity and its tension to the end.
Variety (Frank Rizzo): Passions were never in short supply in Lynn Nottage’s 2003 play, Intimate Apparel, where loneliness, longing and hope hover in every scene. In the… long-in-the-making collaboration between Lincoln Center Theater and the Metropolitan Opera House, those passions fly free, revealing the operatic heart of Intimate Apparel… The tight construction of the play, with its spare two0hander scenes and focus on the lives of ordinary and overlooked people, makes it a natural as a stripped-down chamber opera… rich vocal talents fill Ricky Ian Gordon’s sung-through music not just with soaring notes but with heartfelt expression.
Theatermania (Hayley Levitt): …like Nottage’s other works, this insular story of Black seamstress Esther Mills in turn-of-the-century New York City carries currents of emotion worthy of operatic expanse… Of course, just because a story feels operatic does not mean can instantly and effortlessly assume the form of an opera — making Intimate Apparel‘s transfiguration…all the more impressive. Directed by Bartlett Sher as more a chamber piece than anything Wagnerian (the performers are accompanied by only a pair of pianos… Intimate Apparel in its new form is allowed to keep its delicacy while also cutting enough seams to let its content soar to the rafters… Gordon’s music successfully plumbs the depths of the original piece…
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Video: Stars in the House, offering a celebration of understudies, with special guests Brenda Braxton, Judy Kuhn, Bebe Neuwirth, Paul Castree, Jennifer Cody, John Robert Allman, and Peter Emmerich. (1:40:24)
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Click here for 25 Theater Books for your Winter reading.**********************
The Little Prince, adapted by Chris Mouron & Terry Truck, has changed its performance dates, and will now begin previews Mar. 19 and open Apr. 11 at the Broadway Theatre, directed & choreographed by Anne Tournié.
Lionel Zalachas (Little Prince), Aurélien Bednarek (The Aviator), Chris Mouron (The Narrator), Laurisse Sulty (The Rose/The Snake alternate), Adrien Picaut (The Businessman/The Switchman), Antony Cesar (The Vain Man), Andre Kamienski (The Drunkard), Marcin Janiak (The Lamplighter), Srilata Ray (The Snake), and Dylan Barone (The Fox/The King), with Marie Menuge, Joän Bertrand, George Sanders, William John Banks, Madison Ward, and Jayesh Palande.
The story of a young prince who visits various planets in space, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss.
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Hulu has announced an 8-episode series of its new musical , “Up Here,” which will begin production this summer, written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Steven Levenson & Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, and directed by Thomas Kail.
Casting and release date are TBA.
Set in New York City in 1999, the series follows an ordinary couple that discover as they fall in love that the thing preventing their happiness just might be themselves – and the memories, obsessions, fears, and fantasies that live inside their heads.
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Video: Scenes from Clue at Paper Mill Playhouse.
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Roundabout Theatre (link TBA) has announced its Fall 2022/Winter 2023 programming at Off-Broadway’s Laura Pels Theatre:
the bandaged place (begins Oct. 20), world premiere by Harrison Davied Rivers, directed by David Mendizábal. Casting TBA. A brutal and lyrical play about the things we hang on to and the price of moving forward, this is the story of one man’s attempt to free himself from the abuses of his past. Jonah is forced to turn his precocious daughter and tough love grandmother for support when a former lover resurfaces, re-opening a painful wound.
The Wanderers ( begins Jan. 26, 2023), by Anna Ziegler, directed by Barry Edelstein. Casting TBA. Orthodox Jews Esther and Schmuli are newly married, and their future is written in the laws of the Torah. Secular Jew Abe is a famous novelist who believes he can write his own future…until an unexpected email from a movie star puts his marriage to the test and threatens to prove him wrong.
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Sam Harris: Openly Gray will play 3 California venues:
Feb 4-5: The Purple Room (Palm Springs)
Mar. 25-26: Catalina Jazz Club (Hollywood)
Apr. 8-9: Martinis (San Diego)
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Rogue Machine Theatre presents Daf James’ On the Other Hand, We’re Happy, to run Feb. 6 – Apr. 17 at The Matrix Theatre, directed by Cameron Watson.
Rori Flynn, Alexandra Hellquist, and Christian Telesmar.
A story around a young couple’s dreams of adopting. When an unforeseen turn of events upends their goals, plans must be adjusted. Life is tough, but even the worst of it can be laugh-out-loud funny.
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Casting has been announced for “Grease: The Rise of the Pink Ladies,“ which will stream on Paramount+ (release date TBA), directed by (1st episode) by Alethea Jones, with new original music by Justin Tranter, and choreography by Jamal Sims.
Jackie Hoffman (Asst. Principal McGee), Marisa Davila (Jane), Cheyenne Isabel Wells (Olivia), Ari Notartomaso (Cynthia), Tricia Fukuhara (Nancy), Shanel Bailey (Hazel), Madison Thompson (Susan), Jonathan Nieves (Richie), Jason Schmidt (Buddy), and Maxwell Whittington-Cooper (Wally).
The series will take place four years before the 1978 film. Before the T-Birds were high school royalty, four outcast girls made the decision to create their own fun on their own terms, triggering a moral panic that will affect the history of Rydell High forever.
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Theatermania and WhatsOnStage have teamed up to create “West End vs Broadway,” a new series of video interviews.
Broadway stars will be paired up with West End counterparts for freewheeling discussion in which the actors ask each other the questions.
Video: The first discussion pairs two Hamiltons: Miguel Cervantes (Broadway) and Karl Queensborough (West End). (13:57)
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Complete casting has been announced for Bill Augustin & Andrew Abrams’ But I’m A Cheerleader, which will run Feb. 18 – Apr. 6 (opening Feb. 23) at the Turbine Theatre, directed by Tania Azevedo, with choreography by Alexandra Sarmiento, with music direction by Josh Sood.
Alice Croft (Megan Williams), Oliver Brooks (Dad/Larry), Edward Chitticks (Jared/Rock), Damon Gould (André), Tiffany Graves (Mary Brown), Jodie Jacobs (Mom/Lloyd), Lemuel Knights (Mike), Evie Rose Land (Graham), Harry Singh (Jalal), Jodie Steele (Kimberly/Hilary), Aaron Teoh (Dolph), and Kia-Paris Walcott (Sinead).
Megan is an all-American high school cheerleader who has the perfect life – until she finds out her friends and family suspect her of being a lesbian and send her to a rehabilitation camp to set her straight.
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Gingold Theatrical Group’s Valetine Party will stream for FREE on Mon. Feb. 14 at 6 PM ET here (or on Facebook). Click the link and learn how you can celebrate with everyone.
Brenda Braxton, Charles Busch, Robert Cuccioli, Tyne Daly, Joel Grey, Jefferson Mays, Renée Taylor, and Bruce Vilanch.
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Play-per-View presents its first in-person production, Talene Monahon’s Jane Anger, to run Feb. 21 – Mar. 13 at the New Ohio Theatre, directed by Jess Chayes. The production will also be recorded as usual.
Michael Urie, Ryan Spahn, Talene Monahon, and Amelia Workman.
A comedy about Shakespeare — stuck in quarantine during the plague with a bad case of writer’s block — and the cunning woman who climbs through the window and changes history.