Today’s Highlights:
MJ the Musical national tour, directed by Christopher Wheeldon, featuring Roman Banks (Michael Jackson), Jamaal Fields-Green (MJ Alternate), Brandon Lee Harris (Michael), Josiah Benson (Little Michael), Ethan Joseph (Little Michael), Devin Bowles (Joseph Jackson/Rob), Mary Kate Moore (Rachel, J. Daughtry (Berry Gordy/Nick), Josh A. Dawson (Tito Jackson/Quincy Jones), Jaylen Lyndon Hunter (Little Marlon), Matt Loehr (Dave), Da’Von Moody (Alejandro), and Anastasia Talley (Katherine Jackson/Kate), with JoJo Carmichael, Croix DiIenno, Kellie Drobnick, Kyle Dupree, Zuri Noelle Ford, Jahir L. Hipps, Bryson Jacobi Jackson, Rajané Katurah, Jordan Markus, Matteo Marretta, Janayé McAlpine, Jay McKenzie, Kendrick Mitchell, Chelsea Mitchell-Bonsu, Zion Pradier, Ayla Stackhouse, Brion Marquis Watson, Charles P. Way, and Malcolm Miles Young, opens at Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre.
Celebrity Autobiography reading, featuring Cecily Strong, Rachel Dratch, Jackie Hoffman, Mario Cantone, Tate Donovan, Alan Zweibel (9 PM only), and the show creators, Eugene Pack & Dayle Reyfel, at 7 & 9 PM at Off-Broadway’s Triad Theatre.
Allons Enfants! La Vie Est Belle! concert, featuring Steve Ross & Jean Brassard, with special guest Karen Akers, at 7 PM at NYC’s Pangea.
**********************
Broadway Grosses for the week ending Aug. 6. Click here for the complete analysis.
**********************
Complete casting has been announced for the world premiere of Pearl Cleage’s Something Moving: A Meditation on Maynard, to run Sept. 22 – Oct. 15 at DC’s Ford’s Theatre, directed by Seema Sueko.
Billie Krishawn (Witness,) Kim Bey (Citizen 1), Doug Brown (Citizen 3), Derek Garza (Citizen 9), Shubhangi Kuchibhotla (Citizen 8), Alina Collins Maldonado (Citizen 7), Susan Rome (Citizen 5), Shaquille Stewart (Citizen 4), Tom Story (Citizen 6), and Constance Swain (Citizen 2).
The story of Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr., and the impact his time in office had.
**********************
The New York Pops will present 21st Century Broadway concert on Fri. Oct. 27 at 8 PM at Carnegie Hall, directed & conducted bySteven Reineke.
Derek Klena, Ali Stroker, Hailey Kilgore and Javier Muñoz. Note: Jeremy Jordan and Elizabeth Stanley have bowed out due to scheduling conflicts.
**********************
J. Giachetti & Louis Josephson’s Relapse will run Sept. 2-23 at Theatre Row, directed & choreographed by Joey McNeely, with music direction by Jordon Cunningham.
Ashley Alexandra (Margo), Randall Scott Carpenter (Bryan), Mia Cherise Hall (Melinda), Troy Valjean Rucker (Dr. Carlisle), Jacob Ryan Smith (Adam), and Becca Suskauer (Kendra), with Vinny Celerio, Audrey Hedequist, Nicole Lamb, Zummy Mohammed, Danny Rabinowitz, and Isabel Rodriguez.
Guided by Dr. Carlisle and Nurse Margot, Relapse follows Adam, Bryan, Melinda, and Kendra through their individual journeys of mental health recovery, consumed by the personification of the voices in their head.
**********************
The Music Critic, written & conceived by Aleksey Igudesman, will play its NYC engagement Oct. 17-28 at the Beacon Theatre.
John Malkovich
Click here for the complete tour schedule.
Malkovich performs in this evening length show where he batters, insults, and laughs at the music of composers like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann and more whose works premiered to jeers and negative press for performers and composer alike.
**********************
The world premiere of Christina Masciotti’s No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh will run Sept. 6-23 (opening Sept. 10) at A.R.T./New York Theatres, directed by Rory McGregor.
Kellie Overbey, Carmen Zilles, and T. Ryder Smith, with Jeffrey Brabant, Annie Fang, and Megan Lomax.
Set in present-day Queens, an immigrant master tailor struggles to convince her assistant to take over her business as she loosens her grip on the material world. When her deranged ex-boyfriend begins to stalk her in her shop, she’s forced to reconsider what her legacy can be and make peace with what can’t be fixed, salvaged, or even known.
**********************
Cheyenne Jackson in concert will run Sept. 19-23 (all at 7 PM) at NYC’s 54 Below
**********************
Adam Rapp & Justine Levine’s The Outsider, which had its world premiere earlier this year at La Jolla Playhouse (directed by Danya Taymor, with choreography by Rick Kuperman), is in development for a Broadway run.
The La Jolla cast featuredBrody Grant (Ponyboy), Sky Lakota-Lynch (Johnny), Daniel Marconi (Randy), Kevin William Paul (Bob), Brent Comer (Paul), Ryan Vasquez (Darrel), Da’Von T. Moody (Dallas), Jason Schmidt (Sodapop), Trevor McGhie (Two-Bit), Piper Patterson (Cherry), and Kiki Lemieux (Marcia). No Broadway casting has been announced.
Stay tuned…..
**********************
Video: Anastacia McCleskey and Lindsay Heather Pearce perform “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent at the St.Louis Muny.
**********************
Bedlam Theatre will present Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia Oct. 27 – Dec. 3 (opening Nov. 12) at the West End Theatre, directed by Eric Tucker.
Alan Altschuler, Lisa Birnbaum, Shaun Taylor Corbett, Caroline Grogan, Deychen Volino-Gyetsa, Mike Labbadia, Arash Mokhtar, Randolph Curtis Rand, Jamie “Smitty” Smithson, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Devin Vega, and Elan Zafir.
The play takes audiences back and forth between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life.
**********************
Mother of the Year: The Kris Jenner Musical, written by & starring Ryan Raftery, will run Oct. 19-20 at LA’s Bourbon Room, directed by Jay Turton, with music direction by Daniel Lincoln.
Kris Jenner is desperate for more kids to shill, so she travels to Laos for an experimental fertility treatment. Something goes wrong and she’s she’s afflicted with temporary amnesia and is forced to stay in Laos to be re-educated about the role she has played in creating “The Kardashians” as we know them. Then, she finds out that the experiment worked and she’s pregnant at 67, with a girl! However, now that she has new clarity on her parenting choices, she considers whether she wants to continue the pregnancy. But uh-oh! Roe v. Wade has been overturned during her stay abroad, which galvanizes the “New Kris” to use her family’s 1.2 billion followers to do something good for women everywhere and help get the law reinstated. And it’s a musical!
**********************
Duncan Macmillan & Jonny Donahoe’s Every Brilliant Thing will run Sept. 6 – Oct. 15 (opening Sept. 14) at the Geffen Playhouse, directed by Colm Summers.
Daniel K. Isaac.
A transcendent and tender coming-of-age journey that reminds us to pay attention to life’s smallest joys — and to each other.
**********************
J. Giachetti & Louis Josephson’s Relapse will run Sept. 2-23 at Theatre Row, directed & choreographed by Joey McKneely, with music direction by Jordon Cunningham.
Ashley Alexandra (Margo), Randall Scott Carpenter (Bryan), Mia Cherise Hall (Melinda), Troy Valjean Rucker (Dr. Carlisle), Jacob Ryan Smith (Adam), and Becca Suskauer (Kendra), with Vinny Celerio, Audrey Hedequist, Nicole Lamb, Zummy Mohammed, Danny Rabinowitz, and Isabel Rodriguez.
Guided by Dr. Carlis and Nurse Margot, this group of patients, welcome Adam and bid farewell to long-time patient Bryan. The musical delves into the emotional, psychological, and social conflicts that arise in such a group therapy-type setting and the character’s transformations as they seek help, confront their demons, and embark on a path to recovery. The future is calling them, but in order to move forward they have first to let go of the past.
**********************
A new block of $20 tickets are now available through Sunday, Aug. 15 for Our Dear Dead Drug Lord at LA’s Kirk Douglas Theatre. Use code TUESDAY20.
**********************
The Latino Center will present world premiere of Preston Choi’s This Is Not a True Story Sept. 14 – Oct. 15 (opening Sept. 16) at the LA Theatre Center, directed by Reena Dutt.
Julia Cho, Zandi de Jesus, and Rose Narasaki.
Three Asian “tragic heroines” (Cio-Cio from Madame Butterfly, Kim from Miss Saigon, and Kumiko/Takako from “Kumko the Treasure Hunter”) are trapped in a loop they can’t control until they work together to claim agency over their live and forever break the cycle.