Today’s Highlights:
The Lehman Trilogy, adapted by Stefano Massini, directed by Dan Hass, featuring Edward Gero (Henry Lehman), William Sturdivant (Emanuel Lehman), and Max Wolkowitz (Mayer Lehman), opens at Milwaukee Rep.
Ulysses, by James Joyce, directed by Scott Shepherd & John Collins, featuring Dee Beasnael, Kate Benson, Maggie Hoffman, Vin Knight, Scott Shepherd, Christopher-Rashee Stevenson, and Stephanie Weeks, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Public Theatre.
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Operation Mincemeat has announced the all-British cast will hand over their roles to an All-American cast on Tues. Feb. 24. at the Golden Theatre.
(Current – all British)): David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, Zoë Roberts, Jak Malone, and Claire-Marie Hall.
(New – All American): TBA.
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The TCM Classic Film Festival Pop-Up will take place Sat. Jan. 31 at 1 PM at NYC’s 92NY, with a screening of “New York Stories.”
Bradley Cooper and Ben Mankiewicz.
The first episode of this three-part anthology film, Martin Scorsese’s “Life Lessons,” was a revelation for filmmaker and actor Bradley Cooper, one that proved to be a formative influence on his life. It tells of abstract painter Lionel Dobie (Nick Nolte), who struggles to create works for an upcoming gallery show while navigating a fractured romantic relationship with his young assistant (Rosanna Arquette), a self-doubting painter who is herself drawn to a successful young performance artist (Steve Buscemi). Punctuated by emotion-drenched rock ‘n’ roll and opera tracks, Scorsese’s short film jumps between the paint-splattered, whiskey-soaked grime of industrial Soho lofts and the tuxedoed Upper East Side soirees where artists must mingle with rich patrons to make their living — an allegory for the show business world in which Scorsese works. Above all, it depicts the intoxication artists experience when putting paint to canvas. “You make art because you have to,” says Lionel. “Because you’ve got no choice.”
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Douglas Lackey’s Hans Litten: The Jew Who Cross-Examined Hitler will run Jan. 30 – Feb. 5 at Theatre Row, directed by Alexander Harrington.
Daniel Yaiullo (Hans Littten), with Stan Buturla, Zack Calhoon, Robert Ierardi , Whit K. Lee, Barbara McCulloh, Dave Stishan, Marco Torriani, and Mark Eugene Vaughn.
A powerful new play about a young Jewish lawyer who confronted Adolf Hitler in court, years before the world knew his name. In 1931, while Germany was still a democracy, fractured, polarized, but intact, Hans Litten subpoenaed Hitler, put him on the witness stand, and forced him to answer publicly for his movement’s embrace of violence. For one brief moment, the law worked. But history did not. This is not a Holocaust story. It is a story about the moment before collapse, when democratic systems still functioned, when truth was contested, and when people had to decide how far they would go to defend it. Rooted in Jewish ethics, legal rigor, and moral courage, Hans Litten feels startlingly relevant today. It reminds us that systems do not defend themselves; people do.
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The Actors’ Gang will present More Miracles (offering 3 original one-act plays), to run Jan. 22 – Feb. 21 (opening Jan. 24).
In Recovery, by Mary Eileen O’Donnell, directed by VJ Foster …… Sixteen Summers, by Ayindé Howell, directed by Gloria Briseño ……. and Fun Fight, by Willa Fossum, directed by the playwright.
TBA.
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LA’s Chromolume Theatre has announced its 2026 season at the Zephyr Theatre:
Casting and additional information TBA.
The Color Purple (Mar. 13-29)
Elegies (dates TBA.)
If Then (July 10-26)
Road Show (Nov. 20 – Dec. 6)
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Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal will run Feb. 10 – Mar. 22 at Milwaukee Rep, directed by Mark Clements.
Peter Bradbury (Jacob MeNeal), Jessica Ko (Sahra), Jeanne Paulsen (Stephie Banic Banc), Ty Fanning (Harlan), N’Jameh Carama (Natasha J’meh Carama (Natasha Braitwaite (Jameh Carma), Francine Blake (Bridget Carma), Bridgit Ann White (Francine Blake), and Sara Sadjadi (Dppti).
A darkly comic, razor‑sharp exploration of art and ambition in the age of artificial intelligence. A brilliant and dangerously charismatic novelist consumed by his own genius. As McNeal pushes the boundaries of creativity, the play probes urgent questions about authorship, truth, and originality in a rapidly shifting technological landscape. With jaw-dropping projections and special effects never before seen in the studio, the play breaks new ground of theatrical storytelling possibilities.
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The return of Alistair Wroe’s Finding Dorothy Parker will run Jan 15-22 at the Beechman Theatre, with music by Wroe, and directed by Douglas Carter Beane, with choreography by Jeffrey Guggliotti.
Julie Halston, Ann Harada, Jackie Hoffman, and Nika Larsen.
An evening celebrating the wit and wisdom of Dorothy Parker.
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Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal will run Feb. 10 – Mar. 22 at Milwaukee Rep, directed by Mark Clements.
Peter Bradbury (Jacob McNeal), Jessica Ko ( Sahra), Jeanne Paulsen ( Stephie Banic, Ty Fanning (Harlan), N’Jameh Carama (Natasha Braitwaite), Bridget Ann White (Francine Blake), and Sara Sadjadi (Dipti).
A darkly comic, razor‑sharp exploration of art and ambition in the age of artificial intelligence.**********************
The 20th Anniversary Festival of New Musicals! will run Jan. 16-18 at CT’s Goodspeed.
The festival will offer readings of new musicals.
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The world premiere of David J Glass’ Spare Parts will run Feb. 26 – Apr. 10 (opening Mar. 8) at Theatre Row, directed by Michael Herwitz.
Rob McClure, Michael Genet, Matt Walker, and more TBA.
Set against the backdrop of radical aging research funded by a billionaire’s quest for eternal life, Spare Parts confronts the blurred lines between science, identity, and morality — and asks the question few dare to say out loud: what does it cost to live forever?