Today’s Highlights:
The Great Gatsby: An Immersive Theatrical Production, created & directed by Alexander Wright, featuring Ryan Hodson (Nick Carroway), Jay Peardon (Jay Gatsby), Jessica Redmayne (Daisy Buchanan), Joshua Ralph McElroy (Tom Buchanan), Hannah Raven (Jordan Baker), Alicia rose (Myrtle Wilson), Cody ross (George Wilson), and Adam Di Martino (Meyer Wolfsheim), with Kristina McNamara and Sebastian Nelson, opens at London’s Gatsby’s Mansion.
Beauty and the Beast, directed by Jay Woods, featuring Porscha Shaw (Belle), Riley Brack (Beast), Jaysen Wright (Gaston), Lisa J. Estridge (Mrs. Potts), Anne Allgood (Madame de la Grande Bouche), Nicholas Japaul Bernard (Lumière), Arika Matoba (Chip), Reginal André Jackston (Maurice), Be Russell (Babette), John David Scott (LeFou), and Jason Weitkamp (Cogsworth), with Kate Ella Cook, Rebecca Cort, Alyza DelPan-Monley, Joel Domico, Candice Song Donehoo, Jose J Gonzales, Richard Gray, Nehemiah Hooks, Eric Polani Jensen, Danny Kam, Mallory King, Shanelle Leonard, Cheryse McLeod Lewis, U.J. Mangune, Trina Mills, Antonio D. Mitchell, Charles L. Simmons, Shelby Willis, Jonelle Margallo, cy Paolantonio, and Jimmy Shields., opens at Seattle’s Fifth Avenue Theatre.
Shhhh world premiere, written & directed by Clare Barron,, featuring Janice Amaya, Anny Fang, Nina Grollman, Greg Keller, Clare Barron, and Constance Shulman, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theatre.
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Reviews for The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe at Off-Broadway’s Griffin Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): …the good news is that…many of those barbs are as piercing as ever, breaking the skin of American optimism…. the 10 women Strong must play in split-second succession are sufficient to make the show an aerobics class of its own. That puts the focus more squarely on its mixed platter of female frustration… the play, which has over the years lost an intermission and been streamlined into one 95-minute act, has trouble getting started… the problem also derives from the network of random connections that tries to pass as architecture….
Theatermania (Zachary Stewart): …it is also clearly written for Tomlin’s voice — so can it ever really soar without her?. If anyone could make it work, it’s Cecily Strong … It’s still not quite enough to overcome a very strange and often uneven play… Search for Signs is also the victim of changing trends in theatergoing, as Strong races to squeeze a show that previously ran two-and-a-half hours (including intermission) into 90 minutes without pause… Still, the play feels somewhat alien, as if it doesn’t quite belong in this time with this performer.
Time Out (Adam Feldman): Cecily Strong is a sketch comedian of the first order… But in her New York stage debut in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, she’s in someone else’s tailored suit… Some of the material now seems worn, though, and on Strong it doesn’t quite fit, at least not yet; it’s baggy in some places, squeezy in others, and it rarely looks very comfortable… In some ways, Search for Signs jibes well with our current moment… But while it has been updated… much of the script is stubbornly rooted in a 1970s…
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Click here for the Weekly Broadway Grosses for Oct. 24, 2021 – Jan. 9, 2022.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “Somewhere, give it time, there’s a banana peel with your name on it.” ~ Patti LuPone, “A Memoir”
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. Daniel J. Watts (Ike Turner) will conclude his run in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on Jan. 16 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
He will be replaced by Nick Rashad on Jan. 18.
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A new 6-part documentary series, “The Last Movie Stars,” will examine the lives and legacies of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Ethan Hawke. The series will premiere exclusively on CNN Plus (date TBA), and will be available later (date TBA) on HBO Max.
In addition to archival interviews with Woodward and Newman, Hawke has enlisted actors Karen Allen, George Clooney, Oscar Isaac, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Zoe Kazan, Laura Linney, Sam Rockwell and others to voice segments of the original transcribed interviews. Hawke also interviewed several of Newman’s daughters and conducted contemporary interviews with Sally Field, Melanie Griffith and Scorsese, who collaborated with Newman and Woodward on various projects.
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The Mint Theatre Company will present D.H. Lawrence’s The Daughter-in-Law Feb. 8 – Mar. 20 at NY city Center, directed by Martin Platt.
Amy Blackman, Ciarán Bowling Seth Andrw Bridges, Tom Coiner, Katie Fanning, Polly McKie, Sandra Shipley, and Tina Stafford.
Written in 1913 and set against the background of the impending national coal strike of 1912, this is the story of Luther Gascoyne, a young miner and his newly-wed wife Minnie, a former governess. The tensions and misunderstandings they suffer due to their different backgrounds and expectations are exacerbated by the powerful influence of Luther’s mother and brought to open conflict when it is discovered that Luther, before his marriage, made another woman pregnant. As the labor unrest comes to a boil, so does the simmering conflict between Luther and Minnie.
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VA’s Signature Theatre offers free streaming for Everybody Rise: Signature Remembers Stephen Sondheim, available Jan. 14 at 5 PM ET for 72 hours, conceived & directed by Matthew Gardiner.
Evan Casey, Natascia Diaz, Erin Driscoll, James Gardiner, Nicholas McDonough, Christopher Mueller, Katie Mariko Murray, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Nova Y. Paton, Christopher Michael Richardson, Maria Rizzo, Awa Sal Secka, Bobby Smith, Holly Twyford, John Leslie Wolfe, and Rachel Zampelli.
The concert offers 16 musical performances from 13 shows.
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The world premiere of Dael Orlandersmith & Antonio Edwards Suarez’s Antonio’s Song / I Was Dreaming of a Son will run Jan. 27 – Mar. 6 at Milwaukee Rep, directed by Mark Clements.
Antonio Edwards Suarez
A personal solo/movement drama that explores the sins of our fathers and mothers as well as the gifts they bestow upon us in a poetic journey that will question/challenge the legacy of stereotypes.
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The Public Theater and NAATCO have announced complete casting for the world premiere of Jaclyn Backhaus, Sam Chanse, Mia Chung, Naomi Iizuka & Anna Ouyang Moench’s Out of Time, conceived & directed by Les Waters, to run Feb. 15 – Mar. 13 (opening Mar. 1) at The Public Theater. 
The Feb. 15 performance is FREE.
Mia Katigbak (Ena), Glenn Kubota (Taki), Page Leong (Woman), and Rita Wolf (Carla).
The piece was conceived after Waters attended a dance performance choreographed by Anne Tersea De Keersmaeker that featured an ensemble of aging dancers. This production features five brand-new monologues by five award-winning Asian American playwrights. Each monologue has been written for and will be performed by an Asian American Actor over the age of 60.
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. Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick, originally scheduled to run in person Feb. 1-27, will now be available only by digital streaming at Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Mortiz van Stuelpnagel.
Streaming dates, casting, and additional information TBA.
A brilliantly hilarious take on Richard III, the musical reimagines the most famous disabled character of all time as a 16-year-old outsider in the deepest winter of his discontent: his junior year at Roseland High. Bullied for his cerebral palsy, Richard plots his revenge — as well as his glorious path to senior class presidency. This is at once everything you’d imagine and nothing you’d expect. Buckle up.
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Video: “Good Morning America” pays tribute to Broadway’s Hidden Heroes: Understudies, Swings, and Standbys, featuring Kathy Voytko (The Music Man), Sir Brock Warren (Ain’t Too Proud), and Angelo Soriano (Aladdin).
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The world premiere of Cinco Paul & Bekah Brunstetter’s A.D.16 will run Feb. 4 – Mar. 6 at MD’s Olney Theater Center, directed by Stephen Brackett, with music direction by Christopher Youstra, and choreography by Katie Spelman.
Phoenix Best. (Mary Magalene), Ben Fankhauser (Jesus). Kelli Blackwell (Diana), Alan H. Green (Jacob), Jade Jones (Jessica), Jared Loftin (Nicholas), Calvin McCullough (Matthias), Adelina Mitchell (Ruth), Christian Montgomery (Bartimaeus), Da’Von Moody (Simeon), and Chani Wereley (Esther), with Alex De Bard, Sylvern Groomes, RJ Pavel, John Sygar, Kanysha Williams, Tiffany Ly Royster, and Chris Urquiaga.
. What if your crush really was perfect? The musical comedy follows Mary Magdalene’s quest to impress the boy next door, Jesus. In the process, she fends off a trio of 1st-Century Mean Girls and a bunch of Beastie Boys-inspired wise guys from the Sanhedrin. She learns that getting Jesus to love you back is both easier – and harder – than she ever imagined.
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NYC Broadway Week will offer 2-for-one tickets to a plethora of plays and musicals for performances Jan. 18 – Feb. 13. 
Click here.
Participating shows:
* Aladdin
* The Book of Mormon
* Chicago
* Come From Away
* David Byrne’s American Utopia
* Dear Evan Hansen
* Girl From the North Country
* Hadestown
* Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
* The Lion King
* MJ The Musical
* Moulin Rouge! The Musical
* The Phantom of the Opera
* Skeleton Crew
* Tina: The Tin Turner Musical
* To Kill a Mockingbird
* Wicked