Today’s Highlights:
A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical, by Anthony McCarten, directed by Michael Mayer, featuring Will Swenson (Neil Diamond – Then), Mark Jacoby (Neil Diamond – Now), Robyn Hurder (Marcia), Linda Powell (Doctor), Jessie Fisher (Jaye Posner), Michael McCormick (Fred Colby/Tommy O’Rourke), Tom Alan Robbins (Bert Berns/Kieve Diamond), and Bri Sudia (Ellie Greenwich/Rose Diamond), with Jessie Austrian, Neal Benari, Jordan Dobson, Ninako Donville, Paige Faure, Nick Fradiani, Kalonjee Gallimore, Samantha Gershman, Alex Hairston, Makai Hernandez, Jess LeProtto, Tatiana Lofton, Aaron James McKenzie, Mary Page Nance, Robert Pendilla, Max Sangerman, and MiMi Scardulla, opens at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre.
The Public Theater‘s FREE Richard III, directed by Robert O’Hara, featuring Danai Gurira (Richard III), Wyatt Cirbus (Prince of Wales), Sanjit De Silva (Buckingham), Sam Duncan (Duke of York),Monique Holt (Duchess of York), Gregg Mozgala (King Edward IV/Richmond), Paul Niebanck (George), Michael Potts (Lord Stanley), Ariel Shafir (Lord Hastings, Heather Alicia Simms (Queen Elizabeth), Ali Stroker (Anne), Sharon Washington (Queen Margaret), and Daniel J. Watts (Catesby Ratcliffe), with Maleni Chaitoo, Thaddeus Fitzpatrick, Skyler Gallun, Sara Nina Hayon, Matthew Jeffers, Matt Monaco, Xavier Pacheco, Marcus Rae Perez, Grace Porter, and N’yomi Stewart, begins previews at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre.
Gingold Theatrical Group‘s 2021 presentation of Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession, directed by David Staller, featuring Karen Ziema (Mrs. Warren), Robert Cuccioli, David Lee Huynh, Alvin Keith, Nicole King, and Raphael Nash Thompson, with Katya Collazo and Max Roll, begins on-demand streaming.
A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill, world premiere by Matt Schatz, directed by Mike Donahue, featuring Jahbril Cook (The Son, and others), Zehra Fazal (The Lady on the Radio, and others), Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper (The Junior Rabbi/The Private Investigator, and others), Rivkah Reyes (The Daughter/The Reporter, and others), Danny Rothman (The Rabbi, and others), and Jill Sobule (The Canor/The Rabbi’s Wife, and others, begins previews at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
Jen Colella returns to Come From Away at Broadway’s Schoenfeld Theatre.
Biana Marroquin (Roxie Hart) returns to Chicago at Broadway’s Ambassador Theatre.
**********************
Reviews for The Orchard at Off-Broadway’s Baryshnikov Arts Center Theatre:
New York Times (Laura Collins-Hughes): …It is Firs who reliably pierces our hearts at the end of “The Cherry Orchard,” so to start with him here is fitting — all the more so because he is played by Mikhail Baryshnikov with the ineffable magnetism and captivating grace that have always made him a riveting performer, and that now make him the quietly scene-stealing anchor of this ambitious and cluttered production… We don’t know it yet, but that brief interlude — with a single line of dialogue about the weather, and the pleasure of watching Baryshnikov whirl when a wind whips up — is the last we will have before this show starts obstructing our view of the actors with video frequently projected on its transparent downstage scrim.
New York Theatre (Jonathan Mandell): …About halfway through the production, which is both online and on stage at the Baryshnikov Arts Center through July 3, an ominous looking “passerby” suddenly appears, wearing all-black battledress with a helmet, and speaks in Russian. At the end of the play, the cherry orchard isn’t chopped down; via video projection, it explodes… But these touches must compete with many others in this overly busy version of Chekhov’s play, which is conceived and directed by Igor Golyak… I found Hecht beatific as Ranevskaya, Nacer a suitable gruff Lopakhin who smartly avoids performative villainy, and Baryshnikov persuasive (somewhat alarmingly so) as the feeble, dying manservant Firs.
New York Stage Review (David Finkle): …What I was about to watch was a brilliant response to Chekhov’s superlative sad comedy, orchestrated by director Igor Golyak, whose work I hadn’t seen before, but whose future works I shall anticipate… The first reassuring comment to make is that, while the Carol Rocamora translation is somewhat trimmed, Chekhov’s play is on view… Regarding Golyak’s production notions as gratuitous — as extraneous, as gaudy, as distracting — is one way of looking at this version. On the other hand, there is an undeniable beauty as well as a comic undercurrent to them that cumulatively become mesmerizing.
**********************
Reviews for Bruce (the new “Jaws”-inspired musical) at Seattle Rep:
Seattle Times (Jerald Pierce & Dusty Summers): …the titular star of Seattle Rep’s world-premiere production of Bruce has even less stage time than it did screentime in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic “Jaws.” Unfortunately, where limited shots of the story’s central shark in the movie — necessitated by a slew of on-set issues with the mechanical shark named Bruce — added to the suspense around its movie presence, its absence from this new musical left a gaping hole… began to wonder if that step-by-step approach truly helped the production, especially when done absent its most dramatic star… it lacks that big, memorable moment… There’s not a real strong through line…
Variety (Misha Berson): There’s nothing like mechanical malfunction to make you want to break into song. Though that may well be unique to Bruce — unless you can name another musical with a spectacularly unruly prop among its main characters… Gottlieb’s wry, informative book is a bonanza for film nerds… So do we really need another account of the “Jaws” backstory?… They have framed “Bruce” as a hero’s journey, but the mythic resonance they’re reaching for proves elusive. By trying to cram in too many details of a long, shaggy saga, the busy show strains for uplift… The many personae can be hard to track in this hectic retelling… Other than Spielberg, there’s little character development…
Theatermania (Josh Sharpe): …Though Bruce, now running at Seattle Rep, has respectable intentions, it is bogged down by too much exposition, a weak score, and too short a runtime… Though the concept of Bruce…has great potential, neither Taylor’s book nor Oberacker’s score ever soar… The songs are musically uninteresting, and the book hastily introduces us to a host of individuals who are just as quickly forgotten. The show is so focused on retelling historical events with accuracy that much-needed character moments are cut short. Consequently, we have little time to care about what is transpiring… The fundamental problem with Bruce is not that it is a musical…
**********************
Chita Rivera Awards 2022. Click here for the complete list of winners.
**********************
Jason Graae’s Graaetest Hits will take place Sat. Aug. 6 at 8 PM PT at San Francisco’s Feinstein’s at the Nikko, with music direction by Gerald Sternbach.
Jason will sing the songs that got him where he is today. Where that is, nobody’s sure.
**********************
FULL OUT! An Evening with Jerry Mitchell will take place Thurs. June 23 at 7 PM at Burbank’s Garry Marshall Theatre, with music direction by Rachael Lawrence, and hosted by Joseph Leo Bwarie.
Billy Porter, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Jackie Seiden, and Sabrina Sloan.
**********************
Disney’s Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation will open Sept. 16 at the Texas Irving Arts Center.
The musical is set in the Hundred Acre Wood, and features Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabit, Owl, and Tigger, too.
Click here for the tour schedule.
**********************
Staged readings of Lisa Loomer’s ROE will run June 23 – July 10 (opening June 25) at LA’s Fountain Theatre, directed by Vanessa Stallings, and hosted by Tyne Daly & Sharon Gless (on July 1, at 8 PM PT only).
John Achorn, Kenya Alexander, Sufe Bradshaw, Pamela Dunlap, Aleisha Force, Christina Hall, Susan Lynskey, Ed Martin, Kate Middleton, Rob Nagle, Xochitl Romero.
Part outdoor rally, part call to action, this is a hyper-staged reading of the explosive play. Playwright Lisa Loomer cuts through the headlines to reveal the real-life woman who became “Jane Roe,” the female attorney who argued her case before the Supreme Court, and the challenging years following that fatefl decision.
**********************
Hamilton will run Sept. 28 – Oct. 16 at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center.
Casting TBA.
**********************
Video: First look at the Pre-Broadway production of Kiss My Aztec! at Hartford Stage, featuring Krystina Alabado, KC Dela Cruz, Angelica Maria Beliard, and more.
**********************
“The Jennifer Hudson Talk Show” will debut on Sept. 12 on Fox.
**********************
Video: Sara Bareilles discusses the upcoming Broadway production of Into The Woods (starts at 6:35).
**********************
Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater has announced its 2022-23 season:
Only Gold (Oct. 2022), world premiere by Kate Nash & Ted Malawer, directed & choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler. The new dance musical follows a royal family’s destabilizing arrival in Paris.
Wolf Play (Jan. 2023), by Hansol Jung, directed by Dustin Wills. The story of an unconventional adoption across border and cultures.
Bee and Honey (May 2023), world premiere by Guadalis, directed by Melissa Crespo. This Washington Heights love story is about one young couple answering the question: Is Love Enough?
Wet Brain (dates TBA), world premiere by John J. Caswell, directed by Dustin Wills, which will run a Playwrights Horizons. In a crumbling house in Arizona, a family haunted by addiction – and hardened into smart-asses – wrestles with the alcoholic ruin of its patriarch… who may or may not be repeatedly abducted by aliens.