Today’s Highlights:
* Bay Street Theater‘s 29th Annual Summer Gala — A Starry Night, directed by Bob Balabn, hosted by Richard Kind, featuring Raul Esparza, Ben Vereen, Melissa Errico, Betty Buckley, André de Shields, Josh Young, Hunter Parrish, Trent Saunders, and Omar Lopez-Cepero, with Enhi Agwe, Kaden Amari Anderson, Kyle Barisich, Kelli Barrett, Jill Eikenberry, Dee Hoty, Josh Grisetti, Will Hantz, Jackie Hoffman, Beaghan LaFlam, Neil Mayer, Howard McGillin, Meaghan McInnes, Ethan Meta, Julia Motyka, Dakota Quackenbush, Lindsay Roberts, Steve Rosen, Anna Francesca Schiavoni, Erica Spyres, Bobby Conte Thornton, Rich Topol, Michael Tucker, Teal Wicks, and Cooki Winborn, livestreamed at 8 PM ET.
* Broadway Q&A Series With Kathleen Marshall streams at 1 PM ET here.
* The Broadway Podcast‘s Be More Chill FREE virtual reunion podcast, featuring Dori Berinstein, Joe Iconis, Joe Tracz, Stephen Brackett, Chase Brock, Jerry Goehring, Michael Hurst, and Jennifer Ashley Tepper…… Broadway cast members George Salazar, Will Roland, Jason Tam, and Stephanie Hsu…… and London cast members Scott Folan and Blake Patrick Anderson, streams at 9 PM ET here.
* Rubicon Theatre‘s 2AM at the Sands: Samonsky Sings Sinatra concert featuring Andrew Samonsky, closes at the Ventura County Fair Grounds.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “My only regret in the theatre is that I could never sit out front and watch me.” ~ John Barrymore
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Video: “Stars in the House” — a “Comeback” reunion, with Lisa Kudrow, Michael Patrick King, Dan Bucatinsky, Laura Silverman, Lance Barber, and Damian Young. (1:11:59)
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2nd Stage Theater will present the world premiere of Letters of Suresh in Spring 2021 at the Tony Kiser Theatre, by Rajiv Joseph, directed by May Adrales.
Casting TBA.
The play reveals intimate mysteries through a series of letters between strangers, friends, daughters, and lovers — many with little in common but a hunger for human connection. Sending their hopes and dreams across oceans and years, they seek peace in one another while dreaming of a city once consumed by the scourge of war.
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Hudson Stage Company presents free Zoom reading & discussion of Joshua Allan’s short one-act play, Distance, on Sat. July 25 at 8 PM ET, directed by Cezar Williams. 
: info@hudsonstage.com
Betty Gabriel and Chris Messina.
Laura logs into Zoom, expecting a long-overdue catch-up with old friends from college. What she doesn’t expect is to confront a complicated, and possibly unresolved, relationship from her past.
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Spike Lee‘s film adaptation of David Byrne’s “American Utopia,” set to air on HBO later this year, will also be the opening-night screening of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
David Byrne, Jacquelene Acevedo, Gustavo Di Dalva, Daniel Freedman, Chris Giarmo, Tim Keiper, Tendayi Kuumba, Karl Mansfield, Mauro Refosco, Stephane San Juan, Angie Swan, and Bobby Wooten III.
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CA’s Pacific Resident Theatre presents a conversation with playwright Christopher Hampton on Sun. July 26 at 3 PM PT.
Mr. Hampton will share his thoughts about writing with PRT from him home in London. He’ll discuss why he chooses the subjects he writes about, his passion for his work, and his current projects.
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Megan Hilty & Seth Rudetsky in concert will take place Sun. July 26 at 8 PM ET and Mon. July 27 at 3 PM ET here.
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Video: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Love Trio,” with Megan Hilty, Kat McPhee and Shoshana Bean.
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MA’s Williamstown Theatre Festival has announced its 2020 season, which will be recorded on Audible. Exact release dates and additional information TBA.
* Chonburi International Hotel & Butterfly Club, by Shakina Nayfack, directed by Laura Savia, featuring a cast of nine actors of trans experience — Shakina Nayfack, Ivory Aquino, Kate Bornstein, Liz Lark Brown, Annie Golden, Bianca Leigh, Telly Leung, Dana Levinson, Pooya Mohseni, Angelica Ross, Ita Segev, Jason Tam, and Samy Nour Younes.
A vibrant, international group of transgender women band together at a hotel in Thailand to confront the challenges and joys of gender confirmation surgery. Despite the group’s warm welcome, Kina prepares for her life-altering operation all alone. But a caring nurse, a wise couple, and a karaoke-loving bellhop may be exactly who she needs to ignite her truest sense of self.
* Photograph 51, by Anna Ziegler, directed by Susan Stroman. In 1951, chemist Rosalind Franklin works relentlessly in her King’s College London lab, closing in on a major discovery that could unlock the mysteries of the DNA molecule. Undermined by her colleague Maurice Wilkins, she struggles to compete with rival team Watson and Crick as pressure intensifies to produce results.
* Animals, world premiere by Stacy Osei-Kuffour, directed by Whitney White. Lydia and Henry’s dinner guests are about to arrive when Henry’s spontaneous marriage proposal threatens to burn the evening to a crisp. Wine bottles and years of unspoken tensions are uncorked, and, before the evening is through, Lydia must confront her long’held fears and feeelings if she’s going to commit to a future with Henry.
* A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Robert O’Hara, starring Bobby Cannavale, Carla Gugino, and Audra McDonald.
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Broadway On Demand presents John Lloyd Young in concert on Sat. July 25 at 9 PM ET.
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Video: The 24 Hour Plays presents the newest edition of The 24 Hour Monologues. featuring Josh Hamilton, Hugh Dancy, John Clarence Stewart, Michael Patrick Thornton, and many more.
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Podcast: “How Theater Meets Activism with the Broadway Advocacy Coalition” (40:57)
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Video: “AIDS Walk Live at Home!,” with Bette Midler, Gloria Estefan, Jordin Sparks, Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty, Shoshana Bean, Matt Bomer, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (1:16:14)
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#WhileWeBreathe: A Night of Creative Protest, an evening of virtual world premieres in support of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, will take place Wed. July 29 at 9 PM ET here, followed by a live discussion at 10 PM ET (hosted by Michelle Miller). Following the premiere, all of the works will remain available for viewing.
Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Liza Jessie Peterson, Edward Colston II, Arvind Ethan David, Cheryl Davis, Nathan Alan Davis, Steve Harper, Bianca Sams, Keenan Scott II, Aurin Squire, Khari Wyatt, and Karen Zacarias.
Carl Colfield, Kirya Traber, Tamara Tunie, Steve Broadnax III, Bianca LaVerne Jones, Patricia McGregor, Pratibha Parmar, and Charles Randolph-White.
Patina Miller, Lynn Whitfield, Alfie Fuller, Will Swenson, and Marcus Henderson, with Birgundi Baker, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Bryan Terrell Clark, Neil Brown Jr, Keith, Eric Chappelle, Kevin R. Free, Chris Herbie Holland, Ty Jones, Lori Elizabeth Parquet, Esau Pritchett, Michele Shay, Hailey Stone, and TL Thompson.
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Listen: Ethan Slater‘s new EP, “Life Is Weird”
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Quiz: Guess the musical from the first second of the cast album. Scroll down…
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CA’s Rubicon Theatre presents its Retro Drive-in Concert presentation of Forever Plaid — the 30th Anniversary Concert Aug. 3-5 in the parking lot of the Ventura County Fairgrounds, directed by creator Stuart Ross, with music direction by Colin Freeman.
David Engel, Larry Raben, Jason Graae, and Leo Daignault.
The concert takes place on an elevated stage with live feed to large LED screens above the stage. Sound is mixed live and heard on an FM station on the car radio. CDC guidelines are carefully observed for attendees, singers and musicians.