Today’s Highlights:
Sunset Boulevard, directed by Paul Warwick Griffen, featuring Sarah Brightman (Norma Desmond), Tim Draxl (Joe Gillis), Robert Grubb (Max Von Mayerling), Ashleigh Rubenach (Betty Schaefer), Jarrod Draper (Artie Green), Paul Hanlon (Cecil B. DeMille), and Silvie Paladino ( Norma at select performances), with Regan Barber, Amy Berrisford, Billy Bourchier, Campbell Braithwaite, Benjamin Colley, Grace Driscoll, Madison Green, Peter Ho, Leah Lim, Mary McCorry, Charlotte Page, Morgan Palmer, Caity Plummer, Taylor Scanlan, Tom Sharah, Lisa Sontag, Troy Sussman, Riley Sutton, and Dean Vince, opens at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre.
Newsies, directed by Ryan Scarlata, featuring Pierre Marais (Jack Kelly), Calien Fu (Katherine Plumber), Ben Diamond (Davey), Christina Wells (Medda Larkin), Graham Rowat (Pulitzer), Luis-Pablo Garcia (Crutchie), Bret Shuford (Snyder), Michael Alonzo (Oscar Delancey), and Hunter Burke (Morris Delancey) with Alex Aponte, Armani Brown, Ben Chavez, Sebastian Martinez, Cameron Sirian, Chris Tipps, Cole Zieser. Daniel Karash, Madeleine Bourgeois, Chase Fontenot, Trey Harrington, Mark Ivy, Miles Marmolejo, Chris Scurlock, Braden Tanner and Holland Vavra, opens at Houston’s TUTS.
The Fires, written & directed by Raja Feather Kelly, featuring Beau Badu (Eli), Sheldon Best (Sam), Phillip James Brannon (Jay), Janelle McDermoth (Rowan), Ronald Peet (George/Sean/Kayne), Jon-Michael Reese (Maurice), Jason Beasey (Billy/Reggie), and Michelle Wilson (Leslie), opens at Off-Broadway’s SoHo Rep.
Where the Mountain Meets the Sea, by Jeff Augustin & The Bengsons, directed by Timothy Douglas, featuring Isaac “Deacon Izzy” Bell (Jonah) and Robert Cornelius (Jean), opens at DC’s Signature Theatre.
54 Sings Carpenters concert, featuring Matt Baker, Mar’Shon Dalton, Natalie Douglas, Victoria Elena, Luke Hawkins, Hope Johanson, Gavin Kenny, Jacob Khalil, Julia Marson, and Jeffrey Sewell, at 9:30 PM at NYC’s 54 Below.
A Conversation with Jocelyn Bioh and Whitney White: Jaja’s AFrican Hair Braiding, at 12:30 PM at NYC’s Museum of Broadway (145 W. 45th St.)
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The 24th Annual Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards.
Click here for the complete list of winners.
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John Logan & the Avett Brothers’ Swept Away will begin previews & open on dates TBA this Fall at a Shubert theater TBA, directed by Michael Mayer, with music direction by Will Van Dyke, and choreography by David Neumann.
Casting and additional information TBA.
Four survivors of a storm off the coast of Massachusetts must consider how far they will go to stay alive and if they can live with the consequences.
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Wonder of Wonders: Celebrating Sheldon Harnick will run June 1-3 at NYC’s 92NY, with host Ted Sperling.
Adam Heller, Adam Kantor, Anna Zavelson, Sam Gravitte, and Alysha Umphress.
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Dan Lauria’s Just Another Day continues through June 30 at Theatre 555, directed by Eric Krebs.
Dan Lauria and Patty McCormack
A comedy writer and a sophisticated poet in their seventies meet daily on a park bench to exchange wits and barbs, and wax nostalgic about old movies, all the while trying to figure out how they know – and love – each other. At least for that day.
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TheaterWorks Hartford has announced its 2024-2025 season:
Fever Dreams (of Animals on the Verge of Extinction) (Oct. – Nov. dates TBA), by Jeffrey Lieber. A steamy, decades-long affair. A remote cabin. An unexpected visitor. This is only the beginning of this explosive new comic thriller full of surprising twists, dark secrets, and broken cabinets.
Christmas on the Rocks (Dec. dates TBA)
King James (Jan.-Feb. 2025 dates TBA), by Rajiv Joseph. It’s 2004. LeBron James is just the hero Cleveland needed. Two strangers eat, sleep, and dream in the language of basketball while forging a deep bond over their worship of the “King” – one of the greatest NBA players of all time.
Primary Trust (Apr. – May, 2025 dates TBA.), by Eboni Booth. A touching and inventive story about new beginnings, old friends, and seeing the world for the first time. Meet Kenneth, a 38-year old bookstore worker who spends his evenings sipping mai tais at the local tiki bar. When he’s suddenly laid off, Kenneth finally beings to face a world he’s long avoided – with transformative and even comical results.
Your Name Means Dream (May – June, 2025 dates TBA.), by José Rivera. We’re in the not-too-distant future. Aislin is old, and isolated, in her messy New York City walk-up. She pines for a simpler, analog past, when her son sends a sensational new caretaker who is not quite human…but she’s getting there. An intimate look at humanity in the digital age.
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#CaseyAndTommyGetHitched, world premiere by Molly Wagners, continues through June 9 at North Hollywood’s Loft Ensemble, directed by Natasha Renae Potts & Madylin Sweeten Durrie.
Abram Conner, Silas Jean-Rox, Sean Alan Mazur, Ignacio Navarro, Sarah Nilsen, Amye Partain, and Dani True.
College friends reunite several years after graduation for Tommy’s wedding. But not all of them are onboard with Tommy’s choice of partner. After exclusively dating men in college, Tommy is about to marry a woman. Will the friends get onboard or sabotage the wedding to try and “save” Tommy? And will any of them even make it to the wedding after a night of the most elaborate drinking game you’ve ever seen?
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Jazz in July, a weeklong intensive, will run July 22-26 at NYC’s 92yNY, led by Faith Prince and Michael Kirk Lane.
Instructors and Music Directors: Michael Kirk Lane, Yaz Fukuoka, Faith Prince, and Alex Rybeck.
John Bronston, Natalie Douglas, Jeff Harnar, Carolyn Montgomery, Sidney Myer, Tracy Stark, Billy Stritch, and Jennifer Ashley Tepper.
15 lucky participants will be chosen to work directly with the artists, but anyone can sign up to audit the workshop for a single day or the full week. Find the songs that reveal your truest self, starting Mon, Jul 22.
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Theatre Aspen has announced its 2024 Summer Season:
Steel Magnolias (June 17 – 29), directed by Jenn Thompson, featuring Claire Saunders (Shelby), Mary Bacon (‘M’Lynn), Valerie Wright ( Ouiser), Terry Burrell (Clairee), Aurelia Williams (Truvy Jones), and Sophia Gray (Annelle).
Legally Blonde (July 5-27), directed by Michael Bello, featuring Kaitlyn Frank (Elle Woods), Danny Kornfeld (Emmett Forres) Jack Baylis (Warner Huntington III), Amber Carson (Paulette), Sara Al-Bazali (Vivienne Kensington), Matt Bogart (Professor Callahan), Connor Lyon (Brooke Wyndham), and Cameron Anika Hill (Serena), with Elisa Galindez and Aaron Patrick Craven
Come From Away (Aug. 2-24), directed by Kevin S. McAllister, featuring Mikayla Agrella (Janice), Erica Aubrey (Diane), Galyana Castillo (Hannah), Crystal Kellogg (Beverly/Annette), Torrey Linder (Bob), Kara Mikula (Beulah), Nasir Ali Panjwani (Kevin), Tim Quartier (Kevin/Garth), Chuck Ragsdale (Nick/Doug), Adam Steven Du Plessis, Laura Stracko, and Thom Christopher Warren.
…and several special events TBA.
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The Boston Pops will present John Monsky’s The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day (a musical journey of the final months of World War II in Europe) on May 29 & 30 at the Boston Symphony Hall, conducted by Keith Lockhart.
Kate Rockwell, Nicholas Rodriguez, Daniel Yearwood, and Shereen Ahmed.
The Eyes of the World fuses music, meticulously researched history, rare film and photographs sourced from the National Archives, as well as flags that were carried onto the beaches and paved the way to victory to illuminate stories often lost to history.
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Tom Alper’s The Pitch will run July 12 – Aug. 4 at the Odyssey Theatre, directed by Louie Liberti.
Tom Alper, Albie Selznick, William Warren, Joe Lorenzo, Connor Killeen, Rachel Butera, Chris Cox, Darian Michael Garey, Grant Hall, Isabella Dibernardino, Johnathan R. Freeman, and Katie Silverman.
Tom Allen is a widower, raising his 15-year-old daughter as a single dad. Desperate for money, he grabs at a job in a boiler-room set-up, selling machine parts over the phone. He soon discovers that his job requires him to make ethical compromises, occasionally misrepresenting the products he sells. He finds himself in competition with his co-workers. His tension builds as he discerns that his boss may be under investigation by the authorities, endangering the job that Tom needs so much.
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Waiting for Godot will run Sept. 13 – Dec. 14 (opening Sept. 19) at Theatre Royal Haymarket, directed by James Macdonald.
Lucian Msamati and Ben Whishaw.
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Now streaming at PBS.org and on the PBS App:
Hamlet (available through June 20), directed by Kenny Leon, featuring Ato Blankson-Wood (Hamlet) and Solea Pfeiffer (Ohpelia).
Audra McDonald at the London Palladium. Watch here.
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The national tour of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical will launch in Fall 2024 at the Providence Performing Arts Center, directed by Michael Mayer. Click here for the tour schedule.
Nick Fradiani and more TBA.