Today’s Highlights:
Be More Chill, by Joe Iconis & Joe Tracz, directed by Stephen Brackett, featuring Scott Folan (Jeremy Heere), Blake Patrick Anderson (Michael Mell), Miracle Chance (Christine Canigula), and Stewart Clarke (The Squip), with Eloise Davies, Christopher Fry, James Hameed, Gabriel Hinchliffe, Renée Lamb, Eve Norris, Millie O’Connell, and Miles Paloma, returns to the West Ends’ Shaftsbury Theatre.
NYC’s Gracie Mansion Conservancy 2021 Gala: Raising The Curtain – Theatre is Back benefit gala, hosted by Deena Jones & Sheryl Lee Ralph, featuring Keenan Scott II, Steve H. Broadnax III and performers from Thoughts of a Colored Man — David Henry Hwang, Bobby Conte Thornton, Jessica Phillips, John Gallagher Jr., and Andrew Lloyd Webber, streams at 6 PM ET here.
Four Chords and a Gun benefit reading, by John Ross Bowie, directed by Jessica Hanna, featuring Michael Cassady, Ben Feldman, Lena Hall, Justin Kirk, and Bobby Conte Thornton, concludes streaming on Play-PerView.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.” ~ Oscar Wilde
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Video: Stars in the House, with guest host Brenda Braxton, who looks back at her favorite moments as a guest and guest host. (1:14:40)
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Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite will now run Feb. 25 – June 12, 2022 (opening Mar. 28) at the Hudson Theatre, directed by John Benjamin Hickey.
Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, with more TBA.
Video: Behind the scenes
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“A Cinderella Story: Starstruck” is now available to own digitally and on DVD here.
Bailee Madison, Michael Evans Behling, April Telek, Lillian Doucet-Roche, and Richard Harmon.
A small-town farm girl longs to spread her wings and soar as an aspiring performer. When a Hollywood film crew arrives in her sleepy town, she is determined to land a role in the production and capture the attention of handsome lead actor Jackson Stone. Unfortunately a botched audition forces her to change course. Now, disguised as cowboy “Huck,” Finley finally gets her big break. but can she keep the charade a secret from everyone, including her evil stepmother and devious step-siblings?
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The pre-Broadway production of Sir Elton John, Shaina Taub, Paul Rudnick & Kate Wetherhead’s The Devil Wears Prada will run July 19 – Aug. 22, 2022 at Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, with music supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo.
Casting and additional details TBA.
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Whitney White’s immersive installation of Semblance will run Aug. 4-29 at New York Theatre Workshop. Tickets for the virtual experience will be $10 and will go on sale on a later date.
The filmed experience asks audiences to examine how Black women are perceived and how we interact with the Black Feminine.
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LA’s Geffen Playhouse has announced its 2021-22 season:
The Enigmatist (Sept. 14 – Oct. 30), written & performed by David Kwong. Can you solve the enigma? Clues are everywhere, so keep your eyes open and be ready for surprises behind every multi-layered illusion.
Paradise Blue (Nov. 9 – Dec. 12), by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Stori Ayers. Welcome to the sultry, jazz-filled Paradise Club. It’s 1949 Detroit, and trumpet-playing club owner Blue has a tough decision to make. Should he sell his jazz joint as gentrification is banging on the door? The house band is desperate to stay, Blue’s demons are tempting him to leave, and the arrival of a seduction stranger turns everything upside down.
Power of Sail (Feb. 1 – Mar. 13, 2022), by Paul Grellong, directed by Mengesha, featuring Hugo Armstrong, Amy Brenneman, Bryan Cranston, Tedra Millan, and Seth Numrich, with more TBA. Distinguished Harvard professor Charles Nichols (Bryan Cranston), finds himself in hot water after inviting an incendiary white nationalist to speak at his annual symposium. His colleagues are concerned, his students are in revolt, but Charles is undeterred in his plot to expose and academically thrash his invited guest. Who ultimately will pay the price?
Trayf (Mar. 1 – Apr. 10), by Lindsay Joelle, directed by Maggie Burrows. Zalmy lives a double life. By day, he drives a Chabad “Mitzvah Tank” through 1990s New York City, performing good deeds with his best friend Shmuel. By night, he sneaks out of his orthodox community to roller-skate and listen to rock & roll. But when a curious outsider offers him unfettered access to the secular world, is it worth jeopardizing everything he’s ever known? A funny and heartwarming ode to the turbulence of youth, the universal suspicion that we don’t quite fit in, and the faith and friends that see us through.
TBA (Apr. 19 – May 22)
Man of God (May 24 – July 3), by Anna Ouyang Moench, directed by Maggie Burrows. During a mission trip to Bangkok, the four members of a Korean Christian girls’ youth group discover that their revered pastor has hidden a camera in their hotel bathroom. Samantha is personally wounded that Pastor would do this to her. Jen is worried about how this might affect her college applications. Mimi’s out for blood, as usual. And Kyung-Hwa thinks everyone needs to have lower expectations for men. Their communal rage and disillusionment fuel increasingly violent revenge fantasies amidst the no-holds-barred neon bubblegum sex-tourism mecca of Bankok.
TBA (June 21 – July 24)
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Seussical the Musical in concert will take place Nov. 22 at 5 PM ET & 9 PM ET 54 Below.
Members of the original Broadway cast TBA.
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Lori Brown Mirabal’s Charmed Life will run July 9 – Aug. 1 (opening July 14) at Urban Stages, directed by Vincent Scott.
Lori Brown Mirabal
A musical journey from Mirabal’s hometown of Nashville, to opera stages across the world. With comedy, storytelling, and show-stopping musical numbers, Mirabal brings you inside the world of opera and inside her efforts to spread the art form, especially to the next generation.
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Ambassador of Love: Celebrating Pearl Bailey, starring Rashidra Scott, continues through July 18 at Goodspeed Musicals, directed by T. Oliver Reid, with music direction by Michael O. Mitchell.
Great deal: Buy one/get one tickets are available this Saturday only — July 3 at 2 PM ET, with a non-perishable food donation to benefit the East Haddam Food Bank.
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Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss’ Six will launch its national tour Mar. 29 – July 3, 2022 at Chicago’s CIBC Theatre, directed by Lucy Moss & Jamie Armitage, with choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, with music supervision by joe Beighton.
Casting TBA.
The musical features the six wives of Henry VIII reclaiming their identities as they transform from Tudor Queens into Pop Princesses.
As previously announced, the Broadway production will resume previews at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Sept. 17 and open Oct. 3.
Video: Trailer
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The pre-Broadway world premiere of Christina Anderson, Marcus Gardley, Craig Lucas, Larry Kerwin, Nathan Tysen, and Masi Asare’s Paradise Square will run Nov. 2 – Dec. 5 at Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre, directed by Moisés Kaufman, with choreography by Bill T. Jones, and music supervision by Jason Howland
Joaquina Kalukango (Nelly Freeman), Chilina Kennedy (Annie O’Brien), John Dossett (Frederick Tiggens), Sidney DuPont (Washington Henry), A.J. Shively (Owen Duignan), Nathaniel Stampley (Reverend Samuel Jacob Lewis), Garbielle McClinton (Angelina Baker), Jacob Fishel (Milton Moore), and Kevin Dennis (“Lucky” Mike Quinlan), with Colin Barkell, Karen Burthwright, Kennedy Caughell, Dwayne Clark, Garrett Coleman, Colin Cunliffe, Chloe Davis, Bernard Dotson, Jamal Christopher Douglas, Sam Edgerly, Shiloh Goodin, Jacobi Hall, Sean Jenness, Jay McKenzie, Ben Michael, Jason Oremus, Eilis Quinn, Sara Sheperd, Lee Siegel, Lael Van Keuren, Sir Brock Warren, Alan Wiggins, and Hailee Kaleem Wright, and more TBA.
New York City, 1863. The country is divided over immigration, racial tensions, and political ideology. The chaos of the Civil War rages on the in the heart of the Five Points slum. But in this neighborhood, something extraordinary is occurring. Free born Blacks and those who escaped slavery are living, working, and intermarrying with newly arrived Irish immigrants. A new music and dance flourishes. A new culture is created from an accidental society.
Broadway previews begin Feb. 22, 2022 at the Barrymore Theatre.
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Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me will run Oct. 26 – Nov. 21 at Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse, directed by Oliver Butler.
Cassie Beck and one more TBA.