Today’s Highlights:
Relax … let go … let fly…
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Reviews for The Whoopi Monologues at Lincoln Center:
Click here for all the reviews.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending July 12.
Click the link above for the complete report.
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The national tour of Julia Mattison & Noel Carey’s Death Becomes Her has announced complete casting. Click the here for the complete tour schedule.
Jackie Burns (Madeline Ashton), Kristen Beth Williams (Helep Sharp), Ken Marino (Ernest Menville), Nasia Thoms (Viola Horn), Lhouse A, Williams Jr. (Chagall), and Michael Buchanan (Stefan), with Gail Bennett Calvin Cooper, Nick Cortazzo, Tiki Hopson, Karma Jenkins, Tyler Jimenez, Caroline Kane, Bryn Purvis, Jordan Vasquez,, Candace Janin Washington, Alicia Albright, Savannah Cooper, McKinley Knuckle, and Ian Liberto.
The musical follows 2 lifelong, bitter rivals: fading, narcissistic actress Madeline Ashton and insecure writer Helen Sharp.
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A benefit reading of Bruce’s Vilanch’s Captain Show Biz will take place Thurs. Aug. 20 at 8 PM at LA’s Harmony Gold Preview House, directed by TBA.
Bruce Vilanch and more TBA.
This fictionalized account of the year it all began — his chaotic, hilarious first ceremony in 1989. He quietly tested the material in front of a sold-out crowd in Wilton Manors, Florida this January, and came away saying that its true home would be a Los Angeles audience, the one crowd guaranteed to catch every inside-Hollywood joke.
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A Conversation with Brian Henson (Emmy-winning producer, director, and puppeteer), will take place will take place Sun. Aug. 2 at 2 PM at LA’s Ricardo Montalban Theater.
Brian Henson, son of Jim Henson and Chairman of The Jim Henson Company, gives an inside view of the history, and future, of the unique Henson techniques and styles of puppetry that revolutionized the artform for television and film. Deeply personal and featuring plenty of behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes, this 90-minute presentation includes a look back at the landmark projects from the Company’s throughout the years, including Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Farscape and many more. Henson will also give a live demonstration of the Henson styles of puppetry that revolutionized the artform for television and feature films, and welcome questions from the audience.
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LA Opera will present Carmen – Saints, Sinners and España Oculta will run Oct. 17 – Nov. 7 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, directed by Thaddeus Strassberger.
Rihab Chaieb (Carmen), Don José (Joshua Guerrero), Kathleen O’Mara (Micaëla), and Liam James Karai (Escamillo).
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RIP Jameson Currier, theatrical Press Agent, award-wining Author, Independent Publisher devoted to gay literature and later an Artist, died on July 13 of a sudden heart attack at his home in in Chatham Center, New York.
His career began in 1981 as a member of ATPAM, the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers. He worked for many years as a theatrical/entertainment publicist, representing Broadway, off-Broadway, and national touring productions: Torch Song Trilogy, Crimes of the Heart, ‘Night, Mother, Grease, Vanities, Love Letters, Rags, Precious Sons, and Pump Boys and Dinettes. After the publication of his first book of short stories (aka Jameson Currier), he continued to freelance, on such shows as Love Letters, Sunset Boulevard, Jekyll & Hyde, Time & Again, The Lion King, and Steel Pier.
After his theatrical employment and the continuation of his true love writing, in 1993 he began working as a temporary employee in the legal department of The New York Times Company, eventually becoming a full-time employee in 1999 and a Senior Corporate Paralegal of the Company, retiring in 2020.
A prolific writer, Jameson Currier was the author of the novel about the AIDS epidemic, Where The Rainbow Ends, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Fiction and he was awarded a fiction grant from The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation. He was also the author of seven additional novels, The Wolf at the Door; The Third Buddha; What Comes Around; The Forever Marathon; A Gathering Storm and Based on a True Story; and We Are Made of Stars, about the early decade of the AIDS epidemi; five collections of short fiction, Dancing on the Moon: Short Stories about AIDS; Desire, Lust, Passion, Sex; Still Dancing: New and Selected Stories; The Haunted Heart and Other Tales; and Why Didn’t Someone Warn You About Prince Charming?; three illustrated tales, Paul’s Cat, The Candlelight Ghost, and The Man That Got Away; and a memoir of intimate writings, which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in the category of Gay Memoir/Biography.
He also wrote the documentary film, Living Proof: HIV and the Pursuit of Happiness (1993/1994), which depicted HIV-positive individuals who were part of a project for the photographer Carolyn Jones, and in 2018 narrated, animated, and directed a film version of his short story, Mr. Darcy’s Pride. In 2005, supervised a French translation of Dancing on the Moon which was published as Les Fantômes, and in 2021 his novel, The Third Buddha, was translated into French by Étienne Gomez and published as Le Troisième Bouddha by Perspective cavalière and awarded the Prix du Roman Gay.
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Phantom of the Opera continues through Aug. 9 at the Pantages Theatre, directed by Seth Sklar-Heyn.
Isaih Bailey (The Phantom), Jordan Lee Gilbert (Christine Daaé), Daniel Lopez (Raoul), Midori Marsh (Carlotta Giudicelli), William Thomas Evans (Monsieur André), Carrington Vilmont (Monsieur Firmin), Lisa Vroman (Madame Giry), Isiah Bailey (The Phantom), Jordan Lee Gilbert( Christine Daaé), Daniel Lopez (Raoul), Midori Marsh (Carlotta Giudicelli), William Thoma Evans ( Monsieur André), Carrington Vilmont (Monsieur Firmin), and Lisa Froman (Madam Giry).
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Video: Have you ever wondered what goes into writing a musical? We took a trip to the Drama Book Shop in New York City to break it all down for you.
And if you haven’t watched it already, don’t miss your final chance to stream the Emmy-winning documentary “Tiler Peck: Suspending Time”. You have until the end of July to catch it for free on the link above.
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Catch Me If You Can, by Terrence McNally & Marc Shaiman, will run Sept. 17 – Oct. 18 (opening Sept. 19 )at Burbank’s Colony Theatre, directed by Michael Donovan, with choreography by Natalie Iscovich, and music direcction by Brent Crayon.
Blake Jenner, Joe Abraham, Kevin Bailey, Leslie Stevens, Gabbie Adner, Brad Griffith and Whitney Kathleen Vigil, with The ensemble includes (in alphabetical order) Leonel Ayala, Matthew Mason Baker, Johnisa Breault, Luc Clopton, Sophie Liu David, Spencer Del Carmen, Jesse Graham, Anne Hart, Caleb Kocsis, Samantha Lawrence-Mata, Almand Martin Jr., and Lucy Schene.
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Musical Theatre West‘s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat continues through July 26 at CA’s Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach, directed by Larry Raben.
Daebrreon Poiema (Narrator), Brian Justing Crum (Joseph), Thomas Hobson (Pharoah/Jacob), Harrison White (Potiphar), Jeffrey Laughrun (Reuben), Adam Lendermon (Simeon), Perry Marks (Levi), Neil Starkenberg (Dan), Jean Charles (Napthtali), Zane Camacho (Gad), Teronn S. Shrikian (Asher), Brody Tarrant Zebulun (Zeulun), Jerdan Cruz (Benjamin), and Ali Vesey (Mrs. Potiphar), with Johnisa Breault, Alexandra Skylar Kunin, and Sabrina Ryan.