Today’s Highlights:
Dear England, world premiere by James Graham, directed by Rupert Goould, featuring Joseph Fiennes (Gareth Southgate), Gina McKee (Pippa Grange), Josh Barrow (Jordan Pickford), Gunnar Cauthery (Gary Lineker), Will Close (Harry Kane), Crystal Condie (Alex Scott), Will Fletcher (Jordan Henderson), Sean Gilder (Sam Allardyce), Darragh Hand (Marcus Rashford), John Hodgkinson (Greg Clarke), Adam Hugill (Harry Maguire), Albert Magashi (Jadon Sancho), Kel Matsena (Raheem Sterling), Abdul Sessay (Bukayo Saka), Lewis Shepherd (Dele Alli), Paul Thornley (Mike Webster), Tony Turner (Greg Dyke), and Ryan Whittle (Eric Dier), with Nick Barclay, Tashinga Bepete, Will Harrison-Wallace, and Miranda Heath, opens at London’s National Theatre.
Spy For Spy, world premiere by Kieron Barry, directed by Jane Atkinson, featuring Olive Gray and Amy Lenox, opens at London’s Riverside Studios.
Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, written & directed by Richard Hellesen, starring John Rubinstein, opens at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Clements.
New Works Summer Festival, offering readings of new plays, opens at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
The Ants, world premiere by Ramiz Monsef, directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh, featuring Hugo Armstrong (The Brain), Nicky Boulos (Nami), Megan Hill (Meredith), Jeremy Radin (The Pizza Guy), and Ryan Shrime (Shahid), begins previews at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
**********************
Melissa Etheridge: My Window on Broadway will run Sept. 14 – Nov. 19 (opening Sept. 28) at Circle in the Square, directed by Amy Tinkham.
**********************
RIP: Paxton Whitehead has died at the age of 85. His Broadway credits include Absurd Person Singular, My Fair Lady, Lettice and Lovage, A Little Hotel on the Side, Artist Descending a Staircase, Run For Your Wife, Noises Off, Camelot, Crucifer of Blood, Habeas Corpus, Beyond the Fringe 1964, Beyond the Fringe, Candida, and The Affair.
Off Broadway, he appeared in The Heir Apparent, The Harlequin Studies, London Suite, Suite in Two Keys, One Way Pendulum, Gallows Humour. He also appeared in London’s West End in Heartbreak House.
Whitehead’s directorial credits include The Circle, Misalliance, Getting Married, Forty Years On, and many more. Regionally, he has done many Ayckbourn plays in Westport, as well as shows in Los Angeles including How the Other Half Loves, What the Bulter Saw, Woman in Mind, and The Pirates of Penzance.
In addition to his stage credits, Whitehead appeared on film in “Kate and Leopold,” “Back to School”, “Boris and Natasha”, and “Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, and on television in “West Wing,” “Friends,” “Frasier,” “Mad About You,” “Ellen,” “Dinosaurs,” the series “Marblehead Manor” and the films “Tales from the Hollywood Hills,” “An Inconvenient Woman,” “Hale the Hero,” and “Trick of the Eye.”
**********************
Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline will run Aug. 2-19 at the Harold Clurman Laboratory, directed by Bryan Keith.
Lou Acosta, Nike Doukas, Jon Gentry, Fadia Carmelle Marcelin, Nate Memba, Ariana Sucar, and Omari Williams.
The dram a takes a deep look into the American educational system for underprivileged students. Nya is an inner-city high school teacher desperate to give her son opportunities that her students will never see. When a controversial incident at his upstate private school threatens to get him expelled, Nya must confront his rage and her own choices as a parent.
**********************
Complete casting has been announced for Next to Normal, which will run Aug. 12 – Oct. 7 (opening Aug. 22) at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Michael Longhurst, with choreography by Ann Yee, and music direction by Natalie Pound.
Caissie Levy (Diana Goodman), Trevor Dion Nicholas (Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine), Jamie Parker (Dan Goodman), Eleanor Worthington-Cox (Natalie), Jack Wofe (Gabe), and Jack Ofrecio (Henry).
**********************
Just for Us, written & performed by Alex Edelman, will run June 22- July 8 at the Hayes Theatre, directed by Adam Brace.
In the midst of a barrage of anti-Semitic threats pointed in his direction on the internet, standup comedian Alex Edelman decides to go straight to the source; specifically, Queens, where he covertly attends a meeting of White Nationalists and comes face-to-face with the people behind the computers. What happens next forms the backbone of the shockingly relevant, completely hilarious, and only moderately sweaty stories that comprise this solo show.
**********************
Video: In rehearsal for Tick…Tick…Boom! at PA’s Bucks County Playhouse (which runs June 23 – July 15), featuring Andy Mientus, Krystina Alabado, and Noah J. Ricketts.
**********************
Annie Baker’s new play, Infinite Life, will premiere Aug. 18 – Oct. 8 at the Atlantic Theatre Company, directed by James Macdonald.
Marylouise Burke, Kristine Nielsen, Mia Katigbak, Christina Kirk, Brenda Pressley, and Pete Simpson.
A surprisingly funny inquiry into the complexity of suffering
**********************
Hamilton has announced updated casting at the Victoria Palace Theatre:
Principals: Declan Spaine (Alexander Hamilton), Ava Brennan (Angelica Schuyler), Simbi Akande (Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds), Dom Hartley-Harris (George Washington), and Lemuel Knights (Marquis De Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson).
Ensemble: Gabriela Acosta, Elizabeth Armstrong, Alishia-Marie Blake, Aimie Hibbert, Sam Holden, Christian Knight, Nathan Louis-Fernand, Stacey McGuire, Lewis Newton, Hassun Sharif, Alex Tranter, and Maddison Tyson.
Continuing: Simon-Anthony Rhoden (Aaron Burr), Shan Ako (Eliza Hamilton), Emile Ruddock (Hercules Mulligan/James Madison), Jake Halsey-Jones (John Laurens/Philip Hamilton), and Joel Montague (King George III), along with Matthew Elliot-Campbell, Manaia Glassey-Ohlson, Maya Britto, Barney Hudson, Nicolais-Andre Kerry, Ella Kora, Aaron Lee Lambert, Kerri Norville, Samuel Sarpong-Broni, Lindsey Tierney, and Brandon Williams. Alex Sawyer continues to play Alexander Hamilton at certain performances.
**********************
Merrily We Roll Along will begin previews Sept. 19 (opening date TBA) at the Hudson Theatre, directed by Maria Friedman, with choreography by Tim Jackson.
Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, and more TBA.
**********************
Highlights from the recent Broadway Celebrates Juneteenth in Times Square., featuring Miki Abraham, Melody Betts, Donovan Louis Bazemore, Layla Capers, Courtnee Carter, Milanis Clark, Holli’ Conway-Fields, Kyrie Courter, Nadia Daniel, Mariama Diop, Scarlett London Diviney, Austin Elle Fisher, Josiah Gaffney, Bane Griffith, Aaron James McKenzie, Ethan Joseph, Arian Keddell, Tesia Kwarteng, Devin Miles Lugo, Antoine L. Smith, Kimberly Marable, Isabel Medina, Rashad McPherson, Celina Nightengale, Aaron Nicholas Patterson, Veronica Otim, William Rhem, Walter Russell III, Deandre Sevon, Vanessa Sears, Jurnee Elizabeth Swan, James T. Lane, Jayden Theophile, Farrah Ozuna Wilson, Rachel Webb, Hailee Kaleem Wright, Richard Riaz Yoder, and 2023 Tony Award nominees Lorna Courtney, Crystal Lucas-Perry, and NaTasha Yvette Williams.
Video 1 (scroll down) and Video 2 (scroll down):
**********************
A new revival of Cats will run June-July 2024 (exact dates TBA) at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (at the site of the former World Trade Center), directed by Zhailon Levington & Bill Rauch, with choreography by Arturo Lyons & Omari Wiles.
Casting, link, and additional information TBA.
The new revival is set in the underground world of the 1980s Ballroom culture.
**********************
The world premiere of George Fenton, Christopher Hampton & Don Black’s The Third Man, continues through Sept. 9 at the Menier Chocolate Factory, directed by Trevor Nunn, with choreography by Rebecca Howell, and music direction by Tamara Saringer.
Edward Baker-Duly (Calloway), Simon Bailey (Crabbit), Natalie Dunne (Anna), Derek Griffiths (The Porter), Jonathan Andrew Hume (Paine), Rachel Izen (The Porter’s Wife), Gary Milner (Kurtz), Harry Morrison (Popescu), Sam Underwood (Holly), and Alan Vicary (Dr. Winkel), with Chanice Alexander-Burnett, Craig Bartley, Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong, Leah Harris, Aly Merali, Tom Sterling, Samantha Thomas, and Tim Walton.
The new musical is set in post-war Vienna as Holly Martins arrives at the invitation of his friend and hero, Harry Lime, only to discover that Harry has been killed in a car accident.
**********************
Video: First look at London’s Cabaret, starring Maude Apatow and Mason Alexander Park.
**********************
Paula Vogel’s untitled play will run Spring 2024 at the Hayes Theater, directed by Tina Landau.
Casting and additional information TBA.
It’s 1962, just outside of D.C., and matriarch Phyllis is supervising her teenage children, Carl and Martha, as they move into a new apartment. Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and be to succeed, and woe be the child who finds their own path. Bolstered by gin and cigarettes, the family endures — or survives — the changing world around them.