Today’s Highlights:
Charmed Life, written by & starring Lori Brown Mirabal, directed by Vincent Scott, opens at Off-Broadway’s Urban Stages.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “The play opened at 8:40 sharp and closed at 10:40 dull,” ~ Heywood Broun on a Broadway comedy.
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The 2020 Emmy Award nominations have been announced.
Click here for the complete list of nominees.
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Video: Stars in the House, a “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” reunion repeat episode, with special guests Rachel Bloom, Scott Michael Foster, David Hull, Gabrielle, and many more. (2:17:29)
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DC’s Signature Theatre has announced its 2021-22 season, headed by new Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner.
Rent (Nov. 2 – Jan. 2, 2022), directed by Matthew Gardiner, with music direction by Mark G. Meadows, and choreography by James Alsop.
Daphne’s Dive (Feb. 1 – Mar. 20), by Quiara Alegria Hudes, directed by Paige Hernandez. 
Run by the warm and enterprising Daphne, a north Philadelphia bar becomes home for a disparate band of society’s outsiders; among them an offbeat artist, eccentric activist, ambitious businessman, retired biker, abandoned teenager, and Daphne’s vivacious sister. Over the course of nearly 20 years, they drink, dance, rejoice and grieve together in a captivating weave of interconnection.
She Loves Me (Mar. 1 – Apr. 24), directed by Matthew Gardiner, with music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch and choreography by Kelly Crandall d’Amboise.
The Upstairs Department (Apr. 26 – June 12), world premiere by Chelsea Marcantel, directed by Holly Twyford. After a serious illness, a young man wakes up with the power to communicate with the dead (or so he believes). Desperate for guidance and to connect with their late father, he and his skeptic sister set out to test his paranormal talent at the Lily Dale Spiritualist community where their discoveries summon more than the afterlife.
We Won’t Sleep (May 31 – July 3), world premiere by Ari Afsar & Lauren M. Gunderson, directed by Erin Ortman, with choreography by Yusha-Marie Sorzano. After a life of public service and suffrage activism, Jeannette Rankin shocks the world when she is elected to Congress in 1916 – four years before white women got the right to vote. However, after just a few days in Congress she faces a choice that could destroy her life’s mission.
The Color Purple (Aug. 16 – Oct. 9), directed by Tomothy Douglas, with choreography by Dane Figueroa Edidi, and music direction by Mark G. Meadows, starring Felicia Curry.
KPOP The Broadway Musical Pre-Broadway engagement (Dec. 2021 – Jan. 2022), by Jason Kim, Helen Park, Max Vernon, directed by Teddy Bergman, with choreography by Jennifer Weber. As K-pop [Korean pop music] superstars put everything on the line for a special one-night-only concert, one singer’s inner struggle threatens to dismantle their entire label.
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The world premiere of Ngozi Anyanwu’s The Last of the Love Letters will run Aug. 26 – Sept. 26 (opening Sept. 13) at the Atlantic Theater Company, directed by Patricia McGregor.
Ngozi Anyanwu, Daniel J. Watts, and one more TBA.
Two people contemplate the thing they love most and whether to stick it out or to leave it behind. To say. Or to go. That is the question. A plea and a painful goodbye wrapped into one.
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LA’s Actors Co-op Theatre‘s “Co-op Conversations” continues with Linda Kerns (July 26 at 7:30 PM PT) and Thomas James O’Leary (Aug. 23 at 7:30 PM PT).
A live Q&A will follow each conversation.
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Video: Liz Callaway sings “You There In The Back Row”
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Commonwealth Shakespeare‘s The Tempest will run July 21 – Aug. 8 at the Boston Commons, directed by Steven Maler.
John Douglas Thompson (Prospero), John Lam (Ariel), Remo Airaldi (Antonio), Siobhan Juanita Brown (Gonzala), Nora Eschenheimer (Miranda), John Kuntz (Trinculo), Nael Nacer (Caliban), Richard Noble (Alonso), Maurice Emmanuel Parent (Sebastian), Fred Sullivan, Jr. (Stephano), and Michael Underhill (Ferdinand), with Marta Rymer, Ekemini Ekpo, Duncan Gallaher, Jessica Golden, and Dylan C. Wack.
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Off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theaters presents #CHARLOTTESVILLE, written & performed by Priyanka Shetty, which will stream July 15-25, directed by Joe Bishara.
Constructed verbatim from interviews with local residents who were impacted by the events of the Unite The Right white supremacist rally and the subsequent riots that took place Aug. 11-12, 2017, the play explores the deep-seated racial inequities that have existed historically in this Virginia town.
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New York City Center has announced its 2021-22 season:
Fall for Dance Festival (Oct. 13-24), consisting of the usual 5 programs, each featuring 3 different groups of artists and companies, presented without intermissions.
Annual Gala Presentation (Nov. 10-14), offering a benefit performance followed by a gala dinner on Nov. 10, with performance through Nov. 14.
TWYLA NOW (Nov. 17-21), celebrating Twyla Tharp’s 80th birthday, featuring Alvin Ailey, James Gilmer, Jacqulin Harris, Aran Bell, Catherine Hurlin, Robert Fairchild, Sara Mearns, Roman Mejia, and Tiler Peck, along with an ensemble of young performers.
The Tap Dance Kid (Feb. 2-6), and Encores presentation, with music direction by Rob Berman, directed by Kenny Leon, with choreography by Jared Grimes.
The Life (Mar. 16-20), and Encores! presentation, adapted & directed by Billy Porter, with choreography by Camille A. Brown.
Into the Woods (May 4-15), an Encores! presentation, directed by Lear deBeonnet, with choreography by Jamal Sims, and music direction by Rob Berman.
Artist at the Center (Mar. 3-6), offering artists the platform to conceive and curate their own programs, and will include Tiler Peck, Jon Batiste, William Forsythe, Alonzo King, and more.
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A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love & Murder will stream July 15-22 on Broadway On Demand, directed by Alan Muraoka, with music direction by Steven Cuevas.
Ali Ewoldt, Cindy Cheung, Diane Phelan, Karl Joseph Co, and Thom Sesma.
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Off-Broadway’s York Theatre Company has announced its Uniquely York! Auction 2021: What I Bid for Love, which is now open for bidding through Aug. 31. 
There are two options to register for the auction — via computer or cell phone.
Featured items:
* Autographed sheet music from Sheldon Harnick, Gretchen Cryer & Nancy Ford, Tom Jones, Sammy Cahn, Cy Coleman, and David Raksin
* Signed Robert Mapplethorpe photo
* CD of unreleased demos by Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty
* Theater memorabilia from Jerry Herman
* An original sketch by Harvey Schmidt
* An in-person Happy Hour with Jim Morgan
* ….and many more.
Check back often as new items are added every day.
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The Pretty Woman national tour has announced its tour dates.
Casting TBA.
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The St. Louis Muny has announced complete casting for Smokey Joe’s Cafe, to run July 26 – Aug. 1, directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, with music direction by Abdul Hamid Royal, and choreography by Josh Walden.
Charl Brown, Michael Campayno, Mykal Kilgore, Tiffany Mann, Haley Podschun, Dee Roscioli, Christopher Sams, Nasia Thomas, and Jason Veasey.
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North Hollywood’s Road Theatre Company has announced its Summer Playwrights Festival 12, offering readings of new plays, which will stream July 15 – Aug. 1.
12 days, 25 plays!
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The world premiere of Douglas Carter Beane’s Fairycakes will run Oct. 14 – Jan. 2, 2022 (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays) at the Greenwich House Theater, directed by Beane.
Mo Rocca, Alfie Fuller, Jackie Hoffman, Kuhoo Verma, Ann Harada, Jamen Nanthakumar, Julie Halston, Brooks Ashmanskas, and Jason Tam, with more TBA.
These are some pucked up fairy tales. One night in the forest, puckish mischief leads to mismatched lovers from across all your favorite stories. And what begins as a love at first sprite, grows into something more as the feelings from one midsummer night carry over to the bright light of day. So come and sit for a spell. Because in this theatre, magic is real.
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Highlights from The Skivvies in concert on July 12 at 54 Below, with special guests Dian Huey, Tamika Sonja Lawrence, Rob Morrison, and Juson Williams.
Video: Prologue (Little Shop of Horrors) x Science Fiction/Double Feature, with Lauren Molina & Nick Cearley.
Video: “Downtown” (Skid Row) Medley. with The Skivvies and Tamika Sonja Lawrence:
Video: “Somewhere That’s Part Green,” with The Skivvies and Diana Huey.
Video: “Feed Me”/”Hungry,” medley, with The Skivvies and Juson Williams.
Video: “Time Warp Medley,” with The Skivvies and Diana Huey.
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Theaterworks Hartford presents Amy Berryman’s Walden, a site-specific, immersive play, to run July 24 – Aug. 22, directed by Mei Ann Teo.
Diana Oh, Jeena Yi, and Gabriel Brown.
After returning from a year-long Moon mission, Cassie, a NASA botanist, finders herself in a remote cabin in the woods, where her estranged twin sister, Stella, a former NASA architect, has found a new life with climate activist Bryan. Old wounds resurface as the sister attempt to pick up the pieces of the rivalry that broke them apart.=