Today’s Highlights:
Follies, directed by Bill English, featuring Natascia Diaz (Sally Durant Plummer), Samantha Rose Cárdenas (Young Sally), Maureen McVerry (Phyllis Rogers Stone), Danielle Cheiken (Young Phyllis), Ryan Drummond (Buddy Plummer), Chachi Delgado (Young Buddy), Chris Vettel (Benjamin Stone), Cameron La Brie (Young Benjamin), Cindy Goldfield (Carlotta Campion), Lucinda Hitchcock Cone (Hattie Walker), Jill Slyter (Solange LaFitte), Caroline Louise Altman (Stella Deems), Louis Parnell (Dimitri Weismann), Frederick Winthrop (Roscoe), Eiko Yamamoto (Emily Whitman), and Rene Collins (Theodore Whitman), with Emily Corbo, Anthony Maglio, Catrina Manahan, and Anne Warque, opens at the San Francisco Playhouse.
If I Forget, by Steven Levenson, directed by Jason Alexander, featuring Leo Marks (Michael Fischer), Síle Bermingham (Ellen Fischer), Valerie Perri (Holly), Samantha Klein, (Sharon), Jerry Weil (Howard), Jacob Zelonky (Joey), and Matt Gottlieb (Lou Fischer), begins previews at LA’s Fountain Theatre.
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company‘s Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian, featuring Remo Airaldi (Leonato), Siobhan Juanita Brown (Friar Francis), Sarah Corey (Borachio), Tia James (Benedick), John Kuntz (Antonio), Michael Underhill (Don Pedro), Gunnar Manchester (Don John), Erik Robles (Claudio), Rachael Warren (Beatrice), Rebecca-Anne Whitaker (Hero), and Debra Wise (Dogberry), with Zoe Abuyuan Siobhán Carroll, Nettie Chickering, Sarah Corey, Duncan Gallagher, Jessica Folden, Jaime Jose Hernandez, Jordyn Palmer, Jon Vellante, Xander Viera, and Dylan C. Wack, begins previews at The Boston Common.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending July 17: Click here for the complete analysis.
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GRACE NOTES quote of the week: “How many stage managers does it take to screw in a…” “Done.”
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The cast album of the current Broadway revival of Into the Woods will be released in September (date TBA) on streaming & digital platforms worldwide. The physical release date is TBA.
Sara Bareilles (Baker’s Wife), Brian D’Arcy James (Baker), Patina Miller (Witch), Phillipa Soo (Cinderella), Gavin Creel (Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince), Nancy Opel (Cinderella’s Stepmother), Joshuah Henry (Rapunzel’s Prince), Alysia Velez (Rapunzel), Ta’Nika Gibson (Lucinda), Annie Golden (Cinderella’s Mother/Grandmother/Giant’s Wife), Albert Guerzon (Cinderella’s Father), Brooke Ishibashi (Florinda), Kennedy Kanagawa (Milky White), David Patrick Kelly (Narrator/Mysterious Man), Julia Lester (Little Red Riding Hood), Cole Thompson (Jack), Aymee Garcia (Jack’s Mother), and David Turner (Steward), with Jason Forbach, Mary Kate Moore, Cameron Johnson, Delphi Bortich, Felicia Curry, Alexander Joseph Grayson, Paul Kreppel, Diane Phelan, and Lucia Spina.
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Off-Broadway’s Perfect Crime, by Warren Manzi, will celebrate its 14,000th performance on July 24 at Times Square’s Theater Center. The play, which celebrated its 35th anniversary earlier this year, is the longest-running play in New York City history.
Catherine Russell (who has been with the production since its beginning), Mark Campbell, David Butler, and Charles Geyer.
The play follows brilliant psychiatrist and suspected killer Margaret Brent, her wealthy husband, her deranged patient, and he love interest, a handsome detective.
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Complete casting has been announced for The Color Purple, to run Aug. 16 – Oct. 9 at DC’s Signature Theatre, directed by Timothy Douglas, with choreography by Dane Figueroa, and music direction by Mark G. Meadows.
Nova Y. Payton (Celie), Danielle J. Summons, Frenchie Davis (Sofia), Kaiyla Gross (Nettie), Stephawn P. Stephens (Ol’ Mister/Preacher), Soloman Parker III (Harpo), Temídayo Amay (Squeak), and Torrey Linder (Mister), with Ian Anthony Coleman, Jalisa Williams, Keenan McCarter, Nia Savoy-Dock, Raquel Jennings, Sean-Maurice Lynch, Tobias A. Young, Yewande Odetoyinbo, Catrina Brenae, Gabrielle Rice, and Jay Frisby.
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Article: “Paradise Square: How an Ambitious Broadway Musical got Overshadowed by Lawsuits, Unpaid Bills, and Alleged Bullying”
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The Dramatist Guild of America has announced it 2022 Awards, which will include both 2021 and 2022 recipients, and will take place Mon. July 25 at NYC’s Joe’s Pub.
* Sanaz Toossi (Horton Foote Award)
* Jeanine Tesori (Frederick Loewe Award) for Kimberly Akimbo
* Alice Childress (DLDF Defender Award)
* Nancy Garcia Loza and Ren Dara Santiago (Lanford Wilsom Award)
* Pearl Cleage and Tina Howe (Lifetime Achievement Award)
* Kirsten Childs (Flora Roberts Award)
* Martyna Majok (Hull-Warriner Award for Sanctuary City)
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Video: Ingrid Michaelson performs “If This Is Love” from the world premiere of The Notebook at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.
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Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens’ A Man of No Importance will run Oct. 11 – Dec. 4 (opening Sept. 30) at Classic Stage Company, directed by John Doyle.
Jim Parsons (Alfie Byrne), Alma Cuervo, Kara Mikula, Mary Beth Peil, Thom Sesma, A.J. Shively, Nathan Stampley, Jessica Tyler Wright, Joel Waggoner, and more TBA.
The story of an amateur theatre group in 1960s Dublin and their leader, a bus driver. Determined to stage a production of Oscar Wilde’s Salome despite the objections of local church authorities, Alfie confronts the forces of bigotry and shame of a love “that dare not speak its name.”
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Playwright Christopher Durang has revealed his diagnosis with Aphasia.
The first signs of the illness surfaced in 2012, and he was officially diagnosed in 2016. His husband, John Augustine, shared that Durang’s long-term memory is intact but he has difficulty producing and comprehending speech, and struggles to follow long sentences. Otherwise, he is physically unaffected, and still has his motor skills and executive functioning.
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A concert presentation of Dillon Feldman’s Siren: A New Musical will take place Mon. Aug. 29 at 9:30 PM ET at NYC’s 54 Below, with music direction by Cynthia Meng.
Brittney Mack, Try Iwata, Danny Marin, Leana Rae Concepcion, and Allison Griffith.
The musical centers on three sirens that are last vestiges of a community on the verge of extinction, when they make the choice to kill a girl from a nearby village to add to their ranks.
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James Ijames’ The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington will run Sept. 1 – Oct. 9 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, directed by Whitney White.
Cindy gold (Martha Washington), Celeste M. Cooper (Doll), Sydney Charles (Priscilla), Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Davy), Nikki Crawford (Ann Dandridge), Victor Musoni (William), Donovan Session (Sucky Boy), and Celeste M. Cooper (Doll).
The play follows the recently widowed “Mother of America,” who lies alone in her Mount Vernon bed, ravaged by illness and attended to by the very same enslaved people who will be free the moment she dies.
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“The Lip Sync Fables” is a new web series in which NYC actors (including a few Broadway names), bring to life bedtime stories written by children, created, hosted & directed by David Gow. The series will premiere July 21 with new 10-min. episodes released every Thursday through Aug. 25.
Episodes are written by Annalise Bergen, Kate Sanchez, Max Rice, Lily and Orchid Miller, William McWhorter and Sunny Lerman, who all are between the ages of five and nine.
Catherine Cohen, Brian Muller, and Courtnee Carter, with Kennedy Kanagawa, JJ Niemann, Darius Jordan Lee, Joshua Morgan, Dorcas Leung, Gus Halper, Marija Abney, Meagan Smith, Charles Osborne, Hassiem Muhammad, Nicola Gorham, Samaria Nixon-Fleming, Lauren Karaman, Will Porter, Katie Ailion, and Billy Cohen.
Video: Trailer
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George Orwell’s Animal Farm will run Aug. 28 – Oct. 2 (opening Sept. 3) at Pasadena’s A Noise Within, directed by Julia-Rodriguez-Elliott.
Stanley Andrew Jackson III (Snowball), Bert Emmett (Mr. Jones), Geoff Elliott (Horse), Nicole Javier (Horse), Deborah Strang (Horse), Philicia Saunders (Goat), Jeremy Rabb (Donkey), Sedale Threatt Jr, (Cat), Cassandra Marie Murphy (Raven), Rafael Goldstein (Napoleon), and Trisha Miller (Squealer).