Today’s Highlights:
Maybe Happy Ending, by Will Aronson & Helen Park, directed by Michael Arden, featuring Darren Criss (Oliver), Helen J Shen (Claire), Marcus Choi (James/Junseo), Dez Duron (Gil Brentley), Arden Cho (Jiyeon), Young Mazino (Suhan), Jim Kaplan (Young Junseo), and HwaBoon (HwaBoon), with Hunyh, Christopher James Tamayo, Hannah Kevitt, and Daniel May, opens at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre.
300 Paintings, written by & starring Sam Kissajukian, opens at Off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre.
I’ll Take You There: Stax Record Co. cabaret, directed by Sean-Maurice Lynch, featuring Isaac “Deacon Izzy” Bell and Kanysha Williams, opens at DC’s Signature Theatre.
La Cage Aux Folles, directed by Sam Pinkleton, featuring Cheyenne Jackson (Georges), Kevin Cahoon (Albin), Ryan J. Haddad ((Jean-Michel), Shannon Purser ((Anne), George Salazar (Jacob), Michael McDonald (Edouard Dindon/M. Renaud, Nicole Parker (Marie Dindon/Mme). Renaud, El Beh (Francis), and Shea Diamond (Jacqueline), with Kay Bebe Queue, Cody Brunelle-Potter, Salina EsTitties, Rhoyle Ivy King, Ellen Soraya Nikbakht, Suni Jade Reid, and Paul Vogt as Les Cagelles, begins previews at Pasadena Playhouse.
New Faces Sing Broadway Now concert, directed by Frankie Leo Bennett, featuring Diana Marilyn Alvarez, Maddie Brunner, Dakota Hughes, Andrew MacNaughton, Lorenzo Shawn Parnell, Callan Roberts, Maliha Sayed, Peyton Schoenhofer, and Ava Stovall, closes at Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre.
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Reviews for A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical at Broadway’s Studio 54:
New York Times (Jesse Green): …Who could fail to recognize Louis Armstrong? Yet he is something of a blur in A Wonderful World, the Armstrong jukebox musical… Not for lack of a precise embodiment. In the leading role, James Monroe Iglehart has every Satchmo detail perfectly tuned…If drama were merely a tribute concert, there would be nothing to complain of… But with such a major figure we want something deeper… the show, with a book by Aurin Squire, spends too little time exploring its subject’s interior life while plumping for his greatness as if the point were in doubt.
Variety (Aramide Tinubu): …With a script by Aurin Squire for a show conceived by Christopher Renshaw and Andrew Delaplaine and co-directed by Renshaw, James Monroe Iglehart and Christina Sajous, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical is a majestic spectacle, paying homage to a towering figure and his distinctive legacy… Starring as Louis, Tony Award winner Iglehart is mesmerizing, becoming the physical embodiment of the trumpeter from his gravelly voice to his bubbly charisma… an absolute frenzy of dazzling musical numbers … The depth of the production, including lighting by Cory Pattak and sound by Kai Harada, plus the outstandingly talented ensemble, create a rich and in-depth experience for viewers…
Theatermania (David Gordon): …. In a manner of speaking, A Wonderful World is a spiritual successor to Six, the megahit pop musical where the divorced-beheaded-died-divorced-beheaded-survived spouses of Henry VIII reclaim their places in history. It’s an unexpected entry point that has the potential to be more incendiary than the usual bio-musical hagiography — Armstrong cheated on them all and even fathered a child in an affair in the 1950s. But there’s one crucial problem: The women are so barely drawn that we get no sense of who they are or why we should care about them.
New York Theatre Guide (Kyle Turner): …once in a while, a bio-musical exceeds expectations and, even within the confines of its genre, have enough pizzazz to be an exception to the rule… has old-fashioned, gleeful tap numbers, ensemble dance lines, and superb musical sequences of classic big-band jazz, but there are also moments of surprising subversiveness… A Wonderful World refuses to look away from the racism that latched its claws into Armstrong’s career, from him watching former band members be brutalized by bigots in New Orleans to navigating the Hollywood industry that helped make Armstrong the King of Jazz…
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Dan Knechtges &Megan Larche Cominick’s The Ugly Xmas Sweater Musical will run Dec. 3-22 at Houston’s TUTS, directed by Mitchell Greco, with music direction by Ben Childress.
Julia Krohn (Cheryl), Brooke Wilson (Olga),Kevin Cooney (Charlie), Nicolas Garza (Doug/Niles), and Kiara Caridad (Kelli), with Trey Morgan Lewis and Betty Marie Muessig.
The musical takes you inside the annual holiday party at a large company that no one knows is on the brink of disaster! To save their beloved company and their jobs, the employees must create the ugliest Christmas sweater ever made. Attendees are encouraged to come dressed in their most festive holiday sweaters and sing along with the cast throughout the show.
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Lincoln Center Theater has added a digital lottery for performance-only tickets for the South Pacific: Reunion Concert, which will take place Mon. Dec 9, at 6:30 PM, directed by Bartlett Sher, and conducted by Ted Sperling.
Kelli O’Hara, Paulo Szot, Matthew Morrison, Danny Burstein, Loretta Ables Sayre, Victor Hawks, Luka Kain, Li Jun Li, George Merrick, Laurissa Romain, Skipp Sudduth, and Noah Weisberg. The concert will also include original cast menbers Becca Ayers, Wendi Bergamini, Genson Blimline, Grady McLeod Bowman, Charlie Brady, Matt Caplan, Christian Carter, Jeremy Davis, Margot de La Barre, Christian Delcroix, Laura Marie Duncan, Mike Evariste, Laura Griffith, Lisa Howard, MaryAnn Hu, Zachary James, Robert Lenzi, Garrett Long, Nick Mayo, William Michals, Kimber Monroe, Emily Morales, Darius Nichols, George Psomas, Andrew Samonsky, and Jerold E. Solomon.
The lottery will open Nov. 18 at 12:01 AM ET, offering a limited number of $35 seats to lottery winners. Each winner can purchase up to two tickets. Entries will be accepted through Nov. 24 , with winners set to be chosen Nov. 25 & 26. Click here to enter.
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Gingold Theatrical Group‘s The Devil’s Disciples continues through Nov. 23 at Theatre Row, adapted & directed by David Staller.
Nadia Brown, Susan Cella, Tina Chilip, Teresa Avia Lim, and Folami Williams, with Fiona Maguire, and Lauren Zbylski.
It’s 1777 in New Hampshire and the future of our country is at stake! What can one determined woman and two confused men do to ensure a Democratic future? In this new adaptation, female ferocity rules as this legendary and almost true historical adventure comedy by Bernard Shaw, is told by five power-house women.
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An Afternoon with Heather Headly will take place Sun. Nov. 24 at 2 PM at NYC’s 92NY, with music direction by Jason Webb.
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The Merchant of Venice, adapted & directed by Igor Golyak, will run Nov. 22 – Dec. 22 (opening Nov. 25) at the Classic Stage Company.
T.R. Knight (Antonio), Richard Topol ( Shylock), Alexandra Silber (Portia), Gus Birney (Jessica), Tess Goldwyn (Nerisa), José Espinosa (Bassanio), Stephen Ochsner (Launcelot Gobbo), and Noah Pacht (Lorenzo), with Delilah Napier and Elan Zafir.
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Twelfth Night will run Dec. 6-22 Opening Dec. 7) at Tennessee Shakespeare Company, directed by Stephanie Shine.
Erin Amlicke (Viola), Tim Gouran (Malvolio), Robby Matlock (Orsino), Lauren Gunn (Olivia), Michael Khanlarian (Toby Belch), and Marquis Dijon Archuleta (Aguecheek), with Fiona Byrne, Andrew Christenson, Jonathan Dimas, Baxter Konstans, Jacqueline Nunweiler, and Christine Strong.
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Red Bull Theater‘s reading of Jessica B. Hill’s The Dark Lady will take place Mon. Nov. 18 at 7:30 PM at Off-Broadway’s Sheen Center, directed by Rodrigo Beilfuss.
Jessica B. Hill and Matthew Rauch.
What if all the women in Shakespeare’s plays were based on the love of his life? What if she happened to be a writer herself? Enter Emilia Bassano: trilingual, multiracial, and the possible ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets. When Emilia meets Will, it’s a meeting of minds that sets their hearts and pens ablaze. But while Emilia struggles to leave her creative legacy, she’s also watching their love and art slowly turn Will into Shakespeare.
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Road Theater Company‘s world premiere of Shem Bitterman’s The Civil Twilight has been extended through Dec. 22 at LA’s Broadwater Studio Theatre, directed by Ann Hearn.
Taylor Gilbert and Andrew Elvis Miller.
A twisty thriller that takes place over a single night during a once in a century storm, the play tells the story of what happens when a popular a.m. radio personality winds up trapped in a motel room in the Midwest with his biggest fan.
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Red Bull Theater will prsent a benefit performance of Two Gentlemen of Verona: The rock Musical on Mon. Dec. 16 at 7:30 pM at NYC’s Symphony Space, directed by Zi Alikhan, with choreography by Karla Puno Barcia, and music directed by Greg Pliska.
André De Shields.
Chuck Cooper, Coby Getzug, Jin Ha, Taylor Iman Jones, Kelvin Moon Loh, John-Michael Lyles, Alisa Melendez, Sam Simahk, Alysha Umphress, and more TBA.