Today’s Highlights:
* Romantics Anonymous live production, by Christopher Dimond & Michael Kooman, directed by Emma Rice, featuring Marc Antolin (Jean-René), Carly Bawden (Angélique), Me’sha Bryan (Suzanne/Mimi), Harry Hepple (Ludo/Remi), Laura Jane Matthewson (Young Woman), Sandra Marvin (Magda/Brigitte/Dr. Maxim), Philip Cox (Father/Pierre/Receptionist), Gareth Snook (Mercier/Mumbler/Marini), and Omari Douglas (Salesman/Fred), opens at 4 PM ET/1 PM PT at London’s Old Vic.
* “Friends” FREE Zoom reading, (Season 3’s “The One Where No One’s Ready”), directed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield, featuring an all Black cast — Sterling K. Brown (Ross) and Ryan Michelle Bathe (Rachel), with Uzo Aduba (Phoebe), Aisha Hinds (Monica), Jeremy Pope (Chandler), and Kendrick Sampson (Joey), streams at 9 PM ET here.
* Ken Davenport’s “The Producer’s Perspectives LIVE!” podcast, with special guest Will Swenson, streams at 8 PM ET here.
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Reviews for Brian Friel’s Faith Healer at London’s Old Vic:
NY Times (Ben Brantley): …this enthralling streaming production… [Michael] Sheen portraying another artist, an older man raking through the ashes of a career that had burned only fitfully… as the camera stared at Sheen, strutting and slinking across an empty stage before an audience of no one, you could sense the sparks in the embers… Sheen drew Frank in lines of darkness that never entirely hid the light that still flickered disturbingly within… there are those wondrous occasions when a performance startlingly shifts your perspective on a work you thought you knew well. A new, beckoning landscape opens up, there to tell you what you hadn’t figured out before and suggesting, with audacious hope, that this old and familiar play still teems with unexplored and mysterious life.
Vulture (Helen Shaw): …Brian Friel’s slippery, multi-perspective play about a man frightened by his own mystery… As a theatrical attempt, Faith Healer is ambitious and a little scary… here was Friel’s gorgeous play, both competently staged and beautifully spoken… But over the play’s two and a quarter hours, I came to savor, then marvel at, that difference… If he seems more affected on camera than Sheen, it’s because his character has been colored in with the old greasepaint. Friel’s writing, which can turn into showboating, takes its most exaggerated turns with Teddy, deliberately letting the show’s sentiment accumulate in him in vast pools… There’s something so intoxicating about the classic Friel feeling — the way sensations of physical languor, portrayed or simply described, are set against breathless mental activity.
The Observer (David Cote): …With the transfixing and immensely satisfying account of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer…the approach has grown meat on its bones… Sheen, an actor capable of volcanic zeal and rich musical vocalism, plays the “Fantastic” Frank Hardy, itinerant layer-on of hands, who we learn is often drunk and in self-exile from his native Ireland…Teddy (David Threlfall). The trio pulls up to a sorry town, occupies a rented hall, Teddy plays a Fred Astaire record of “The Way You Look Tonight” to any poor souls assembled, and they wait for Frank’s magic to happen. If magic it is. Or miracle. Or con… Friel tells this narrative in fragmented, overlapping monologues by the protagonists, with discrepancies between them that create the warp and weft of both truth and mystery…
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Video: “Stars in the House,” with guest host Brenda Braxton, and special guests Dustin Cross, Florence D’Lee (Bryce), Alexis Lives, and Delandes. (1:06:40)
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Long Beach’s International City Theatre has announced its 2021 season:
* Blues in the Night (Feb. 17 – Mar. 7, opening Feb. 19), conceived by Sheldon Epps, directed by Wren T. Brown. 
Three women share their stories of a lying, cheating snake of a man who did them wrong via 26 hot, torchy numbers made famous by the likes of Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Alberta Hunter, Jimmy Cox, Ida Cox and more.
* Slow Food (Apr. 28 – May 16, opening Apr. 30), by Wendy MacLeod, directed by Marya Mazor. A vacationing couple celebrates their anniversary at a Greek restaurant in Palm Springs. But will the marriage survive the service? As a wacky waiter insinuates his way into their meal — and their lives — the couple examine their past and their future together.
* The Legend of Georgia McBride (June 2-20, opening June 4), by Matthew Lopez, directed by Jamie Torcellini. Casey is young and broke. The landlord is knocking on his door, and he has a baby on the way. Now, the owner of the bar where he works as an Elvis impersonator has replaced his act with a B-level drag show, and Casey’s about to learn a lot about show biz — and himself.
* Closely Related Keys (Aug. 25 – Sept. 12, opening Aug. 27), by Wendy Graf, directed by Saundra McClain. An African-American attorney with a career on the rise is shocked to discover she has an Iraqi half-sister. Julia Dolan’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble when Neyla, a devout Muslim, arrives in the U.S. with plans to audition for Juilliard. But is there more to her story?
* Art (Oct. 20 – Nov. 7, opening Oct. 22), by Yasmina Reza, director TBA. How much would you pay for a painting with nothing on it? Would it be art? Three old friends square off over the merits of a recently purchased, very expensive — and very white — painting.
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A discussion about “The Boys in the Band” on Netflix, with Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, and director Joe Mantello, will stream Fri. Oct. 2 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s 92Y.
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Casey York has been announced as the new President of The Broadway League.
Casey has served on the the Off Broadway’s Leagues Board of Directors since 2018, and has participated on the negotiating commettees for the League’s collectively bargained with AEA, SDA, and USA. In addition, Casey has served on the Host Committees for the Lucille Lortel Awards, the Leagues Sexual Harassment Prevention Committee, and was a Lucille Lortel Awards voter for three seasons, as well being the current Chair of the Reopening Task Force.
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The original stars of London’s SIX will reunite for a LIVE concert Sat. Oct. 10 at 4:30 PM ET (9:30 PM BST), presented to a socially distant audience at the Oval Space, and streamed to over 100 countries.
Jarnéia Richard-Noel (Catherine of Aragon), Millie O’Connell (Anne Boleyn), Natalie Paris (Jane Seymour), Alexia McIntosh (Anna of Cleves), Aime Atkinson (Katherine Howard), Maiya Quanash-Breed (Catherine Parr), and original alternate Grace Mouat, who all pay tribute various female pop stars.
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Video: Trailer for Sarah Ruhl’s “The Glorias,” directed by Julie Taymor, starring Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander, to premiere Sept. 30 on Amazon Prime.
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“West Wing Ha! – Presidents & Their Challengers As Seen by Hirschfeld,” a series of online exhibitions exploring the work of Al Hirschfeld have been announced.
The exhibitions are now available here and will continue through Nov. 3.
* Hirschfeld’s drawings depicting Presidents, First Ladies and presidential candidates, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Mamie and Dwight Eisenhower, Bess and Harry S. Truman Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and Jesse Jackson.
* Representations of presidents, historical and fictional, from stage, screen, and television, including 1776, Assassins, Mr. President, The Best Man, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, “The Manchurian Candidate,” and a previously unpublished drawing of the popular television show, “The West Wing.”
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The Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction, which took place on Sept. 20), raised #316,282 for BC/EFA!
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“Plays for the Public,” by Richard Foreman is now available in paperback. 
Click here to learn more and to order.
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Video: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party, with special guests T. Oliver Reid, Adam Roberts, Ava Nicole Frances, Jane Moneheit, and Richard Jay-Alexander. (1:39:04)
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Peter Francis James and casting director Kate Murray (The Public Theater) have joined forces with their Classical Acting Intensive, to work with you on your audition pieces. on Sat. Oct. 3 from 11 AM – 6 PM ET.
here.
The class is perfect for audition prep or simply as a reinvigoration of your classical chops. Testing out a new piece? Have an old favorite that you need to adjust for the Zoom or taped format? The class also progresses to a mock audition.
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Video: At Sunday’s Emmy Awards ceremony, a shorter version of the “In Memoriam” segment was broadcast.
Here is the complete version, which includes Nick Cordero, Chi Chi DeVayne, Kobe Bryant, Shelley Morrison, Honor Blackman, Roscoe Born, John Callahan, Marj Dusay, and John Karlen, among others.
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Together LA Festival, created & performed by 34 intimate Los Angeles Theatres, offering new 10-minute works, will run Oct. 1-7.
Click here for the complete schedule.
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New York Theatre Workshop has announced the initial group of projects from the 2020/21 Artistic Instigators:
New Artistic Fellows: Directors Josiah Davis, Adil Mansoor, and Tyler Thomas…… and playwrights Nissy Aya, Ruth Tang, and David Zheng
While the timeline for resuming in-person performances in New York City remains uncertain, NYTW has re-committed to its extraordinary community of artists to create and develop new work and to share that work with audiences in both existing formats and in ways yet to be imagined. The artists below have been engaged to imagine work in our present moment that creates community within the given circumstances of social distancing, celebrates the liveness that is inherent in a theatrical experience, and examines the relationship between theatre, distance and technology.
Ayad Akhtar, Hilton Als, Clare Barron & Sam Gold, Lileana Blain-Cruz, David Cale & Dael Orlandersmith, Victor I. Cazares, Rachel Chavkin, Dominican Artists Collective, Rebecca Frecknall & Martyna Majok, Aleshea Harris, Jeremy O. Harris, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Denis O’Hare & Lisa Peterson, Liliana Padilla, Rubén Polendo & Theater Mitu, Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby, Tina Satter, Geoff Sobelle, Celine Song, Whitney White, Kristina Wong and Doug Wright.
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“The Shows Must Go On” presents its newest film series:
“The Show Must Go On!” returns on Sept. 25 at 3 PM ET (and remains available for 48 hours) with Fame the Musical, starring Mica Paris, Keith Jack, Jorgie Porter, Molly McGuire, Jamal Kane Crawford, and Stephanie Rojas. Watch here.
“Michael Ball: Past & Present Tour – Live” (Oct. 2)
“Aflie Boe Live — The Bring Him Home Tour” (Oct. 9)
* Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of The Worlds: Alive on Stage!” (Oct. 16)
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Karen Mason‘s 2015 concert, Mason at Mama’s in March, will stream here on Oct. 15 at 8 PM ET, Oct. 17 at 2 PM ET, and Oct. 18 at 3 PM ET.