Today’s Highlights:
None.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz – The Game’s Afoot by Jim Bernhard
1. In The Odd Couple, Oscar hosts a weekly game of…bridge…poker…darts…pinochle
2. In Guys and Dolls, Nathan uses the Biltmore Garage to hold a game of…craps…poker…arm-wrestling…mumblety-peg
3. The last line of A Streetcar Named Desire is “This game is….Texas hold’em…high-low split…seven-card stud…five-card draw”
4. At the end of Promises, Promises, Fran tells Chuck, “Shut up and deal.” They are playing….hearts…gin rummy…poker…cribbage
5. In George S. Kaufman’s playlet, If Men Played Cards As Women Do, the card game is…bridge…whist…canasta…poker
6. Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Musicp lays….jacks…tiddlywinks…dice…solitaire
7. A 1997 off-Broadway musical was based on and named for the board game… Monopoly…Clue…Risk….Yahtzee
8. A 1986 musical by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Tim Rice takes place at an international competition in…bridge…chess…crossword puzzles…poker
9. A 1986 play by D. L. Coburn is about two characters playing…backgammon…checkers…gin rummy…mah jongg
10. In The Who’s Tommy, Tommy is a wizard at…marbles…bowling…pinball…spades
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Video: “Stars in the House,” a celebration of James Wesley’s birthday, with special guests Norm Lewis, Chita Rivera and Lisa Mordente, Rosie Perez, Andrea Martin, Dr. Jon LaPook, Jennifer Simard, and more. (1:12:51)
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Godspell in concert, directed by Michael Strassen, will run Aug. 27-29 here.
Ruthie Henshall, Darren Day (both from the 1993 London production), Sam Tutty, Ria Jones, and Jenna Russell, Jodie Steele, Danyl Johnson, Jenny Fitzpatrick, Natalie Green, John Barr, Sally Ann Triplett, Gerard McCarthy, Alison Jiear, Shekinah McFarlane, Lucy Williamson, Ronald Brian, and Jermone Bell.
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Article: Hamilton set designer shares secrets behind the Disney+ film version.
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Video: “The Girl Hunt Ballet,” from 1953’s “The Band Wagon.” with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.
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As U.K. theatres and arts organizations continue to face an uncertain future in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the government has announced a £1.57 billion (approximately $1.96 billion) rescue package. The funds, to be distributed as emergency grants and loans, follow numerous pleas and campaigns from leaders in arts and culture sectors as venues were threatened with permanent closures and artists have been stripped of opportunities once available.
Though this bailout funding offers a lifeline for preservation throughout the shutdown, theatres are also still navigating the extent of their contributions in a virtual landscape in the near and distant aftermath of the pandemic.
Among the myriad institutions facing closure during the global health crisis is Shakespeare’s Globe. CEO Neil Constable has voiced satisfaction with the deal, adding that funds will help the theatre provide alternative programming until live performances can resume.
Additional aid will go to artists through a new fund created by Sam Mendes. Grants of £1,000 (approximately $1,250) will be aimed at those ineligible for direct government benefits under the current model—including freelancers. The program is funded in part by donations from Steven Spielberg, Armando Iannucci, and Netflix.
Mendes had actually called out Netflix in a recent proposal, noting that streaming services have garnered usage increases due to quarantine, with many of those numbers attributed to the contributions of theatre artists.
here.
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Video: “Pure Imagination” with the Hofstra Virtual Choir. Gorgeous.
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Off-Broadway’s Mint Theater continues its Summer Stock Streaming Festival through July 19, featuring archival recordings of past productions:
* The Fatal Weakness, by George Kelly, directed by Jesse Marchese, featuring Cliff Bemis, Cynthia Darlow, Kristin Griffith, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Patricia Kilgarriff, and Victoria Mack. 
Society woman Ollie Espenshade, after 28 years of marriage, is still an incurable romantic (her fatal weakness). Perhaps discovering that her husband is a lying cheat will cure her?
* The New Morality, by Harold Chapin, directed by Jonathan Bank, featuring Christian Campbell, Brenda Meaney, Ned Noyes, Michael Frederic, Douglas Rees, Clemmie Evans, and Kelly McCready. Set aboard a houseboat on a fashionable reach of the Thames in 1911, brazen Betty Jones learns how to restore dignity to her household and harmony to her marriage, by losing her temper and making a scene.
* Women Without Men, by Hazel Ellis, directed by Jenn Thompson, featuring Mary Bacon, Joyce Cohen, Shannon Harrington, Kate Middleton, Aedin Moloney, Alexa Shae Niziak, Kellie Overbey, Dee Pelletier, Beatrice Tulchin, Emily Walton, and Amelia White.
Set in the teacher’s lounge of a private girls boarding school in Ireland in the 1930s, Jean Wade, an enthusiastic young teacher new to the school, soon finds herself popular with the students and at odds with her quarrelsome colleagues — especially the antagonistic Miss Connor.
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Video: Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell perform”Wheels of a Dream”
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Podcast: Part 1 of Gillian Pensavalle’s “The Hamilcast,” a 3-part interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda, in celebration of the filmed version of Hamilton released last weekend on Disney+.
Part 2 will be released July 13, with the release date of Part 3 TBA.
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Video: Melissa Errico, “Blackberry Winter”
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#WhileWeBreathe: A Night of Creative Protest, in support of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and The Bail Project, Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD), BYP100 Education Fund, Forced Trajectory Project (FTP), The Justice Committee, and SONG, will take place Wed. July 29 at 9 PM ET here.
Lee Edward Colston II, Arvind Ethan David, Cheryl Davis, Nathan Alan Davis, Steve Harper, Bianca Sams, Keenan Scott II, Aurin Squire, Khari Wyatt, and Karen Zacarias. Directors will include Steve Broadnax III, Bianca LaVerne Jones, Patricia McGregor, Pratibha Parmar, and Charles Randolph-Wright.
Casting TBA.
The event will feature at least 11 world premiere short works.
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Video: “The Schuyler Sisters,” sung by Adam B. Shapiro. Fabulous!
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Article: Off-Broadway’s National Black Theatre continues to honor the life and legacy of its founder, the late Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, by publishing a recently unearthed “A Letter to the Future.”
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Video: “Weird Al Yankovic – The Hamilton Polka”
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Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater will present a reading of Good as New on Thurs. July 16 at 7 PM ET, written & directed by Peter Hedges.
Julianne Moore and Kaitlyn Dever
A mother and daughter grapple with a family shakeup amid a face lift and driving lessons (respectively).
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Video: Kings Return performs a gregorian chant in stairwell. Stunning. Thank you, Mary VanArsdel.
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LA’s Fountain Theatre presents a Zoom conversation with playwright Robert Schenkkan on Thurs. July 9 at 4 & 7 PM PT, moderated by Stephen Sachs.
The two will discuss Schenkkan’s career, playwriting process, and the current national nightmare.
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Video: Off-Broadway’s Altar Boyz original cast performs “I Believe”
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Article: The theatre community remembers Nick Cordero
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The cast of Broadway’s Girl From the North Country reunited virtually to perform two songs:
Video: “Make You Feel My Love,” with Jeannette Bayardelle and Austin Scott
Video: “Pressing On,” with Mare Winningham and Marc Kudish
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The UK’s Hope Mill Theatre will present Godspell in concert Aug. 27-29, directed by Michael Strassen.
Ruthie Henshall, Darren Day, Sam Tutty, Ria Jones, and Jenna Russell, with Steele, Danyl Johnson, Jenny Fitzpatrick, Natalie Green, John Barr, Sally Ann Triplett, Gerard McCarthy, Alison Jiear, Shekinah McFarlane, and Lucy Williamson.
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The Broadway Q&A Series will go live on Wed. July 8 at 1 PM ET here, with choreographer Denis Jones, who will answer questions about the staging of Tootsie, Holiday Inn, Honeymoon in Vegas, and more.
Click here to submit a question.
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GRACE NOTES Quiz answers – The Game’s Afoot
1. In The Odd Couple, Oscar hosts a weekly poker game.
2. In Guys and Dolls, Nathan uses the Biltmore Garage for a crap game.
3. The last line of A Streetcar Named Desire is “This game is seven-card stud.”
4. At the end of Promises, Promises, Fran and Chuck play gin rummy.
5. In If Men Played Cards As Women Do, the game is poker.
6. Madame Armfeldt plays solitaire.
7. A 1997 off-Broadway musical was based on the board game and titled Clue.
8. Chess is a 1986 musical by Andersson, Ulvaeus and Rice that is set an international chess competition.
9. In D. L. Coburn’s The Gin Game, the two characters play gin rummy.
10. In The Who’s Tommy, Tommy is a pinball wizard.