Today’s Highlights:
Labyrinth Theatre‘s FREE Barn Reading Series, opens at Off-Broadway’s 59 E 59 Theatres.
A Home What Howls (Or the House What Was Ravine), world premiere by Matthew Paul Olmos, directed by Laura Alcalá Baker, featuring Tim Hopper, Charín Álvarez , Leslie Sophia Pérez, Isabel Quintero, and Eddie Torres, opens at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre.
Loving and Loving, by Beto O’Byrne, directed by Amelia Acosta Powell, featuring Nemuna Ceesay (Mildred Loving), Shane Kenyon (Richard Loving), and Morgan Anita Wood (Maya), opens at Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Dear Octopus, by Dodie Smith, directed by Emily Burns, featuring Amaia Naima Aguinaga, Alice Bounsall, Bessie Carter, Pandora Colin, Miriam Cooper, Bethan Cullinane, Lindsay Duncan, Kate Fahy, Tom Glenister, Jo Herbert, Billy Howle, Ethan Hughes, Deven Modha, Syakira Moeladi, Amy Morgan, Celia Nelson, Dharmesh Patel, Malcolm Sinclair, Natalie Thomas and John Vernon, with 9 children rotating in various roles, begins previews at London’s Lytleton Theatre.
York Theatre Company‘s A Sign of the Times, by Lindsey Hope Pearlman, Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, and other 1960s artists, directed by Gabriel Barre, featuring Chilina Kennedy (Cindy), Ryan Silverman (Brian), Justin Matthew Sargeant (Matt), Crystal Lucas-Perry (Tanya), and Akron Lanier Watson (Cody), with Cassie Austin, Erica Simone Barnett, Shawn Bowers, Alyssa Carol, Melessie Clark, Jeremiah Ginn, Kuppi Alec Jessop, Lena Matthews, Maggie McDowell, J Savage, Michael Starr, Justin Showell, and Edward Staudenmayer, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Jeans.
Black Cypress Bayou, world premiere by Adele Calhoun, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene, featuring Amber Chardae Robinson (Taysha Hunter), Brandee Evans (LadyBird “Lady” Manifold), Angela Lewis (RaeMeka “Meka” Manifold-Baler) and Kimberly Scott (Vernita Manifold), begins previews at LA’s Geffen Playhouse.
Lend Me A Soprano, by Ken Ludwig, directed by Eleanor Holdridge, featuring Carolann M. Sanita, Tina Stafford, Rachel Felstein, Dylan Arredondo, Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, Tom Patterson, Donna Migliaccio, and Natalya Lynette Rathnam, with Graciela Rey and Benjamin Topa, begins previews at MD’s Olney Theatre.
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Reviews for The Connector at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater:
New York Times (Jesse Green): …If you’re even a little sensitive to signs of sociopathy, you’d peg Ethan Dobson right away. Someone at the start of a promising career in journalism who is so aggressively flattering and greasily evasive, with a snap-on, snakelike, aw-shucks smile, has got to have a scheme up his sleeve. Or rather, in Ethan’s case, a dangerous bunch of lies in his pocket… a murky new musical about journalistic fabrication… It sees Ethan (Ben Levi Ross) as the beneficiary of a long history of male editorial vanity that sentimentalizes its past and falls for the excesses of New Journalism over old facts… a problem because aside from Jason Robert Brown’s typically propulsive songs, which excite even the most absurd moments of Jonathan Marc Sherman’s book, the engine of the story, set in the 1990s, depends on uncertainty about Ethan’s veracity. That’s a nonstarter…
Theatermania (David Gordon): … Daisy Prince capture stirringly authentic emotions in this tale of a writer’s rise and fall. Sherman’s lean-and-mean script is the theatrical equivalent of the journalistic inverted pyramid: most important details up front, the rest coming out in dribs and drabs in later scenes. It’s greatly accentuated by Prince’s stylish and fast-moving production… you do get the sense that most, if not all, of these people have never actually worked in a newsroom environment… t’s hard to say that Brown…has managed to top himself…can he really top himself? — but of his current period of writing, this is his most haunting score. Lush and exciting as it blends rock, jazz, bebop, and traditional musical theater, his lyrics are particularly emotional and evocative.
Theatrely (Juan A. Ramirez): …somewhat of a platonic fabrication. Built from the stories of similarly disgraced real-life journalists like Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair, he rides the Princeton privilege pipeline into a staff writer position at the fictional titular magazine. Doubling down on his editor’s (Scott Bakula) guiding principle that his reporters “are not purveyors of fact, [but] truth tellers,” his stories quickly go from composite characters to complete fabrications. Conceived and directed by Daisy Prince, the one-act piece is an engaging look at the world of ‘90s journalism, where a rocks tumbler is never too far off. But it begins to coast on three things: perhaps the most varied and rich work composer Jason Robert Brown has done, the cypher-like lead performance from Levi Ross, and a magnetic turn from Hannah Cruz, as his girlfriend-turned-rival.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Feb. 4.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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The world premiere of Rufus Wainwright & Ivo van Hove’s Opening Night will run Mar. 6 – July 27 (opening date TBA ) at the Gielgud Theatre, directed by van Hove.
Sheridan Smith, Hadley Fraser, Shira Haas, Nicola Hughes, Amy Lennox, John Marquez, and Benjamin Walker.
A theatre company prepares to stage a new play on Broadway. But drama ignites backstage when their leading lady is rocked by tragedy, and her personal turmoil forces everyone to deliver the performance of their lives.
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The 68th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be presented Mon. June 10.
Nominations will be announced Mon. Apr. 29.
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42nd Street Moon‘s production of Falsettos will run Feb. 29 – Mar. 17 at San Francisco’s Gateway Theatre, directed by Dennis Lickteig, with choreography by Leslie Waggoner, and music direction by Dave Dobusky.
Gary Brintz (Mendel), Will Biammona (Marvin), Cindy Goldfield (Charlotte), Ariela Margenstern (Trina), Samuel Prince (Whizzer), and Madelyn Simon & Monica Yuval Weissberg (alternating as Jason).
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Feinstein’s at the Taper returns Sun. Feb. 17 (at 8 PM) with Michael Feinstein in Lovers and Strangers.
Sheryl Lee Ralph
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Rogue Machine Theatre will present a staged reading of Paul Kruse’s Eelpout will take place Thurs. Feb. 8 at LA’s Matrix Theatre, directed by Rachel Wolt.
Sam Garnett, Tommy Hobson, Cornelius Jones, Jr., Vico Ortiz, and Matthew Scott Montgomery
A fast-paced, surreal farce about the traps of midwestern masculinity. It’s a funny fever dream where friends are lovers, fish can talk, and life’s mysteries beckon from the bottom of a frozen lake. Sven Svensen and Ole Olsen have been best buds since kindergarten, and they put up with Lars Larsen because his daddy has a pretty nice ice fishing house. But everything changes the morning of Ole’s bachelor party—maybe Ole and Sven are more than just friends. Love is in the air for Lars too, if only he can figure out how to talk to Ole’s sister Heidi. And when Sven catches a talking fish, he’s gotta pick between a possible life with Ole and something even more wild and strange.
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Ybor City, written & directed by Mariana Da Silva will run Mar. 7-30 at Culver City’s Actors’ Gang.
TBA.
Ybor City in Tampa, Florida which dates from the 1880s, was founded by Vincente Martinez-Ybor, who moved his cigar factory from Cuba to Florida; others followed. Ybor built the community including housing for cigar factory workers, then a highly specialized trade. The area was populated by thousands of Cuban immigrants in addition to immigrants from Spain, Italy, and other countries – and for the next half century, it annually stocked the world with hundreds of millions of cigars. The entire enterprise — a town owned and populated by immigrants — was highly successful and had a strikingly multi-racial and multi-ethnic population.
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Robert L. Freedman & Faye Greenberg’s A Toast to Steve & Eydie will take place Mon. Mar. 18 at 7:30 PM at Carnegie Hall, directed by Lonny Price, with music directed by Lonny Price and Matt Cowart, with music direction by Ted Firth.
David Lawrence and Debbie Gravitte.
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Kiss Me Kate will run June 4 – Sept. 14 (opening June 18) at the Barbican Theatre, directed by Bartlett Sher, with choreography by Anthony Van Laast, and music srupervision by Stephen Ridley.
Stephanie J. Block (Lilli Vanessi/Katherine), Adrian Dunbar (Fred Graham/Petruchio), Charlie Stemp (Bill Calhoun/Lucentio), Georgina Onuorah (Lois Lane/Bianca), and more TBA.
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Steve Yockyey’s Mercury has been extended through Mar. 2 at North Hollywood’s Road Theatre, directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky.
Meghan Holaway (Pamela), Andrea Flowers (Heather), Justin Lawrence Barnes (Nick), Danny Lee Gomez (Brian), Billy Baker (Sam), Gloria Ines (Alicia and Christina Carlisi (Olive)
Three stories cross outside of Portland, OR in a pitch black comedy with an illicit affair, a couple hanging on by a thread, bears at the window, the worst curiosity shop on the west coast, and an adorable missing dog named Mr. Bundles. No one’s happy, people stop being nice, and blood spills. This mash up of myth, missing empathy, and “good neighbors” explores what happens when the mercury rises.
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Musical Theatre Guild will present a concert staging of Mathew Sklar, Chad Beguelin & Tim Herlihy’s The Wedding Singer on Sun.Mar. 10 at 7 PM at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage, directed by Mary Jo DuPrey, with music direction by CassieNickols Gonzalez.
TBA.
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The world premiere of Stephen Sachs’ Father Land will run Feb. 25 – Mar. 30 at The Fountain Theatre, directed by Sachs.
Ron Bottitta, Patrick Keleher, Anna Khaja, and Larry Poindexter.
The true story of the eighteen-year-old son who turned in his father to the FBI because of his dad’s role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Fast-moving, powerful, and theatrical, Fatherland erupts verbatim from official court transcripts, case evidence, and public statements.
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Open-Door Playhouse will present Rich Rubin’s How Nice of You to Ask, which will debut Mar. 20, directed by Bernadette Armstrong.
Joyce Hananel (Mavis) and Matthew Scott Montgomery (Alan).
A young sex researcher is conducting interviews with men and women forty years his senior finding many of their answers quite surprising and just a bit unnerving.