GRACE NOTES: Wednesday, January 11, 2023

 

Today’s Highlights:

  Urinetown, directed by directed by Ylaria Rogers, featuring Karen Vickery (Officer Lockstock), Natasha Vickery (Little Sally), Deanna Farnell (Penelope Pennywise), Joel Horwood (Bobby Strong), Max Gambale (Caldwell B. Cladwell), Petronella Van Tienen (Hope), Joe Dinn (Senator Fipp/Ma Strong), Tom Kelly (Barrel/Tiny Tom), Dani Caruso (Pa Strong), Artemis Alfonzetti (McQueen), Benoit Yari (Hot Blades Harry), Barbra Toparis (Little Becky Two Shoes), Kira Leiva (Swing), and Danielle Matthews (Penelope Pennywise alternate), opens at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre.

  Donna McKechnie – Take Me to the World: The Songs of Stephen Sondheim concert closes at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.

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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Jan. 8. Click here for the complete analysis.

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  2023 Golden Globe Award winnersClick here for the complete list.

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  Broadway Bound: The Musicals That Never Came to Broadway will take place Wed. Feb 15 at 7 PM at NYC’s 54 Below, directed by Robert W. Schneider, and co-hosted by Schneider & Charles Kirsh.  The concert will feature works by Cy Coleman, Barbara Fried, Carolyn Leigh, Johnny Mercer, Bob Merrill, Sandy Wilson, and more.

Erin Davie, AJ Holmes, Joe Iconis, Major Attaway, LaDonna Burns Mike Cefalo, Hilary Cole, Debbie Gravitte, Bruce Landry, Kelly Lester, Richard Maltby Jr., T. Oliver Reed, Mark William, and more TBA.

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  J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company  has announced its 2023 season at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row.  Casting and creative teams TBA.

  Woman of the Year (Apr. 13-23)
  Sugar (Apr. 27 – May 7)
  The Goodbye Girl (May 11-21)

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  Complete casting has been announced for Marsha Norman & Lucy Simon’s The Secret Garden, to run Feb. 19 – Mar. 26 (opening Feb. 26) at the Ahmanson Theatre, directed & choreographed by Warren Carlyle, with music supervision by Rob Berman.  Tickets start at only $40.

Sierra Boggess (Lily Craven), Terron Brooks (Major Shelley), Mark Capri (Ben Weatherstaff), Peyton Crim (Major Holmes), Derrick Davis (Archibald Craven), Susan Denaker (Mrs. Medlock), Kelley Dorney (Mrs. Winthrop/Cholera), Ali Ewoldt (Rose Lennox), William Foon(Colin Craven alternate), Ava Madison Gray (Mary Lennox alternate), John Krause (Captain Albert Lennox), Aaron Lazar (Dr. Neville Craven), Julia Lester (Martha), Reese Levine (Colin Craven), John-Michael Lyles (Yamuna Meleth (Ayah), Cassandra Marie Murphy (Mrs. Shelley), James Olivas (Lieutenant Wright), Sadie Brickman Reynolds (Mary Lennox), Kyla Jordan Stone (Alice), and Vishal Vaidya (Fakir), with Randi De Marco, Sam Linkowski, and Ariel Neydavoud.

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   NY City Center’s production of Parade will run Feb. 1 – Aug. 6 (opening Mar. 16) at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, again directed by Michael Arden, with choreography by Lauren Yalango-Grant & Christopher Cree Grant, and music direction by Tom Murray.

Ben Platt, Micaela Diamond, and more TBA.

  Video: Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond sing “This is not Over Yet”

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  A NYC industry reading of Ephraim Kishon’s Romeo vs. Juliet, adapted by Mikhl Yashinsky, will take place Wed. Jan. 25, directed by Daniel Goldstein.

  Alan H. Green, Lesli Margherita, Danny Mastrogiorio, Lily McInerny, and Lee Wilkoff.

The story of the famous couple who escaped their perfect literary fate, and now, decades later, struggle with their imperfect marriage and rebellious daughter, scheming and dreaming of a better life…alone.

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  LA’s Center Theatre Group has just announced that $20 tickets to The Secret Garden are available here (there may be a waiting list to enter), using code Tuesday20.

  Ticket Drop Tuesday offers sell out quickly and will only last until Sunday at 11:59 PM.  Click here to learn more about these offers.

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  A staged reading of Richard Vetere’s Zaglada will take place Mon. Jan. 23 at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Clements, directed by Dan Wackerman.

Len Cariou, Lou Martini Jr., Maja Wampuszyc, and Jes Washington.

  A 90-year-old Polish man living in Maspeth, Queens, is exposed by an African-American journalist as having been a Kapo in Buchenwald. The man shoots the journalist, is arrested for firing an illegal firearm, and is held at the 112th Precinct by and NYPD Intelligence Bureau Officer. There he is forced to confront his past by a Federal Prosecutor who is driven by a personal vendetta.

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  The national tour of Funny Girl will launch sept. 9-16 at the Providence Performing Arts Center, with the rest of the tour schedule TBA.

While no casting has been announced for the tour, the production is using promotional materials featuring Broadway alternate Julie Benko.

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  Anthony Rapp’s Without You will run Jan. 14 – Apr. 30 (opening Jan. 25) at New World stages, directed by Steven Maler, with music direction by Daniel A. Weiss.  Rush and lottery tickets will be available at an accessible price point for every public performance.

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  Ann Talman: Elizabeth Taylor and The Shadow of Here Smile will take place on Sun. Feb. 26 in celebration of Ms. Taylor’s 91st heavenly birthday (Feb. 27, 1932), at 7 PM at Off-Broadway’s Laurie Beecham Theatre, directed by Lina Koutrakos, with music direction by Alex Rybeck.

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  Red Bull Theater presents a reading of Elizabeth Inchbald’s 18th century farce, Animal Magnetism, on Mon. Jan. 23 at 7:30 PM, directed by José Zayas. The event will be recorded live and then available for FREE online through Sun. Jan. 29.

  Amir Arison, Carson Elrod, Yonatan Gebeyehu, Brad Oscar, Cara Ricketts, and Alexandra Silber.

  A brilliant riff on the art of performance and a hilarious and all too relevant takedown of some men’s insistence that they own and control women’s bodies. It’s an hour-long diversion about a Doctor – a quack – who  keeps his beautiful young ward, Constance, under lock and key, and is determined to force her into marrying him. But Constance is determined to get free and the Marquis, who loves her, offers an escape route. When Le Fleur, the Marquis’s servant, arrives at the house under the guise of an expert in mesmerism, the scene is set for the Doctor to get his comeuppance.

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  First Lady of Song: Ella Fitzgerald will run Jan. 31 – Feb. 5 at DC’s Signature Theatre, directed by Mark G. Meadows.

Ayo and Rochelle Rice

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  The Hot Wing King written & directed by Katori Hall, will run Feb. 10 – Mar. 5 (opening Feb. 18) at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre.

  Nicco Annan (Big Charles), Bjorn Dupaty (Cordell), Myles Alexander Evans (EJ), Armand Fields (Isom), Jay Jones (TJ), and Calvin Thompson (Dwayne).

  A glimpse into deeply personal family struggles that mirror real life. Cordell is poised to leave this year’s Memphis “Hot Wang Festival” victorious. Supported by his partner, Dwayne, and his best friends who serve as his fry crew “The New Wing Order,” the group settles in for a fun night of pre-competition prep. However, when a family emergency forces Dwayne’s troubled nephew into the mix, winning the annual competition becomes the least of their worries.

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  Alessandro Camon’s Scintilla will run Apr. 11 – June 4 (opening Apr. 13) at North Hollywood’s Road Theatre Company, directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky.

Casting TBA.

Michael and Nora travel to visit his mother Marianne, a reclusive artist who lives at the edge of the woods in California’s Wine Country. As a raging wildfire approaches, Michael must deal with Marianne’s stubborn refusal to leave, and the arrival of two unexpected visitors. The rising tension exposes a complicated family history erupting into a larger question about our very survival on this planet.

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  Complete casting has been announced for the all-female, transgender, and non-binary national tour of 1776, which will launch Feb. 11 at Philadelphia’s Forrest Theatre, co-directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus, with choreography by Page.  Click here for the complete itinerary.

  Gisela Adisa (John Adams), Shelby Acosta (Sec. Charles Thomson), Nancy Anderson (Thomas Jefferson), Tiffani Barbour (Andrew McNair), Dawn Cantwell (Col. Thomas McKean), Julie Cardia (Stephen Hopkins), Joanna Glushak (John Dickinson), Anissa Marie Griego (Roger Sherman), Kassandra Haddock (Edward Rutledge), Shawna Hamic (Richard Henry Lee), Connor Lyon (Martha Jefferson/Dr. Lyman Hall), Liz Mikel (Benjamin Franklin), Oneika Phillips (John Hancock), Lulu Picart (Samuel Chase), Ariella Serur (Judge James Wilson), Brooke Simpson (Courier), Sav Souza (Dr. Josiah Bartlett), Tieisha Thomas (Abigail Adams/Rev. Jonathan Witherspoon), Jill Vallery (Caesar Rodney), Zuri Washington (Robert Livingston), Gwynne Wood (George Read), and Candice Marie Woods (Joseph Hewes).

 


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