Today’s Highlights:
Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Skeleton Crew, by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, featuring Chanté Adams, Brandon J. Dirden, Adesola Osakalumi, Phylicia Rashad, and Joshua Boon, opens at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
Emilie Kouatchou, the first Black actor to play the role of Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera, begins her run at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre.
The Spitfire Grill, directed by Steve Steiner, featuring Julia Hoffman (Percy Talbott), Missy McArdle (Hannah Ferguson), Anneliese Moon (Shelby Thorpe), Alex Canty (Caleb Thorpe), Noah Berry (Sheriff Joe Sutter), Sarah Godwin (Effy Krayneck), Grant Brown (The Visitor), and Glen Rovinelli (The Musician), begins previews at Laguna Playhouse.
Clue, by Sandy Rustin, Hunter Foster, Eric Price & Michael Holland, directed by Casey Hushion, featuring John Treacy Egan (Colonel Mustard), Donna English (Mrs. White), Kathy Fitzgerald (Mrs. Peacock), Sarah Hollis (Miss Scarlet), Kolby Kindle (Cop & Others), Michael Kostroff (Professor Plum), Alex Mandell (Mr. Green), Isabelle McCalla (Yvette), Mark Price (Wadsworth), Hazel Anne Raymundo (Cook & Others), and Graham Stevens (Mr. Boddy & Others), with Pamela Bob, Jamie LaVerdiere, Alanna Saunders, and Jeff Skowron, begins previews at NJ’s Paper Mill Playhouse.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.” ~ Jack Handy (lovingly “borrowed” from Adam Pascal).
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Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company has canceled all remaining performances of Assassins due to breakthrough cases of COVID-19 within the company. The production was scheduled to close Jan. 30.
All ticket holders will be refunded.
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MA’s Barrington Stage Company has announced its 2022 season:
Andy Warhol in Iran (June 2-25), world premiere by Brent Askari. Director TBA. 
A fictionalized account of artist Andy Warhol’s famed 1976 visit to Tehran.
Ain’t Misbehavin’ (June 16 – July 9), directed & choreographed by Jeffrey L. Page.
ABCD (July 1-23), world premiere by May Treuhaft-Ali, directed by Daniel Bryant. The play examines the inequities in our public school system as it follows and underserved school on the verge of shutdown, and an elite magnet program in the same city.
Anna in the Tropics (July 16-30), by Nilo Cruz, directed by Elena Araoz.
The Supadupa Kid (July 29 – Aug. 13), by Sukari Jones & Joel Waggoner, directed by NJ Agwuna. The adventures of a Black teenage superhero.
A Little Night Music (Aug. 6-28), directed by Julianne Boyd, with choreography by Robert La Fosse, and music direction by Darren R. Cohen.
Waiting for Godot (Aug. 19 – Sept. 4), directed by Joe Calarco.
All of Me (Sept. 21 – Oct. 9), world premiere by Laura Winters, directed by Ashley Brooke Monroe. A romantic coming-of-age story about a boy and girl, both people who use wheelchairs and text-to-speech devices to communicate, and whose love brings them together while others attempt to pull them apart.
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Reviews for Long Day’s Journey Into Night at Off-Broadway’s Minetta Lane Theatre.
NY Times (Jesse Green): …Robert O’Hara’s warp-speed Covid-era revival… a beautifully acted and affecting interpretation for a new age of disease and lockdown… In the Tyrone family, closely based on O’Neill’s, disease and lockdown are already a way of life… an elective humiliation that has turned them all into emotional — and nearly literal — hermits… n O’Hara’s production, though, the Tyrone lockdown is only partly about shame; it is also about precaution… If you want to think about our own recent lockdown in those terms, this production, even in its relative brevity, certainly allows you to.
Theatermania (Pete Hempstead): …Director Robert O’Hara has envisioned something very fresh and inspired… It’s no exaggeration to say that this production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a stroke of genius, and it really must be seen to appreciate how startlingly well it works…. intermission-less, two-hour version… is set in 2020 rather than the play’s original 1912… From the Covid pandemic and its accompanying mental health issues, to the opioid crisis fueled by the Sackler family and Perdue Pharma, to racial health-care inequalities, the Tyrones become the embodiment of America’s present dysfunction… this quartet of actors has turned what could be a dramatic dirge into captivating theater.
DC Metro Theatre Arts (Deb Miller): …the condensed present-day reimagining was inspired by the dramatic events of 2020, from the pandemic to the Black Lives Matter movement and the divisiveness of the Trump administration, while retaining O’Neill’s inherent themes of drug and alcohol dependency, familial dysfunction, and mental health… Though the new production is cut to one act and just under two hours… a superb cast… if you want a powerful new take on an iconic work, with blockbuster performances by a stellar cast, don’t miss it.
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The upcoming revival of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has rescheduled its run at the Booth Theater, directed & choreographed by Camille A. Brown.
Originally set to begin previews on Mar. 4 and open Mar. 24, the musical will now run Apr. 1 – Aug. 14, with an opening set for Apr. 20.
Casting TBA.
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Barry Manilow & Bruce Sussman’s Harmony will begin previews Mar. 23 and open Apr. 13 at NYC’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, directed by Warren Carlyle. Tickets and link TBA.
Chip Zien, Sierra Boggess, and more TBA.
The true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antic until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history.
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Ann Kittredge: Movie Nite in the Theater will take place Sun. Feb. 27 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Birdland, with music direction by Alex Rybeck.
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The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, adapted & directed by Mary Zimmerman, will have a major revival nearly 30 years after its premiere, running Feb. 11 – Mar. 2o (opening Feb. 22) at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.
Adeoye, Christina Clark, Christopher Donahue, Kasey Foster, Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel, John Gregorio, Anthony Irons, and Wai Yim, with Chloe Baldwin, Sean Blake, Jack DeCesare, Lawrence Grimm, Andrea San Miguel, and Will Wilhelm.
Leonardo da Vinci strove to know the world equally through artistic and scientific means. This poetic portrayal of one of history’s most imaginative minds is composed entirely of words from his notebooks and various treatises, his ideas on topics from mathematics, anatomy, architecture, and engineering, to philosophy, love, and the human spirit come to vivid life.
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Off-Broadway’s Bated Breath Theatre Company has announced Chasing Andy Warhol, the theater’s newest immersive and theatrical walking tour production, to run Mar. 25 – (opening Apr. 7), created & directed by Mara Lieberman, with choreography by Rachel Leigh Dolan & Rachelle Rak.
Mitchell Ashe, Kat Berton, Grayson Bradshaw, Mariah Busk, Alysa Finnegan, Teal French-Levine, Jmonet Hill, Youran Lee, Jake Malaysky, Taylore McKenzie, Marisa Melito, Kayla Prestel, Brandon P. Raines, Annika Rudolph, Alessandra Ruiz, Antonia Santangelo, Kyle Starling, Fé Torris, Luca Villa, and Katherine Winter.
The walking tour will employ Bated Breath’s unique multi-media approach as scenes inspired from Warhol’s enigmatic life unfold on the streets, behind windows of area businesses, and inside secret locations along the route. Despite Warhol’s celebrity and fame, he was also an obscure, mystifying persona who preferred to remain elusive. The show will use a distinct blend of immersive theatre, dance, film, art, and puppetry to peek into the life of the iconic artist.
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Isaac Mizrahi: In Person will run Mar. 1-12 at NYC’s Café Carlyle.
The concert will include a range of tunes by the likes of Milton Nascimento, Billie Eilish, and Stephen Sondheim, with dishing on current events.
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New performance dates have been announced for the Broadway revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, which will now run Apr. 1 – Aug. 14 (opening Apr. 20) at the Booth Theatre, directed & choreographed by Camille A. Brown.
Casting and complete creative team TBA.
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Complete casting has been announced for Terrence McNally, Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman’s Catch Me If You Can, to run Mar. 4 – Apr. 17 (opening Mar. 17) at DC’s Arena Stage, directed by Molly Smith, with choreography by Parker Esse, and music direction by Laura Bergquist.
Christian Thompson (Frank Abagnale Jr.), Nehal Joshi (Carl Hanratty), Jeff McCarthy (Frank Sr.), Rhett Guter (Roger Strong), Alexandra Frohlinger (Carol Strong), and Stephanie Pope (Paula), and Hayley Podschun (Brenda Strong), with Cara Rose DiPietro, Jeremiah Ginn, Candice Hatakeyama, Ryan Lambert, Jody Reynard, Louise Smith, Kristin Yancy, Brianna Latrash, Bryan Charles Moore, and Brett-Marco Glauser.
Christian Thomson replaces the previously announced Corbin Bleu.
This production will feature a never-before-performed version of the book by Terrence McNally, and two songs which were not in the original Broadway musical: “50 Checks” and “Here I Am to Save the Day.”
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Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play will run Feb. 9 – Mar. 13 (opening Feb. 16) at the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Robert O’Hara.
Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, Jonathan Higginbotham, Devin Kawaoka, Chalia La Tour, Irene Sofia Lucio, Paul Alexander Nolan, Jakeem Dante Powell, and Elizabeth Stahlmann, with Jordan Lis Cooper, Rashad Hall, Kineta Kunutu, James Patrick Nelson, and Galen J. Williams.
The play takes place at the MacGregor Plantation, where nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. It’s an antebellum fever-dream as three interracial couples converge to rip open history at the intersection of race, love, sex, and sexuality in the 21st century America.
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Roger Bean’s The Andrews Brothers will run Feb. 11-27 at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West, directed by Jeffrey Polk, with choreography by Roger Castellano, and music direction by Ryan O’Connell.
Krystle Simmons (Peggy), Jonathan Arana (Lawrence), Larry Raben (Patrick), and David Engel (Max).
A USO performance from the Andrew Sisters is in jeopardy when they fail to appear shortly before curtain. Thankfully, three earnest stagehands are determined to go on with the show.