Today’s Highlights:
Good, by C.P. Taylor, directed by Dominic Cooke, starring David Tennant, opens live at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre.
Two Sisters and a Piano virtual production, written & directed by Nilo Cruz, featuring Jimmy Smits, Florencia Lozano, Gary Perez, and Daphne Rubin-Vega, begins streaming on demand at New Normal Rep.
The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!), by Eric Rockwell & Joanne Bogart, directed by Tom D’Angora & Michael D’Angora, with appearances by Betty Buckley, Matthew Broderick, André De Shields, Jane Krakowski, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Mandy Patinkin, Chita Rivera, Lillias White, Mercedes Ruehl, Lewis Black, Richard Kind, Jose Llana, Isaac Mizrahi, Lesli Margherita, Debra Messing, Andrea McArdle, Brad Oscar, Ethan Slater, Giancarlo Esposito, Martha Plimpton, Randy Rainbow, Soara-Joye Ross, Christy Altomare, Colleen Ballinger, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Kelvin Moon Loh, Telly Leung, Christine Pedi, Jelani Remy, Jackie Sanders, Michael West, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, concludes FREE streaming at Off-Broadway’s York Theatre.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “When one plays comedy, straight drama, or tragedy, it is indispensable that the character should always be sincere. It is not indispensable that the actor who is playing the character should be so.” ~ Jean-Louis Barrault
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Video: Stars in the House, celebrating My First Time: Broadway Debuts, with guest host Charl Brown, and special guests Stark Sands, Krystal Joy Brown and Pearl Sun. (1:04:47)
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The Car Man (continues through Apr. 23), filmed in 2015 at London’s Sadler’s Wells, offering Matthew Bourne’s dance adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen. Click here.
Smokefall (continues through Apr. 25), by Noah Hadle, filmed in 2013 at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. Click here.
A Picture of Autumn (continues through June 13), by N.C. Hunter, filmed in 2013 at Off-Broadway’s Mint Theatre. Click here.
Yours Unfaithfully (continues through May 16), by Miles Malleson, filmed at Off-Broadway’s Mint Theatre in 2017, starring Max von Essen. Click here.
Weightless (continues through May 30), filmed in 2021 at CA’s Bruns Ampitheatre, by The Kilbanes, directed by Tamilla Woodard. Click here.
My Beautiful Launderette (continues until the Curve opens), filmed in 2019 at Leicester’s Curve Theatre, starring Jonny Fines. Click here.
Until the Flood (through Fall 2023), written & performed by Dael Orlandersmith, filmed in 2018 at Off-Broadway’s Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Click here.
King Lear (Apr. 22-24), from the 2014 production the Stratford Festival, starring Colm Feore. Click here.
The Royale (Apr. 22 – May 16), from the 2016 Lincoln Center Theatre production, directed by Rachel Chavkin, featuring McKinley Belcher III, Khris Davis, Montego Glover, John Lavelle, and Clarke Peters. Click here.
Romeo and Juliet (Apr. 23 on PBS), film in late 2020 at London’s National Theatre, offering Emily Burn’s 90-minute adaptation of the play, directed by Simon Godwin, starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. Click here.
Measure for Measure (Apr. 26 – May 9), filmed in 2013 at Chicago’ Goodman Theatre. Click here.
Uncle Vanya (May 7 on PBS), filmed in 2020 at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre, adapted by Conor McPherson, directed by Ian Rickson, and featuring Toby Jones, Richard Armitage, Roger Allam, Aimee Lou Wood, and Rosalind Eleazar. Click here.
The Fatal Weakness (May 17 – June 27), filmed in 2014 at Off-Broadway’s Mint Theatre, by George Kelly. Click here.
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Beverly Hills’ The Wallis will present the virtual return of The Sorting Room Sessions nightclub series, all at 7 PM PT and all available for 24 hours.
Chester Gregory: Celebrating The Motown Era (Apr. 30)
MusiKaravan: A Classical Road Trip with Delirium Musicum (May 7)
Celebrating 25 Years: The Tierney Sutton Band Jazz Americana (May 14)
For The Record: The Brat Pack Reunion (May 21).
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Six Broadway and TV celebrities have raised $1,919,254 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ annual National Grants Program as part of the inaugural Red Bucket Match-Up campaign. As previously announced, the virtual fundraiser replaced the annual spring collection at theatres across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Competing to raise money were Jason Alexander, Kathryn Gallagher, Aaron Tveit, Eric McCormack, Jordan Fisher, and Jenna Ushkowitz. Each of the stars used their social media channels to ask for contributions to their virtual red buckets
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Nick Payne’s Constellations will run June 18 – Sept. 12 at the Vaudeville Theatre, directed by Michael Longhurst.
The production will feature 4 different casts:
June 18 – Aug. 1: Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah
June 23 – July 24: Peter Capaldi and Zoë Wanamaker
July 30 – Sept. 11: Omari Douglas and Russell Tovey
Aug. 6 – Sept. 12: Anna Maxwell and Chris O’Dowd.
A quantum physicist and a beekeeper meet at a barbeque. They hit it off, or perhaps they don’t. They go home together, or maybe they go their separate ways. In the multiverse, with every possible future ahead of them, a love of honey could make all the difference.
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(Off-Broadway’s Amas Musical Theatre presents Amas You Love, to stream Mon. May 10 at 7 PM ET, written by Jonathan Cerullo, directed by Maria Torres, with music direction by Jaime Lozado, and hosted by Justina Machado.
Lillias White
to Rosetta LeNoire
from Amas musicals:
Four Guys Named Jose, by David Coffman & Delores Prida, Danny Burgos, Mauricio Martinez, Vincent Ortega, and Eliseo Roman.
We Are All Flowers In His Garden, conceived by Maria Torres, composed & written by Rona Sddiqui, featuring Alexis Aguilar, Dormesha, Tina Fabrique, and Jason Samuels Smith.
Distant Thunder, by Chris Wiseman, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, and Lynne Talor-Corbet, featuring Shaun Taylor-Corbett and Marisa Quinn.
MĀYĀ, by Cheeyang Ng & Eric Sorrels, featuring Amishi Bhandari, Hana Bookman, Kimberly Chatergee, Meetu Chilana, Catherine Gloria, Jamen Nanthakumar, Cheeyang Ng, Akash Seeramreddi, Vishal Vaidya, and Kuhoo Verma.
Hip Hop Cinderella, by Scott Elmegreen, Rona Siddiqui, David Coffman, and Linda Chichester, featuring Alexis Aguilar, Cassandra Barckett, Jamiel Tako L. Burkhart, Brian Criado, Emily Lang, and Lexi Piton.
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“Broadway Goes to War: American Theater during World War II,” by Robert L. McLaughlin and Sally E. Parry has been released in Hardcover and Kindle here.
The American theater was not ignorant of the developments brought on by World War II, and actively addressed and debated timely, controversial topics for the duration of the war, including neutrality and isolationism, racism and genocide, and heroism and battle fatigue. Productions such as Watch on the Rhine (1941), The Moon is Down (1942), Tomorrow the World (1943), and A Bell for Adano (1944) encouraged public discussion of the war’s impact on daily life and raised critical questions about the conflict well before other forms of popular media.
American drama of the 1940s is frequently overlooked, but the plays performed during this eventful decade provide a picture of the rich and complex experience of living in the United States during the war years. McLaughlin and Parry’s work fills a significant gap in the history of theater and popular culture, showing that American society was more divided and less idealistic than the received histories of the WWII home front and the entertainment industry recognize.
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Broadway at the Drive-In presents The Blues Brothers, which will open Thurs. May 27 at 8 PM ET, and then run Saturday nights at 8 PM ET through June 26 at Queen’s NY’s Radial Park, directed by Kristine Bendul & Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva.
Charity Angel Dawson (Mrs. Murphy), Nick Rashad Burroughs (Reverend Cleophus James), F. Michael Haynie (Elwood Blues), Brian Charles Johnson (“Joliet” Jake Blues), Antoine L. Smith (Ray), Ladonna Burns (blues Sista), and Anne Fraser (Blues Sista).
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Rejected Broadway Posters for sale, in support of BC/EFA.
“It’s exciting for me because it’s work that I particularly loved that I didn’t think anyone was ever going to see,” said Verlizzo. “So it’s kind of wonderful that they’re now out in the world, for better or for worse. There are a million reasons why a poster gets rejected for a show. It’s a room full of people. It’s like one big beauty contest. Everybody has their favorites.
Click here to view and purchase the available posters.
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RIP: Anthony Powell, the costume designer responsible for dressing Broadway’s famed Norma Desmond (for the stage adaptation of Sunset Boulevard), has died at the age of 85.
A graduate of London’s Central School of Art and Design, Mr. Powell received a Tony Award for Best Costume Design for his Broadway debut with The School for Scandal in 1963. He was also nominated for Best Scenic Design for that same production.
Mr. Powell’s first Hollywood feature came in 1969 with “The Royal Hunt” for the Sun, a movie adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s historical drama pitting Spanish conquistadors against Peruvian Incans. He won his first Academy Award for 1972’s “Travels With My Aunt “starring Maggie Smith. Two more Oscars followed, one in 1978 for “Death on the Nile” and again in 1979 for “Tess.”
He returned to Broadway in 1975 with the scenic design for Private Lives, starring Smith, and again in 1990 to design Smith’s costumes for Lettice and Lovage. His 1994 costume design for Sunset Boulevard, and the turban now synonymous with Norma Desmond, garnered another Tony nomination. He would go on to design the 2017 Broadway revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as well.
Mr. Powell received the Costume Designers Guild’s Career Achievement Award in 2000 for film and the TDF/Irene Sharaff Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 for theatre.
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& Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling & Friends will debut on Fri. May 7 and run weekly at NYC’s DiMenna Center, with Sperling in conversation & song with special guests.
Betsy Wolfe (May 7 at 8 PM ET & May 8 at 2 PM ET)
Jose Llana (May 14 at 8 PM ET & May 15 at 2 PM ET)
Elizabeth Stanley (May 21 at 8 PM ET & May 22 at 2 PM ET)
Jason Danieley (May 28 at 8 PM ET & May 29 at 2 PM ET)
Victoria Clark (June 4 at 8 PM ET & June 5 at 2 PM ET)
Meghan Picerno & John Riddle (June 11 at 8 PM ET & June 12 at 2 PM ET)
Each concert will feature stories unique to the artists, along with will fan favorite songs the artists have performed in shows, and new tunes they have never performed before live. The repertoire will be equally varied, spanning Broadway’s ‘Golden Age’ musicals, to modern-day compositions, to movie musical favorites.