Today’s Highlights:
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, directed by Lindsay Posner, featuring Elizabeth McGovern (Martha), Dougray Scott (George), Charles Aitken (Nick), and Branhill (Honey), opens at London’s Theatre Royal Bath.
Not About Me, world premiere written & directed by Eduardo Machado, featuring Mateo d’Amato, Michael Domitrovich, Crystal Field, Ellis Charles Hoffmeister, Charles Manning, Drew Valins, and Heather Velazquez, opens at Off-Broadway’s Theatre for the New City.
The Smuggler, by Ronán Noone, directed by Conor Bagley, featuring Michael Mellamphy, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Jan. 16.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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Patti LuPone: Don’t Monkey with Broadway will launch a national tour. Click here for all tour dates.
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Robert Horn, Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally’s Shucked will begin previews Mar. 8 and open Apr. 4 at the Nederlander Theatre, directed by Jack O’Brien, with choreography by Sarah O’Gleby and music direction by Jason Howland.
John Behlmann, Kevin Cahoon, Andrew Durand, Caroline Innerbichler, Ashley D. Kelley, Alex Newell, and more TBA.
What do you get when you pair a semi-neurotic, New York comedy writer with two music superstars from Nashville? A hilarious and audacious farm-to-fable musical about the one thing Americans everywhere can’t get enough of: corn. Shucked is the new musical comedy that proves sometimes tearing down a few walls, rather than growing them, is the only way to preserve our way of life. Shucked is about to turn Broadway on its ear and offer a kernel of hope for our divided nation.
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The Kleban Foundation has announced the recipients of the 33rd annual Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre.
Ryan Scott Oliver (most promising musical theatre lyricist)
Ethan Lipton (most promising musical theatre librettist)
The prizes will be awarded on Mon. Feb. 6 at 5 PM at BMI’s NYC headquarters (7 World Trade Center), by invitation only.
The public can stream the presentation ( for FREE) on Broadway On Demand from Feb. 10 at 8 PM EST through Feb. 16.
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A concert special, “Black Broadway: A Proud History, A Limitless Future” will premiere on Tues. Feb. 28 at 8 PM on PBS.
Nikki Renee Daniels, Norm Lewis, and more TBA.
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The world premiere of Rachel Bonds & Zoe Sarnak’s The Lonely Few will run Feb. 28 – Apr. 9 (opening Mar. 9) at the Geffen Playhouse, directed by Trip Cullman & Ellenore Scott.
Lauren Patten (Lila), Ciara Renée (Amy), Joshua Close (Adam), Damon Daunno (Dylan), Helen J Shen (JJ), and Thomas Silcott (Paul).
Lila is a woman struggling with life in her Kentucky hometown where she cares for her erratic brother while working a survival job at the local Save-A-Lot. While playing a gig with her hometown band, she meets Amy, a rugged road musician who offers her the chance to live the life Lila never dared to dream of, if only Lila can find the confidence to say yes.
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The Fountain Theatre presents Stephen Sachs’ adaptation of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric, to take place Jan 20 at 8 PM & Jan. 21 at 2 PM at LA’s Inner City Arts (720 Kohler St.), directed by Shirley Jo Finney.
Bernard K. Addison, Leith Burke, Tony Maggio, Adenrele Ojo, and Lisa Pescia.
A provocative meditation on race, fusing prose, poetry, movement, music, and the visual image. A lyric poem, snapshots, vignettes, on the acts of everyday racism. Remarks, glances, implied judgments.
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The Equity/SAG-AFTRA streaming deal is done.
Click here to read about it.
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A Celebration of John Guare will take place Mon. Feb. 6 at 7:30 PM at NYC’s 92 Y.
Tony Kushner, Meryl Street, Ben Stiller, Ariana DeBose, Paul Dano, Suzan-Lori Parks, Edie Falco, Linda Lavin, Zoe Kazan, Kenneth Lonergan, Amy Herzog, Elizabeth Marvel, Corey Hawkins, Dylan Baker, Stephen Adly Girugis, Bill Camp, Camryn Manheim, Becky Ann Baker, Linda Emond, and Ato Blankson-Wood.
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CT’s Goodspeed Musicals has announced its 2023 season:
Gypsy (Apr. 28 – June 17), directed by Jenn Thompson, with music direction by Adam Souza, and choreography by TBA.
Summer Stock (July 7 – Aug. 27), with music direction by Adam Souza, and choreography by TBA.
The Twelve (Sept. 8 – Oct. 29), by Robert Schenkkan & Neil Berg, directed by John Dolye, with music direction by Adam Souza. Jerusalem. The disciples are in disarray. Torn apart by the unthinkable death of their leader, see how twelve ordinary individuals come together to create one of the most powerful movements ever known.
Dreamgirls (Nov. 10 – Dec. 20), directed by Lili-Anne Brown, with music direction by Adam Souza, and choreography by TBA.
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The national tour of Into the Woods has announced complete casting. Click here for the tour schedule (not complete).
Montego Glover (Witch), Stephanie J. Block (Baker’s Wife), Sebastian Arcelus (Baker), Gavin Creel (Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf), Cole Thompson (Jack), Katy Geraghty (Little Red Ridinghood), Diane Phelan (Cinderella), Nancy Opel (Cinderella’s Stepmother), Jason Forbach (Rapunzel’s Prince ), Aymee Garcia (Jack’s Mother), Rayanne Gonzales (Jack’s Mother — in DC only), David Patrick Kelly (Narrator), Josh Breckenridge (Cinderella’s Father), Felicia Curry (Cinderella’s Mother/Grandmother/Giant’ Wife), Ta’Nika Gibson (Lucinda), Brooke Ishibashi (Florinda), Kennedy Kanagara (Milky White), Jim Stanek (Steward), And Alysia Velez (Rapunzel), with Erica Durham, Ellie Fishman, Marya Grandy, Paul Kreppel, Eddie Lopez, Ximone rose, and Sam Simahk.
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A workshop presentation of A Little More Blue, written & performed by Christine Toy Johnson, will take place Feb. 3 in Washington Heights, directed by Bruce Johnson.
The reading is open to the public. Email moongateink@gmail.com by Jan. 27.
The story of an Asian American woman who discovers, upon her father’s passing, how his immigrant journey inspired her to keep repainting the big picture of her life through fighting for justice in the arts.
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Off-Broadway’s Labyrinth Theatre has announced its Barn’s Series Festival of of New Works, to run Jan. 31 – Feb. 12 at 59E59 Theaters.
Click the link above for the complete lineup of plays.
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Matthew Warchus’ hit production of A Christmas Carol, adapted for the stage by Jack Thorne, will return to London’s Old Vic for a seventh engagement later this year.
Performances are scheduled for Nov. 11, 2023 – Jan. 6, 2024, with an official opening Nov. 22.
Casting and additional information TBA.
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Steppin’ Out with Ben Vereeen will run Feb. 24 -25 (both at 8:30 PM) at Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.
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9 to 5 will run Feb. 10-26 (opening Feb. 11) at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West, directed by Cynthia Ferrer, with music direction by Wilkie Ferguson III, and choreography by Alexis Carra Girbés
Ashley Moniz (Judy Bernley), Madison Claire Parks (Doralee Rhodes), Daebreon Poiema (Violet Newstead), Ed Staudenmayer (Franklin Hart), and Chelle Denton (Roz Keith), with Josh Alvarez, Leonel Ayala, Keith Bearden, Michael Bullard, Michael Cavinder, Brandon Dubuisson, Erin Dubreuil, Kurt Kemper, Edgar Lopez, Missy Marion, Marissa Ruth Mayer, Isabella De Souza Moore, Amelia Prochaska, Alyssa Simmons, Nikki Elena Spies, and Chris Tuck.
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Julian Schlossberg’s memoire, “Try Not to Hold It Against Me: A Producer’s Life”, will be released Jan. 31 on most platforms. Click here to pre-order the hardcover or Kindle on Amazon.
A one-of-a-kind autobiography by one of entertainment’s true insiders. Schlossberg has partied with Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli. He has experience the paranormal with Shirley MacLaine and Betty Hill. He has produced for Bruce Springsteen, Elia Kazan and Woody Allen, Sid Caesar, and Orson Welles. He has negotiated deals with the likes of Al Pacino, Burt Reynolds, and Lillian Hellman. He has interviewed legends including Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Jack Nicholson, Bob Hope, and George Burns. He once testified against The Beatles, yet Mike Nichols call him “the nicest man in show business.
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Meryl Streep has joined the Season 3 cast of “Only Murders in the Building,” which will premiere on a date TBA.