Today’s Highlights:
* Theatre for One: Here We Are series, which brings together one performer and one audience member online for a microplay, featuring playwrights/directors/actors Candis C. Jones, Carmelita Tropicana, DeLanna Studi, Eisa Davis, Jaclyn Backhaus, Lydia R. Diamond, Lynn Nottage, Mahira Kakkar, Nikkole Salter, Patrice Bell, Rebecca Martinez, Regina Taylor, Russell G. Jones, Shyla Lefner, Stacey Rose, Tamilla Woodard, Taylor Reynolds, Tiffany Nichole Greene, and Zuleyma Guevara, begins streaming (and continues every Thursday through Sept. 24) here.
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Video: “Stars in the House,” with a reunion of Carnegie Mellon graduates, featuring Michael McElroy, Billy Porter, Jack Plotnick, and Ty Taylor (1:14:42)
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Video: “Stars in the House,” a Gen Z Broadway special, with special guests Celia Rose Gooding, Joshua Colley, Lilla Crawford, Gaten Matarazzo, and Presley Ryan. (1:04:56)
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MA’s Barrington Stage Company presents a benefit Zoom reading of Rob Ulin’s Judgement Day, in support of The Actors Fund, will take place Aug. 22-26 here, directed by Matthew Penn.
Jason Alexander (Sammy), Patti LuPone (The Angel), Santino Fontana (Father Michael), Justina Machado (Tracy), Michael McKean (Monsignor), Loretta Devine (Della), Michael Mastro (Jackson), Julian Emile Lerner (Casper), Bianca LaVerne Jones, and Elizabeth Stanley (Chandra).
In this irreverent comedy, Sammy Campo, a deeply corrupt, morally bankrupt lawyer, has a near-death experience in which he encounters a terrifying angel who threatens him with eternal damnation. In a desperate attempt to redeem himself, Sammy teams with a Catholic priest, who is having his own crisis of faith as he struggles against Church authority. Together, Sammy and the priest debate the timeless questions of Western philosophy — morality, faith, and human nature — as they form an unlikely bond.
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Amazon’s new series, “The Wheel of Time,” will be released on a date TBA.
Sophie Okonedo, Rosamund Pike (Moiraine), Kate Fleetwood, Kae Alexander, Peter Franzen, Clare Perkins.
The series is set in a world where only certain women are allowed to access magic.
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Video: “Broadway Q&A,” with special guest Joe Iconis discussing how to create a viral musical. (1:04:25)
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Final episodes of the digital murder mystery musical series “A Killer Party,” by Jason Howland, Nathan Tysen & Kait Kerrigan, are now available to stream here.
Michael James Scott, Jessica Keenan-Wynn, Alex Newell, Krystina Alabado, Jeremy Jordan, Carolee Carmello, Laura Osnes, Drew Gehling, Miguel Cervantes, Jarrod Spector, and Jackie Burns.
The series follow a theatre company ensemble as they try to deduce who killed their artistic director during a dinner gathering.
The cast album will be released Aug. 21 (link TBA)
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Video: Oasis:A Virtual Variety Show, in support of the Ali Forney Center, featuring Jeremy Pope, Lena Dunham, Dove Cameron, Cindy Crawford, Michelle Visage, Brandon Flynn, Miss Jay Alexander, Kaia Gerber, Marc Jacobs, Margaret Cho, Keala Settle, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Hari Nef, Renée Taylor, Cindy Williams, Bruce Villanch, Crystal Methyd, Lena Hall, Jinkx Monsoon, Ginger Minj, Latrice Royale, Jackie Cox, Vanessa “Vanjie” Mateo, Nina West, Benny Drama, Bowen Yang, Judy Gold, Jeremy O. Harris, Janaya Future Khan, Nick Adams, Joel Kim Booster, Geoffrey Mac, Tyler Neasloney, Jake Dupree and many more. (2:06:14)
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Complete casting has been announced for Women in Theatre: A Centennial Celebration, to take place Wed. Aug. 26 at 8 PM here (and will be available through Aug. 30 at 8 PM ET), directed by Melissa Crespo, with music direction by Victoria Theodore, and hosted by Heidi Schreck & Rebecca Naomi Jones.
Lynn Ahrens, Roxanna Barrios, Jocelyn Bioh, Jhanae Bonnick, Maybe Burke, Linda Cho, Eisa Davis, Kelly Devine, Sue Frost, Natalie Gershtein, Lauren M. Gunderson, Winnie Holzman, Toni-Leslie James, Hansol Jung, Natasha Katz, Jenny Koons, Lorin Latarro, Mimi Lien, JJ Maley, Beth Malone, Rebecca Martinez, Lisa McNulty, Anaïs Mitchell, Dominique Morisseau, Mayte Natalio, Jessica Paz, Ming Peiffer, Lauren Ridloff, Nicolette Robinson, Sarah Ruhl, Madeline Sayet, Leigh Silverman, Madeline Smith, Susan Stroman, Shaina Taub, Jillian Walker, Whitney White, Tamilla Woodard, and Jeanette Yew.
Jessie Mueller, Nikki M. James, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Lynn Nottage, Paula Vogel, Ari Afsar, Jacqueline B. Arnold, Shoshana Bean, Mackenzie Bell, Heather Christian, Kaleigh Cronin, Charlotte d’Amboise, Dayna Dantzler, Kaitlyn Davidson, Treshelle Edmond, Judith Franklin, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Morgan Siobhan Green, Ari Groover, Crystal Monee Hall, Ann Harada, Afra Hines, Kendyl Ito, Brittney Johnson, L Morgan Lee, Beth Malone, J. Elaine Marcos, Bianca Marroquín, Erin McKeown, Charlotte Odusanya, Veronica Otim, Ashley Park, Solea Pfeiffer, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jessica Rush, Christina Acosta Robinson, Sharone Sayegh, Saycon Sengbloh, Kim Steele, Shayna Steele, Alysha Umphress, and Kuhoo Verma.
The evening celebrates the women, non-binary, and gender-non-conforming artists and their milestone contributions to the theatre over the past 100 years—as well as Broadway-bound musicals from new voices.
The benefit performance raises money for a brand new initiative of Broadway Advocacy Coalition called the BAC Artivism Fellowship, focused on empowering artist-activists. The inaugural class of fellows will specifically support Black cis and trans women artist activists focused on issues related to systemic racism and criminal justice reform. The digital presentation is made possible in part by the Library of Congress.
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The remake of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” will be released in movie theatres on Oct. 23, directed by Kenneth Branagh.
Kenneth Branagh (Detective Hercule Poirot), Sophie Okonedo, Annette Bening, Tom Bateman, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, and Letitia Wright.
Video: Trailer
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Chicago’s Goodman Theatre has announced its 2021 season (dates TBA):
* the ripple, the wave that carried me home, by Christina Anderson, director TBA. Janice’s parents are prominent activists fighting for the integration of public swimming pools in 1960s Kansas. As injustice penetrates the warm bubble her childhood, Janice grows apart from her family and starts a new life far away. When she receives a call asking her to speak at a ceremony honoring her father, she must decide whether she’s ready to reckon with her political inheritance and a past she has tried to forget.
* School Girls; Or The African Mean Girls Play, directed by Lili-Anne Brown.
* A Paris Love Story, written & performed by Hershey Felder, directed by Trevor Hay, with the music of Claude DeBussy.
* American Mariachi, by José Cruz González, directed by Henry Godinez.
Familia, amor and tradiciόn are at the heart of this hilarious and heartwarming new comedy about the freedom to dream big. Lucha spends her days caring for her ailing mother, but longs to shake up her 1970s home life. When a forgotten record album sparks her mother’s memory, Lucha and her cousin strike upon a radical idea: to create an all-female mariachi band.
* The Outsiders, by Adam Rapp, Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance), and Justin Levine, directed by Leisl Tommy, with choreography by Lorin Latarro.
The story that defined a generation is reimagined in a groundbreaking musical for a new generation. In 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma, the hardened hearts, aching souls and romantic dreams of Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade and their band of greasers take center stage in a fight for purpose and a quest for survival.
* Fannie, a world permiere by Cheryl L. West, directed by Henry Godinez, starring E. Faye Butler. How ‘woke to the vote’ are we in 2020? This electrifying, immersive call to action is inspired by the life of famed civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer—whose courage, humor and grit reminds us there’s courage in the face of fire, hope in tomorrow and that we all have a stake in our country.
* Good Night, Oscar, a world premiere by Doug Wright, directed by Leigh Silverman, starring Sean Hayes. It’s 1958, and Jack Paar hosts the hottest late-night talk-show on television. His favorite guest? Character actor, pianist and wild card Oscar Levant. Famous for his witty one-liners, Oscar has a favorite: “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity; I have erased this line.” Tonight, Oscar will prove just that when he appears live on national TV in an episode Paar’s audience—and the rest of America—won’t soon forget.
* The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, adapted & directed by Mary Zimmerman. Leonardo da Vinci strove to know the world equally through artistic and scientific means. There was no limit to his curiosity, nor to his tenacity in seeking answers. A poetic portrayal of one of history’s most imaginative minds.
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Video: In Conversation, hosted by Howard Ashman, with Alan Menken, Paige O’Hara, Jode Benson, Bill Lauch, and Sarah Gillespie. (1:00:56)
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Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theater present a reading of The Revenger’s Tragedy, adapted & directed by Jesse Berger, on Mon. Sept. 14 at 7:30 PM ET.
Cecil Baldwin, Jason C. Brown, Denis Butkus, Geraint Wyn Davies, Saudia Davis, Ryan Farley, Ryan Garbayo, Claire Lautier, Anthony Michael Martinez, Paul Niebanck, Howard Overshown, Petronia Paley, Naomi Peters, Matthew Rauch, Russell Salmon, Chauncy Thomas, Marc Vietor, and Yaegel Welch.
Part black comedy, part social satire, this gleefully macabre thriller also contains a searing examination of humankind’s social need for justice versus our animal desire for vengeance. Vindice, the “Revenger,” sets off a chain reaction of havoc in a corrupt and decadent Venice, which exposes outrageous indulgences and government hypocrisy, and ends in a massacre of epic Grand Guignol proportions.
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Additional casting has been announced for the “Dear Evan Hansen” film, No world yet on a release date.
Previously announced: Ben Platt (Evan Hansen), Amandla Stenberg (Alan Beck), Kaitlyn Dever (Zoe Murphy).
Newly announced: Coltan Ryan (Connor Murphy) and Nik Dodani (Jared Kleinman).
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After initially planning a theatrical release in the Fall, the Gloria Steinem biopic, “The Glorias,” will be released Sept. 30 on Amazon Prime. The piece was written by Sara Ruhl & Julie Taymor.
Julianne Moore (Gloria Steinem), Alicia Vikander (Gloria Steinem), Bette Midler (Bella Abzug), Janelle Monáe (Dorothy Pitman Hughes), Lorraine Toussaint (Flo Kennedy), Monica Sanchez (Dolores Huerta), and Kimberly Guerrero (Wilma Mankiller), with Lulu Wilson, Ryan Kiera Armstrong,
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Video: Trailer for HBO’s “Coastal Elites,” which will be released on Sept. 12, starring Bette Midler, Kaitlyn Dever, Dan Levy, Sarah Paulson, and Issa Rae.
A series of confessionals featuring an array of characters from New York to Los Angeles coping with politics and the pandemic.
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Wouldn’t this have been fabulous?
