Today’s Highlights:
Relax, let go, let fly…
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: Crossovers by Jim Bernhard
Match these musicals with the pop and rock stars who wrote them:
| 1. Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark | A. Pete Townshend |
| 2. Billy Elliott: the Musical | B. Cyndi Lauper |
| 3. Tarzan | C. Elton John |
| 4. The Capeman | D. Edie Brickell |
| 5. Jagged Little Pill | E. Bono and The Edge |
| 6. Kinky Boots | F. Dolly Parton |
| 7. 9 to 5 | G. Phil Collins |
| 8. The Who’s Tommy | H. Sting |
| 9. The Last Ship | I. Alanis Morissette |
| 10. Evening Star | J. Paul Simon |
Scroll down for the answers…
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RIP: Maurice Hines Jr. has died at the age of 80.
Born in 1943 in New York City, Hines began studying the art of tap at the age of five at the Henry LeTang Dance Studio. Recognizing his talent, LeTang began arranging specialty numbers for Hines and his younger brother, Gregory. Eventually their father, Maurice Hines Sr., joined his sons on the performance circuit throughout New York, Las Vegas, and Europe. Hines, Hines & Dad, as their act was called, was seen regularly on “The Pearl Bailey Show” and “The Tonight Show,” among other programs.
Hines made his Broadway debut in 1954 in The Girl in the Pink Tights. He also appeared on Broadway in Eubie!, Sophisticated Ladies, Bring Back Birdie, and Uptown…It’s Hot!, for which he earned a Tony nomination. He also directed, choreographed, and conceived that show, as well as the Earth, Wind & Fire’s The Red Shoes mashup Hot Feet. He toured with Debbie Allen, Leslie Uggams, and Richard Roundtree in Guys and Dolls, where he played Nathan Detroit. He staged the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in 1990, becoming the first African-American to direct at the famed venue.
On screen, Hines starred with his brother in the Francis Ford Coppola film “The Cotton Club,” playing a tap dance double-act modeled on the Nicholas Brothers. The film marked the last time Maurice and Gregory performed together; they would subsequently stop speaking for well over a decade, until their mother, Alma, became ill and passed away. In the intervening years, their careers would nonetheless intertwine: Maurice toured in Jelly’s Last Jam, the show that earned Gregory a Tony Award on Broadway.
Hines dedicated his final years to paying tribute to Gregory and his influence on the world of tap dance in the show “Maurice Hines Is Tappin’ Through Life,” which has been seen around the country and off-Broadway at New World Stages. “I was reading an article about tap and they failed to mention my brother. I was embarrassed by it and upset. So as I was doing my one-man show then, which was more of a concert, I would talk more about Gregory and what he did. It evolved out of that.”
In addition to this stage retrospective, Hines was the subject of the documentary “Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back,” which is currently available for rental on demand.
Hines had celebrated his milestone birthday on December 13.
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In Memoriam: Those we lost in 2023 (read here).
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Red Bull Theater will present a live & livestreamed reading of Edward Young’s The Revenge on Mon. Jan. 22 at 7:30 PM at Off-Broadway’s Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, directed by Nathan Winkelstein.
Christian Coulson, Merritt Janson, Ismenia Mendes, Matthew Rauch, Alexandra Silber and John Douglas Thompson.
A general and his new bride are manipulated to tragic ends − but in the context of Spain’s conquests in North Aftrica. In this tale, the revenger is the Moor − Zanga, an enslaved prince − who wreaks righteous vengeance on his oppressor.The firey Zanga, a favorite role of both Ira Aldrdge and Edmund Kean, finally get his return to the spotlight.
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Complete casting has been announced for Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, to to run Feb. 10 – Mar. 10 at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre, directed by James Dean Palmer.
Dominic Fumusa (Eddie Carbone), Annie Parisse (Beatrice), Paten Hughes (Catherine), Patricia Black (Alfieri), Antonio Magro (Marco), Mark Junek (Rudolpho), with Mike Boland and Todd Ceveris.
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Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams, written & directed by Jacob Storm, will run Jan. 19 – Feb. 2 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.
Jacob Storm
The play explores the early years of Tennessee Williams’ career, culminating in the opening night of his first Broadway hit, The Glass Menagerie.
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. Selena Fillinger’s. POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive will run Jan. 17 – Feb. 18 at the Geffen Playhouse (use code: WOMEN24 for $39 tickets, fee included, for the performances on Jan. 19-Feb. 18), directed by Jennifer Chambers.
Ito Aghayere (Chris), Maria Bello (Bernadette) Alexandra Billings (Margaret), Lauren Blumenfeld (Stephanie), Shannon Cochran (Harriet), Celeste Den (Jean), Jane Levy (Dusty) and Deirdre Lovejoy (Bernadette).
A derogatory comment, a summit gone awry, an anal abscess—it’s a bad day at the White House. When the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, it inevitably falls on the seven women he relies on most to clean up the mess. Take a raucous romp through the halls of the West Wing in a riotous and irreverent farce about the men who hold the power vs. the women who get the job done.
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The world premiere of Dane Laffrey & Jen Silverman’s Highway Patrol will run Jan. 20 – Feb. 18 at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, directed by Mike Donahue.
Dana Delany, Dot-Marie Jones, and Thomas Murphy Molony.
TIMESTAMP: October, 2012: “@DanaDelany, Are you married? If not, I’d marry you.” When Cam, a 13-year-old fan in a desperate medical situation captures actress Dana Delany’s attention on Twitter, she’s quickly swept into an intense, around-the-clock online friendship with the whole family—including Cam’s care-giving grandmother, Nan. But when Cam starts relaying messages received from beyond, Dana is thrust into a world where unexpected revelations raise the question of how far we go to love and be loved.
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Miki Abraham: Somewhere will take place Sun. Jan. 28 at 9:30 PM at NYC’s 54 Below, with music direction by Darius Frowner.
Alex Joseph Grayson, Alyssa Wray, and Traci Elaine Lee.
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Phoenix Theatre Ensemble has announced 2 upcoming productions in rep, at A.R.T./New York Theatres:
Crime and Punishment (Jan. 19-28), adapted by Marilyn Campbell & Curt Columbus, directed by Karen Case Cook. Casting not announced.)
Drinks with Dead Poets (Feb. 2-11) world premiere by Glyn Maxwell , featuring John Lenartz (Max), Elise Stone (Ashling) and Antonio Edwards Suarez (Zach). In the play, Maxwell resurrects iconic American authors including Poe, Frost, Ginsberg, Hart Crane, Sylvia Plath, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Dorothy Parker and Emily Dickinson through their own words. With dialogue drawn from their poems, correspondence and other writings, the play explores their lives and legacies, celebrating their language, creativity and the enduring impact of their poetic voices across generations.
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Classical Theatre of Harlem has announced its 2024 season:
Hold ‘Em in Harlem (May 23), a benefit poker tournament. Details TBA.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (July 6-28), FREE, at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater (Harlem). Director and casting TBA.
Bryant Park Picnic, with FREE performance (Sept. date & show TBA)
Memnon (Sept. dates TBA), world premiere written & directed by Carl Cofield. Casting TBA. The story of the Ethiopian’s powerful king as he answers the call to defend Troy.
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An Evening with Groucho, starring Frank Ferrante, will run Jan. 4-7 at Laguna Playhouse.
Accompanied by his onstage pianist, Ferrante portrays the young Groucho of stage and film and reacquaints us with the likes of brothers Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo, Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields and Marx foil Margaret Dumont.
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Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight, written & directed by John Kolvenbach, will run Jan. 20 – Mar. 3 at Boston’s Huntington Theatre.
Jim Ortlieb
“You’ve tried everything. Yoga. Acupuncture. Therapy. You floated in salt water in the pitch black dark. You juiced, you cleansed, you journaled, you cut, you volunteered. You ate only RINDS for three days and nights. You reached out, you looked within. You have tried. And yet here you are.” A tour-de-force performance as a man desperate for connection, bent by isolation, and deeply in love with the audience itself.
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RIP: Vinie Burrows, dubbed by critic Clive Barnes as “the queen of Black theater,” died on Dec. 25 at the age of 99.
Born Nov. 15, 1924, Burrows began her career as a child radio performer, graduating from New York University with a major in government. She made her Broadway debut in 1950 alongside Helen Hayes in The Wisteria Trees. Her Broadway credits included The Green Pastures, Mrs. Patterson, the 1955 revival of The Skin of Our Teeth, The Ponder Heart, and Mandingo. Off-Broadway, she starred for 18 months in Jean Genet’s The Blacks, and appeared opposite Earle Hyman in The Words of Shakespeare.
Dissatisfied by the roles she was being hired for and recognizing that her talent was being underutilized because of the color of her skin, Burrows turned to solo performance, launching her career as a monologist in 1963 at Antioch College. Her most famous solo work, Walk Together Children, originated as part of a church service at St. Clement’s in New York City, becoming a full off-Broadway production in November 1968. Walk Together Children broke records and would tour the country, leading the way for other solo shows including Dark Fire and Sister Sister.
Burrows also appeared on stage well into her 80s and 90s, appearing in Lear deBessonet’s productions of Good Person of Szechwan and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (at the Delacorte for Shakespeaere in the Park), Rachel Chavkin’s New York Theatre Workshop revival of Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, The Homecoming Queen at the Vineyard, Mies Julie at Classic Stage Company, and the Mint’s Chekhov/Tolstoy: Love Stories, which marked her final stage appearance, in 2020 at the age of 95. She was working with the TEAM on the stage work Reconstructing at the time of her death.
Burrows was granted an honorary Ph.D. from the New School, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Obie Award in 2020. She worked as an NGO at the United Nations and was part of the Grannies Peace Brigade.
All told, in her seven-decade career, Burrows gave over 6,000 performances; beyond Broadway and off-Broadway, she performed for women’s groups, colleges, and human rights organizations across four continents. She is survived by her two children, six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
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That’s What Friends are For: Nova Y. Payton Sings Burt Bacharach will run Jan. 16 – Feb. 4 at VA’s Signature Theatre, directed by Mark G. Meadows.
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Complete casting has been announced for Dodie Smith’s Dear Octopus, which will run Feb. 7 – Mar. 27 (opening Feb. 14) at the National Theatre, directed by Emily Burns.
Amaia Naima Aguinaga, Alice Bounsall, Bessie Carter, Pandora Colin, Miriam Cooper, Bethan Cullinane, Lindsay Duncan, Kate Fahy, Tom Glenister, Jo Herbert, Billy Howle, Ethan Hughes, Deven Modha, Syakira Moeladi, Amy Morgan, Celia Nelson, Dharmesh Patel, Malcolm Sinclair, Natalie Thomas and John Vernon, with 9 children rotating in various roles.
The play, set on the eve of WWII, portrays the Randolph family as they gather for a 50th wedding anniversary, exploring themes of intimacy, estrangement, camaraderie, rivalry, love, and hate.
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Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet will run Jan. 28 – Feb. 25 at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre, directed & choreographed by Bourne
Casting TBA.
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Funday Monday Quiz on Tuesday answers: Crossovers
1-E. Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark – Bono and The Edge
2-C. Billy Elliott: the Musical – Elton John
3-G. Tarzan – Phil Collins
4-J. The Capeman – Paul Simon
5-I. Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette
6-B. Kinky Boots – Cyndi Lauper
7-F. 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton
8-A. The Who’s Tommy – Pete Townshend
9-H. The Last Ship – Sting
10-D. Evening Star – Edie Brickell