Today’s Highlights:
Out of Time, world premiere by Jaclyn Backhaus, Sam Chanse, Mia Chung, Naomi Iizuka & Anna Ouyang Moench, directed by Mike Lew, featuring Mia Katigbak (Ena), Glenn Kubota (Taki), Page Leong (Woman), and Rita Wolf (Carla), opens at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater.
Isaac Mizrahi: In Person opens at NYC’s Café Carlyle.
Trayf, by Lindsay Joelle, directed by Maggie Burrows, featuring Ilan Eskenzai (Zalmy), Ben Hirschhorn (Shmuel), Louisa Jacobson (Leah), and Garrett Young (Jonathan), begins previews at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
The Play You Want, by Bernardo Cubria, directed by Michael John Garcés, featuring Peter Pasco (Bernard0), Chelsea Gonzalez (Vera), Natalie Llerena (Chloe/Mija/J. Lo), Jonathan Nichols (Gilbert Cruz/Alfred Molina), Rolan Ruiz (Lin Manuel Miranda/Mijo/Pablo/John Leguizamo), Christopher Larkin (Sam Gold/Chay Yew/Variety Reporter), Stewart J. Zully (Oskar Eustis/Scott Rudin), and Presciliana Esarolini (Abuela/Gloria Estafan), begins previews at North Hollywood’s Road on Magnolia.
Harry Belafonte’s 95th Birthday and the 10th Anniversary of Social Justice Organization Sankofa.org celebration, featuring Aloe Blacc, John Legend, The Belafonte Alumni Band, Laurence Fishburne, Doug E. Fresh, Danny Glover, Amy Goodman, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Moore, Q-Tip, Tim Robbins, Rev. Al Sharpton, Bryan Stevenson, Sweet Hone in the Rock, Jesse Willams, and Alfre Woodard, ET at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Town Hall.
FREE live-streamed conversation & Q&A with Harvey Fierstein and Michael Musto, in celebration of Fierstein’s new book, “I Was Better Last Night,” at 6 PM ET at Lincoln Center’s Performing Arts Library. Register here.
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Complete casting has been announced Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, which will run Apr. 1 – Aug. 14 (opening Apr. 20) at the Booth Theatre, directed & choreographed by Camille A. Brown.
Amara Granderson (Lady in Orange), Tendayi Kuumba (Lady in Brown), Kenita R. Miller (Lady in Red), Okwui Okpolwasili (Lade in Green), Stacy Sargeant (Lady in Blue), Alexandrea Wailes (Lady in Purple), and D. Woods (Lady in Yellow).
In this celebration of the power of Black womanhood, seven women share their stories and find strength in each other’s humor and passion through a fusion of poetry, dance, music, and song, that explodes off the stage and resonates with all.
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Once on This Island will run Mar. 11 – Apr. 16 at Boston’s SpeakEasy Stage, directed by Pascale Florestal, with choreography by Jazelynn Goudy, and music direction by David Freeman Coleman.
Peli Naomi Woods (Ti Moune), Becky Bass, Jonathan Gallegos, Kira Sarai Helper, Lovely Hoffman, Christina Jones, Kenny Lee, Reagan Massó, Malik Mitchell, Davron S. Monroe, Yewande Odetoyinbo, Anthony Pires Jr., and Kira Troilo.
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Anna Uzele (Catherine Parr) will depart SIX on Mar. 13 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
She will be replaced by Joy Woods on Mar. 14.
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Paul Grellong’s The Power of Sail has been extended through Mar. 20 at LA’s Geffen Playhouse, directed Weyni Mengesha.
Bryan Cranston (Charles Nichols), Hugo Armstrong (Frank Sullivan), Amy Brenneman (Amy Katz), Donna Simone Johnson (Quinn Harris), Tedra Millan (Maggie Rosen), Seth Numrich (Lucas Poole) and Brandon Scott (Baxter Forrest)
Video: Trailer
Distinguished Harvard professor Charles Nichols finds himself in hot water after inviting an incendiary white nationalist to speak at his annual symposium. His colleagues are concerned, his students are in revolt, but Charles is undeterred in his plot to expose and academically thrash his invited guest. The play examines the insidiousness of hate disguised as free speech and the question of who ultimately pays the price.
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RIP: Actor Ned Eisenberg has died at the age of 65 after a two-year bout with two rare cancers, cholangiocarcinoma and ocular melanoma.
Ned appeared on Broadway in The Green Bird, Bartlett Sher’s productions of Awake and Sing!, Golden Boy, Rocky the Musical, and Six Degrees of Separation.
Ned’s wife, Patricia Dunnock, reported, “As Ned would say, he was attacked by two very rare assassins — cholangiocarcinoma and ocular melanoma. Over the course of two years, he bravely fought the cancers in private, while continuing to work in show business to ensure his medical coverage paid for himself and his family.”
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New casting has been announced for the Cabaret (open since Dec. 12, 2021) at the Kit Kat Club (the renovated Playhouse Theatre), directed by Rebecca Frecknall.
Fra Free (Emcee), Amy Lennox) (Sally Bowles), Omar Baroud (Cliff Bradshaw), Vivien Parry (Fraulein Schneider), Elliot Levey (Herr Schultz), Stewart Clarke (Ernst Ludwig), and Anna-Jane Casey (Fraulein Kost), with Josh Andrews, Emily Benjamin, Sally Frith, Matthew Gent, Emma Louise Jones, Ela Lisondra, Theo Maddix, Chris O’Mara, Daniel Perry, Andre Refig, Chrisopher Tendai, Bethany Terry, Lillie-Pearl Wildman, and Sophie Maria Woina.
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Amy Draper, Stewart Melton & Finn Anderson’s Islander will begin previews Apr. 14 and open Apr. 21 at St. Luke’s Theatre, directed by Draper.
Kirsty Findlay and Bethany Tennick.
There is a girl. She stares out to sea and dreams of a new life beyond her lonely island. Myth and reality collide when the tide washes a mysterious stranger onto her beach.
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Next to Normal will run Apr. 5-23 at CT’s Westport Country Playhouse, directed & choreographed by Marcos Santana.
Carlesia Cearcy (Diana), Wilson Jermaine Heredia (Dan), Ashley LaLonde (Natalie), Gian Perez (Henry), Daniel J. Maldonado (Gabe), and Katie Thompson (Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine).
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Carrie Rodriguez, Jonathan Rosenberg & Fernanda Santo’s !Americano! will run Mar. 31 – June 19 (opening Apr. 21) at New World Stages, directed by Michael Bernard.
Sean Ewing (Valdovinos), Legna Cedillo, Yassmin Alers, Johanna Carlisle-Zepeda, Joseph Paul Cavazos, Lucas Coatney, Devin Cortez, Juan Luis Espinal, Justin Figueroa, Ruben Eduardo Flores, Megan Elysa Fulmer, Henry Gendron, Anne-Lise Koyabe, Alessandro J. Lopez, Edgar Lopez, Carolina Miranda, Alex Paez, Ryan Reyes, Lannie Rubio, Nicole Paloma Sarro, Robbie Serrano, Maria Cristina Posada Slye, and Pablo Torres.
Growing up in Phoenix, Tony is inspired by the events of 9/11 to serve in the Marines. His childhood and high school years are focused on the singular goal of enlisting on his 18th birthday. But when he tries, Tony discovers he is an undocumented immigrant, a Dreamer. With grit, determination, and help from his family and community, Tony discovers a new mission. One that can make history, create more good, and inspire more change that he ever could as a Marine.
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The Book of Mormon will launch a new national tour this Fall.
Casting and additional information TBA.
Click here for the tour schedule.
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Harvey Fierstein‘s memoir, “I Was Better Last Night,”
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York Theatre presents the world premiere of Peter Kellogg & Stephen Weiner’s Penelope, or How the Odyssey Was Really Written, to run Mar. 22 – Apr. 24 (opening Mar. 31) at Theatre at St. Jean’s, directed & choreographed by Emily Maltby, with music direction by David Hancock.
Philippe Arroyo (Telemachus), Leah Hocking (Eurycleia), Cooper Howell (Antinous), Ben Jacoby (Odysseus), David Lamarr (Mileter), Jacob Alexander Simon (Bassanio), Britney Nicole Simpson (Penelope), George Slotin (Haius), Sean Thompson (Barius), and Maria Wirries (Daphne).
Penelope is married to Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, a Greek Island in the Ionian Sea. She is currently waiting for him to return from the Trojan War. She’s been waiting long time: twenty years; ten years since the war ended. A bevy of suitors have gathered, each wanting to marry her and take over the kingdom. To stall them Penelope writes to herself and pretends they’re from Odysseus saying that he’s on his way. Little does she know that her letters gathered together are creating the story The Odyssey. (Since no one knows who really wrote The Odyssey, this theory is as good and as any other). Meanwhile, the suitors, having little else to do but eat and drink, form and a cappella group — the acoustics in the Great Hall are terrific.