GRACE NOTES will return Monday, Nov. 28
Holiday Highlights:
Tuesday, November 22
The Hours, world premiere by Kevin Puts & Phelim McDermott, with music direction by by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, featuring Renee Fleming (Clarissa Vaughan), Kelli O’Hara (Laura Brown), Joyce Didonato (Virginia Wolf), Denyce Graves (Sally), Kathleen Kim (Barbara/Mr. Latch), Sylvia D’Eramo (Kitty.Vanessa), John Holiday (Man Under the Arch/Hotel Clerk), Kyle Ketelsen (Richard), William Burden (Louis), Sean Panikkar (Leonard Woolf), and Brandon Cedel (Dan Brown), opens at NYC’s Metropolitan Opera.
Liz Callaway & Ann Hampton Callaway: As Long As We’re Together opens at NYC’s 54 Below.
York Theatre Company‘s Stardust Road, by Susan H. Schulman, Michael Lichtefeld, Lawrence Yurman & Hoagy Bix Carmichael, directed by Schulman, featuring Marcus Blair, Sara Esty, Dion Simmons Grier, Danielle Herbert, Kayla Jenerson, Cory Linger, and Mike Schwitter, with Rachel Fairbanks and Drew Tanabe, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Jeans.
Wednesday, November 23
Disney’s Winnie The Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation opens at LA’s Kirk Douglas Theatre.
Thursday, November 24
Elf the Musical, directed by Philip Wm. McKinley, featuring Simon Lipkin (Buddy), Georgina Castle (Jovie), Tom Chambers (Walter Hobbs), Rebecca Lock (Emily Hobbs), Kim Ismay (Debs), Nicholas Pound (Santa), and Dexter Barry, Logan Clark, Alfie Morwood & Frankie Treadaway (alternating as Michael), with Evonnee Bentley-Holder, Kyle Cox, Jade Davies, Bethan Downing, Francis Foreman, Morgan Gregory, Ryan Jupp, Ellis Linford-Pill, Shane O’Riordan, Theo Reece, Chloe Saunders, Heather Scott-Martin, Jessica Spalis, Michael Tyler, Katie Warsop, and Natalie Woods, opens at London’s Dominion Theatre.
Friday, November 25
Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, adapted by Neil Bartlett, directed by directed by Michael Grandage, featuring Emma Corrin, opens at London’s Garrick Theatre.
The Brightest Thing in the World, world premiere by Leah Nanako Winkler, directed by Margot Bordelon, featuring Michele Selene Ang, Magan Hill, and Katherine Romans, begins previews at Yale Rep.
A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas, adapted & performed by Paul Morella, begins previews at MD’s Olney Theatre.
“Josh Groban’s Great Big Radio City Show” concert airs at 9 PM on PBS.
Maury Yeston’s “December Songs for Voice and Orchestra” song cycle album, featuring Victoria Clark, backed by a 37-piece orchestra conducted by Ted Sperling, released on PS Classics.
Saturday, November 26
Invincible – The Musical, world premiere by Bradley Bredeweg, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene, featuring Khamary Rose (Romeo), Kay Sibal (Juliet), Sharon Leal (Madame Capulet), Dionne Gipson (Madame Montague), Brennin Hunt (Paris), Ari Notartomaso (Benvolio), Julia Harriman (Nura), Jon Patrick Walker (Friar), Aaron Alcaraz (Mercutio), and Josh Strobl (Tybalt), with Steven Agdeppa, Gilliam Bozajian, Cameron Field, Sophia Hall, Nadja Hayes, Eric Myrick, Ian Joseph Paget, Lyric Rachae, Krystle Simmons, Kelsey Lee Smith, Ian Ward, and Kendyl Yokoyama, opens at Beverly Hills’ The Wallis.
John Gabriel Borkman, by Henrick Ibsen, directed by Nicholas Hytner, featuring Sebastian DeZoua (Erhart Borkman), Simon Russell Beale (John Gabriel Borkman), Clare Higgins (Gunhild Borkman), Lia Williams (Ella Rentheim),Daisy Ou (Frida Foldal), Michael Simkins (Willhelm Foldal), and Ony Uhiara (Fanny Wilton), with Nick Barclay, Hilary Derrett, and Catharine Humphrys, closes at London’s Bridge Theatre.
A Single Man, world premiere by Simon Reade, directed by Philip Wilson, featuring Theo Fraser Steele (George), Rachel Pickup (Charley), Freddie Gaminara (multiple roles), Phoebe Pryce (multiple roles), and Miles Molan (Kenny/Jim), closes at London’s Park Theatre.
Liz Callaway & Ann Hampton Callaway: As Long As We’re Together closes at NYC’s 54 Below.
Sunday, November 27
But I’m a Cheerleader, by Bill Augustin & Andrew Abrams, directed by Tania Azavedo, featuring Megan Hill, Jessica Aubrey, Louis Amir Hook, Kenneth Avery-Clark, Inez Budd, Georgina Hagen, Freddie Love, Michael Mather, Patrick Munday, Julian Quijano, Noel Sullivan, Ash Weir, Josie Kemp, and Ciaran Spencer, closes at London’s Turbine Theatre.
Only Gold, by Kate Nash, Andy Blankenbuehler & Ted Malawer, directed by directed & choreographed by Blankenbuehler, featuring Terrance Man (King), Hannah Cruz (Camille), Gaby Diaz (Tooba), Kate Nash (Narrator), Karine Plantadit (Roksana), Ryan Steele (Jaques), Ryan Vandenboom (Henri), with Haley Fish, Jennifer Florentino, Jacob Guzman, Tyler Hanes, Thyne Jasperson, Reed Luplau, Morgan Marcell, Ximone Rose, Ida Saki, Ahmad Simmons, Deanne Stewart, Voltaire Wade-Greene, Katie Webber, Bradley Dean, Jacob Burns, Phil Colgan, Victoria Fiore, Samantha Poling, and Eleri Ward, closes at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater.
Plays for the Plague Year, world premiere by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith, featuring Suzan-Lori Parks (The Writer), Greg Keller (Actor 1), Leland Fowler (Actor 2), Kenita Miller (Actor 3), Pearl Sun (Actor 4), Orville Mendoza (Actor 5), Lauren Molina (Actor 6), and Martín Solá (Actor 7), with Edward Astor Chin, Danyel Fulton, and Will Stone, closes at Off Broadway’s Joe’s Pub.
Two Jews, Talking, world premiere by Ed. Weinberger, directed by Dan Wackerman, starring Bernie Kopell and Josh Mostel, closes at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Clements.
Sesame Street the Musical, by Jonathan Rockefeller, Tom Kitt, Helen Park & Nate Edmondson, directed by Rockefeller, featuring all your favorite Sesame Street characters, closes at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row.
Good Enemy, world premiere by Yilong Liu, directed by Chay Yew, featuring Francis Jue, Ron Domingo, Tim Liu, Geena Quintos, Alec Silver, Ryan Spahn, and Jeena Yi, closes at Off-Broadway’s Minetta Lane Theatre. All Things Equal: The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Rupert Holmes, directed by Laley Lippard, featuring Michelle Azar, closes at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre.
The Inheritance, by Matthew López, directed by Mike Donahue, featuring Nic Ashe (Adam/Leo), Bill Brochtrup (Morgan/Walter Poole), Tantoo Cardinal (Margaret Avery), Juan Castano (Toby Darling), Jay Donnell (Young Man 6/Tristan), Israel Erron Ford (Young Man 2/Jason #1/Doorman #1/Toby’s Other Agent), August Gray Gall (Young Man 3/Young Henry Tucker), Adam Kantor (Eric Glass), Eddie Lopez (Young Man 5/Charles Wilcox/Toby’s Agent/Toby’s Dealer), Kasey Mahaffy (Young Man 7/Jasper/Paul Wilcox/Doorman #2), Miguel Pinzon (Young Man 4/Young Walter), Avi Roque (Young Man 7/Jason #2/Clinic Worker), and Tuc Watkins (Henry Wilcox), closes at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical national tour, featuring Courtney Reed (Satine), Conor Ryan (Christian, Austin Durant (Harold Zidler), André Ward (Toulouse-Lautrec), David Harris (Duke of Monroth), Gabe Martinez (Santiago), Libby Lloyd (Nini), and Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer (Satine Alternate), with Nicci Claspell, Harper Miles, Andrés Quintero, Adrienne Balducci, Andrew Brewer, Jack Cahill-Lemme, Sam J. Cahn, Darius Crenshaw, Alexander Gil Cruz, Alexa De Barr, Tamrin Goldberg, Alexis Hasbrouck, Jordan Fife Hunt, Justin Keats, Tyler John Logan, Tanisha Moore, Brayden Newby, Kent Overshown, Amy Quanbeck, Ayden Pratt, Adéa Michelle Sessoms, Jenn Stafford, Denzel Tsopnang, Travis Ward-Osborne, Sharrod Williams, Jennifer Wolfe, and Ricardo A. Zayas, closes at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center.
**********************
Reviews for Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol, starring Jefferson Mays, at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre:
NY Times (Alexis Solosky): …In the noisy, excitable one-man version…Mays stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, spirits of Christmas, assorted Cratchits, street folk, partygoers. He even plays a boiling potato, straining against a pot lid.. Mays is side dish, main course, everything… Creepy and antic, gloomy and giddy, Michael Arden’s production capitalizes on every trick in Dickens’s story and then pulls a few new ones out of Scrooge’s top hat… This Carol, adapted by Mays, Arden and Mays’s wife, the actress Susan Lyons…is a lonelier affair. The script hews closely to the version that Dickens himself toured… In place of a communal gathering, we have one man’s journey toward self-actualization. Scrooge, at last, becomes an integrated person.
New York Daily News (Chris Jones): …this genuinely tense and spooky Christmas Carol … Mercifully, though, Dickens believed in the possibility of redemption — the reformed Scrooge, traditionally, is a big part of why so many people want to experience this story every Christmas. Many Scrooges of my acquaintance over the years have fast-forwarded to this happy part. Not so Mays, who clearly relishes the existential demands of the character in motion… That said, much of this version of A Christmas Carol…is heavy on narration, which makes you wonder whether this show would have worked just as well, and maybe even better, if Mays had stuck to Scrooge and storytelling… Nothing wrong with a good shudder at the holidays. Gets you in practice for the new year.
Theatrely (Joey Simms): Broadway’s new Christmas Carol kicks off, promisingly, with a good ol’ fashioned jump scare… It’s a thrilling start which suggests a fright-tastic, horror theater approach… Only for 30 or so spine-tingling minutes…live up to that promise… Jefferson Mays can be, to put it mildly, a bit of a ham. But here, Mays brings a soft touch to a mammoth assignment. Shifting between multiple characters within the same scene, from ghost to narrator to Tiny Tim, he slides gracefully between personas with little more than a head tilt or the slightest of vocal modulations…
Theatermania (Pete Hempstead): …deliciously frightening… I would offer that you have never seen a Christmas Carol quite like the one now running on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre, and that if you see only one version of Dickens’s classic tale this season, this should be it… Jefferson Mays, who portrays more than 50 characters in a 95-minute adaptation… Unlike Jack Thorne’s re-imaged Tony-winning Christmas Carol from 2019, the script for this production comes verbatim from Dickens’s writings — both the book and the text that Dickens used in his own performative readings… That’s because Arden and his creative team have really leaned hard into the ghost story angle of the tale…
**********************
Video: Stephen Graham & Andrea Riseborough perform “Daddy’s Back” from the “Matilda The Musical” film.
**********************
Off-Broadway’s The Flea has announced its 2023 season:
Hang Time (Spring), world premiere written & directed by Zora Howard.
Three men chew the fat under an old, wide tree. We peek into the interiority – the great loves and bitter blues – of Black men in America. Setting the romantic and the macabre in sharp relief, the play invites the viewer to enfisage the living Black body triumphant over the legacy of violence that it holds.
Cheeky Little Brown (Fall), written & performed by Nkenna Akunna. Audiences stumble on Lady, an equal parts messy and determined charmer in the midst of crashing (and low key ruining) her best friend Gemma’s birthday party in London. Nothing goes as planned and audiences get a front-row seat to Lady’s desperate antics. Pain, distress, introspection, pigeons, and a whole lot of Doner meat.
Juneteenth performances (Un – Summer), by 5 black performance artists.
….and more TBA…
**********************
Rogue Machine presents the world premiere of Justin Tanner’s Little Theatre Dec. 8 – Jan. 8, 2023 at the Matrix Theatre, directed by Lisa James.
Ryan Brophy (Danny), Zachary Grant (James), and Jenny O’Hara (Monica Menlo).
The comedy spills the secrets in a hilarious backstage look at life in the intimate theatre scene during the 90’s in Los Angeles.
**********************
Video: Alisa Weir performs “Naughty” from the “Matilda” film.
**********************
Nico Juber’s Millennials Are Killing Musicals will run May 9-28 at Theatre 71, directed by Ciara Renée.
Casting TBA.
Brenda is a millennial and a single mom who wants to become better at “adulting” as she compares herself to a mom of her daughter’s classmate, Jake, when her younger sister, Katrina (a social media influencer) turns up on her doorstep pregnant and unprepared to be a mom. The three women must find their own way, rather those pushed by social media and the filters puts on everyone’s lives, to finally achiever what they want.
**********************
Valen Shore, Alison Zatta & Valen Shore’s a new holiday mash-up musical, Chriskirkpatrickmas: A Boy Band Christmas Musical will run Dec. 1-11 at The Actors Company, with music direction by Taylor Williams & Valen Shore.
Riley Rose Chritchlow (Lance), Elizabeth Ho (Joey), Emily Lambert (Lou), Mia-Carina Mollicone (J.C.), Valen Shore (Chris), Nicole Wyland (Justin), and Alison Zatta (Marky Mark).
It’s Christmas Eve 2009 and Chris Kirkpatrick from “NSYNC” has a decision to make.
**********************
Off-Broadway’s Keen Company has announced its 2022 Keen Playwrights Lab:
Antigones (Dec. 2 at 3 PM), by Anna Ziegler, featuring Santino Fontana, Celia Keenan Bolger, Maria Christina Oliveras, Marianne Rendon, and Armando Riesco. The play reimagines the Greek drama for the #MeToo and post-Roe movements, with its title character battling “on more personal grounds.
Things With Friends (Dec. 12 at 3 PM), by Kristoffer Eiza, directed by TBA, featuring a cast TBA. A “dark riff on the ‘sitting on fancy couches drinking expensive wine and eventually revealing deeply hidden secrets’ genre of drama.”
Free Ah! Free Bob! (Jan. 9 at 3 PM), by Sarah Schulman, directed by TBA. A gay art clique of Bloorsville they’re thrown into disarray following the overseas arrest of their daughter.
**********************
Cambridge’s A.R.T. will celebrate Pippin with a conversation, to take place Tues. Nov. 29 at 12 PM, led by Terrie & Bradley Bloom, Diane Paulus, and Kelvin Dinkins
(from the 20212 production): Erik Altemus (Lewis), Andrew Cekala (Theo), Charlott d’Amboise (Fastrada), Rachel Bay Jones (Catherine), Terrence Mann, and Matthew James Thomas (Pippin).