Today’s Highlights:
Ben Levi Ross returns to Dear Evan Hansen (as Evan Hansen) at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre.
The Human Voice, adapted & directed by Ivo van Hove, starring Ruth Wilson, opens at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre.
Ann, written by & starring Holland Taylor, directed by Benjamin Endsley Klein, opens at Pasadena Playhouse.
New Age, world premiere by Dael Orlandersmith, directed by Jade King Carroll, featuring Blair Medina Baldwin (Liberty), Lisa Harrow (Cass), Courtney Rackley (Candy), and Delissa Reynolds (Lisette), opens at Milwaukee Rep.
The Band’s Visit national tour, directed by David Cromer, featuring Sasson Gabay (Tewfiq), Janet Dacal (Dina), Joe Joseph (Haled), Clay Singer (Itzik), Yoni Avi Battat (Camal), Coby Getzug (Papi), Joshua Grosso (Telephone Guy), Kendal Hartse (Iris), David Studwell (Avrum), Billy Cohen (Zelger), Layan Elwazani (Julia), Marc Ginsburg (Sammy), Ariel Reich (Anna), and James Rana (Simon), with Ali Louis, Bourzgui, Ramin Doostdar, Loren Lester, Dana Saleh Omar, Nick Sacks, and Hannah Shankman, opens at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center.
American Buffalo, by David Mamet, directed by Neil Pepe, starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell, and Darren Criss, begins previews at Broadway’s Circle in the Square.
York Theatre‘s Penelope, or How the Odyssey Was Really Written, world premiere by Peter Kellogg, Stephen Weiner& Emily Maltby, directed by Emily Maltby, featuring 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), begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Jean’s.
Philip J. Smith (former Chairman of the Shubert Organization) memorial service, at 1 PM ET at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre. Open to all.
Remembering Steve concert (live only, no livestream), featuring Danielle Ferland, Annie Golden, Liz McCartney, Manu Marayan, Sarah Rice, Jim Walton, Marquee Five, Soara-Joye Ross, and Lucia Spina, at 7 & 9:45 ET at 54 Below.
Musical Theatre Guild & the El Portal Theatre’s Live, Laugh, Love: A Sondheim Birthday Celebration benefit concert (book by Duane Poole), hosted by Jason Graae, with special guest Teri Ralston, and featuring members of the Guild, at 7:30 PM PT at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre,
“Facing the Music,” by David Loud, released in hardcover here.
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Reviews for the world premiere of At the Wedding at Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater:
NY Times (Jesse Green): …Though it’s not by a long shot the first time a comedy has mined the nuptials-with-an-ex-to-grind setup, Bryna Turner’s At the Wedding… offers a fresh and trenchant take on the genre. And in Carlo, the bruised heart of the story, it offers the actor Mary Wiseman, with her curly red mop piled high like a lesbian Lucy, a brilliant showcase for her split-level comic genius. I say split-level because, with Wiseman, there’s always one thing going on verbally upstairs and another going on emotionally in the basement… The lines are funny; Turner has a boxer’s sense of the two-punch rhythm of jokes. But it’s Wiseman… who makes them hilarious by making them sad at the same time.
Theatermania (Zachary Stewart): …In the brutally hilarious At the Wedding… Bryna Turner shows that the ancient demons of self-sabotage and regret still bedevil the most modern and liberated of individuals… Turner…presents this story with unflinching efficiency… Turner steadily pulls the camera back on this picture of 21st century matrimonial bliss to show the little compromises and hypocrisies that constitute the price of admission to this oldest of institutions… Jenna Worsham has directed the cast to emotionally resonant performances within an unforgiving dramatic structure that hurtles ever forward, making for a gripping 90 minutes…
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Mar. 20:
A total of 20 shows played 153 performances at 87.94% capacity.
Total attendance: 168,999
Total gross: $22, 375, 926
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MD’s Olney Theatre has announced two-weekend concert presentations, both directed by Eleanor Holdridge, with choreography by Tara Jeanne Vallee, and music direction by Christopher Youstra. Additional information TBA.
Pippin (Apr. 1-3)
Brigadoon (Apr. 8-10)
Appearing in both productions: Christopher Michael Richardson, Eymard Cabling, Kevin McAllister, Matthew August, Kelli Blackwell, Nick Lehan, Robert Mintz, MK Sagastume, Shawna Walker, Julia Wilson, Michael Wood, and Kenneth Derby.
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The world premiere of Richard Oberacker & Robert Taylor’s Bruce will run May 27 – June 26 (opening June 8) at Seattle Rep, directed & choreographed by Donna Feore, with music direction by Lily Ling.
Jarrod Spector (Steven Spielberg) and more TBA.
The story takes place in 1974 when a virtually unknown 26-year-0ld director set out to film a best-selling novel. Invading a sleepy fishing island off Cape Cod to shoot on the open ocean, he battled weather, water, hostile locals, and exploding budget, endless delays, and a highly dysfunctional mechanical star named Bruce. Based on “The Jaws Log” by Carl Gottlieb, the musical takes you behind the scene of the world’s first summer blockbuster.
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Additional casting has been announced for the upcoming new film adaptation of “The Color Purple,” written by Marcus Gardley and directed by Blitz Bazawule. The film is expected to be released in 2023.
Fantasia Barrino (Celie), Danielle Brooks (Sofia), Taraji P. Henson (Shug Avery), Corey Hawkins (Harp0), H.E.R. (Squeak), Colman Domingo (Mister), and Halle Bailey (Nettie), Louis Bossett, Jr. (Ol’ Mister), David Alan Grier (Reverend Avery), Tamela J. Mann (First Lady), Phylicia Pearl Mpasi (Young Celie), Deon Cole (Alfonso), and Stephen Hill (Buster)
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The world premiere of Doug Wright’s Good Night, Oscar has been extended through Apr. 24 at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, directed by Lisa Peterson.
Sean Hayes (Oscar Levant) Emily Bergl (June Levant), Ben Rappaport (Jack Paar), Peter Grosz (Bob Sarnoff), Ethan Slater (Max Weinbaum), Tramell Tillman (Alvin Finney), and John Zdrojeski (George Gershwin).
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A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder will run Apr. 15 – May 22 (opening Apr. 17) at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, directed by Spiro Veloudos, with music direction by Matthew Stern, and choreography by Larry Sousa.
Leigh Barrett, Tersa Winner Blume, Neil A. Casey, Aimee Doherty, Jennifer Ellis, Kate Klika, Lori L’Italien, Todd McNeel Jr., Karen Murphy, Robert St. Laurence, Phil Tayler and Jared Troilo.
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& 
Georgia Stitt‘s non-profit organization, Maestra Music, will host a concert/community event, Amplify, on Mon. Mar. 28 at 8 PM ET at NYC’s Le Poisson Rouge.
The in-person concert includes wine (from Eco Terreno Wines)
The FREE virtual event works like this. You can “show up” online starting at 7 PM ET and enter the venue. (It’s a website, but it’s a venue — you’ll see. It’s definitely not Zoom room. You can watch the pre-show video content, or “go to” the bar, the chat rooms, the gallery, the lobby, the green room, and interact with other humans who are also there. Then, at 8 PM ET, everyone will head to the stage to watch the show together, chatting in real time and celebrating the people and the programs that make up the Maestra community. Last year’s music was pre-recorded, but this year we’re performing live in NYC and streaming that music out to our online audience. (Online audiences also get some video extras and can purchase a Backstage Pass to access post-show VIP rooms hosted by some of their favorite musical theater performers).
Online tickets are free (although donations are encouraged). A Backstage Pass to access the VIP rooms is $50. Donations are always welcome, even if you can’t make it.
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All’s Well That Ends Well will run Apr. 22 – May 29 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, directed by Shana Cooper.
Patrick Agada (Second Lord Dumaine), Mark Bedard (Parolles), William Dick (Lafew), Alejandra Escalante (Helena), Francis Guinan (King of France), Casey Hoekstra (First Lord Dumaine), Dante Jemmott (Bertram), Joseph Aaron Johnson (Rinaldo), Ora Jones (Countess of Roussillon), Jeff Kurysz (First Soldier), Emma Ladji (Diana), Pablo David Laucerica (Lavashe), and Tanya Thai McBride (Mariana), with Tae-nyun Kim and Gavin Mueller.
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Broadway’s MJ will launch its national tour at Chicago’s Nederlander Theater on July 15, 2023 (opening July 26).
Casting and additional information TBA.
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The Al Hirschfeld Foundation presents its latest online exhibition, “The Hirschfeld Time Machine: The 90s,” which is now available online through June 15.
The artist covered 9 decades, and each one presents a fascinating look at the popular culture of the times. With the burgeoning interest in the 100s, this exhibition, the start of a regular series investigating Hirschfeld’s work during different decades, explore what Hirschfeld saw and drew during the 90s. Whether it was theater, film, television, music, or politics, Hirschfeld captured the most significant figures and productions of the period.
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The filmed London production of Anything Goes, starring Sutton Foster and Robert Lindsay, will screen on Mar. 27 – Apr. 3 in movie theaters nationwide.