GRACE NOTES: Wednesday, February 5, 2025

 

Today’s Highlights:

  Elektra, by Sophocles, directed by Daniel Fish, featuring Brie Larson (Elektra), Stockard Channing (Clytemnestra), Marième Diouf (Chrysothemis), Greg Hicks (Aegisthus), and Patrick Vaill (Orestes), opens at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre.

  The current London production of Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse, starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo, offers a live film version at various American theaters.  Click here to find a theater near you.  Click here to watch the trailer.

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  Broadway Grosses for the week ending Feb. 2, 2025:  Click here for the complete analysis.

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  Nikolai Gogol’s The Inspector, newly adapted & directed by Yura Kordonsky, will run Mar. 7-29  (opening Mar. 13) at Yale Rep.

  Whitney Andrews, Edoardo Benzoni, Brandon E. Burton, Sam Douglas, Malik James, Annelise Lawson, Chinna Palmer, John Evans Reese, Grayson Richmond,Darius Sakui, Nomè SiDone, and Elizabeth Stahlmann.

An entire town is plunged into chaos as it frantically hides its grift and incompetence from the prying eyes of an undercover inspector. But the cons are about to get conned: the mysterious stranger accepting every bauble, coin, and advance thrown his way is not who he seems to be. Everyone is on the take–or the make–in this outrageously anarchic comedy of errors. Yura Kordonsky’s adaptation of Gogol’s timeless masterpiece, The Inspector, is both the moving drama of a community desperate for a better life and a farce exposing the absurd lengths to which they go in its pursuit.

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Lia Romeo’s Still continues through Mar. 23 at the Sheen Center, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt.

  Melissa Gilbert and Mark Moses.

A funny yet heart-wrenching story for anyone who has ever wondered “what if?”. Thirty years ago, Helen and Mark broke up, but they never completely forgot one another. Now, they are getting a second chance at first love. Single, and frustrated with dating apps, they are ready to try again. But Mark has an agenda and Helen has a secret that could derail his plans.

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  Cabaret will run Mar. 13-29 (opening Mar. 25) at the Jaxx Theatre (5432 Santa Monica Blvd), directed by Sasha Travis, with musical direction by Jake Justice and choreographed by Kasmira Buchanan.

Erin Lee Smith (Sally Bowles), Kyle Steven Stocker (Clifford Bradshaw), Natalie Reff (Fraulein Kost), Stephan Schmidt (Ernst Ludwig), Jill Marie Burke (Fraulein Schneider), Jeremy Lucas (Emcee), D.T. Matias (Victor), David Pevsner (Herr Schultz), Elle Shaheen (Kit Kat Girl),and  Brian Whisenant (Kit Kat Boy), with Trevor Alkazian, Jordyn Campanella, Allegra Greenawalt, Shannon McCon, Nathanael O’Neal, Sophia Rizzo, Jesus David Torres Morabito & Cierra Watkins.

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  Theatre Aspen has announced its 2025 Summer Season:

  Driving Miss Daisy (June 12-28), directed by Hunter Foster.

  Mamma Mia! (July 5 – Aug. 2), directed by Michael Bello

Million Dollar Quartet (Aug. 8-23), directed by  Rachel Sabo-Hedges.

  Summer Cabaret Series (June 29, July 20 & Aug. 10.

  6th Annual Solo Flights new works festival (dates TBA)

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  The world premiere of Larissa FastHorse’s Fake It Until You Make It continues through Mar. 9 at the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Michael John Garcés.

  Noah Bean (Theo), Eric Stanton Better (Mark), Julie Bowen (River), Tonantzin Carmelo (Wynona), Brandon Delsid (Krys), and Kota Ray Hebert (Grace).

  The play specifically examines the rivalry between Wynona, the Native American owner of N.O.B.U.S.H., and River, her white analog at Indigenous Nations Soaring.2 days ago.

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  Project Shaw will present a script-in-hand performance of Doctor’s Dilemma on Mon. Mar. 17 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s The Players (16 Gramercy Park South), directed by David Staller.

  TBA

  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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  Industry readings of a newly revised version of Andrew Lippa & Jon August’s Big Fish will take place Feb. 7 in NYC, directed by Jerry Zaks.

  Patrick Wilson (Edward Bloom), Jordan Donica (Will Bloom), Nikki Renée Daniels (Sandra Bloom), Hanna Cruz , Hannah Cruz a(Josephine Bloom), Alexander Gemignani (Amos Callaway), Nicholas Ward (Karl the Giant), Rema Webb (The Witch), Haven Burton (Jenny Hill), David Hull (Don Price), Mike Wartella (Zacky Price), Lance Roberts (Mayor/Dr. Bennett), and Emjay Roa (Young Will Bloom), with Lauren Blackman, Trista Dollison, and Arianna Stucki.

  The piece follows a son facing the impending death of his father while also trying to make sense of the wild, larger-than-life stories he often tells about his epic past.

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  Katrina Wood’s You Cannot Know the Hour will run Mar. 1 (8 PM) & 2 (7 PM) at North Hollywood’s Sherry Theatre (11052 Magnolia Bvd.), directed by Trace Oakley.

 Kristin Towers-Rowles, Raquis Da’Juan Petree, Jazmine Ramay, and Jennifer Skiffington.

  In this twisting thriller, an aging man is asked to confront sins of the past by someone with a vengeful agenda. But, is he guilty as accused?

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  Mint Theater will present the New York premiere of Harold Brighouse’s Garside’s Career, to begin previews Feb. 16 and open Feb. 20 at Theatre Row, directed by Matt Dickson.

  Matt Dickson, Erik Cratton, Sara Haider, Daniel Marconi, Melissa Maxwell, Melissa Maxwell, Paul Niebanch, Michael Schantz, Madeline Seidman, Amelia White, and Avery Whitted. 

  The story of Peter Garside’s soaring flight from working engineer to member of Parliament, propelled by a ‘silver tongue’ and an insatiable fascination with his power to persuade: “You don’t know the glorious sensation of holding a crowd in the hollow of your hand, mastering it, doing what you like with it.” Peter’s fiancé knows the danger of Peter’s fascination, “The itch to speak is like the itch to drink, except that it’s cheaper to talk yourself tipsy.”

 


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