GRACE NOTES: Wednesday, February 26, 2025

 

Today’s Highlights:

Topdog/Underdog, by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, featuring Brandon Gill  (Booth) and Brandon Micheal Hall (Lincoln), begins previews at Pasadena Playhouse.

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  Broadway’s Leading Ladies will take place Mon. Mar. 10 at 7:30 PM at NYC’s Town Hall, directed by TBA.  The concert will also be filmed for PBS (air date  TBA).

  LaChanze, Kate Baldwin, Jennifer Holliday, Judy Kuhn, Lindsay Mendez, Jessie Mueller, Jennifer Simard, and more TBA.

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  Million Dollar Quartet will run Apr. 22 – May 24 at Milwaukee Rep, directed by Laura Braza, with music direction by Dan Kazemi.

Aja Alcazar ( Dyanne), Blake Burgess (Johnny Cash), JP Coletta (Jerry Lee Lewis), Joe Hebel (Elvis Presley), Armando Gutierrez (Carl Perkins), Seth K. Hale (Sam Phillips), Patrick Morrow (W.S. Fluke Holland), and Michael Ritter (Brother Jay).

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   Houston’s TUTS has announced its 2025-26 season:

  The 25TH Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee  (Oct. 21 – Nov. 2), directed & choreographed by Dan Knechtges.

  Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (Dec. 9-24), directed by Laura Peete, with choreography by William Carolos Angulo.

  Million Dollar Quartet (Feb. 17 – Mar. 1, 2026), directed by Hunter Foster

  Back to the Future: The Musical (Mar. 31 – Apr. 5, 2026)

  Spamalot! (Apr. 14 – 26), national tour.

  Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (May 19 – 31), directed & choreographed by Dan Knechtges.

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  Project Shaw will present a script-in-hand performance of Shaw’s Doctor’s Dilemna on Mon. March 17 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s The Players, directed by David Staller.

  Naria Browan (Jennifer Dubedat), Robert Cuccioli (Sir Collenso Ridgeon), David Lee Huynh (Louis Debedat), Simon Jones (Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington), Nick Wyman (Dir. Patric Cullen), George Dvorsky (Dr. Cutler Wolpole), Rocco Sisto (Dr. Leo Schutzmacher), James Rana (Dr. Blenkinsop), Judy Gold (Emmy/Narrator Two), andStefania Gonzalez (Minnie, Journalist, Miss Danby, & Narrator One).

  In 1906, George Bernard Shaw tackled a timeless debate of medicine and morality – how do doctors make ethical choices regarding the treatment of their patients? Do doctors prefer to take on and treat wealthy patients, rather than the poor? What are the ethics of such a decision? In The Doctor’s Dilemma, Sir Colenso Ridgeon has made a breakthrough discovery in the treatment of tuberculosis. However, because of the expense of this treatment, he has a limited number of patients that he can treat. Enter the beautiful Jennifer Dubedat, an enchanting woman whose husband is ill with tuberculosis. She begs Sir Colenso to save him, and so begins the doctor’s dilemma: The young man is a talented artist, but morally dubious character (and Sir Colenso is in love with his wife) – yet an old friend of the doctor’s, a poor man with little social value, needs treatment as well. Who does Sir Colenso save? And why? In this problem play, rife with satire and social commentary, Shaw tackles questions of moral responsibility as well as referencing new scientific and medical discoveries.

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   a.k payne’s Furlough’s Paradise will run Apr. 16 – May 18 (opening Apr. 24) at the Geffen Playhouse, directed by Tinashe Kajese-Bolden.

  Kacie Rogers(Mina) and DeWanda Wise (Sade).

  Cousins Sade and Mina used to be inseparable. Now leading very different lives, they return to their childhood town for the funeral of their mother and aunt. While Sade is on a three-day furlough from prison and Mina experiences a brief reprieve from her career and life on the West Coast, the two try to make sense of grief, home, love, and kinship. As the clock ticks down, the cousins grapple with their conflicting memories of the past and their shared hopes for the future. Poetic and theatrical, Furlough’s Paradise explores family dreams of a utopia yet to be realized.

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  Into the Woods will run Mar. 28 – Apr. 13 at  Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West, directed by Kari Hayter, with music direction by Anthony Zediker, and choreography by Christine Negherbon.

  Amanda Angeles (Little Red), Antwon Barnes (Rapunzel’s Prince), Richard Bermudez  (Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf), Wayne Bryan (Narrator/Mysterious Man), Janna Gardia (Stepmother), Dillon Jade Costa (Jack)m Camryn Hamm (Rapunzel), Kayman Ilka (Baker’s Wife), Derek Manson (Baker), Brian Kimm McCormick (Steward), Marisa Moheno (Step Sister), Christine Neghrbon (Cinderella’s Mother/Granny), Madison Claire Parks (Cinderella), Daebreon Poiema (Witch), Aya Sherian (Stepsister), Aya Sherian (Stepsister), and Michael J. Washington (Cinderella’s Father).

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   Louder Than Words: The Songs and Legacy of Jonathan Larson will run Mar. 1-3 at  NYC’s 92NY, directed by Michael Breslin, with music direction by Jacinth Greywoode.

 Each performances features different special guest creators influenced by Larson, including Shaina Taub, Michael R. Jackson, and others.

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  Madeline Barr’s Recurring will run Mar. 21-30 at the Labyrinth Theater, directed by John Gould Rubin.

   Natalie Bond, Raúl Castillo, Molly Collier, Kasandra Cruz, Catherine Curtin, and Aaron Matteson.

  Lust and violence collide as a woman struggles to protect her daughter from her own traumatic history.

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  Chryssie Whitehead’s In My Own Little Corner will film its Mar. 16 presentation (at 3 PM) at Off-Broadway’s Riverside Theatre.

  The production seeks to lift the stigma and normalize conversation around mental health, so that people will feel less shock or shame upon diagnosis, and acquire and language and tools to support a loved life living with mental health illness.

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   Coming Home: Angel Blue in Concert will take place Sat. Mar. 5 at 7:30 PM at LA’s  Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

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  Ellen Harvey will return to Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club as Fraulein Schneider on Mon. Mar. 31.

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  Lillias White will return to LA’s Catalina Jazz Club on Mar 11 & 12 (both at 8:30 PM).

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  John Mullican’s In the Unlikely Event of an Actual Emergency will run Apr. 2-20 at the Chain Theater, directed by Rickie Peete.

 Dolores Aguanno, Stacy Aung, Jason Leon-Baptista, John Mullican, Katheryn Peña, Fran Montano, and Amoni West.

  On Jan. 23, 1982, John Mullican was a passenger on World Airways Flight 30 when the flight crashed into Boston Harbor.  This new play about the tragic is an emotionally charged journey through Survivor’s Guilt, self-reflection, and the ability to cope with life’s most unexpected events.

 


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