Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be limited theatre news for the foreseeable future. I will continue to search for anything meaningful and/or fun to report. Stay safe and healthy.
Today’s Highlights:
* The Actors Fund’s “Viral Vignettes” comedy series, featuring Jane Kaczmarek and Fred Melamed, livestreamed here at 3 PM ET/12 PM PT.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly.” ~ Rosalind Russell
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Video: “Stars in the House,” in support of NAACP, spotlights Ballet Hispánico with Artistic Director, CEO Eduardo Vilaro, and guests (1:12:10)
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Video: The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues, featuring Marcia Gay Harden, Jon Rua, Zosia Mamet, Anna Baryshnikov, Jonathan Burke, Mia Ellis, Ato Essandoh, Mark Ivanir, Jamie Neumann, Saycon Sengbloh, and Jeorge Bennett Watson.
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Pride Plays has announced casting for its reading of MJ Kaufman’s Masculinity Max, to take place Sat. June 27 at 7 PM ET, in support of BC/EFA, directed by Will Davis.
Ty Defoe, Theo Germain, David Greenspan, Judy Gold, Jason Butler Harner, Esco Jouley, Francis Jue, Matt Maher, Avi Roque, Aneesh Sheth, Kelli Simpkins, Zo Tipp, and Vishal Vaidya.
A story of genders, how we perform them, and how it makes us feel.
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The Kennedy Center has canceled most performances and events through the end of 2020.
New events will take advantage of the Center’s indoor spaces and outdoor green space to create physically distant programming, while some previously planned performances will be relocated to different venues.
* 43 Kennedy Center Honors will now take place Mar. 7, 2021, and air on a later dated (TBA) on CBS.
* 23rd Mark Twain Prize for American Humor will be presented June 20, 2021, and air on a later date on CBA.
* National Symphony Orchestra Opening Night Gala on Sept. 26 has been cancelled, and will be rescheduled on a date TBA.
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Josh Groban will offer a livestream concert on Sat. June 27 at 4 PM ET. 
here.
He will be joined by guitarist Tariqh and piano player Mark Stephens.
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Video: Nathan Lane talks “Penny Dreadful,” Broadway’s re-opening, Trump, and more… (49:06)
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Video: “Undress Rehearsal” for Broadway Bares: Top Bottoms of Burlesque
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Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced updates for its 2020-21 season:
* Good Night, and Good Luck, (begins Dec. 13) world premiere adaptation by Matt Charman, directed by Anna D. Shapiro., featuring Alana Arenas, Ian Bedford, Audrey Francis, Tom Irwin, and William Peterson. 1953: Dark days in Washington, DC. Senator Joseph McCarthy wages his ruthless campaign against all those he deems “Un-American,” public trust in the institutions of government is in perilous decline and a panicked gloom grips the nation. All that stands in the way of the continued disintegration of the American body politic is Edward R. Murrow…
* Seagull (2021 dates TBA), adapted & directed by Yasen Peyankov, featuring Ian Barford, Cliff Chamberlin, Francis Guinan, Tim Hopper, Sandra Marquez, James Vincent Meredith, Caroline Neff, Karen Rodruquez, and Namir Smallwood.
* I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (2021 dates TBA), by Erika L. Sánchez, directed by Sandra Marquez, starring Karen Rodriguez. At its heart, this is a Chicago story about family, community and coming together even when that feels impossible. A Chicago high school student, as she navigates the trials and tribulations of following her dreams of becoming a writer alongside the death of her sister, Olga—who might not have been quite as perfect as she seemed.
* Last Night and the Night Before (2021 dates TBA), by Donnetta Lvinia Gray, directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton, featuring Namir Smallwood. A young woman is on the run. From what, she will not say. Arriving on the doorstep of her older sister’s Brooklyn brownstone with her ten-year-old daughter Sam, but without her loyal husband, her presence asks more questions than it answers as everyone in her orbit is thrown off balance and into one another.
* Choir Boy (2021 dates TBA), by Tarell Alvin McCraney, featuring Austin Pendleton, James Vincent Meredith, and more TBA.
* Bald Sisters (2021 dates TBA), world premiere by Vichet Chum. No other information is available at this time.
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A Zoom table read of A Bit of Waiting for Godot will take place Sun. June 28 at 2 PM ET, directed by Jonathan Church, and narrated by Joanna Lumley. The reading will be followed by a Q&A. here.
Michael Palin (Vladimir) and Robert Lindsay (Estragon)
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Video: Norm Lewis, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
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Andrew Lloyd Webber has not exactly denied the rumor than London’s The Phantom of the Opera will be replaced with a downsized version in the West End.
Unconfirmed reports allege that the new version would reduce the orchestra size from 27 to 14, as well as revise both director Hal Prince’s original stage and Gillian Lynne’s original choreography so the production could avoid royalty payment. Other items within the rumor state that the entire company, orchestra, and production staff of the West End version have already been let go.
While the production has not released any sort of statement, Lloyd Webber took to Twitter and didn’t exactly quash the rumor. “I’m doing everything in my power to ensure that when the Phantom returns it is the brilliant original,” he tweeted.
Camerson Mackintosh does have a history of this. In 2019, he replaced the long-running original West End production of Les Misérables with the smaller 25th-anniversary touring edition. In 1996, a substantial portion of the Broadway company of Les Misérables was let go and replaced in early 1997 with the touring company, before a new cast officially took over.
Click here to save the original production of The Phantom of the Opera, which already has more than 2,000 signatures.
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NYC’s 92Y presents “Judy Collins in Conversation with Bud Mishkin” on Wed. July 8 at 7 PM ET.
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Off-Broadway’s The Public Theater has announced a revised plan for its 2020 Free Shakespeare in the Park series:
* Richard III (a 4-part radio play edition, to run July 13-16), conceived & directed by Saheem Ali, featuring André Holland (Richard III), John Douglas Thompson (York), Phylicia Rashad (Duchess of Gloucester), Dakin Matthews (Gaunt), Estelle Parsons (Duchess of York), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Gardener), Jacob Ming-Trent (Carlisle), Claire van der Boom (Queen), Barzin Akhavan (Salisbury/Marshall), Sean Carvajal (Gardener’s Man/Surrey), Michael Bradley Cohen (Bushy), Sanjit De Silva (Mowbray/Exton), Biko Eisen-Martin (Fitzwater), Michael Gaston (Northumberland), Miriam A. Hyman (Bolingbroke), Merritt Janson (Scroop), Elijah Jones (Hotspur), Maria Mukuka (Queen’s Lady/Servant), Okwui Okpokwasili (Willoughby/Abbot), Tom Pecinka (Aumerle), Reza Salazar (Welsh Captain), Thom Sesma (Ross/Keeper), Sathya Sridharan (Bagot), Natalie Woolams-Torres (Green), and Ja’Siah Young (Groom). 
Available at 8 PM ET on WNYC.org (link TBA)
* Much Ado About Nothing (Aug. 14) a PBS re-broadcast of the 2019 production, directed by Kenny Leon, starring Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman.
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Will Reynolds: New Songs will take place Thurs. June 17 at 7 PM ET here.
Adam Kaplan, Aisha Jackson, Kerstin Anderson, and Chris Ams.
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Who’s receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2021:
Recipients: August Wilson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Lewis, Laura Linney, Sarah Paulson, Christian Slater, Josh Brolin, Don Cheadle, Morris Chestnut, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zac Efron, Giancarlo Giannini, Shia LaBeouf, Jimmy Smits, Naomi Watts, a double star for Ali McGraw & Ryan O’Neal, Nick Cannon, Courteney Cox, Marla Gibbs, Jenifer Lewis, Laura Linney, Judge Greg Mathis, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Sarah Paulson, Peter Roth and Christian Slater, and more here.
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San Francisco Pride‘s Pride 50, a weekend-long tribute to LGBTQ+ luminaries and queer solidarity will take place June 27-28.
Thelma Houston, Alicia Garza, W. Kamau Bell, and many more.
More than 13 hours of programming will stream through SFPride.org as the nation’s largest gathering of the LGBTQ+ community and allies goes online for the first time in its history.
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Video: In rehearsal for the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos, with Stephanie J. Block, Christian Borle, Andrew Rannells, Anthony Rosenthal, Tracie Thoms, Brandon Uranowitz and Betsy Wolfe.
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The next Musical Theatre Audition MasterClass, with instructors Debbie Gravitte & Michael Orland, will take place Thurs. June 25 at 1 PM PT/4 PM ET on Zoom (ID: 663 981-0058, no password required).
Kelli O’Hara and Jessica Vosk
Rebecca Kramski, Amanda Kruger, Aidan Van Eyk, Rich Warren, Lauren Woods, and Mike Haber (with alternate Aidan Ramirez).
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Video: Bob Fosse dance numbers