Today’s Highlights:
Dead Man Walking, by Jake Heggie & Terrence McNally, featuring Joyce DiDonato (Sister Helen Prejean), Ryan McKinny (Joseph De Rocher), Latonia Moore (Sister Rose), Susan Graham (De Rocher’s Mother), opens at NYC’s Metropolitan Opera.
Constance Wu (Audrey) and Corbin Bleu (Seymour) begin their runs in Little Shop of Horrors at Off-Broadway’s Westside Theatre.
Joaquina Kalukango in concert, with music direction by Michael Orland, opens at NYC’s Cafe Carlyle.
The Pianist, newly adapted & directed by Emily Mann, featuring Daniel Donskoy (Wladyslaw Szpilman), Claire Beckman (Mother), Austin Pendleton (Father), Paul Spera (Henryk), Arielle Goldman (Regina), Georgia Warner (Halina/Woman), Charlotte Ewing (Magda/Boy), Tina Benko (Janina and others), Robert David Grant (Majorek and others), and Jordan Lage (Jaworski), begins previews at NJ’s George Street Playhouse.
Parental Advisory: a breakbeat play, world premiere by Idris Goodwin, directed by Kyle Haden, featuring Amire Abdullah (The MC) and Marvin Quijada (Timeless), begins previews at Milwaukee Rep.
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Audio: Ingrid Michaelson has released as a single “If This Is Love” from her forthcoming Broadway musical The Notebook.
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The world premiere of Joe Iconis & Gregory S. Moss’ The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical continues through Oct. 8 at La Jolla Playhouse, directed by Christopher Ashley.
Gabriel Ebert (Hunter S. Thompson), George Abud (Nixon), Jeanette Bayardelle (Jann), Giovanny Diaz de Leon (Kidd), Marcy Harriell (Sandy), Lorinda Lisitza (Virginia), Lauren Marcus (Flower Child), George Salazar (Oscar), Ryan Vona (Juan), and Jason SweetTooth Williams (Ralph), with Summer Broyhill, Josiah Cajiudo, and Kürt Norby.
Who was Hunter S. Thompson? He changed journalism. He defined counterculture. Equal parts philosopher, clown and genius, he was armed and dangerous with a typewriter as his preferred weapon. Careening from the 1940s to his death in 2005, this gonzo musical blasts into the life of one of America’s most influential and destructive icons. In relentless pursuit of the meaning of the American Dream during an era of political and social upheaval, Hunter S. Thompson cultivated a new form of journalism that ― for better or worse ― injected his subjective view into the heart of the story. Now, in another, even more severe moment of fake news, propaganda and polarization, Hunter’s story helps explore how we got here, and how to keep fighting.
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The world premiere reading of Roger Allers & Genaro Pereira’s The Grasshopper will take place Sat. Oct. 7 at 1 PM at Venice’s Pacific Resident Theatre, directed by Allers. 
: 212-739-7875.
Tomasina Abate, Julia Black, Abby Carlson, Sarah Chaney, Ashley Faatoalia, Barrett Foa, Michael Thomas Grant, Doug Kreeger, Douglas Ladnier, Jonathan Ritter, and Jason Michael Snow.
Jean de la Fontaine, the brilliant writer of fables, has a gift is to see the animal beneath the “Mask of Respectability.” His bold criticism of tyrants pits him against Louis XIV, and so the King does everything in his power to suppress him. In spite of this, his sharp wit makes him popular with the people. We witness his fables come to life on stage as characters transform into their true animal selves.
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Concert presentations of Josh Canfield’s Alive! will run Oct. 8-16 at Off-Broadway’s Theatre 555, directed by David Ruttura, with music direction by Matt Hinkley
Anthony Chatmon II, Robi Hager, Savy Jackson, Josh Lamon, Stephany Mora, Mary Page Nance, Nic Rouleau, Kyle Selig, and Lauren Zakrin.
Shelly Dinkley, a gutsy news reporter, believes zombies are terrorizing her small town. She witnesses her co-worker, Eve, attacked and surprisingly saved by a Zombie with a “heart.” As Eve discovers there’s more to this disenchanted walking cadaver than just his decaying limbs, sparks begin to fly between the pair. Joined by Shelly, they embark on a mystical journey to restore the flesh-eater’s humanity; all the while being hunted by a cluster of zany, brainless, kick-line loving zombies, led by the mysterious Big Z who has a secret score to settle with Eve.
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“Mean Girls,” the new film adaptation of the Broadway musical, with a new screenplay by Tina Fey, will be released in theaters Jan. 12, 2024.
Jaquel Spivey (Damian), Renée Rapp (Regina George), Auli’i Cravalho (Janice), Angourie Rice (Cady), Bebe Wood (Gretchen), Avantika (Karen), Christopher Briney (Aaron Samuels), Jon Hamm (Coach Carr), and Tina Fey (Ms. Norbury).
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Broadway Cares will host this year’s Broadway Flea Market And Grand Auction on Sun. Oct. 1 from 10 AM – 7 )M in NYC’s theatre district (West 44th & 45th Streets). 
Click here.
The Broadway Flea Market brings theatrical memorabilia from Broadway and Off-Broadway shows as well as treasures from theatre owners and producing organizations, unions, guilds, marketing groups, ticket agencies, concessionaires.
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Darren Criss in concert will take place Sun. Oct. 15 at 8 PM at the London Palladium.
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Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell & Gordon Farrell’s The Lifespan of a Fact, will run Oct. 4-21 (opening Oct. 7) at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre, directed by Simon Levy.
Ron Bottitta, Jonah Robinson, and Inger Tudor.
This fast-paced, funny, smart and timely play follows the conflict between an ambitious young fact-checker trying to make his mark and a prominent writer who has created a groundbreaking and poetic essay that may save a flailing magazine from collapse.
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The all-black Broadway revival of William F. Brown & Charlie Smalls’ The Wiz, with additional material by Amber Ruffin, will begin previews Mar. 29, 2024 and open Apr. 17 at the Marquis Theatre, directed by Shele Williams, with choreography by Jaquel Knight, and music supervision by Joseph Joubert. The production will include “Everybody Rejoice” (music and lyrics by Luther Vandross), as well as the “Emerald City Ballet,” with music by Timothy Graphenreed.
Nichelle Lewis (Dorothy), Deborah Cox (Glinda) and Melody A. Betts (Aunt Em/Evillene), Kyle Ramar Freeman (Lion), Phillip Johnson Richardson (Tinman), Avery Wilson (Scarecrow), and Wayne Brady (The Wiz), with Maya Bowles, Shayla Alayre Caldwell, Jay Copeland, Allyson Kaye Daniel, Judith Franklin, Michael Samarie George, Collin Heyward, Amber Jackson, Olivia Jackson, Christina Jones, Polanco Jones, Kolby Kindle, Mariah Lyttle, Kareem Marsh, Anthony Murphy, Cristina Rae, Matthew Sims Jr, Avilon Trust Tate, Keenan D. Washington, and Timothy Wilson.
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Video: “Enjoy the Show,” from the new musical Figaro, featuring Benjamin Pajak & Lily Bell Morgan.
The new musical has assembled a its cast of Broadway for its upcoming world premiere studio cast album. With music and lyrics by Ashley Jana and a book by Jana and Will Nunziata (who’s also directing), Figaro follows a young singer who runs away from home and joins a band of traveling vaudevillian performers and magicians. The full album will be released this fall, with the exact date to be announced.
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The world premiere of Ashley rose Wellman’s Kill Shelter has been extended through Oct. 14 at LA’s Theatre of NOTE, directed by Shaina Rosenthal.
(RED): Jack Clevenger, Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson, Ashley Romans, and Brandon Warfield. (BLUE): CJ Craig, Alex Hogy, Chloe Madriaga, and Nadia Marina.
A woman managing an “open admissions” animal shelter copes with her teenage daughter, who opposes the shelter’s practices. Things get messy when the daughter is suddenly pregnant and the mother begins a romance with a younger subordinate.
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David Byrne & Fatboy Slim’s Here Lies Love: A Homecoming Concert will take place Mon. Oct. 2, in support of The Hawai’i Coalition for Immigrant Rights, at 9:30 PM at Off-Broadway’s Joe’s Pub, directed by Alex Timbers, with music direction by J. Oconer Navarro.
Arielle Jacobs (Imelda Marcos), Jose Llana (Ferdinand Marcos), Conrad Ricamora (Ninoy Aquino), Vina Morales, Reanne Acasio, Roy Flores, Nathan Angelo, Aaron Albano, Diane Phelan, Albert Guerzon, Lora Nicolas Olaes, Don Michael H. Mendoza, Ashitaka Porter, Christiana Meeks, Romeo Torres, Rob Chen, and Fran Mae, with Melody Butiu, Jaygee Macapugay, Julia Abueva, Aaron Alcaraz, Kristina Doucette, Jeigh Madjus, Geena Quintos, Shea Renne, and Angelo Soriano, with Moses Villarama, Jasmine Forsberg, Reanne Acasio, Renée Albulario, Carol Angeli, Nathan Angelo, Roy Flores, Timothy Matthew Flores, Sarah Kay, and Aaron “AJ” Mercado.