Today’s Highlights:
White Rose: The Musical, by Brian Belding & Natalie Brice, directed by Will Nunziata, featuring Collette Guitart (Sophie), Tobias Turley (Hans,) Owen Arkrow (Will), Danny Colligan (Max), Charley Robbie (Lila), Thomas Sutcliffe (Karl), Danny Whelan (Christoph), Mark Willshire (Kurt Huber), and Ollie Wray (Frederick), with Millie Robins and Nathan Shaw, opens at London’s Marylebone Theatre.
Topdog/Underdog, by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, featuring Brandon Gill (Booth) and Brandon Micheal Hall (Lincoln), opens at Pasadena Playhouse.
A Room in the Castle, by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Kaja Dunn, featuring Sabrina Lynne-Sawyer (Ophelia), Oneika Phillips (Queen Gertrude), and Brugess Byrd (Anna), opens at DC’s Shakespeare Theatre.
Foundation for New American Musicals‘ MusiCal concert (featuring selections from new musicals), at 7:30 PM at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.
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RIP: Linda Lavin, The Tony-winning stage and screen star passed, away Dec. 29, at the age of 87. Broadway will dim its lights Mar. 11 at 6:45 PM to recognize her impact on the theatre community. 2024,
The stage and screen star was also a Golden Globe winner, perhaps best known for her nine seasons as waitress and aspiring singer Alice Hyatt on the CBS series Alice. Ms. Lavin was also Tony-nominated for her work in Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Collected Stories, and The Lyons. Click here to read more…
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Lolita Chakrabarti’s Life of Pi will run May 6 – June 1 (opening May 7) at the Ahmanson Theatre, directed by Max Webster.
Taha Mandviwala (Pi), Jessica Angleskhan (Amma/Nurse/Orange Juice), Alan Ariano (Mr. Okamoto/Captain), Emmanuel Elpenord (Cook/voice of Richard Parker), Rishi Jaiswal (Mamaji/Pandit Ji), Sinclair Mitchell (Admiral Jackson/Russian Sailor/Father Martin), Mi Kang/Lulu Chen/ Mrs. Biology Kumar / Zaida Khan), and Sorab Wadia (Father).
After a shipwreck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi survives on a lifeboat with four other companions—a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. What happens next leads them on an edge of your seat unforgettable journey. Told with jaw-dropping visuals, world class, innovative puppetry and exquisite stagecraft, the Broadway and West End sensation Life of Pi creates a visually breathtaking journey that will leave you filled with awe and joy.
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The annual Broadway Backwards, in support of BCEFA, will take place Mon. Mar. 10 at 8 PM at Broadway’s Gershwin Theatre, directed & choreography by Robert Bartley,Amanda LaMotte & Adam Robers, and with music supervision by
Jenn Colella.
Tituss Burgess, Len Cariou, Bradley Dean, Dionne Figgins, Jordan Fisher, Lydia Gaston, Joshua Henry, Gregory Jbara, Adam Lambert, Tiffany Mann, Kelli O’Hara, Preston Perez, Kate (Kei) Tsuruharatani (Jagged Little Pill), Remi Tuckman (DRAG: The Musical) and Joy Woods, Bobby Conte, Lorna Courtney,Nikki Renée Daniels, Eden Espinosa, J. Harrison Ghee , Sydney James Harcourt, Dorian Harewood, Manu Narayan, Jessica Phillips, Conrad Ricamora, and Ryan Vasquez. The company will be joined by a to-be-announced dancing ensemble, rounding out the cast to more than 100 performers.
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The The Directors Company’s presentation of Nicholas Kaminski & Stephen Kaminski’s The Workshop Musical will take place Mar. 20-21 at NYC’s New 42 Studios, directed by Rachel Klein, with music direction by Larry Pressgrove.
Aaron Ramey (Jan Lewan), Dominique Scott (Pally Pulaski), Britney Coleman (Diane Trent), Lisa Helmi Johanson (Rhoda Jeleski), Leenya Rideout (Zosia Brzeczyszczykiewicz), and Brian Russell Carey (Vick), with Devon Meddock, Tina Stafford, Avery Whitted, Louis Christian Jannuzzi III, Andy Paterson, Carlos Velasquez Escamilla, and Laura Elizabeth Flanagan.
Meet Jan Lewan—the most ambitious polka star you’ve never heard of… until now. The piece is a high-energy, satirical new musical based on the unbelievable true story of a Polish immigrant who turned his accordion-fueled dreams into a glittering empire—by any means necessary. With boundless charm, a big heart, and even bigger schemes, Jan builds a polka dynasty that stretches from Pennsylvania’s Polish halls to the casinos of Atlantic City and beyond. But when the money stops flowing, and the walls start closing in, will he con his way out of trouble?
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LA Opera‘s Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutti will run Mar. 8-30 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, conducted by James Conlon, and directed by Shawna Lucey.
Erica Petrocelli (Fiordiligi), Rihab Chaieb (Dorabella), Ana María Martínez (Despina), Anthony León (Ferrondo), Justin Austin (Guglielmo), and rod Gilfry (Don Alfonso).
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Roundabout‘s production of Bess Wohl’s Liberation has been extended through Mar. 6 at Off-Broadway’s Laura Pels Theatre, directed by Whitney White.
Betsy Aidem (Margie), Audrey Corsa (Dora), Kayla Davion (Joanne), Susannah Flood (Lizzie), Kristolyn Lloyd (Celeste), Irene Sofia Lucio (Isidora), Charlie Thurston (Bill), and Adina Verson (Susan).
The work centers on a group of women who gather to talk, only for the conversation quickly to become about changing their own life and the world. Fifty years later, one of their daughters looks to the past for answers when she finds history repeating itself.
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Porchlight Music Theatre will present Chicago Sings 30 Years of Porchlight on Mon May 12 at 7:30 PM at Chicago’s House of Blues, directed by Michael Webber, with music directed by David Fiorello.
TBA.
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Hamlet will run May 28 – July 6 at the Mark Taper Forum, adapted & directed by Robert O’Hara.
TBA.
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Ensemble Theatre Company‘s world premiere of Jay Martel’s Parents in Chains will run Mar. 12-30 at at Santa Barbara’s New Vic, directed by Andy Fickman.
Sharon Lawrence, Jane Lynch, John Ross Bowie, Melor Hardin, Joshua Malina, Thomas Sadoski, Gina Torres, Matt Walsh, Jorja Fox, Peter Gardner, Ron Huebel, Guildart Jackson, Lone Love and James Urbaniak.
The play follows six L.A. parents exchanging texts as their 17-year-old daughters drive home from San Francisco with a hurricane looming. The trip and the inclement weather bring out the best and the worst in the parents as they confront what it means to let go of their kids.
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RIP Tony winner Linda Lavin died suddenly Dec. 29. She had only recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, and had been working up until the start of the holiday season. She was 87.
The granddaughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, Ms. Lavin began as a child performer, making her stage debut at the age of 5 and studying at the HB Studio. Her big break, however, would not arrive until adulthood, when she took Broadway by storm in the 1960s.
Outside of “Alice, ” Ms. Lavin appeared on a handful of other television programs throughout the end of the 20th century, including “Room for Two” and “Conrad Bloom.” In 1984, she even made her feature film debut in the cult classic “The Muppets Take Manhattan.” Her first love, however, remained the stage, and her love was almost immediately returned in kind upon her return to Broadway in 1986, winning the Tony for her performance in Broadway Bound.
In 1990, Ms. Lavin replaced Tyne Daly as Rose in Gypsy, and in 1994, she stepped into The Sisters Rosensweig to take over from Madeline Kahn. She soon returned to originating performances, however, starring in the first Broadway revival of The Diary of Anne Frank, as well as the original Broadway productions of The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Hollywood Arms, Collected Stories, and The Lyons. Her final Broadway appearance came in 2016, when she starred in Our Mother’s Brief Affair.
In all, Ms. Lavin’s theatrical career brought her six Tony nominations, winning once; eight Drama Desk nominations, winning twice; two Obie Awards; three Outer Critics Circle nominations, winning once; two Lucille Lortel nominations, winning once; two Drama League nominations; and a Theatre World award.
Throughout the 21st century, Ms. Lavin would occasionally return to television in between her stage work. On the small screen, she appeared on “Sean Saves the World,” “Santa Clarita Diet,” Elsbeth, and more. At the time of her death, Ms. Lavin was in the midst of working on the new sitcom “Mid-Century Modern,” where she was to play Nathan Lane’s mother in a “Golden Girls”-inspired series, with Lane portraying a Bea Arthur-like figure and Ms. Lavin as his Estelle Getty. It is unclear at this point how or if the production will proceed, as it has been confirmed that Ms. Lavin still had three episodes to complete at the time of her death.
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Cambridge’s A.R.T. will present The Lazours’ Nightside Songs Mar. 17 – Apr. 20 at various Boston locations, developed & directed by Taibi Magar.
Jordan Dobson, Robi Hager, Brooke Iashibashi, Jonathan Raviv, and Mary Testa.