Today’s Highlights:
John & Jen, world premiere adaptation, by Andrew Lippa & Tom Greenwald, directed by Guy Retallack, featuring Lewis Cornay and Rachel Tucker, opens at London’s Southwark Playhouse.
Live Kritzerland Concert, directed & hosted by Bruce Kimmel, featuring Daniel Thomas Bellusci, Jason Graae, Sharon McNight, Adrienne Stiefel, Mary VanArsdel, and Robert Yacko, at 8 PM PT at Studio City’s Feinstein’s at Vitello’s.
All the Devils are Here, Patrick Page’s new solo show, concludes streaming here.
Scarecrow world premiere staged reading, by Heidi Armbruster, directed by Dina Janis, closes at VT’s Dorset Theatre Festival.
**********************
GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “Actors search for rejection. If they don’t get it, they reject themselves.” ~ Chevy Chase
**********************
Video: Jocelyn Bioh and Saheem Ali discuss The Public Theater’s production of Merry Wives at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre.
**********************
Nikkole Salter’s Lines in the Dust continues streaming through Aug. 8 at New Normal Rep, directed by Awoye Timpo.
Jeffrey Bean, Melissa Joyner, and Lisa Rosetta Strum.
2010, Essex Country, NJ. When Deitra loses the charter school lottery for her daughter, she must find another way to escape from their underperforming neighborhood school. The answer seems like a risk well worth taking, but may end up a requiring bigger sacrifice that she ever could have imagined.
**********************
Target ALS and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America has announced the establishment of the inaugural Target ALS Rebecca Luker Courage Award.
The award will spotlight individuals who have demonstrated a courageous spirit and made a positive impact on the ALS community over the past year.
Click here for more information and to donate.
**********************
Casting has been announced for the final week of Hollywood’s Blank Theatre‘s 29th Annual Young Playwrights Festival, presented as digital shorts, which will stream July 30 – Aug. 6.
Makeup with Mallory: Special 29th Birthday Babe Edition!, by Alyssa Ho & Miya Matsumune, directed by Christopher James Raymond, featuring David J. Castillo, Reggie De Leon, Ally Dixon, Fatima El-Bashir, Gwen Hollander, Gerald Isac Waters, and Frankie Zabilka, A beauty influencer turns *gasp” 30 and throws herself a virtual musical party! Her virtual guests are quick to turn the fun upside down in this clever exploration of cancel culture and social media identity.
Clean Clothes, by Simon Hamrick, directed by June Carryl, featuring Shaan Dasani, featuring Shaan Dasani and Gita Reddy. Two strangers at a laundromat fall into an accidental exploration of what’s lost and found between a mother and son. When the last dryer buzzes, will either of them feel like the clothes are ever really clean?
The Fantastic Adventures of Bonnie and Fran, by Alethea Shirilan-Howlett, directed by Asaad Kelada, featuring Julianne Buescher, MJ Karmi, Chris Kauffmann, and Jill Remez. Bonnie is losing her mind, and refusing to leave her home, afraid it will fade away when she goes. With the helop of some surprising friends, can Bonnie finally step outside and find forgiveness through forgetfulness>
**********************
& 
Classic Films with Annette Insdorf will resume weekly, Aug. 1-29, both in person and online, focused on Hollywood masterpieces of the 1950s.
Through screenings, lectures and discussions, this 12th season of Reel Pieces Remote will highlight movies that define the decade, crafted by directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, and Idea Lupino.
**********************
The cast album for Off-Broadway’s Little Shop of Horrors will be released Sept. 21 on CD. 
here.
Jonathan Groff (Seymour), Tammy Blanchard (Audrey), Christian Borle (Orin Scrivello, D.D.S.), Tom Alan Robbins (Mushnik), Kingsley Leggs (Voice of Audrey II), Ari Groover (Ronnette), Salome Smith (Crystal), Joy Woods (Chiffon), Stephen Berger, Chris Dwan, Kris Robers, Celsea Turbin, Eric Wright, and Teddy Yudain.
**********************
Showtime has announced its new anthology series, “The First Lady,” with a different director for each episode. The premiere date is TBA.
Lily Rabe (Lorena “Hick” Hickok), Gillian Anderson (Eleanor Roosevelt), Viola Davis (Michelle Obama), Wllen Burstyn (Sara Delano Roosevelt) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Betty Ford).
The series is described as a re-framing of American leadership, told through the lends of the women at the heart of the White House. Hickok was a pioneering American journalist, who, by 1932, became America’s best-known female reporter. She was a devoted friend and mentor to Elanor Roosevelt. After 3,000 of their mutual letters were discovered, the nature of the relationship between Hick and Eleanor became the subject of much debate, with some scholars believing the two were lovers.
**********************
Wicked will be the first Broadway tour to re-launch in the U.S. with a run from Aug. 3 – Sept 5 at Dallas’ Music Hall at Fair Park.
Talia Saskauer (Elphaba), Allison Bailey (Glinda), Sharon Sachs (Madame Morrible), and Cleavant Derricks (The Wizard), Clifton Davis (Doctor Dillamond), Amanda Fallon Smith (Nessarose), Curt Hansen (Fiyero), and DJ Plunkett (Boq), with Natalia Vivino, Travante S. Baker, Anthony Lee Bryant, Nick Burrage, Jordan Casanova, Matt Densky, Marie Eife, Ryan Patrick Farrell, Sara Gonzales, Alison Jantzie, Kelly Lafarga, Marina Lazzaretto, Jordan Litz, Megan Loomis, Micaela Martinez, Alida Michal, Hayden Milanes, Dashi Mitchell, Jennafer Newberry, Alicia Newcom, David Scott Purdy, Jackie Raye, Rebecca Gans Reavis, Andy Richardson, Anthony Sagaria, Jenna Nicole Schoen, Wayne Schroder, Ben Susak, and Just Wirick.
Click here for the complete tour schedule.
**********************
The new animated musical series “Centaurworld,” will premiere July 30 on Netflix.
Jesse Mueller, Megan Hilty, Parvesh Cheena, Josh Radnor, Chris Diamantopoulos, and Dong, with guest appearances by Brian Stokes Michell, Lea Salonga, and René Elise Goldsberry.
The series follows a war horse who is separated from her rider and transported into a land full of brightly-colored, wacky, singing centaurs.
**********************
Win 2 tickets to the LA Philharmonic’s performance of Tchaikovsky Spectacular fireworks show on Fri. Aug. 6 at 8 PM PT at the Hollywood Bowl, directed by Branwell Tovey.
here.**********************
Lisa Loeb’s Together Apart, a collection of ten mini-musicals, written, composed directed by, and starring Brown University alumni, will stream Aug. 6-20 on Broadway On Demand. Proceeds will benefit The Actors Fund. Each production is a compilation of ten, 7-minute musicals, all about connecting on Zoom at the beginning of the pandemic. The musicals are interspersed with short pieces by Eric Kirchberger playing Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Julie Bowen, Josh Hamilton, Ann Harada, and JoeBeth Williams.
How Can I Connect? The opening number about how difficult it was to find connection during the beginning of the pandemic, through Zoom.
It’s Okay Mom An optimistic single dad does all he can to keep life under quarantine from affecting his seven-year-old daughter and his nervous mom.
The New Normal A continuous scene that takes place in an elementary school Zoom classroom during which the parents gradually become more involved and end up taking over entirely.
Find The Music Two old friends, whose lives have taken very different paths reconnect over Zoom.
Red State/Blue State Speed-dating during a pandemic isn’t easy. If the virus doesn’t get you, the political divide just might.
Teaching Online A non-tech savvy teacher is thrust into Zoom classes and the radical shift in how teachers and students interacted, the tense political atmosphere, and the hopeful potency to still connect inspired this piece.
Breathe Zach and Sondra are divorcing, but Sondra’s move-out day falls on New York’s Shutdown Day 2020, so she and Zach are forced to become “roommates” for the duration of the shut down. The piece follows Zach and Sondra’s story and that of Zach’s loving parents through a series of Zoom calls during the historic year and its impact on the one African American family.
Care and Feeding Four moms, each with own set of challenges, muddle through Day 55 of quarantine.
Family Game Night Tensions escalate and personal secrets are revealed as competitive members of a modern family Zoom together on Family Game Night.
La Dolce Jersey A window into the decades-long friendship of two women – one quarantined at home in Italy, and one relocated to her childhood bedroom in New Jersey. Separated by the Atlantic, together they reckon with who they been, and who they are at present.
**********************
Video: Highlights from the Muny’s Smokey Joe’sCafe, featuring Charl Brown, Michael Campayno, Mykal Kilgore, Tirrany Mann, Hayley Podschun, Dee Roscioli, Christopher Sams, Nasia Thomas, and Jason Veasey.
**********************
Play PerView will stream the “Clockblockers Unite: A Timeless Evening” reunion through Aug. 5-9 (filmed in Jan. 2021), which reunited the cast of NBC’s “Timeless” series. The reading will be followed by a Q&A.
Co-creators Shawn Ryan & Eric Kripke, with cast members Malcolm Barrett, Claudia Doumit, Sakina Jaffrey, Matt Lanter, Abigail Spencer, Goran Višnjic, Beau Brians, John Colton, Matthew Downs, James DuMont, Jordan Farris, Chris Gann, Chet Grissom, Ravi Naidu, Josh Randall, and Mari Weiss, with Cory Michael Smith, Shantel VanSanten, and Annie Wersching.
**********************
Sir David Suchet’s solo show, Poirot and More, A Retrospective will open Oct. 5-7 at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre, with interviewer Geoffrey Wansell.
The piece looks back fondly at David’s illustrious career, sharing some of his most beloved performances in a new and intimate light. A conversation with the actor behind the detective and Suchet’s many character he has portrayed on stage and screen.