Today’s Highlights:
The Grove, by Mfoniso Udofia, directed by Awoye Timpo, featuring Patrice Johnson Chevannes (Abasiama Ufot), Abigail C. Onwunali (Adiaha Ufot), Joshua Olumide (Disciple Ufot), Amani Kojo (Ekong Ufot), Aisha Wura Akorede (Toyoima Ufot), and Paul-Robert Pryce (Udosen Udoh), with Ekemini Ekpo, Janelle Grace, Dayenne CB Walters, Sharmarke Yusuf, Maduka Steady, Maurice Emmanuel Parent, Chibuba Bloom Osuala, and Awoye Timpo, opens at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion.
Constellations, by Nick Payne, directed by Jonathan Fox, featuring Tom Ainsley and Kodi Jackman, opens at Ventura, CA’s Rubicon Theatre.
The Price, by Arthur Miller, directed by Noelle McGrath, featuring Bill Barry, Michael Durkin, Janelle Farias Sando, and Cullen Wheeler, with Benjamin Russell, Monica Lowy, John Palacio, and Joe Bowen, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Clements.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Feb. 16.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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Mfoniso Udofia’s The Grove continues through Mar. 9 at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion, directed by Awoye Timpro.
Patrice Johnson Chevannes (Abasiama Ufot), Abigail C. Onwunali (Adiaha Ufot), Joshua Olumide Desciple (Ufot), Amani Kojo (Ekong Ufot), Aisha Wura Akorede (Toyoima Ufot), Paul-Robert Pryce (Udosen Udoh), Maduka Steady (Godwin Inyand), and Valyn Lyric Turner (Kimberly Gaines), with Ekemini Ekpo, Janelle Grace, Patrice Jean-Baptiste, Chibuba Bloom Osuala, Dayenne Walters,Rebekah Brunson, Maurice Emmanuel Parent, Kandyce Whittingham, and Sharmarke Yusuf.
The story of a family homecoming, asking how we draw on the wisdom and beauty of our ancestors when the bonds of family are stretched to the limit. Abasiama’s eldest daughter Adiaha believes that becoming a writer can make her family proud, but at her graduation party, she has to choose whether to fulfill her parents’ desires or stay true to her own dreams.
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DC’s Signature Theatre will present its 2025 Sondheim Award Gala on Mon. Apr. 14 at The Anthem.
Mandy Patinkin.
Performers, creative team, and additional information TBA.
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Katherine James’ Willing Suspension of Disbelief will run Feb. 28 – Mar. 16 at CA’s Pacific Resident Theatre, directed by Rachel Berney Needleman.
Marwa Bernstein, Tara Brown, Suzanne Ford, Nick Marini, and Rachel Townsend.
Reality bends as actors working on Shakespeare’s haunted masterpiece Hamlet soon find their production twisting their personal lives and past traumas into a chilling confrontation with buried truth, forcing the actors to reckon with blurred boundaries and the lasting scars of betrayal. The lines between actor and character, victim and perpetrator unravel in a gripping portrayal of trust, perception, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
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According to Ray: Ray Charles’ Message to America will run Mar. 21-23 at the Mark Taper Forum, with music direction by Rachael Worby.
Muse/Ique
An exploration of how Ray Charles’s diverse musical genres, influences, and collaborators all culminated in his landmark recording of “America the Beautiful.”
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Seth Zvi’s Stripped: House of Blue Robes will run Mar. 7-16 at 59E59 Theaters, directed by Brian Roff.
Victor Almanzar, Katherine George, Izabel Mar, David Potters, and Viviana Valeria.
Hell’s Kitchen, 1985. Roommates Ralph Ramirez, an actor, and Schlomo D., an aspiring rapper, are struggling to break through as artists. Ralph is torn between his love for Marisol and his father’s old-world ideas, while Schlomo’s own tortuous relationship with girlfriend Maylin Chang has brought his life to a standstill. When Ralph meets Florence, a transplant from Naples, their connection sets a series of events in motion, to devastating effect for all.
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Click here for The Definitive List of the 43 Best-Selling Cast Recordings of All Time.
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Casualty of War, written & performed by Sharon Lesser, will take place Tues. Apr. 8 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row, directed by Austin Tooley.
Sharon’s got a perfect itinerary planned: A mother-son tour of Normandy and Omaha Beach, with some road tripping, great French food and a visit to Paris. What she gets is a journey with a sullen, heart-broken adolescent whose own emotional D-Day turns him into a hostile adversary pining for home. There’s a war brewing and it’s not between the Germans and the Allies. While trying to make the best of things by attempting to outmaneuver her son’s everchanging moods (i.e., being a mom), she’s surprised by how the WW2 history they encounter invokes memories of antisemitism and the impact the Holocaust had on her family. Casualty of War explores the timeless themes of motherhood, intergenerational trauma and identity. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll crave rosé.
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My Uterus: A Womb with a View, written & performed by Dina Morrone, will take place Sat. Mar. 22 at 8 PM at Theatre West (link TBA), directed by Peter Flood.
Dina digs deep into her pelvic cavity to explore what the Uterus really is, what it means to own one, and to probe and examine how it continues to get screwed over again and again by those who have no business being in there.
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Waitress has been extended through Apr. 6 at MD’s Olney Theatre, directed & choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. 
Free walk-up tickets for fired & furloughed Federal Employees.
Malinda (Jenna), David Socolar (Dr. Pomatter), Allison Blackwell (Becky), Ashley D. Nyguyen (Dawn), Ethan Watermeier (CVal), Bobby Smith (Joe), Greg Twomey (Earl), Jessica Bennett (Nurse Norma), and Sam C. Jones (Ogie), Jella Barr-O’Connor & Lou Chubin (sharing the role of Lulu), with Wynter Nicole Cook, Jay Frisby, Nikki Kim, Casey Martin Klein, Martin Klein, Wood Van Meter, Russell Rinker, and Nadja Tomaszewski. Stellamaris Orellana and Dylan Toms.
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The world premiere of Leda Siskind’s Beatnik Girl will run Mar. 20-21 at Theatre Forty, directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky.
Rebecca Del Sesto, Andrea Geones, Steven Hart, Bradley James Holzer, and Alex Scyocurka.
In 1957 New York, Edi breaks into the Beat poetry scene and finds romance as well as misogyny and antisemitism, as she asserts her talent during an exciting time of cultural revelations.