Today’s Highlights:
Tony [The Tony Blair Rock Opera], world premiere by Harry Hill & Steve Brown, directed by Peter Rowe, featuring Charlie Baker (Tony Blair), Gary Trainor (Gordon Brown), Howard Samuels (Peter Mandelson), Rosie Strobel (John Prescott), Madison Swan (Princess Diana), Holly Sumpton (Cherie Blair), Kaye Brown (Robin Cook), Adam Price (Neil Kinnock), and Marisa Harris (ensemble), opens at London’s Park Theatre.
Snow in Midsummer, by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, directed by Zi Alikhan, featuring Tommy Bo, Wai Ching Ho, Paul Juhn, Kenneth Lee, Julian Leong, Dorcas Leung, Teresa Avia Lim, Fin Moulding, Alex Vinh, and John Yi, opens at Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage.
King James, world premiere by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Kenny Leon, featuring Glenn Davis (Shawn) and Chris Perfetti (Matt), opens at LA’s Mark Taper Forum.
Bruce, world premiere by Richard Oberacker & Robert Taylor, directed & choreographed by Donna Feore, featuring Jarrod Spector, Hans Altwies, Eric Ankrim, David Menoit, Preston Truman Boyd, E. Faye Butler, Beth DeVries, Candice Song Donehoo, Jay Donnell, Alexandria J. Henderson, MJ Jurgensen, Justin Keyes, Ramzi Khalaf, Corinna Lapid Munter, Tomothy McCuen Piggee, Cullen R. Titmas, Brenna Mikale Wagner, Matt Wolfe, Geoff Packard, and Napoleon Maurice Douglas, with Kyle Nicholas Anderson, Brian Lange, and Sarah Rose Davis, opens at Seattle Rep.
The Outgoing Tide, by Bruce Graham, directed by Nike Doukas, featuring Andrew Barnicle, Leo Marx, and Linda Gehringer, opens at CA’s North Coast Rep.
Sam Harris: Openly Gray! concert opens at San Francisco’s Feinstein’s at the Nikko.
Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom, by Aedín Moloney & Colum McCann, directed by John Keating, featuring Aedín Moloney, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Irish Rep.
The Legend of Georgia McBride, by Matthew Lopez, directed by Jamie Torcellini, featuring Taubert Nadalini (Casey), Karese Frizell (Jo), Tom Trudgeon (Eddie), Jeff Summer (Jess Sumner), and Donzell Lewis (Rexy), begins previews at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
Lonesome Traveler: Generations, world premiere by George Grove & James O’Neil, directed by O’Neil, featuring George Grove, Rick Dougherty, Jerry Siggins, Sylvie Davidson, Andrew Huber, Alexcia Thompson, and Trevor Wheetman, begins previews at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre.
MasterVoices‘ Songs for a Summer Night FREE concert, directed by Ted Sperling, at 7 PM ET at NYC’s new Waterline Square Park on the Upper West Side.
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Reviews for The Bedwetter at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theatre Company:
New York Times (Jesse Green): …Satisfying as the standup rhythm is, The Bedwetter… is sometimes, like its title character, a bit of a misfit… Based on the real Sarah Silverman’s 2010 memoir… it works best when it aims for the comic highs of that charming if gangly book. As long as it sticks close to young Sarah’s resilience as she tries to make friends without revealing her mortifying condition, The Bedwetter… is a potty-mouthed pleasure. But in jimmying the original into a more serious musical format as it proceeds, it achieves only a middling geniality… It starts out promisingly enough… The songs, with music by Adam Schlesinger and lyrics by Schlesinger and Silverman, have the cheesy irreverence and synth-y disposability of period television jingles — the period being the early 1980s.
The Guardian (Alexis Solosky): …after a long and terrible delay [due to Covid]… clever, comic, small-scale splendid – a mournful metatext and a kind of terrible irony… a musical about taking the worst that life gives you, accepting it and moving on. Which is of course what The Bedwetter itself has done… lacks a traditional narrative arc, ending in a moment of both triumph and inconclusion. Schlesinger’s brisk, bright, pert songs tend to cruise blithely by rather than lodging in the heart or brain… And yet, for all of that, The Bedwetter doesn’t feel slight. Like a good mattress it has both bounce and genuine heft… Under Anne Kauffman’s direction, no character feels stock. The principal cast endows the Silverman family with real psychology and emotional depth…
Theatermania (David Gordon): … As the cast ebulliently performs the earworm title song of this hilarious and filthy new musical from comedian Sarah Silverman, I couldn’t stop thinking about the one person who wouldn’t be able to hear it: the composer [Adam Schlesinger, who died of Covid at the age of 52]… because it’s almost there; close, but not quite. There’s something so lovely and special about this show, and I worry that the creative team won’t want to do the work to bring it up to the next level without him… The Bedwetter, as it stands now, is a charming trifle… As far as the direction goes, Kauffman is better with her individual actors than she is with the bigger picture… Glick’s surprisingly mature and extremely well-controlled performance as Sara…
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending June 5.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car.” ~ Kenneth Tynan
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Click here to download your 2022 Tony Award ballot.
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Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics will run June 28 – July 24 (opening July 2) at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre, directed by Marcos Santana.
Christian Barillas (CheChe), Maria Isabel Bilbao (Marela), Serafin Falcon (Santiago), Iliana Guibert (Ofelia), Gullermo Ivan (Paloma/Eliades), Anthony Michael Martinez (Juan Julian), and Christine Spang (Conchita).
The play centers on a sultry and steamy cigar factory in 1929 Tampa, where the lives of a Cuban-American family are challenged by the vices and temptations that surround them. The factory owner, Santiago, wrestles with a gambling addiction that’s emboldened by his half-brother, while his daughters, unhappy in their respective relationships, long for the affection of the factory’s handsome lector. Romance, lust, and jealousy collide as the family confronts the discontent in their lives, as a wave of modernization threatens to dispel the very traditions they hold dear.
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Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen will close Sept. 18 at the Music Box Theatre, after 1,678 regular performances and 21 previews, making it one of the 50 longest-running Broadway shows in history.
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The world premiere of Matthew Lombardo’s When Playwrights Kill will run July 26 – Aug. 7 at Hartford’s Bushnell Theatre, directed by Noah Himmelstein.
Jeremy Jordan (Jack Hawkins), Harriet Harris (Brooke Remington), Andre De Shields (Maurice Khalan Walker), and more TBA.
Jack Hawkins, is an aspiring playwright on the verge of making his Broadway debut. But after being forced to hire the notoriously difficult actress Brook Remington, his play’s out-of-town tryout in Boston proves disastrous. Unwilling to bring the production to New York and unable to convince the producer to fire her, Jack knows there is only one solution that will save his play and career…Brooke Remington must be stopped!
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Video: Shoshana Bean and The Broadway Boys perform a remix of “Maybe It Starts with Me,” from Mr. Saturday Night.
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The world premiere of Sesame Street: The Musical will run Sept. 8 – Nov. 27 (opening Sept. 22) at Theatre Row, directed by Jonathan Rockefeller.
Casting TBA.
Special guest stars from Broadway and beyond will join the gang, with the show featuring “Sesame Street’s” classic songs – plus new numbers created especially for this production by Broadway’s brightest composers and songwriters. In addition, beloved furry friends will appear in their original puppet form.
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Video: Patti Lupone performs a dramatic reading of Stephen Colbert’s “Meanwhile” intro.
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“Mrs. American Pie” will stream on Apple TV (premiere dated TBA) for a 10-episode run.
Kristen Wiig, Carol Burnett, Allison Janney, Leslie Bib, Josh Lucas and Ricky Martin.
The comedy follows Maxine Simmons (Wiig) attempt to secure her seat at America’s most exclusive table: Palm Beach high society in the early 1970s. As she attempts to cross that impermeable line between the haves and the nave-nots, the series asks the same questions that still baffle us today: “Who gets a seat at the table?” “How do you get a seat at the table?” “What will you sacrifice to get there?”
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Rupert Holmes & Marvin Hamlisch’s The Nutty Professor will run July 1 – Aug. 3 at ME’s Ogunquit Playhouse, directed by Marc Bruni, with music direction by Matt Deitchman.
Max Crumm (Julius Kelp/Buddy Love), Elena Ricardo (Stella Purdy), Klea Blackhurst (Miss Lemon), Mel Johnson Jr. (Harrington Winslow), and Jeff McCarthy (Dr. Warfield), with Parker Aimone, Alyssa Carol, Jillian Hope Ferguson, Joseph Harrington, Fernel Hogan, Corinne Munsch, Chase Peacock, Larkin Reilly, Ethan Rogers, Vanessa Sierra, Kyra Louise Smith, Jordan Stephens, Jake Urban, Jerome Vivona, and Blake Zelesnikar.
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Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt will begin previews Sept. 14 and open Oct. 2 at the Longacre Theatre, directed by Patrick Marber.
Casting and additional information TBA.
Set in Vienna, the play takes its title from the Jewish quarter. This passionate drama of love and endurance begins in the last days of 1899 and follows one extended family deep into the heart of the 20th century. The play spans 50 years.
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Complete casting has been announced for The Tempest, to run July 1 – Aug. 6 at Theatre Royal Bath, directed by Deborah Warner.
Dickie Beau (Ariel), Gary Sefton (Stephano), William Chubb (Gonzalo), Stephen Kennedy (Trinculo), Nicholas Woodeson (Prospero), Pierro Miel-Mee (Ferdinand), Tanvi Virmani (Mirana), Natalie Winsor (Francisca), Finbar Lynch (Antonio), and Luke Mullins (Sebastian).
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A Toast to Harvey: Celebrating the life and Career of Harvey Evans will take place Wed. June 22 at 6 PM ET at Off-Broadway’s Triad Theatre, directed by Lawrence Leritz, and hosted by Lee Roy Reams
Jim Brochu, Anita Gillette, Kurt Peterson, Marianne Tatum, Penny Worth, and Dancers Over 40.
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Tina – The Tina Turner Musical will close Aug. 14 at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, after 27 previews and 482 regular performances.
A national tour will launch Sept. 14, with details TBA.
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The world premiere of Prince Charming, You’re Late, written by and starring Billy Hipkins, will run June 29 – July 23 (opening July 5) at Theatre Row, directed by Perry Dell’Aquila.
Billy’s true-life fable. A one-man middle-age-ed cautionary tale warning us to be careful who you crush on, or you might just get crushed.
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Gingold Theatrical Group‘s 2021 filmed presentation of Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession will be available for streaming June 21-27, directed by David Staller.
Karen Ziema (Mrs. Kitty Warren), Robert Cuccioli (Sir George Crofts), David Lee Huynh (Frank Gardner), Alvin Keith (Praed), Nicole King (Vivie Warren ,and Raphael Nash Thompson (Reverend Samuel Gardner), with Katya Collazo and Max Roll.
Shaw examines how six dynamic people finally face their past to plan for their future, including the mysterious title character who has built a global empire from the ground up – this in a time when women had no legal rights. Here’s a rare opportunity for you to experience the play that, in its world debut in New York City in 1905, the entire cast was arrested on opening night! Not, as you might think, because the play deals with the subject of prostitution, but because a woman dared tell the world that she refused to live her life within the narrow confines handed to her at birth.
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Tim Rice & Stuart Brayson’s adaptation of From Here to Eternity, will run Oct. 29 – Dec. 17 (opening Nov. 8) at the Charing Cross Theatre, directed by Brett Smock.
Casting and additional information TBA.
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Video: Ramin Karimloo sings “Väinämöinen’s Soliloquy” from the upcoming original concept album for Kalevala The Musical!