GRACE NOTES: Wednesday, June 23, 2021

 

Today’s Highlights:

  Under Milkwood, by Dylan Thomas, directed by Lindsey Turner, featuring Michael Sheen, Karl Johnson, and Siân Phillips, opens at London’s Oliver Theatre.

  Romeo and Juliet, directed by Kimberly Sykes, featuring Isabel Adomakoh Yount (Juliet), Joel MacCormack (Romeo), Cavan Clarke (Mercutio), Emma Cunniffe (Nurse), Peter Hamilton Dyer (Friar Lawrence), Michelle Fox (Tybalt), Aretha Ayeh (Benvolio), Ellie Beavan (Lady Capulet), Tom Claxton (Peter), Ryan Ellsworth (Gregora/Apothacary), Irvine Iqbal (Prince Escalus), Richard Leeming (Paris), Priyank Morjaria (Sampson), Louise Mai Newberry (Lady Montague), Shadee Yaghoubi (Abraham), and Marc Zayat (Balthasar), opens at London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.

  American Voices New Play Festival begins FREE streaming at Hartford Stage.

  Bennett & Babs: The Songs of Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand outdoor concert, featuring Joe Cassidy & Jackie Burns, opens at CT’s Goodspeed Musicals.

  Tevye in New York! world premiere by Tom Dugan, directed by Dugan & Michael Vale, starring Dugan, opens at Beverly Hills’ The Wallis.

  Bach & Sons, world premiere by Nina Raine, directed by Nicholas Hytner, featuring Simon Russell Beale (J.S. Bach), Samuel Blenkin (Carl), Pandora Colin (Maria Barbara), Ruth Lass (Katharina), Douggie McMeekin (Wilhelm), Racheal Ofori (Anna Magealena), and Pravessh Rana (Frederick the Great), begins previews at London’s Bridge Theatre.

  I’m Still Here, benefit event for the NY Public Library of the Performing Arts, with Jason Robert Brown, Savion Glover, Priscilla Lopez, Annaleigh Ashford, Laura Benanti, Harvey Fierstein, Bernadette Peters, Phylicia Rashad, and many many more Broadway stars, including archival excerpts with Angela Lansbury, Liza Minnelli, Stephen Sondheim, Harold Prince, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sutton Foster, Ariana Grande, and Brynn Williams, streams at 8 ET & 8 PM PT here.

  Love, Linda: The Life of Mrs. Cole Porter, starring Stevie Holland, concludes streaming here.

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  GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week:  “What is that unforgettable line?”
~  Samuel Beckett

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  Williamstown Festival has announced additional casting and creative team to its 2021 season:

 Celebrating the Black Radical Imagination: Nine Solo Plays, (July 6-25), written by GuadalÍs Del Carmen, France-Luce Benson, Nsangou Njikam, J. Nicole Brooks, Terry Guest, Ike Holter, Charly Evon Simpston, Ngozi Anyanwu, and Zora Howard, directed by Colette Robert, Wardell Julius Clark, and Candis C. Jones, and guest curated by Robert O’Hara, and featuring Brian D. Coats, Cindy De La Cruz, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Antwayn Hopper, Naomi Lorrain, Sharina Martin, Ronald Peet, Portia, and Ashley C. Turner.

  Row (July 13 – Aug. 15), world premiere by Daniel Goldstein & Dawn Landes, directed by Ryne Rafaeli, featuring Jeanette Bayardelle, Lisa Brescia, Micaela Diamond, Andy Grotelueschen, Nehal Joshi, John McGinty, Grace McLean, Zachary Noah Piser, Horace V. Rogers, and Jennier Sånchez. The Carke’s serene reflecting pool becomes the stage for the uplifting story that interrogates the resilience, fear, and ambition inside one individual as she claims to be the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic.

  Alien/Nation (July 20 – Aug. 15), world premiere by Eric Berryman, Jen Silverman, and the Company of The Forest of Arden, featuring Yeman Brown, Andrei Chagas, Maxwell Dunham, Leigh-Ann Esty, Sara Esty, Chantelle Good, Christopher Hampton, Nikki M. James, Eriko Jimbo, Matthew Alexander Johnson, Jesse Kovarsky, Renni Magee, Jodi McFadden, Emilio Ramos, Shea Renne, and Lauren Yalango-Grant. An immersive theatrical experience that takes you on a journey through Williamstown. Choose to experience this completely unique site-specific performance by foot or by car.

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  Tracy Lett’s The Minutes will re-open Apr. 7, 2022 at Studio 54 on Apr. 7 (previews will be in March on a date TBA), directed by Anna D. Shapiro.

Casting TBA.

The play focuses on the inner-city workings of a city council meeting in the small town of Big Cherry… and the hypocrisy, greed, and ambition that follows.

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  Glenn Close has joined the cast of the Israeli thriller, “Tehran,” as Marjan Montazeri, a British woman living in Tehran.

The second season of the series will premiere on Apple TV on a date TBA.

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  William Shakespeare’s Macbeth: A Virtual Live-Action Graphic Novel will stream June 24-17, then on demand June 28 – July 20 at Shakespeare Center LA, directed by Ben Donenberg.

Keith David (Macbeth), Geoffrey Owens (Banquo, Duncan, Doctor), Simone Moore (Lady Macbeth), Emmie Nagata (First Witch, MacDuff, Narrator), Fiona Cheung (Second Witch, Fleance, Lady MacDuff, Gentlewoman), Sheldon Donenberg  (Murderer, Sergeant, Narrator), and Evelyn Spahr (Third Witch, Macduff’s Child, Seyton).

  Video: Trailer

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&   Stephanie J. Block Comes Home will stream Sat. June 26 at 6 PM PT at Musical Theatre Guild, hosted by Jason Graae, with Jennifer Shelton.

  Eileen Barnett, Doug Carfrae, Will Collyer, Kelley Dorney, Joshua Finkel, Zachary Ford, Julie Garnyé, Kelly Lester, Melissa Lyons Caldretti, Kevin McMahon, Gabriel Navarro, Monica Quinn, Glenn Rosenblum, Natalie Wachen, and Shannon Warne.

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  Yale Rep has announced its 2022 season.  Casting TBA.

  Today is My Birthday (Jan. 27 – Feb. 19), by Susan Soon He Stanton, directed by Mina Morita. Emily Chang’s life is falling apart. A nasty breakup and a stalled writing career send her packing from Manhattan back to O’ahu. But her fantasy of a picture-perfect homecoming collides with reality as she begins to discover how little she really knows about those she loves most – and how difficult it is to let her true self be known to others.

  Choir Boy (Mar. 31 – Apr. 23), by Tarell Avin McCraney, directed by Christopher D. Bettes.

  Between Two Knees (May 12 – June 4), by the comedy troupe, The 1491s, directed by Eric Ting.   An outrageously funny, intergenerational tale of familial love, loss, and connection.

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  Kate Horton has replaced Scott Rudin as Executive Producer for The Music Man on Broadway, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.

Th e U.K.-based Horton leads the independent stage and screen production company Fictionhouse with director Dominic Cooke. They have worked together on many West Wend shows, including the Broadway transfers of Jerusalem, Clybourne Park, and Constellations.

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  The world premiere of Code Pink, written & directed by Adam Chambers & Jana Lee Hamblin (with additional writing by the cast) will run July 10 – Aug. 15 at North Hollywood’s Loft Ensemble.

Bahsi Chapman, Nicole Craig, Britt Crisp, Madylin Sweeten Durrie, Sydney Jenkins, Matt Monaco, Ignacio Navarro, Bree Pavey, Leesie Pinto, Natasha Ranae Potts, Sarah Siverson, Sarah Sommers, and Vel Stacy.

Anything can happen during a 24-hour shift in a hospital maternity ward. The play peeks into the lives of the nurses, doctors, and administrators who work there, and reminds us that every hero has a story, but they don’t all have a happy ending.

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A live-action version of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” will air on Disney (premiere date TBA). Directed by Marc Webb, the film is expected to start production in 2022.

Rachel Zegler, and more TBA.

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The world premiere of E. Dale Smith’s Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings), will run July 1-25 (opening July 8) at the cell theatre, directed by Braden M. Burns.

Jackie Hoffman and Kelly Kinsella.

Aging community theater star Ariana Russo has been cast as Fruma-Sarah, (the screeching deceased wife of Lazer Wolf in Fiddler on the Roof). The action of the play takes place backstage as Russo awaits her entrance for “Tevye’s Dream.” Tethered to the fly system and exiled stage left, she forges a relationship with Margo, that evening’s substitute fly captain.

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A new Thelma & Louise musical is in the early developmental stage, with a book by original screenwriter Callie Khouri and music by Neko Case.  Trip Cullman is attached to direct.

Timeline, additional creative team, and casting are TBA.

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  Lauren Patten in concert will take place Mon. June 28 at 7:30 PM outdoors at NYC’s Tavern on the Green.

Doors open at 6 PM to allow for dinner and drinks before the show.

 

 

 

 


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