Today’s Highlights:
Goddess, world premiere by Saheem Ali, Michael Thurber & Jocelyn Bioh, directed by Saheem Ali, featuring Abena (Rashida), Melessie Clark (Mosi-Grio Trio), Rodrick Covington (Ahmed), Zachary Downer (Sameer), Amber Iman (Nadira), Grasan Kingsberry (Jaali), Kindsley Leggs (Hassan), Kecia Lewis (Siti), Isio-Maya Nuwere (Safiyah), Aaron Patterson (Yusef), Destinee Rea (Che Che), Phillip Johnson Richardson (Omari), Awa Sal Secka (Sawadi), Lawrence Stallings (Madongo), Teshomech (Tisa), Quiantae Thomas (Amina), Wade Watson (Musa), and Reggie D. White (Balozi), opens at CA’s Berkeley Rep.
Outdoor Summer Concert Series, with a different performer each night, opens at Burbank’s Garry Marshall Theatre.
Los Otros, by Ellen Fitzhugh & Michael John LaChiusa, directed by Noah Himmelstein, featuring Luba Mason and Caesar Samayoa, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s A.R.T/New York Theatres.
Valley Song, by Athol Fugard, directed by caryn desai, featuring Michael A. Shepperd and Belle Guillory, begins previews at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
“Facing the Music: A Broadway Memoir” reading & interview with author David Loud and special guest Debra Monk, at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Barnes & Noble (Union Square, 22 East 17th Street).
Pompeii Rising concert (in person & livestreamed), by Henco Espag, Andi Lee Carter, and Briana Harris, featuring Heath Saunders, Kristyn Michele, Erin McMillen, Elisabeth Zimmerman, Elisa Galindez, David Marmanillo, Ernie Bird, Ellis Gage, and Kaila Wooten, at 7:30 PM ET at NYC’s Judson Memorial Church.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “I’m a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I’ve any talent is beside the point.” ~ Michael Caine
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Aug. 21.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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Winnie the Pool: the New Musical Adaptation will open in Spring 2023.
Theatre, dates, casting, and additional information TBA.
The family-friendly show brings together Pooh, Christopher Robin, and their best friends Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, and Owl (and Tigger, too!).
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Amas Musical Theatre Lab presents staged readings of Tegan summer & Gregory Nabours’ Mozart: Her Story – The New Musical will take place Aug. 29 (2 PM ET) and Aug. 30 (1 PM ET) at NYC’s Open Jar Studios, directed by Kelly Devine, with music direction by Nabours. 
For reservations and inquiries, email RSVP@ShowTown.nyc
Kennedy Caughell, Justin Matthew Sargent, Robert Cuccioli, Angel Reda, Lana Gordon, John Cariani, Jonathan Mousset, Jelani Remy, and N’Kenge, with Bethany Ann Tesarck, Corey Mach, Grace Field, Ambrose Martos, Ashley Fuller, Bethaney Wellings-Davies, Jessica Jaunich, and Tess Primack.
Wolfgang’s sister, Nan Mozart, is a brilliant composer who struggles to be seen and heard in the male-dominated 18th century court. When the young virtuosa, who is arguably more talented than her brother, is silences and banned from all artistic endeavors, she rebels. In this untold story, two estranged siblings embark on a journey of love, hate, tragedy, and redemption.
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You’ll Be Swell! You’ll Be Great! The Fine Art of Performance has been extended through Oct. 31 at NYC’s Helicline Fine Art (call 212-204-8833 for details).
In addition, more than 3 dozen works of art depicting theatre, film, dance, music, and circus will be available for sale here and here.
In person viewings can be arranged at the midtown Manhattan gallery (call 212-204-8833).
Featured works (created between the 1920s – 1990s) include paintings, costume and set design drawings, illustrations, photographs, and more, from iconic Broadway shows and films, which include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Follies, The King & I, On The Town, Bye Bye Birdie, Day and Night, The Defiant Ones, I Could Go On Singing… in addition to portraits of Josephine Baker and Carmen Miranda, as well as works depicting dancers, film sets, performers, playwrights, audiences, backstage, Times Square, and more.
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Maestro of the Movies: Celebrating John Williams at 90 will run Sept. 2-4 at the Hollywood Bowl.
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Robert Anderson’s I Never Sang For My Father will run Sept. 16 – Oct. 23 at Studio City’s Two Roads Theatre, directed by Doug Kaback.
Shayne Anderson, Dana Kelly Jr., Becky Bonar, Mary Carrig, Cheyann Dillon, and Paul Buxton.
An American classic that exposes the painful truths of the relationship between a gentle mother, a dutiful son, an alienated daughter, and their harsh, detached father. Family dynamics unravel as they are forced to face the past and present.
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Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theater has announced details for its 2022-23 season:
The Capulets and the Montagues online reading (Sept. 12), by Lope De Vega, in a new rhyming verse translation by Dakin Matthews. Lope takes the audience on a different and altogether delightful journey in his tragicomic telling of the classic tale. Dakin Matthew’s rhyming verse translation brings the Spanish classic back to sparkling life on stage – and, in this case, online.
Shylock podversation, with F. Murray Abraham (Oct. 3 – FREE online). A conversation focused on Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. Host Nathan Winkelstein will take your questions, too!
The Relapse reading (Oct. 24, in-person & online), by John Vanbrugh, directed by Marc Vietor, featuring Chauncy Thomas, Michael Urie, and more TBA. A riotous Restoration comedy. A reformed rake succumbs to temptation with a new love affair while his wife is subjected to a determined seduction attempt. Meanwhile, the fabulous Lord Foppington flamboyantly flirts about the town before leaving to marry a country wife – but his rakish brother is determined to get there first.
The Duchess of Malfi reading in -person & online (Nov. 14). Additional information TBA.
Bottom’s Dream podversation (Nov. 21 – online only – FREE)
Your Own Thing benefit performance (Dec. 12 at Symphony Space), by Hal Lester, Danny Apolinar & Donald Driver, newly adapted by Driver. In the late 1960s, a raging storm shipwrecks a young music duo, twins Viola and Sebastian. The pair end up in the land of Illyria, which looks very much like New York city, and the rest is Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night– well, kind of.
Arden of Faversham (opens Mar. 20, 2023 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre), newly adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher & Kathyn Walat. directed by Jesse Berger. The story of the real life murder of Thomas Arden at the hands of his wife, Alice Arden.
The Knight of the Burning Pestle (opens May 1, 2023). A co-production with Fiasco Theatre. The comedy parodies English Theatre, following a band of actors readying to perform their production of The London Merchant when an unexpected interruption forces them to invent a new story on the spot.
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John Cariani’s Almost Maine will run Sept. 7-25 (opening Sept. 10) at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre, directed by Stephanie A. Coltrin.
Leah Dalrymple, Tara Donovan, Joseph Fuqua, Brendan Kane, Katie Pelensky, and Patrick Vest.
Welcome to Almost, Maine, a place so far north, it’s barely in the United Stages. Where the residents are so disorganized, it’s not quite a town. On once cold clear winter’s night, as the Northern Lights float magically in a star-filled sky, the inhabitants of Almost find themselves falling in and out of live in unexpected and hilarious ways.
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IAMA Theatre Company has announced its New Works Festival, offering readings of 6 new plays, to run Sept. 16-25 (all at 8 PM PT) at LA’s Atwater Village Theatre.
Fri. Sept. 16: First Comes The Egg, by Taryn Fixel, directed by Kailey Westbrook Smith. On the precipice of motherhood, Marlie must navigate personal and professional boundaries in the high stakes world of venture capitalism and innovation when an old friend reappears with a life changing offer. How much of herself is she truly willing to risk?
Sat. Sept. 17: Help, by Adriana Santos, directed by Celia Mandela Rivera. A family-run funeral home in Queens comes under threat from an incoming snow storm, forcing twin sisters, their father and a guest to come face to face with what’s been haunting them — along with several other quirky undead.
Sun. Sept. 18: Oladele or The Forgotten Song, by Kacie Rogers, directed by Nell Teare. An oral history. A folktale. A love story. An epic poem marking the love, loss, and evolution of the man we’ve come to know as Othello.
Fri. Sept. 23: Alien of Extraordinary Ability, by Rotana Tarabzouni, directed by Ahailon Levingston. A concert memoir of the playwright’s pilgrimage to self: a blend of original music and spoken word that takes the audience on the journey of self realization in the face of Saudi tradition, God, family, friendships and The Erotic.
Sat. Sept. 24: Cannabis Passover, by Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, directed by Stefanie Black. A family gathers for their annual Passover seder in a rented house on a remote beach — this time with a new guest. As they perform the rituals, joke, provoke, argue and imbibe, the lines between comic and tragic, sacred and mundane, ancient and everyday start to blur.
Sun. Sept. 25: Arrowhead, by Catya McMullen, directed by Jenna Worsham. A funny, weird, biting but loving examination of what happens when what you want sexually conflicts with your queerness and feminism – and your marriage vows.
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Niki Haris + Donna De Lory: Songs and Stories will take place Sun. Oct. 16 at 7:30 PM PT at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.
An evening of nostalgia in which the duo share the soundtrack of their lives.