Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be limited theatre news for the foreseeable future. I will continue to search for anything meaningful and/or fun to report. Stay safe and healthy.
Today’s Highlights:
* “Trivia Tuesday Happy Hour” game show, with Ethan T. Berlin, in support of BC/EFA, at 8 PM ET here.
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Inaugural Antonyo Award winners:
Click here for the complete list of winners
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Video: “Stars in the House,” in support of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, with guest host Andréa Burns, and special guests Peter Flynn, music director Kurt Crowley, and Carlos Gonzalez. (1:02:32)
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LA Theatre Works is now streaming 6 audio theater titles by Black playwrights for free through Aug. 30:
* A Huey P. Newton Story, written, directed & performed by Roger Guenveur.
An exploration of the life of the controversial Black Panther leader through a series of improvisations based on his own words and writings.
* Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, by Lonne Elder III, featuring Rocky Carroll and Glynn Turman. A Harlem family dreams of a better life, but pursues it in tragic ways.
* Fabulation, or the Education of Undine, by Lynn Nottage. A successful African-American publicist (Charlayne Woodard) stumbles down the social ladder after her husband steals her hard-earned fortune.
* The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall, featuring Aja Naomi King and Larry Powell. The slyly humorous, re-imagining of events as they might have taken place at the Lorraine Motel on the night before the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
* The Night Watcher, written & performed by Charlayne Woodard. A woman chooses not to have children — only to be pulled into the real-life struggles of kids of all ages, races and backgrounds.
* Stick Fly, by Lydica R. Diamond, featuring Justine Bateman, Dulé Hill, Tinashe Kajese, Carl Lumbly, Terrell Tilford. an upper-class African American family wrestles with parental expectations, sibling rivalry, and issues of class and race during a vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.
Video: “Twilight Los Angeles,” adapted by Marc Levin from Anna Deveare Smith’s play. The piece portrays various real life people involved in the aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King trial verdict riots in Los Angeles. (1:26:45)
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Article: Betty Buckley calls on Andrew Lloyd Webber to take legal action against the Trump campaign for using “Memory” from Cats at rallies.
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Video: Ahead of its premiere on Disney+, Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, and more perform, “Into the Unknown: Making of Frozen 2.”
All 6 episodes will drop on June 26.
The special follows the cast, co-director Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck (Lee also wrote the screenplay), songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, and more as they reveal the film-making process for the Disney hit. Included in the trailer are glimpses at voice talent recording sessions, pre-release screenings, creative meetings, and the actual animation process itself.
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“A Capital Fourth” was pre-taped and will air Sat. July 4 at 8 PM ET on PBS, hosted by Vanessa Williams and John Stamos.
Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kelli O’Hara, Mandy Gonzalez, Renée Fleming, Patti LaBelle, John Fogerty, The Temptations, Trace Adkins, Andy Grammer, Yolanda Adams, Brantley Gilbert, Lauren Alaina, and the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jack Everly.
The celebration will feature new performances from locations across the country, as well as highlights from the concert’s 40-year history. The concert will also feature a tribute to workers on the front lines in the fight against the pandemic, a segment honoring the contributions of African American heroes from past and present, and a salute to wounded warriors and their families.
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Video: “Some People,” with Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Angela Lansbury, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, and more.
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2021 Award show telecast changes:
* The Golden Globes will now take place on Feb. 28.
* The 2021 Academy Awards has been postponed by 2 months to Apr. 25. The new date means that the results of the Globes could influence Oscar nominations voting. Stay tuned for further updates.
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Article: “The Theatre at the End of the World” — can the theatre survive?
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To celebrate Al Hirschfeld’s 117th birthday, a special exhibition will explore his work with “Lost in the Stars: Black Theatre Makers Drawn by Hirschfeld,” which includes a collection of over 25 drawings, painting, and prints documenting nearly three-quarters of a century of African-American theater artistry.
Click here to view the exhibit, which continues through Aug. 8.
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Gingold Theatrical Group, now in its 15th season, has announced that applications are now being accepted for the 2020 Speakers’ Corner Writers Group.
Speakers’ Corner members will meet monthly starting in September, and GTG will host showings of the work that Speakers’ Corner develops in the spring or summer of the following year. The group’s members were identified through an open application process under the guidance of GTG Artistic Director David Staller and GTG’s Speakers Corner Advisory Committee: Sharon Washington, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Alison Fraser, and Ralph B. Peña.
speakers@gingoldgroup.org
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Andrew Lloyd Webber has announced plans to test live performances at the London Palladium in July.
The trials will follow the example set in South Korea, where The Phantom of the Opera has continued to play for over two months. “The key thing they have is incredibly good hygiene in every possible way. Both backstage and in the front of the orchestra. The whole point is to make people feel as safe and secure as they can.”
For example they have thermal imaging cameras at stage door and as you come into the theatre. These can identify if people have temperatures extremely quickly. Airlines are also developing this and we’ve also ordered it. We’ve ordered silver ion self-cleaning door handles for our little tests, these are completely effective against pathogens like coronavirus for a long period of time. Everybody going into the theatre is fobbed with the anti-viral chemical, which lasts 30 days.”
But Webber added that there will be no social distancing, “because it’s impossible to to do social distancing in the theatre.”
Webber now hopes to replicate the South Korean model in the UK, imminently. “What I hope to do is to demonstrate what has happened in South Korea at the London Palladium –hopefully in the first week of July. We’ve just had the final piece of equipment delivered and it’s just clearing customs. Then we’re going to do a series of tests to see if it’s going to work.
“The reason that we’ve chosen the Palladium is that it’s a very big theatre, just under 2300 seats. It’s the biggest theatre we have and in one way the most problematic. We want to be able to demonstrate there that this can work.”
“All we can do is continue to be positive and demonstrate we can open. If we do that and we fail then at least we’ve tried.”
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Video: The recent “Plays in the House” reading of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, directed by David Staller, featuring Midori Francis, David Huynh, Tonya Pinkins, James Monroe Iglehart, Raphael Nash Thompson and Thom Sesma, is now available through June 24. (2:23:28)
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Playbill‘s streaming presentation of The Gorgeous Nothings: In Concert, directed by Travis Russ, is available through 11:59 PM ET tonight. (1:09:03)
Kevin Smith Kirkwood, James Jackson Jr., Stephen DeRosa, Nick Cearley, Aaron Kaburick, Devin Ilaw, Seth Sikes, Maclain Whelan Dassatti, Kyle Price, and Benjamin Walker.
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Video: “Broadway Blues,” from Broadway’s Shuffle Along (2016), with Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, Brandon Victor Dixon, Joshua Henry, Brooks Ashmanskas, Amber Iman, and Adrienne Warren, with Felicia Boswell, Amber Iman, Adrienne Warren, Phillip Attmore, Darius de Haas, C.K. Edwards, Afra Hines, Curtis Holland, Adrienne Howard, Kendrick Jones, Lisa LaTouche, Alicia Lundgren, J.C. Montgomery, Erin N. Moore, Janelle Neal, Brittany Parks, Arbender Robinson, Karissa Royster, Britton Smith, Zurin Villanueva, Christian Dante White, J.L. Williams, Pamela Yasutake, and Richard Riaz Yoder.
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This week on PBS: (check local listings)
* “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” (June 23 at 8 PM)
* “Mae West: Dirty Blonde” (June 26 at 8 PM)
* “Gloria: A Life” (June 26, 27, July 3)
* “Elizabeth I: The Warrior Queen” (June 28-29)
Click here for the complete schedule