Today’s Highlights:
Hamilton, featuring Miguel Cervantes (Alexander Hamilton), Krystal Joy Brown (Eliza Hamilton), Mandy Gonzalez (Angelica Schuyler), Tamar Greene (George Washington), Jin Ha (Aaron Burr), James Monroe Iglehart (Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson), Euan Morton (King George III), Fergie L. Philippe (Hercules Mulligan/James Madison), Aubin Wise (Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds), and Daniel Yearwood (John Laurens/Philip Hamilton), with Amber Ardolino, Giuseppe Bausilio, Lauren Boyd, Amanda Braun, Erin Elizabeth Clemons, Marc delaCruz, Alexander Ferguson, Jennifer Geller, Christina Glur, Shonica Gooden, Deon’te Goodman, David Guzman, Jennie Harney-Fleming, Thayne Jasperson, Roddy Kennedy, Malik Shabazz Kitchen, Eddy Lee, Johanna Moise, Justice Moore, Preston Mui, Antuan Magic Raimone, Willie Smith III, Gabriella Sorrentino, Gregory Treco, Robert Walters, and Ta-Tynisa Wilson, returns to Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre.
Wicked, featuring Lindsay Pearce (Elphaba), Ginna Claire Mason (Glinda), Alexandra Billings (Madame Morrible. note: Kathy Fitzgerald will play the role from Sept. 14-26), Michael McCormick (Wizard), Sam Gravitte (Fiyero), Riley Costello (Boq), Mili Diaz (Nessarose), Michael X. Martin (Doctor Dillamond), Jennifer DiNoia (Elphaba standby) and Brittney Johnson (Glinda standby), with Ioana Alfonso, Alex Aquilino, Larkin Bogan, Randy Castillo, Antoinette Cohen, Meg Doherty, Teneise Mitchell Ellis, Hannah Florence, Jenny Florkowski, Dan Gleason, Josh Daniel Green, Jeff Heimbrock, Celia Hottenstein, Courtney Iventosch, Colby Q. Lindeman, Chase Madigan, Micaela Martinez, Kevin Massey, Sterling Masters, Matt Meigs, Jo’Nathan Michael, Dashi Mitchell, Lindsay K. Northern, Emily Rogers, William Ryall, Travis Taber, Jeremy Thompson, and Christianne Tisdale, returns Broadway’s Gershwin Theatre.
Chicago, featuring Ana Villafañe (Roxie Hart), Bianca Marroquín (Velma Kelly), Paulo Szot (Billy Flynn), Lillias White (Matron Mama Morton), Raymond Bokhour (Amos Hart) and Ryan Lowe (Mary Sunshine), with David Bushman, Jennifer Dunne, Jessica Ernest, Jeff Gorti, Arian Keddell, Mary Claire King, Barrett Martin, Sharon Moore, Drew Nellessen, Celina Nightengale, Brian O’Brien, Denny Paschall, Angel Reda, Jermaine R. Rembert, Michael Scirrotto, Christine C. Smith, and Brian Spitulnik, returns to Broadway’s Ambassador Theatre.
Blackbird, by David Harrower, directed by Kim T. Sharp, featuring Francesca Ravera and Lenny Grossman, opens at Off-Broadway’s New Ohio Theatre.
My Fair Lady national tour, directed by Bartlet Sherr, featuring Shereen Ahmed (Eliza Doolittle), Laird Mackintosh (Professor Henry Higgins), Leslie Alexander (Mrs. Higgins), Adam Grupper (Alfred P. Doolittle), Kevin Pariseau (Colonel Pickering), Gayton Scott (Mrs. Pearce), Sam Simahk (Freddy Eynsford-Hill), and Lee Zarrett (Zoltan Karpathy), with Rajeer Alford, Colin Anderson, Polly Baird, Mark Banik, Michael Biren, Mary Callanan, Elena Camp, Christopher Faison, Nicole Ferguson, Kaitlyn Frank, Juliane Godfrey, Colleen Grate, Patrick Kerr, Brandon Leffler, Nathalie Marrable, William Michals, Aisha Mitchell, Rommel Pierre O’Choa, George Psomas, Keven Quillon, JoAnna Rhinehart, Samantha Sturm, Sarah Quinn Taylor, Gerard M. Williams, Michael Williams, Richard Riaz Yoder, and Minami Yusui, resumes performances at Houston’s Hobby Theatre.
The Enigmatist, written & performed by David Kwong, opens at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
Second Stage Theatre‘s Letters of Suresh, by Rajiv Joseph, directed by May Adrales, featuring Ali Ahn, Ramiz Monsef, Kellie Overbey, and Thom Sesma, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Tony Kiser Theatre.
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Reviews for Back to the Future at London’s Adelphi Theatre:
Roger Bart has recently tested positive for COVID-19 and did not appear on opening night. However, some reviewers saw previous performances, so you may read reviews with and without Bart’s appearance.
The Guardian (Arifa Akbar): …It really does seem as if the DeLorean is defying the laws of theatre, if not the time-space continuum… Beyond the car’s star turn, this is an eccentric show, directed by John Rando, that is partly an ode to the film but also a tribute act that speaks to its own theatricality. The book by Bob Gale (who wrote the film with Robert Zemeckis) keeps the film’s best lines, and even with the addition of 16 new songs (music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard), it seems like a show stuck in time, too uncannily like the original (though there is one functional plot change). The cast appear to imitate their film counterparts… Despite its inventions and its abundant splashiness, it is an odd mishmash of originality and imitation, the DeLorean remaining its biggest star.
iNews (Sam Marlowe): …it was only a matter of time until the stage debut of Marty McFly and his batty inventor pal Doc Emmett Brown, as immortalized in Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 movie by Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd… The show…may well delight a whole new young audience and certainly packs enough eye-popping spectacle and gigawatt energy. But where it really fires on all cylinders is as a Gen X nostalgia trip… The car is a star, flying over the stalls and even backflipping, with Marty and Doc aboard. It’s easily a match for the film’s hectic adrenaline rush. Once the dazzle of John Rando’s production wears off, though, it all feels a bit pointless…
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Reviews for The Last of the Love Letters at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theatre Company:
NY Times (Jesse Green): …If you thus think, as I did, that this will be a straightforward play about romance — with all its pleasures, including the bittersweet ones of recalling it after it’s gone — think again… The Last of the Love Letters, like Anyanwu’s “The Homecoming Queen” and “Good Grief,” does concern the long aftermath of a troubled affair, its alternative title indicates larger ambitions: “For All the Lovesick Mad Sad Geniuses.” What exactly those ambitions are was not always clear to me… The highly patterned writing once again introduces a problem of diminishing returns… If Anyanwu doesn’t provide us with keys to the allegory…an actor as excellent as Watts cannot help but fill in the blanks…
Theatermania (Hayley Levitt): …Patrons likely won’t leave with much more clarity than they entered with. But, at the very least, they will have had the pleasure of soaking up Anyanwu’s prose, which floats from high poetry to conversational wit on the winds of her shifting jet stream of consciousness… As the ambiguous monikers suggest, this is one of those plays where time, place, and most other orienting details are dangling question marks. Some get answers. Most do not… The language is compelling and well-performed. However, the content meanders, as if waiting for the right moment to drop into the heart of the piece, which still seems somewhat undefined, or perhaps just lost in the enigma of it all…
DC Metro Arts (Deb Miller(): …Get there while you can for this hard-hitting must-see show… Staged in the format of two sequential monologues by her (Anyanwu as You) then him (Watts as You No. 2), the compelling script presents the perspectives of both sides of a tumultuous relationship and its traumatizing dissolution… The psychologically and emotionally penetrating piece is at times funny and at times heartrending, sometimes romantic and sometimes disturbing, ever insightful and always honest… The lead actors embody all the perceptions and feelings in explosive revelatory performances, flawlessly delivering the figures’ fast-paced stream-of-consciousness thoughts, self-doubt, raw emotions, and tender memories that come flooding out…
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Video: Stars in the House, with a Back to Broadway! episode, with special guests Meghan Picerno, Jenn Gambatese, Pearl Sun, Kathy Fitzgerald, and Harvard’s Joseph Allen. (1:25:21)
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“The 2020 Tony Awards” will be broadcast on Sun. Sept. 26 from 7-11 PM on CBS and Paramount+ (check local listings). Click here for more information.
Audra McDonald will host the live presentation of 3 Tony Awards at 7 PM, including Best Play, Best Revival of a Play, and Best Musical… along with the prizes for the top acting categories.
Leslie Odom Jr. will then host “The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back” (9-11 PM), a celebration of all things Broadway that will accompany the annual handing out of the statues. The event will also feature special performances from the three Tony-nominated best musical contenders, a group that includes Jagged Little Pill, Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Tina – The Tina Turner Musical. It will be followed by the live presentation of three Tony Awards, including best play, best revival of a play and best musical.
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Video: Teaser from the world premiere of Mystic Pizza at ME’s Ogunquit Playhouse.
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The York Theatre Company will present the world premiere of Cheek to Cheek: Irving Berlin in Hollywood Nov. 24 – Jan. 2, 2022 at Theater at St. Jean’s (150 East 76th Street),written, by Barry Kleinbort & Randy Skinner, directed & choreographed by Randy Skinner, with music direction by David Hancock Turner..
Casting TBA.
An all-singing, all-dancing celebration of the most famous songs composed by Irving Berlin for the silver screen.
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The TKTS Discount Ticket Booth re-opens at 3 PM ET today in Times Square (Broadway at 47th Street).
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Haley Swindle: Back in Business will take place Mon. Sept. 20 at 7 PM ET at 54 Below, with music direction by Scott Cady.
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Complete casting has been announced for the return of The Book of Mormon, which will resume performances on Fri. Nov. 5 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.
Kevin Clay (Elder Price), Cody Jamison Strand (Elder Cunningham), Kim Exum (Nabulungi), Stephen Ashfield (Elder McKinley) and Sterling Jarvis (Mafala Hatimbi), with Lewis Cleale, Derrick Williams, Randy Aaron, Shanel Bailey, J. Casey Barrett, Graham Bowen, Isaiah Tyrelle Boyd, Christian Delcroix, Daniel Fetter, Naysh Fox, Bre Jackson, Keziah John-Paul, John K. Kramer, Ben Laxton, Terrie Lynne, Noah Marlowe, Matthew Marks, Henry McGinniss, Stoney B. Mootoo, Jevares Myrick, Darius Nichols, John Eric Parker, John Pinto Jr., Christian Probst, Jasmin Richardson and Arbender J. Robinson.
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“Wonka,” a musical film adaptation written & directed by Paul King is currently in development, and is expected to be released Mar. 17, 2023.
Timothee Chalamet (Willie Wonka) and Keegan-Michael Key (character currently under wraps), with more TBA.
The plot is being kept secret at this time, but the film will serve as a prequel to “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and will explore the upbringing of the man who later created the famous temple of confectionary treats.
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Reviews for “The Humans” film adaptation.
Click here to read all the reviews.
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Beetlejuice will resume performances Apr. 18, 2022 at the Marriott Marquis Theater.
Casting and additional information TBA.
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The world premiere of Stan Zimmerman & Christian McLaughlin’s Have a Good One will run on 3 weekends, Oct. 1-17 at Hollywood’s The Complex, directed by Zimmerman.
Megan Cournoyer, Adrian Gamez, Tom Plumley, and Tanner Stine.
The story of four young people whose live change when they get jobs at an Abercrombie-type store in a Midwestern mall in 1999.
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Tony DiMurro’s 1-2-3 Manhunt will run Oct. 7-24 (Oct. 10) at Theater for the New City, directed by William Roudebush.
Ilene Kristen, Anthony Barile, Chris Paul Morales, and Santo Fazio.
The play uses a tenement rooftop to set the stage for a smackdown between two vastly different natives of the Lower East Side – an old-school middle-aged Italian back in the neighborhood for his last hurrah and a Chinese American teenager whose dreams of playing major league baseball started to fade even before the pandemic turned his life upside down. Things get physical before this diverse pairing finds surprising common ground, turning their attention outward toward the city and world at large.
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Complete casting has been announced for Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World, to run Oct. 13 – Nov. 7 (opening Oct. 17) at NJ’s Paper Mill Playhouse, directed by Mark S. Hoebee, with choreography by Kenny Ingram, and music supervision by Georgia Stitt.
Roman Banks, Carolee Carmello, Andrew Kober, and Mia Pinero, with Dion Simmons Grier and Olivia Hernandez.