GRACE NOTES: Tuesday, May 18, 2021

 

Today’s Highlights:

  Lights on the Radio Tower, by Emily Goodson & Kevin James Thornton, directed by Gabriel Barre, featuring Carrie Manolakos and Max Sangerman, begins streaming here.

  TCG 60th Anniversary Gala, featuring Francis Jue, Abraham Kim Jane Lui, Noe Ngo, Courtney Reed, and Moses Villarama, streams at 7:30 PM ET here.

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  VideoJim Caruso’s Cast Party variety show, with special guests Terron Brooks, Joe Posa as Joan Rivers, Jaygee Macapugay, and Marilyn Maye.  (1:47:49)

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After 40 years, Ted Chapin will step down and President and Chief Creative Officer of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization at the end of his current contract this month.

Chapin’s replacement is TBA.

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    Show of Titles, in support of The Actors Fund, will livestream Tues. June 8 at 8 PM ET here, directed by Lonny Price, with music direction by Jason Howland. Each viewing will be available for a limited amount of time. Tickets are now on sale for $29, but on May 21, the price increases to $39.

  Broadway Inspirational Voices, Candice Bergen, Danny Burstein, Bryan Cranston, Sheldon Harnick, John Kander, Angela Lansbury, John Lithgow, Lindsay Mendez, Phylicia Rashad, Ben Vereen, BD Wong, and Florian Zeller.

Lee Adams, Maxwell Anderson, Burt Bacharach, Irving Berlin, Jerry Bock, Bertolt Brecht, Cy Coleman, Betty Comden, Joe Darion, Hal David, Fred Ebb, Gary Geld, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Adolph Green, Adam Guettel, Oscar Hammerstein, Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Herman, John Kander, Burton Lane, Mitch Leigh, Alan Jay Lerner, Frank Loesser, Frederick Loewe, Cole Porter, James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Richard Rodgers, Charles Strouse, Jule Styne, Peter Udell, and Kurt Weill.

  Annaleigh Ashford, Glenn Close, Len Cariou, Darren Criss, Santino Fontana, Kelsey Grammar, David Alan Grier, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Henry, Isabelle Huppert, Norm Lewis, Patti LuPone, Rob McClure, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Melba Moore, Jessie Mueller, Eva Noblezada, Kelli O’Hara, Laura Osnes, Steven Pasquale, Michael Rupert, Ernie Sabella, Lea Salonga, Phillipa Soo, Will Swenson, Aaron Tveit, Leslie Uggams, Vanessa Williams, and Patrick Wilson.

The evening will be a rousing and memorable celebration of title songs from more than two dozen Broadway musicals spanning nine decades, ranging from Lady Be Good to The Light in the Piazza. But is the original title song disappearing from the theatrical map? What used to the norm has become a rarity. Tony nominees, for example, from the 60’s frequently had title songs. Contrast the 1965-1966-67-68 seasons when 75% of the nominated musicals had title songs, with the three most recent seasons when there was no original title song from a Tony-nominated Broadway musical.

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Manhattan Theatre Club has announced it 2021-22 season:

BROADWAY (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre):

 Lackawanna Blues, (previews Sept. 14, opens Sept. 28) written, directed by & starring Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Set in a 1950s boarding house outside Buffalo, the play celebrates the strong, big-hearted woman who raised him: Miss Rachel.

  Skeleton Crew (Winter 2022), by Domique Morisseau, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson.

  How I Learned to Drive (Spring 2022), by Paula Vogel, directed by Mark Brokaw, featuring Mary-Louise Parker, David Morse, Johanna Day, Alyssa May Gold, and Chris Myers.

OFF-BROADWAY (NY City Center):

  Morning Sun (previews Oct. 12, opens Nov. 3), world premiere by Simon Stephens, directed by Lila Neugebauer, featuring Blair Brown, Edie Falco, and Marin Ireland.  Set in Greenwich Village a generation or so ago, 50 years pass as one woman’s life is revealed in all its complexity, mystery, and possibility.

  Prayer For The French Republic (Winter 2022), world premiere by Joshua Harmon, directed by David Cromer. In 1944, a Jewish Couple in Paris desperately awaits news of their missing family. More that 70 years later, the couple’s great-grandchildren find themselves facing the same quest as their ancestors: “Are We Safe?”

  Golden Shield (Spring 2022), by Anchuli Felicia King, directed by Danya Tamor. A riveting new play about loyalties, intrigue and the delicate art of translation.

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A new DVD and Blu-ray release of the 1970 documentary “Original Cast Album: Company” will be released Aug. 17 here.

The film documents the studio sessions for the original Broadway cast album, offering a candid look at such theatre luminaries as Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Elaine Stritch, Dean Jones, Donna McKechnie, Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, Merle Louise, and Pamela Myers. The film famously gets its unplanned dramatic climax as the session stretches into the wee hours of the morning, with Elaine Stritch struggling against nerves, exhaustion, and an ornery album producer to record what would become her signature tune, “The Ladies Who Lunch.” Along with the film, the discs will include a number of newly produced bonus features, including a feature length audio commentary by Sondheim; a conversation between Sondheim, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, and critic Frank Rich; and interview with Tunick let by author and theatre historian Ted Chapin, and never-before-heard audio excerpts from a 2000 interview with Stritch and Hal Prince, along with an audio excerpts from  a 2000 interview with Stritch and Hal Prince, along with an audio commentary with Pennebaker, Stritch, and Prince created for the film’s 2001 DVD release. The disc will also include “Original Cast Album: Co-Op,” the 2019 episode of “Documentary Now!” that parodied Pennebaker’s film.

John Mulaney, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Richard Kind, Alex Brightman, Paula Pell, and more, offering a fictional musical gathering to record its cast album just after learning that its run has been prematurely cut short following dismal reviews. A 2000 reunion of the cast and crew for this episode will be included as well.

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Complete casting has been announced for Romeo and Juliet, to run June 17 – July 24 (opening June 23) at Regent’s Park Open Air theatre, directed by Kimberly Sykes.

  Isabel Adomakoh Yount (Juliet), Joel MacCormack (Romeo), Cavan Clarke (Mercutio), Emma Cunniffe (Nurse), Peter Hamilton Dyer (Friar Lawrence), Michelle Fox (Tybalt), Aretha Ayeh (Benvolio), Ellie Beavan (Lady Capulet), Tom Claxton (Peter), Ryan Ellsworth (Gregora/Apothacary), Irvine Iqbal (Prince Escalus), Richard Leeming (Paris), Priyank Morjaria (Sampson), Louise Mai Newberry (Lady Montague), Shadee Yaghoubi (Abraham), and Marc Zayat (Balthasar).

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Christiane Noll: Coming Alive Again continues streaming through May 30 at Goodspeed Musicals, directed by rob Ruggiero, with music direction by William Waldrop.

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  Video: Liz Callaway performs “You’ll Never Walk Alone”

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Cabaret at the Robards will take place at CT’s Westport Country Playhouse (all at 8 PM ET):

June 26: An Evening with Brad Simmons and Tonya Pinkins
July 17: An Evening with Larry Owens
July 24: An Evening with Ali Stroker

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  VideoBea Arthur performs “Fifty Percent” from Ballroom.

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The Royal Court Theatre has announced its Summer/Fall 2021 season:

  seven methods of killing kylie jenner (June 16 – July 27, opening June 22), by Jasmine Lee-Jones, directed by Milli Bhatia, featuring Tia Bannon and Leanne Henlon.  Holed up in her bedroom, Cleo’s aired 22 Whatsapps from Kara and has cut off contact with the rest of the world. It doesn’t mean she’s been silent though – she’s got a lot to day. On the internet, actions don’t always speak louder than words.

  The Song Project (Aug. 17-28, opening Aug. 24), by Chloe Lamford, Wende, Isobel Waller-Bridge, Imogen Knight, E.V. Crowe, Sabrina Mahfouz, Somalia Nonyé Seaton, Sef Smith & Debris Stevenson. Some thing can only be sung

  Is God Is (Sept. 10 – Oct. 23, opening Sept. 16), by Aleshea Harris, directed by Ola Ince.  When a letter arrives from the mother they thought was dead, 21-year-old twins Racine and Anaia travel from the Dirty South to the California desert and a yellow house with teal shutters. They are on a mission to avenge her past and ready to take down anyone who stands in their way.

  What If  Only (Sept. 29 – Oct. 23, opening Oct. 1), by Caryl Churchill, directed by James Macdonald. Your partner has died – could things have been different?

  Rare Earth Mettle (Nov. 10 – Dec. 18, opening Nov. 16), by Al Smith, directed by Hamish Pirie.  A brutally comic exploration of risk, delusion, and power. “You don’t tell an American to turn off their light; you build them a better light bulb. Three world collide on a Bolivian salt flat.

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Audio: “Sunday Pancakes with Celia Keenan-Bolger,” with special guest Laura Benanti, discussing the power and pressure of being a woman. (43:83)

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  PBS video: “The Arts Interrupted, “An inside look at how arts organizations nationwide are surviving the pandemic and how they are maturing during the country’s reckoning with systemic racism, featuring interviews with artists and performances made during lockdown.  (52:55)

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A reading of Daniel K. Isaac’s Once Upon A (Korean) Time will stream Thurs. May 20-23 at 7 PM ET here, directed by Ralph B. Peña.

Daniel K. Isaac, Diana Oh, Jon Norman Schneider, James Seol, David Shih, Shannon Tyo, and Jeena Yi.

  The play mixes traditional Korean fables with the horrors of the Korean War.

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  An encore presentation of Broadway’s Bandstand will stream May 28-31 on Broadway On Demand.

Laura Osnes, Corey Cott, Beth Leavel, Joe Carroll, Brandon J. Ellis, James Nathan Hopkins, Geoff Packard, and Joey Pero, with Mary Callahan, Max Clayton. Andrea Dotto, Ryan Kasprzak, Erica Mansfield, Morgan Marcell, Drew McVety, Kevyn Morrow, Carleigh Bettiol, Kevin Quillon, Jonathan Shew, Ryan VanDenBoom, and Jaime Verazin.

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  Video: First look at “Schmigadoon” on Disney +, starring Keegan Michael-Key and Cecily Strong.

 

 

 


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