Today’s Highlights:
seven methods of killing kylie jenner, by Jasmine Lee-Jones, directed by Milli Bhatia, featuring Tia Bannon and Leanne Henlon, opens in person at the West End’s Royal Court Theatre.
The Watering Hole, an immersive theatrical installation, by Lynn Nottage & Miranda Haymon, opens at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre.
An Enemy of the People: After Henrik Ibsen, adapted & directed by Robert Icke, starring Ann Dowd, opens at NYC’s Park Avenue Armory.
Seven Deadly Sins (seven world premiere short plays), by Ngozi Anyanwu, Thomas Bradshaw, MJ Kaufman, Moisés Kaufman, Jeffrey Lahoste, Ming Pfeiffer, and Bess Wohl, directed by Moisés Kaufman, featuring Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Eric Ulloa, Morgan McGhee, Caitlin O’Connell, Cody Sloan, Tricia Alexandro, Shavanna Calder, Donn Carnow, Shamika Cotton, Brandon J. Ellis, Brad Fleischer, Kahyum Kim, and Shuga Cain, opens outdoors in NYC’s Meat Packing District here.
Is There Still Sex in the City workshop production, written by & starring Candice Bushnell, opens at PA’s Buck’s County Playhouse.
Ambassador of Love: Celebrating Pearl Bailey outdoor concert, featuring Rashidra Scott, opens at CT’s Goodspeed Musicals.
Heathers, by Laurence O’Keefe & Kevin Murphy, directed by Andy Fickman, with choreography by Gary Lloyd, featuring Joe Steele (Heather Chandler), Bobbie Little (Heather Duke), Frances Mayli McCann (Heather McNamara), returns to London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket.
“In the Heights: Finding a Home” released in Hardcover and Kindle here.
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The Music Man will begin previews Dec. 20 and open Feb. 10, 2022 at the Winter Garden Theatre, directed by Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Warren Carlyle, and music direction by Patrick Vaccariello.
Hugh Jackman (Professor Harold Hill), Sutton Foster (Marion Paroo), Jayne Houdyshell (Mrs. Shinn), Jefferson Mays (Mayor Shinn), Marie Mullen (Mrs. Paroo), Shuler Hensley (Marcellus Washburn), Remy Auberjonois (Charlie Cowell), Gino Cosculluela (Tommy Djilas), Emma Crow (Zaneeta Shinn), and more TBA.
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Video: Jim Caruso’s Cast Party, with special guests Luke Carsen, Ruby Locknar, Laura Anglade, and Philip Springer. (1:17:52)
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Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose, written by & starring Ed Dixon, and directed by Eric Shaeffer, continues streaming through July 18 here.
Dixon explores the many facets of this British stage animal, who he proudly called friend, and doesn’t leave anything out, hitting on both the delightful and depressing facts about his life.
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Theatre books that offer great summer reading.
Click here for the complete list.
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Complete casting has been announced for the return of Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, Garry Marshall & J.F. Lawton’s Pretty Woman: The Musical, to run July 8 – Dec. 12 at the Savoy Theatre, directed by choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, with music supervision by Will Van Dyke.
Aimie Atkinson (Vivian Ward), Danny Mac (Edward Lewis), Rachel Wooding (Kit De Luca), Bob Harms (Happy Man/Mr. Thompson, Neil McDermott (Philip Stuckey), and Mark Holden (James Morse), with Jemma Alexander, Andy Barke, Kimberly Blake, Katie Bradley, Oliver Brenin, Olivia Brookes, Alex Charles, Olly Christopher, Ben Darcy, Hannah Ducharme, Nicholas Duncan, Paige Fenlon, Damon Gould, Alex Hammond, Tom Andrew Hargreaves, Anthony Hewitt, Matt Jones, Serina Matthew, Katie Monks, Joanna Woodward, and Charlotte Elisabeth Yorke.
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Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater presents its next Song lab on Mon. June 28 at 7 PM ET, focusing on the new musical Space Dogs, written & performed by Van Hughes and Nick Blaemire.
The heartbreaking, mind-blowing true story of Laika and the Chief Designer – a stray dog and the top-secret Russian scientist who sent her to space during the Cold War.
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Video: Relive Manhattan Theatre Club‘s production of Ink (2019) through footage and conversation with playwright by James Graham and director Rupert Goold. (34:35)
Bertie Carvel (Rupert Murdoch), Jonny Lee Miller (Larry Lamb), David Wildon Barnes (Brian McConnell), Bill Buell (Frank Nicklin/Hetherington/Percy Robers), Andre Durand (Beverly/Christopher), Timothe Eden Marryshow (Ray Mills/Lee Howard), Colin McPhillamy (Sir Alick/Rees-Mogg/Chapen Father), Erin Neufer (Anna Murdoch/Diana/Crissie/Apprentice), Kevin Pariseau (Bench Hand/TV Host/Croiset), Rana Roy (Stephanie Rahn). Michael Siberry (Hugh Culipp), Robert Stanton (Bernard Shrimsley/Brittenden), and Tara Summers (Joyce Hopkirk/Muriel McKay).
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Off-Broadway’s Mint Theatre continues streaming 2 of its most popular productions through June 17, both available with closed captioning.
* A Picture of Autumn, by N.C. Hunter, directed by Gus Kaikkonen, featuring Helen Cespedes, Christian Coulson, Barbara Eda-Young, Mark Emerson, Katie Firth, Jonathan Hogan, Paul Niebanck, and Jill Tanner.
Set in Wiltshire, England in 1951, the play follows three aging members of the Denham family as the crawl through life in a monotonous rut. Click here to watch.
* 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.
The story of Ollie Espenshade – an incurable romantic who discovers, after 28 years of marriage, that her husband is a lying cheat. Click here to watch.
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“Disappointment Blvd,” written & directed by Ari Aster, is currently in development. Timeline, released date, and additional information TBA.
Nathan Lane, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, Kylie Rogers, and more TBA.
Although the project is being kept under wraps, the plot is described as an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.
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Long Island’s John W. Engeman Theater has announced its 2021-22 season. Creative teams and casting TBA.
Smokey Joe’s Cafe (Sept. 16 – Oct. 31)
The Sound of Music (Nov. 11 – Dec. 26)
Rock of Ages (Jan. 13 – Feb. 27, 2022)
A Bronx Tale (Mar. 17 – May 1)
Kinky boots (May 19 – July 3)
On Your Feet (July 14 – Aug. 28)
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Brad Copeland’s “Jerry and Marge Go Large,” directed by David Frankel, will stream on Paramount +, with a premiere date TBA.
Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening, with more TBA.
Jerry Selbee is a retiree who discovers a mathematical loophole in the Massachusetts lottery, and with the help of his wife, Marge, wins $27 million and uses the money to revive their small Michigan town.
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Torrey Townsend’s Off Broadway will stream June 24-27 on Broadstream, directed by Robert O’Hara.
The stream is free to watch, but advance email signup is requested here. Additional details will be provided closer to launch.
Dylan Baker, Beck Ann Baker, Jessica Frances Dukes, Jason Butler Harner, Hal Linden, Jillian Mercado, Richard Kind, and Kara Wang.
The year is 2020 and the American theatre is shut down…but it is no shut off. The play follows the staff of a non-profit theatre as they come together on Zoom and scramble to stave off extinction.
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Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre presents the latest streaming performance of New Faces Sing Broadway 1979, to stream June 25 – July 25, directed by Brianna Borger, with music direction by Linda Madonia, and hosted by Alexis J Roston. The concert will feature songs from Evita, Sweeney Todd, They’re Playing Our Song, and more.
Micah Beauvais, Adia Bell, Chloe Belongilot, Wesly Anthony Clergé, Haley Gustafson, Drew Mitchell, Mia Nevarez, Larua Quiñones, Christopher Ratliff, and Nathe Rowbotham.
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VT’s Dorset Theatre Festival will present Christopher Durang’s Laughing Wild, to stream July 10-31, directed by Jade King Carroll.
The July 9 opening night will be a live performance at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester. The remainder of the run will be available on-demand.
Dan Butler and Mary Bacon.
The 1980s comedy, in three acts, stars a man and woman struggling to cope with life in modern America. Over the course of two monologues and a chance meeting inside of a dream, the characters take on everything from the supermarket to nuclear waste to their own frenetic psyches. The play’s title refers to a line in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, “laughing wild amidst severest woe.”
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Audio: Bill Murray sings “I Feel Pretty” in the trailer for “New Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization”
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The first round of the 2021 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards from the Theatre Communications Group have been announced. The grants, totally $1,072,200, will allow each show extra time in development and rehearsal, with a mission to the extend the life of the show beyond its world premiere.
* Born With Teeth, by Liz Duffy
* Noir, by Duncan Sheik & Kyle Jarrow
* House of Shades, by Beth Steel
* Father/Daughter, by Kait Kerrigan
* The Garden, by Charlayne Woodard
* Refuge, by Satya Jnani Chavez & Andrew Rosendorf
* Soft Target, by Emily Kaczmarek
* Good Night, Oscar, by Doug Wright
* To the yellow house, by Kimber Lee
* Mother Russia, by Lauren Yee
* Prayer for the French Republic, by Joshua Harmon
* The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel, by Collette Rober & Dione McClain Freeney
* Mr. Dicken’s Hat, by Michael Hollinger
* A.D. 16, by Cinco Paul & Bekah Brunstetter
* Tambo & Bones, by Dave Harris
* Wish You Were Here, by Sanaz Toossi
* Suffragist, by Shaina Taub
* Top of the World, by Catherine Butterfield
* “We declare you a terrorist…,” by Tim J. Lord
* The Magician’s Elephant, by Nancy Harris & Marc Teitler
* Bruce, by Richard Oberacker
* Letters of Suresh, by Rajiv Joseph
* A Case for the Existence of God, by Samuel D. Hunter
* Bald Sister, by Vichet Chum
* Nan and the Lower Body, by Jessica Dickey
* This Land was Made, by Tori Sampson
* Row, by Daniel Goldstein & Dawn Landes
