Today’s Highlights:
Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, by Dylan Marcaurele, directed by Alan Kliffer, featuring Jay Armstrong Johnson (Ilya Rozanov) and Jimin Moon (Shane Hollander), with Ryann Redmond, Cherry torres, and Ryan Duncan, begins previews at NYC’s The Club (530 West 27th St. 6th floor).
Pippin, directed by Matthew Gardiner, featuring Cedrick Neal (Leading Player), with Brayden Banbino (Pippin), Eric Hissom (Charles), Maria Rizzo (Fastrada), Naomi Jacobson (Berthe), Awa Sal Secka (Catherine), Ryan Sellers (Lewis), and Ellison Bihm (Theo), with Ben Bogen, Calvin L’mont Cooper, Candice Hatakeyama, Georgia Monroe, Alanna Sibrián, Jacob Taylor Starks, Emily Steinhardt, Hank von Kolnitz, Dylan Arredondo, Alonso Nicolas Waller, Liz Weber, Veronica Quezada, and Ian Rubi, begins previews at DC’s Signature Theatre.
MCC Theater‘s Miscast26 benefit in-person concert, honoring Roy Furman, Jill Furman, and Jose Useche, featuring Nicholas Christopher, Darren Criss, Jane Krakowski, Caissie Levy, Lea Michele, ruthie Ann Miles, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Tramell Tillman, 7 PM ET at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom. The concert also streams for FREE here,
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Pasadena Playhouse has announced its 2026-27 season:
The Visit (Sept. 9 – Oct. 4), by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, adapted by Maurice Valency, directed by Darko Tresenjak, starring Jefferson Mays.
Passing Strange (Nov. 4-29), by Stew & Heidi Rodewald, directed by Zhailon Levingston.
Real women Have Curves: The Musical (Apr. 4 – May 16, 2027), by Joy Huerta, Benjamin Velez, Lisa Loomer & Nell Benjamin.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (June 16 – July 11), directed by Jessica Kubbansky, starring Alfred Molina.
…and more TBA…
Casting and additional information TBA.
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Amazing Graves, offering 2 short plays, will take place Fri. June 5 at Santa Monica’s Broadwater Second Stage.
I Hate How You Dress, by Beth Polsky, directed by David Datz, featuring AnnaLisa Erickson, Janet Hoskins, Patti Lewis, Amanda Lynne, Tammy Mora and Michael Newton. 
Four individuals in a cemetery get to say things they should have said long ago. Their conservations are monitored by two angels. Not all of the four will leave the graveyard alive.
Our Cemetery, by Grant Gottschall, directed by Genny Wilson, featuring Debra Kay Lee, Beebe Smith, Leon Acord, Rebecca O’Brien and Michael Dempsey. Former classmates of a Bowling Green, Ohio high school meet fifty years later in their local cemetery. They gather to reminisce prior to their official 50th high school reunion later that day. Some friendships are renewed, some rivalries are revived, and deep secrets are revealed, some of them unsettling.
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The 70th Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place Sun. May 17 at 7:30 PM at NYC’s Algonquin Hotel, hosted by Marla Mindelle.
Click here for additional information.
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The 2026 Theatre World Awards have been announced for Outstanding Debut Performance in a Broadway or Off-Broadway production during the 2025-2026 theatrical season. The awards ceremony will take place Tues. June 2 at 2 PM at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre.
Ben Ahlers (Death of a Salesman), LJ Benet (The Lost Boys), Madeline Brewer (Becky Shaw), Adrien Brody (The Fear of 13), Ayo Edebiri (Proof), Alden Ehrenreich (Becky Shaw), Luke Evans (The Rocky Horror Show), Will Harrison (Punch), River Lipe-Smith (Caroline), Leslie Manville (Oedipus), Robert “Silk” Mason, Cats: The Jellicle Ball), and Sam Tutty (Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).
Rachael Stirling (Giant) will receive the 17th Annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater.
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Off-Broadway’s York Theatre has announced its 2026-27 season at Theatre at St. Jeans. Casting TBA.
Truly, Howard Hughes (Sept. 9 – Oct. 4), world premiere by Frank Evans, Jennifer Paulson-Lee, James Scully & Chad Gorn, directed & choreographed by Jennifer Paulson-Lee. An unconventional love story following one of the 20th century’s most fascinating figures: aviator, filmmaker, businessman, and recluse, Howard Robard Hughes, Jr.. The story unfolds as Hughes revisits his extraordinary life during his final moments, confronting the one thing his power and fortune could never secure, and leaves us with a haunting question: …Wouldn’t you, if you could?
Kilgallen (Nov. 28 – Dec. 27), world premiere by Chuck Strand, Emily Drossell & George Petersen. A true crime musical about Dorothy Kilgallen, the most powerful female journalist of the 1950s. Brilliant, relentless, and unapologetically ambitious, Kilgallen moved among the celebrities, politicians, and power brokers who defined her era. When President Kennedy was assassinated, she became convinced that the truth was being buried, and set out to prove it. Even as she realized her life was in danger, she forged ahead. Dorothy died under suspicious circumstances on November 7, 1965. The mystery remains unsolved today.
New2NY Series (Mar. 6 – Apr. 11, 2027). Series information TBA. A vital launching pad for new work. Be among the first to experience new musicals and help to shape what comes next. These lovingly and minimally staged concert presentations strip away the spectacle and focus on what matters: the writing, the music, and the storytelling.
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Kristoffer Diaz & Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen will run May 26 – June 1 at the Pantages Theatre, directed byMichael Greif.
Maya Drake (Ali), Kennedy Cuaghell (Jersey), Roz White (Miss Liza Jane) Desmond Sean Ellington (Davis), and Jon Avery Worrell (Knuck).
Ali is a 17-year-old girl full of fire–searching for freedom, passion and her place in the world. How she finds them is a New York City coming-of-age story you’ve never felt before. Rebellious and stifled by an overprotective single mother, Ali is lost until she meets her mentor: a neighbor who opens her heart and mind to the power of the piano. Set to the rhythm of the 90s, the piece is a love story between a mother and daughter. It’s about finding yourself, your purpose, and the community that lifts you. Come remember where dreams begin.
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The world premiere of Susan Charlotte’s ThePeople Versus Lenny Bruce, currently in previews, will open May 14 at Theatre Row, directed by Antony Marsellis.
Johnny Anthony, Timothy Doyle, Dan Grimaldi, Ian Lithgow, Stephen Schnetzer, Jonathan Spivey, and Roberta Wallach.
Based on lawyer Martin Garbus’s experiences, it explores his fight to protect Bruce’s free speech rights against a biased legal system that was determined to silence him.
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Alicia Key’s Hell’s Kitchen will run May 26 – June 21 at the Pantages Theater, directed by Michael Greif.
Maya Drake (Ali), Desmond Sean Ellington (Davis), Jon Avery Worrell (Knuck), Kennedy Caughell (Jersey), Roz white (Miss Liza Jane), Sean Holland (Riq), with Temarciae Bain, Miya Bass, and more TBA.
Ali is a 17-year-old girl full of fire–searching for freedom, passion and her place in the world. How she finds them is a New York City coming-of-age story you’ve never felt before.