GRACE NOTES: Tuesday, November 25, 2025

 

Today’s Highlights:

 

  Seriously Sondheim: An Evening With Beth Leavel concert, with music direction by Phil Reno opens at NYC’s 54 Below.

 

  Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern, by David Carpenter, David Andrew Laws & Sarah David Reynolds, directed byMichael Fess, featuring Will Champion, RJchristian, and Jasmin Malave, opens at LA’s Montalbán Theatre.

 

  Christmas On The Rocks, directed by Rob Ruggiero, featuring Jen Cody, Richard Kline, and Matthew McGloin, opens at TheaterWorks Hartford.

 

  A Christmas Carol, adapted & directed by Mark Clements, featuring Matt Daniels (Ebenezer Scrooge), Jordan Arredondo (Fred), Mark Corkins (Ghost of Marley), Todd Dennind (Ghost of Christmas Present, Kevin Kantor (Ghost of Christmas Past), George Lorinmer (Young Scrooge), Reese Madigan (Bob Crathit), Emily S. Chang (Belle), Lachrisa Grandberry (Mrs. Crachit), James Pickering (Mr. Fezziwig), and Tami Workentin (Mrs. Fezziwig), opens at Milwaukee Rep.

 

  York Theatre‘s Gotta Dance, written & directed by Nikki Feirt Atkins, featuring Jessica Lee Goldyn, Brandon Burks, Anthony Cannarella, Barton Cowperthwaite, Deanna Doyle, Paloma Garcia-Lee, Afra Hines, Jess LeProtto, Kendall Leshanti, Drew Minard, Georgina Pazcoguin, Samantha Siegel, Taylor Stanley, and Blake Zelesnikar, begin previews at Off Broadway’s Theatre at St. Jeans.

 

  Seth Rudetsky and his Broadway Friends concert, featuring Kerry Butler, Santino Fontana, Erika Henningsen, Nikki James, Norm Lewis, Taylor Louderman, Andrea Martin, Jessie Mueller, Javier Muñoz, and Zachary Noah Piser, at 7 PM at Carnegie Hall.

 

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     Additional concert tickets have been released for MCC Theater‘s reading of The Bridges of Madison County benefit reading on Mon. Dec. 15 at 7 PM at Carnegie Hall, directed by Bartlett Sher.

 

Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale, with Ephie Aardema, Jennifer Allen, Whitney Bashor, Charlie Franklin, Kevin Kern, Caitlin Kinnunen, Katie Klaus, Derek, Klena, Luke Marinkovich, Michael X. Martin, Cass Morgan, Aaron Ramey, and Dan Sharkey.

 

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  Red Bull Theatre‘s Richard II  continues through Dec. 14 at the Astor Place Theatre, adpated & directed by Craig Baldwin.

 

Michael Urie.

 

the production is also available on demand through Nov. 29 at 11:59 PM here.

 

  When Teodor’s father tries to marry her off, she flees with her true love Félix, only to be captured by Barbary pirates. Master dramatist Lope de Vega weaves together Byzantine romances and Middle Eastern folk tales to create a story of unwavering heart and globetrotting adventure, presented for the first time in English.

 

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  CA’s Long Beach Opera has announced the remainder of its 2025-26 season:

 

  Crash Out Queens: A Tiffany Townsend Recital (Jan 31 & Feb. 1) at Long Beach’s Altar Society.

 

  The Passion of Nell (in development), is in development by Shelly Washington & Lisa Teasley.  The story of Nell Theobald, model whose obsession with soprano Birgit Nilsson, ended in tragedy.

 

  The Nubian Word for Flowers, (film project),by Pauline Oliveros.

 

  Savadba, by Ana Sokolović, directed by Anderson Nunnelley. An cappella opera for six female voices transforms the ancient rituals of preparing the bride the night before a wedding into a vibrant, communal act of song and sisterhood.

 

  Berio: Fragments, directed by James Darrah and conducted by Christoph Rountree. An in-development project built from incomplete and rarely heard works by Luciano Berio that traces a soprano’s descent into madness at a recital no one attends.

 

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   Bipolar & The English Channel, written & performed by Julie Ridge, will run Dec. 3-14 at Theatre Row.

 

  In 1982, Julie Ridge swam the English Channel. In 1983, she became the first person to swim two consecutive laps around Manhattan Island, earning her a guest appearance on the David Letterman Show. A near decade later, she found herself on an unforgiving psychiatric ward with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. This solo show chronicles how her life with bipolar disorder has paralleled her unlikely swim across the grey murky seas of the English Channel.

 

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   The 16th Annual Hollywood Fringe Festival will run June 12-29 at various locations.

 

  Click here for the complete schedule of events.

 

  Attendance is complimentary but reservations are required HERE.

 

  A Southern California-wide search for new short musicals created by high school and college book, music and lyric writers.

 

Finalists:  This year’s finalists are from the high school division features students from Girls Academic Leadership Academy: Audrey Becker, Julia Buss, Gemma Cates, Sydney Garcia, Elena Miles, Asha Miller, and Isla Sidtis. The college division finalists are N. Samuel Heard from Pepperdine University and Ian Pirotto from UCLA.

 

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  Red Bull Theater‘s Richard II continues through Dec. 14 at Astor Place Theatre,  adapted & directed by Craig Baldwin.

 

Michael Urie (Richard II), with  Grantham Coleman, Ron Canada, Kathryn Meisle, David Mattar Merten, Lux Pascal, James Seol, Daniel Stewart Sherman, Ryan Spahn, Emily Swallow, and Sarin Monae West.

 

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   The world premiere of Robert Alexrod’s Life Line will run Jan. 20 – Mar. 1 (opening Jan. 23 ) at North Hollywood’s Road Theatre, directed y Ken Sawyer.

 

  JenBrittany Visser Jen),Tommy Dickie (Drew), Amy Yolsky (Patti), Clifton J. Adams (Kai), Naomi Rubin (Sarah Beth), and Xoe Savvle (Maya). Alternate cast: Destinee Stewart (Jen), Juan Pope (Drew), Ivy Khan (Pattie), Casey Daley (Kai), Gabie Faulkner (Sara Beth), and Rafi Perez (Maya).

 

 In the aftermath of an unforeseen life-changing event, Patti, a well-meaning mother, decides to become a volunteer for a suicide hotline, where laughter, tears, and a new understanding bridge the divide between people from very different walks of life.

 

 

 


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