Today’s Highlights:
Hershey Felder: Rachmaninoff and The Tsar, world premiere by Hershey Felder & Jonathan Silvestri, featuring Felder (Sergei Rachmaninoff) and Jonathan Silvestri (Tsar Nicholas II), opens at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Aug.4.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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Liza Minnelli is at work on her memoirs, which will be published by Grand Central Publishing in spring 2026 in hardcover print, e-book, and audio editions.
Also contributing to the project are Heidi Evans, a Pulitzer Prize and two-time George Polk Award winner; Josh Getlin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times correspondent and New York Bureau Chief; and Minnelli’s longtime friend, Grammy-nominated recording artist Michael Feinstein.
The memoir will be a candid review of Minnelli’s life, both professionally and personally, from her childhood in the spotlight as the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli to her breakout successes in Cabaret and Liza With a Z, and through her marriages and struggles with substance abuse.
The audio edition will include bonus content with never-released autobiographical recordings and musings that Minnelli and Feinstein have been working on for 15 years.
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Jez Butterworth’s The Hills of California will run Sept. 11 – Oct. 20 (opening Sept. 29) at the Broadhurst Theatre, directed by Sam Mendes.
Laura Donnelly (Joan/Veronica), Leanne Best (Gloria), Ophelia Lovibond (Ruby), Helena Wilson (Jill,) Nancy Allsop (Young Gloria), Sophia Ally (Young Ruby), Lara McDonnell (Young Joan), and Nicola Turner (Young Jill), with Bryan Dick, Richard Short, David Wilson Barnes, Richard Lumsden, Ta’Rea Campbell, Sawyer Barth, Ellyn Heald, Cameron Scoggins, and Max Roll, with Erin Rose Doyle, Sadie Veach, Liz Pearce, Jessica Baglow, Liam Bixby, and Q. Smith.
Set in a swelteringly hot 1970s summer, the piece sees the Webb sisters returning to their childhood home in the English seaside town of Blackpool. One sister hasn’t been heard from in two decades, but her siblings hope that with their mother close to death upstairs that she might reappear.
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Songbook Sundays: Nothin’ But Duke Ellington, hosted by Deborah Grace Winer, continues with Nothin’ But Duke Ellington on Sun. Aug. 18 at 5 & 7:30 PM at Jazz at Lincoln Center, with music direction by Richard Cummings.
Aisha de Haas, Darius de Haas, and Anaïs Reno
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Young Frankenstein, directed & choreographed by Gerry McIntyre, has been extended through Sept. 21 at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre.
Sean Bell (The Monster), Aaron Choi (Hermit), Veanne Cox (Frau Blücher), Matthew Hydzik (Dr. Frederick Frankenstein), James Romney (Igor), Kyla Stone (Inga, and Aléna Watters (Elizabeth Benning), with Savannah Cooper, Bradley William Gibbins, Brady Miller, Linda Neel, Christina Emily Jackson, and Cullen J. Zeno.
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Video: Stephanie J. Block performs “So In Love” from Kiss Me, Kate.
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Pedro Antonio Garcia’s The Witness Room will run Sept. 16 – Oct. 6 (opening Sept. 21) at the AMT Theater, directed by Will Blum.
Dave Baez, Moe Irvin, JD Mollison, Tricia Small, and Jason SweetTooth Williams.
This life and death drama detonates within the confines of a witness room in Manhattan Criminal Court as four hardened New York City police officers, led by a calculating district attorney, battle each other over charges of corruption, racism, morality, loyalties, and the blue wall of silence.
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Steve Ross: I Remember Him Well – The Songs of Alan J. Lerner will take place Mon. Aug. 19 at 7 PM at NYC’s Birdland.
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David Henry Hwang, Bear McCreary & Zoe Sarnak’s Particle Fever is currently in development, and will be directed by Leigh Silverman. Click here for additional information.
Based on the 2013 documentary film about the largest scientific experiment ever undertaken, Particle Fever follows the elite team of characters, er, scientists who discovered “The God Particle” and forever altered mankind’s understanding of its own existence in the process. This breathlessly triumphant and deeply human new musical features an instantly memorable new score brimming with heart, humor, and hope. An exploration of the very nature of exploration itself, Particle Fever proves that even the very best theories are often no match for reality.
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Nancy Harris’ The Beacon will run Sept. 11 – Nov. 3 (opening Sept. 22) at Irish Rep, directed by Marc Atkinson Borrull.
Kate Mulgrew, Zach Appelman, Sean Bell, David Mattar Merten, and Ayana Workman.
Beiv, a renowned artist, has left her suburban Dublin home for a cottage off the coast of West Cork, Ireland. Her relative peace is disrupted when her estranged son, Colm, returns home with his new wife, searching for answers about his father’s mysterious death.
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Mike Teverbaugh’s The Mostly True Story of a common Scold will run Sept. 8 – Oct. 13 at the Promenade Playhouse Stage (link TBA), directed by Natalia Lazarus.
TBA
Anne Royall, America’s first female journalist, alarmed by speeches from evangelical leaders declaring their intent to reshape America into a Christian nation, starts printing a newspaper from her Washington, D.C. kitchen to sound the alarm. She nearly pays with her life.
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The world premiere of Marla Mindelle, Jonathan Parks-Ramage & Philip Drennen’s The Big Gay Jamboree will begin previews Sept. 14 and open Oct. 1 at the Orpheum Theatre, directed & choreographed by Connor Gallagher.
Marla Mindelle, Alex Moffat, Paris Nix , Constantine Rousouli, and Natalie Walker, with Jaden Dominique, Brad Greer, Jeremiah Ginn, Amanda Lee, Jillian Mueller, Olivia Puckett, Melvin Tunstall, Clyde Voce, Cortney Wolfson, and John Yi.
Stacey, who after blacking out from 18 Jägerbombs, wakes up hungover in the most terrifying place of all: an Off-Broadway musical. With no memory of how she got there, Stacey is forced to put her BFA in theater to use, belt her face off, and figure out how the hell she’s gonna escape this 1940’s golden age musical…while a live audience watches.
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The Broadway production of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club has announced upcoming cast changes at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre:
Calvin Leon Smith (Clifford Bradshaw) begins Sept. 16
Adam Lambert (Emcee) begins Sept. 16
Auli’i Cravalho (Sally Bowles) begins Sept. 16
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The world premiere of Mary Leeholland’s Are You Listening will run Aug. 9-25 at Hollywood’s Actors Co-op, directed by Chloe Babbes & Mary Leeholland.
Mary Leeholland, Daniel Kim, Freedom, Toni Deaver, Randahl Brisco, Jonas Grosserhode, Jessica Woehler, and Michael T. Kachingwe.
Follow Ruth, a determined aspiring actress from small-town Mississippi, as she faces the challenges of loneliness, failed relationships, and identity crisis while pursuing success in Los Angeles, finding solace and guidance through prayers whispered from her small apartment window.
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Steve Ross: I Remember Him Well – The Songs of Alan J. Lerner will take place Mon. Aug. 19 at 7 PM at NYC’s Birdland, with special guest Maria Lane.
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Gingold Theatrical Group will present Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple Oct. 15 – Nov. 23 at Theatre Row, adapted & directed by David Staller.
TBA.
This highly-charged adaptation will be entertaining our community just in time for our Presidential elections. The play reminds us of the epic need for us all to embrace our responsibility to keep Democracy alive and well. Although Shaw wrote the play as a thinly veiled call for a Free Ireland, which accounts for it being banned in Britain for years, it features a colourful group of characters doing everything they can to stand up for what they truly believe. Also, as with all of Shaw’s plays, it offers us a reminder of how important it is to challenge everything, to live the person you want to be as fully as you can, and to always be an active and engaged contributive member of our community.
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Gingold Theatrical Group‘s Golden Shanrock Gala will take place Mon. Sept. 23 at 6 PM at NYC’s Robert Restaurant (2 Columbus Circle).
Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty
TBA.