Today’s Highlights:
JOB, by Max Wolf Friedlich, directed by Michael Herwitz, featuring Peter Friedman (Lloyd) and Sydney Lemmon (Jane), opens at Broadway’s Hayes Theatre.
Seussical, directed by Michael Heittzman, featuring Beth Malone (Cat in the Hat), Jacob Keith Watson (Horton), Kate Loprest (Mayzie), Susana Cordón (Gertrude), Darius Harper (Sour Kangaroo), and Henry thomas (Jojo), with Brett Barthelemy, Sky Bennett, Kristen Grace Brown, Justin Deparis, Zephaniah Divine, Ian Dominguez Ball, Kylie Edwards, Lucas Fedele, Laura Guley Jessica Ice, Linnea McKinney, Devin Neilson, Samantha Nelson, Rory Prichard, Brittany Pent Rohm, Kai Sachon, Megan Sell, BB Stone, and Davis Wayne, opens at Pittsburgh CLO.
Waitress, directed by Lili-Anne Brown, featuring Jessica Vosk (Jenna), Devin DeSantis (Dr. Pomatter), Lissa deGuzman (Dawn), Nicole Michelle Haskins (Becky), Ben Crawford (Earl), Jonah D. Winston (Cal), Troy Iwata (Ogie), Torri Tripoli (Lulu), Cleavant Derricks (Joe) and Caitlin Witty (standby for Jenna), with Kaley Bender, Harter Clingman, Arnold Harper II, Alia Hodge, Josh Hoon Lee, Patricia Jewel, Vaughn Mariani, Gabriel Mudd, Owen Scales, Kaitlyn Louise Smith and Erica Stephan, opens at the St. Louis Muny.
An Intimate Evening with Jennifer Holliday concert, opens at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.
Company national tour, directed by Marianne Elliott, featuring Britney Coleman (Bobbie), Judy McLane (Joanne), Kathryn Allison (Sarah), Matt Bittner (David), Ali Louis Bourzgui (Paul), Derrrick Davis (Larry), James Earl Jones II (Harry), Marina Kondo (Susan), Matt Rodin (Jamie), Emma Stratton (Jenny), Jacob Dickey (Andy), and Tyler Hardwick 9PJ), begins previews at LA’s Pantages Theatre.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz: Funday Monday on Tuesday: Pretty Maids All In a Row, by Jim Bernhard:
1. In Jean Genet’s play The Maids, two maids plot to kill…their brother…Charles de Gaulle…Madame, their mistress…the Butler
2 In “Broadway Baby,” a song from Follies, Hattie Walker sings, “Hell, I’d even play the maid to be in a show.” Who originated the role of Hattie Walker on Broadway?… Elaine Stritch…Beatrice Arthur…Dorothy Collins…Ethel Shutta
3. In “Gaslight,” the movie version of Angel Street, who made her film debut as Nancy, the maid?….Deborah Kerr…Angela Lansbury…Elsa Lanchester…Mildred Natwick
4. Maid in America was a 1915 musical composed by….Victor Herbert…Sigmund Romberg…Irving Berlin…Cole Porter
5. In “Everybody Ought to Have A Maid,” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, what do the lyrics say a maid should be doing “all around the house”?… Puttering…Dusting…
6. The French maid in Noël Coward’s Private Lives is named…Hortense…Amanda…Sybil…
7. Nerissa, Portia’s maid in The Merchant of Venice, marries…Bassanio…Gratiano…
8. Petra, Anne’s maid in A Little Night Music, has a song about…the miller’s son…the lawyer’s son…the schoolteacher…the mayor
9. In The Mikado, the “Three Little Maids from School” are Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing, and…Bo Peep…Peep Bo…Pee Bop…Po Beep
10. In My Fair Lady, Higgins’s housemaids are supervised by his housekeeper, Mrs…. Eynsford-Hill…Pearce…
Scroll down for the answers…
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The world premiere of Mary Leeholland’s Are You Listening will run Aug. 9-25 at Actors Co-op, directed by Chloe Babbes & Mary Leeholland
Mary Leeholland, Daniel Kim, Freedon, Toni Deaver, Randahl Brisco, and Michael T. Kachingwe.
As Ruth, a clumsy yet determined aspiring actress, leaves both the confines and comfort of small town Mississippi to prove herself in the big City of Angels, she is soon confronted with the reality that if things are going to “happen” for her, it won’t come easily. As she journeys through loneliness, failed relationships, and identity crisis on the way to her dreams, she searches for guidance in the prayers prayed out her small apartment window. Ultimately she must confront the question she’s been running from, “What is she left with if nothing goes according to plan?”
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Red Bull Theater‘s Medea: Re-Versed, adapted by Luis Quintero, will run Sept. 12 – Oct. 13 at the Sheen Center, directed by Nathan Winkelstein.
Sarin Monae West (Medea), Siena D’Addario, Melissa Mahoney, Mark Martin, Jacob Ming-Trent, Luis Quintero, and Stephen Michael Spencer.
How do you solve a problem like Medea? Her infamy is larger than life; it resists the constraints of the stage. There have been other terrifying anti-heroes in the history of tragedy, but a woman capable of killing her own children threatens to break the bounds of imagination. Even Lady Macbeth, a theatrical descendant who imagines dashing out the brains of a nursing infant, can’t steel herself to carry out actual violence, and ultimately subsides into madness and suicide. Medea, though, ends her play not beaten down but darkly triumphant. In the final scene of Euripides’ tragedy, she turns up to taunt her defeated husband from a winged chariot suspended above the stage. By occupying the position reserved for the deus ex machina, Medea reminds us that she’s semi-divine, the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. “There’s a deity’s entity in my identity,” she tells us in this brilliant adaptation. A supernaturally powered fury, she refuses to be reduced to human fragility.
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The Public Theater will return in 2025 with its FREE Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night (dates & ticketing TBA), to run at the newly refurbished Delacorte Theater, directed by Saheem Ali.
Peter Dinklage (Malvolio0, Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Andrew Aguecheek), Lupita Nyong (Viola), Sandra Oh (Olivia), and more TBA.
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The 26th Annual Broadway Barks annual adoption event, in support of BCEFA, will take place Sat. Aug. 3 from 3-6 PM in Broadway’s Shubert Alley. Click here for more information.
Bernadette Peters and Sutton Foster
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The world premiere of Marlow Wyatt’s Robbin, From The Hood will run Oct. 8 – Nov. 10 (opening Oct. 11) at North Hollywood’s Road on Magnolia, directed by chuma Gault.
Iesha M. Daniels (Robbin), Enrike Llamas (Juan), Geri Nikole-Love (Margaret), Rob Nagle (Kyle), Joshua R. Lamong (Charles), and William L. Warren (Percy).
In this re-imagined, classic tale, corporate greed dominates the deceptive game of capitalism. Robbin Woods, a 17-year-old math genius, is given the opportunity to enter that seemingly unattainable world. Once inside, she recognizes the massive inequities that exist and creates a plan to level the playing field. Because, sometimes you have to do the wrong thing for the right reason.
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Irish Rep has announced 2 productions for Fall 2024:
The Beacon (Sept. 11 – Nov. 3), directed by Marc Atkinson Borrull, featuring Kate Mulgrew and more TBA. The play explores a tragic accident, a dead husband; accusations resurfaced by a true crime podcast. Everyone will have a different interpretation — when you look at it, what do you see? Renowned artist Beiv has left her suburban Dublin home for a secluded cottage on the coast of Cork, but her estranged son, Colm, soon returns, stirring up a shadowy past.
The Dead, 1904 (Nov. 6 – Jan. 5, 2025), by Nancy Harris. Director and cast TBA. The play will take place in the American Irish Historical Society’s early 20th century Upper East Side townhouse, offering an immersive adaption. The story centers on a holiday gathering on January 6, 1904, in the Dublin home of two elderly sisters Kate and Julia Morkan, and their niece, Mary Jane. The party is attended by students, friends, a celebrated tenor, a lost alcoholic, and the couple, Gabriel and Gretta Conroy. Over the course of an evening, there are speeches, and disagreements, polite and impolite.., and when it is all over Gabriel learns something about his wife that changes his sense of who she is and who they are to each other, of what it actually means to be alive, and to be dead….. Audience members will become a part of the story, traveling over three floors of the building, which has been restored to period decoration. As guests of the party, they will be offered a holiday meal from caterers at Great Performances.
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Zoe Sarna & Carol Hiekkinen’s Empire Records: The Musical will run Sept. 6 – Oct. 6 at NJ’s McCarter Theatre, directed by Trip Cullman, with choreography by Ellenore Scott.
Lorna Courtney (Corey), Damon Daunno (Rex Manning), Taylor Iman Jones (Max), Michael Luwoye (Joe), Tyler Donovan McCall (Lucas), Liam Pearce (AJ), Sam Poon (Warren), Analise Scarpaci (Debra), Eric Wiegand (Mark), and Samantha Williams (Gina), with Hoke Faser, Alex Lugo, Leah Read, Maximilian Sangerman, Andrew Cekala, and Jarynn Whitney.
Overflowing with optimism, 90’s counterculture, and the spirit of punk rock, Empire Records: The Musical tells the story of a band of idealistic misfits fighting to save their beloved record store from a corporate takeover. With tactics ranging from desperate to dangerous, the team comes together during a visit by over the hill pop star Rex Manning to discover the true value of friendship, love, and music.
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The Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes will return to Radio City Music Hall Nov. 8 – Jan. 5, 2025.
This year’s staging will blend classic numbers with innovative technology that will extend the show beyond the stage, including digital projections, and even “Frost Fairy” drones that will fly over the audience.
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A staged reading of Jane Austen in 90 Minutes, written & directed by Syrie James, will take place Sat. Aug. 10 at 2 PM at Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40.
Shayna Gabrielle, Syrie James, Diane Linder, Michael Mullen, Holly Sidell, David Hunt Stafford, and John Woodley.
A cast of madcap ladies and gents bring all of Jane Austen’s beloved tales to comic life. Hilarity ensues.
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Gingold Theatrical Group‘s Golden Shamrock Gala will take place Mon. Sept. 23 at 6 PM at NYC’s Robert Restaurant (2 Columbus Circle).
Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty
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The world premiere of John Mullican’s in the Unlikely Event of an Actual Emergency will run Sept. 20 – Oct. 26 at Santa Monica’s Hudson Guild Theatre, directed by Rickie Peete.
Dolores Aguanno (Lucinda Murphy), Stacy Aung (Flight Attendant/Panicked Woman/Phoebe), Jason Leon-Baptista (Bill), Fran Montano (Liam Murphy), John Mullican (Arturo Murphy), and Katheryn :Kat” Peña (DJ).
Explore the rules of chance, the hilarity of panic, and the power of art and kindness in this 90 minute theatrical thrill ride as 6 characters work together against the ridiculous odds of surviving what airlines refer to as “an airplane incident.”
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers: Funday Monday on Tuesday: Pretty Maids All In a Row
1. In The Maids, two maids plot to kill Madame, their mistress.
2. Ethel Shutta originated the role of Hattie Walker in Follies.
3. In Gaslight, Angela Lansbury made her film debut as Nancy, the maid.
4. Maid in America was a 1915 musical composed by Sigmund Romberg.
5. In “Everybody Ought to Have A Maid,” the lyrics say a maid should be “puttering all around the house.”
6. The French maid in Noel Coward’s Private Lives is Louise.
7. Nerissa, Portia’s maid in The Merchant of Venice, marries Gratiano.
8. Petra has a song about the miller’s son.
10. In My Fair Lady, Higgins’s maids are supervised by Mrs. Pearce.