Today’s Highlights:
Manhattan Theatre Club‘s The Best We Could (a family tragedy), world premiere by Emily Feldman, directed by Daniel Aukin, featuring Aya Cash, Brian D. Coats, Maureen Sebastian, Constance Shulman, and Frank Wood, opens at NYC’s City Center Stage 1.
Hercules, by Alan Menken, David Zippel & Robert Horn, directed by Ron Clements & John Musker, featuring Bradley Gibson (Hercules), Shuler Hensley (Hades), James Monroe Iglehart (Phil), Isabelle McCalla (Meg), Jeff Blumenkrantz (Panic), Reggie De Leon (Pain), Charity Angél Dawson (Clio), Tiffay Mann (Calliope), Anastacia McCleskey (Thalia), Destinee Rea (Terpsichore), Rashidra Scott (Melpomene), Kathryn Allison (Despina), Allyson Kaye Daniel (Aunt Tithesis/Lachesis), Lucia Giannetta (Atropos), Jesse Nager (Nessus), Kristen Faith Oei (Hera), Dennis Stowe (Zeus), and Anne Fraser Thomas (Clotho), with Joshua Buscher, Marcus Cobb, Zachary Downer, Ryan Fitzgerald, Kendall LeShanti, Chani Maisonet, Skye Mattox, Jason W. McCullum, Erin Moore, JJ Niemann, Gabrielle Reid, and Adam Roberts, opens at NJ’s Papermill Playhouse.
Cambodian Rock Band, by Lauren Yee, directed by Chay Yew, featuring Francis Jue (Duch), Abraham Im (Rom/Journalist), Jane Luis (Pou/S21 Guard), Joe Ngo (Chum), Geena Quintos (Neary/Sothea), and Moses Villarama (Ted/Cadre/Len), with Kelsey Angel, Baehrens, Alex Lydon, and Vi Tran, opens at CA’s Berkeley Rep.
Virginia Stage Company‘s Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous, by Pearl Cleage, directed by Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, featuring Patricia Alli (Anna Campbell), Mikayla Lashae Bartholomew (Precious “Pete” Watson), Terri Brown (Betty Samson), and Bethany Mayo (Kate Hughes), opens at Norfolk’s Wells Theatre.
Turn The Beat Around concert, a salute to Studio 54, directed by Scott Colter, featuring (in March) Susan Agin, Jessica Birago, Scott Coulter, Tyce Green, Jessica Hendy, Michael Holland, Larry Lelli, Lorinda Lisitza Anthony Murphy, Kelli Rabke, Devin L. Roberts, Matt Scharfglass, and Mike Schwitter, opens at NYC’s 54 Below.
“Elaine Stritch at Liberty” begins streaming on BroadwayHD.
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Reviews for The Secret Garden at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre:
LA Times (Charles McNulty): A new director, Warren Carlyle, has streamlined the show, shaving 20 minutes of running time through a combination of textual cuts and fleeter scenic design choices… But the result isn’t so much a rebirth of The Secret Garden as a retooled touring version… Jason Sherwood’s sets, devoid of any sense of place, appear to have been designed with only logistical efficiency in mind… But the core set of problems that held the show back hasn’t been addressed. A beloved children’s story is still incongruously masquerading on stage as an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical… Sierra Boggess, whose exquisite warbling turns a long-dead character into a central figure…. The production fails to establish a coherent theatrical world… It’s never a good sign when a musical makes you want to avert your eyes. But the glorious singing will at least delight your ears.
Theatermania (Linda Buchwald): Despite being notoriously difficult to stage, the production that opened Sunday night at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles overcomes many of the obstacles — but not all of them. This flawed musical…may never fully work, but there are enough admirable elements in it that make it worth the effort… Carlyle has smartly streamlined the musical by focusing on Mary’s perspective… Boggess haunts the stage in Ann Hould-Ward’s ethereal costumes. She is a memory, a perfect angel to those who lost her, and that doesn’t leave much room for characterization… Lucy Simon’s score, which sounds great with Danny Troob’s new orchestrations…
Broadway World (Andrew Child): …Director and choreographer Warren Carlyle is a surprising– and in my opinion, misguided– choice to helm the project… There is a quaint, childlike magic to the piece that Carlyle tries to coerce into a broad musical comedy… The result is a staging that seems to be constantly at odds with, and worse, apologizing for the source material… the characters float about the stage randomly with little to visually captivate the audience… Emily Jewel Hoder is excellent as Mary Lennox, but, the unequivocal star of the evening is Julia Lester as Martha who brings the house down with the stirring anthem, “Hold On.”
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Reviews for Letters From Max at Off Broadway’s Signature Theater:
Theatermania (David Gordon): … sensitively directed by Kate Whoriskey, and lovingly acted by Jessica Hecht (as Sarah) and Zane Pais and Ben Edelman (who alternate the role of Max)… It is amazing how effortlessly these missives manage to capture their divergent personalities, and how the performers manage to tap into something almost ethereal in their delivery… The epistolary nature of the play creates somewhat of an artificial distance for us, the spectators… I was looking forward to a good cry, and I didn’t get it… Still, there’s a beautiful honesty to the whole thing…
Time Out (Martha Wade Steketee): …We are told in the play’s first minutes that the college-age Max has Ewing’s sarcoma, and that he endured treatments of chemotherapy in his teen years. It’s no mystery where this story is headed, but that doesn’t make the journey less affecting… Hecht draws upon her characteristic wit and charm, flexing her comedic chops… She holds this room, and works with great sensitivity with her partners… This epistolary play sends the message that a life cut short can call us to embrace our own lives and—as Max tells Sarah in a dream—to feel them swaying.
New York Theatre (Jonathan Mandell): There is so much love that Sarah Ruhl has put into this play, that one cannot help but feel moved by the effort… But there’s a dilemma at the heart…which the character of Max articulated for me, unintentionally. The line, like all Max’s lines in the play, was not imagined by Ruhl but actually written by Ritvo, a respected poet… “I don’t really know how to talk to people about my illness in a nondestructive way, or how they’re supposed to listen”… the show, directed by Kate Whoriskey, is done meticulously… But unlike other epistolary plays – A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters comes to mind – Letters from Max, A Ritual is as much a poetry reading as it is a dialogue, and it was frankly hard for me to listen for two hours.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Feb. 26. Click here for the complete analysis.
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London’s 2023 Olivier Award nominations:
Click here for the complete list.
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Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ will begin previews Mar. 2 and open Mar. 19 at the Music Box Theatre, directed & musically staged by Wayne Cilento.
Yeman Brown, Peter John Chursin, Dylis Croman, Jovan Dansberry, Karli Dinardo, Tony d’Alelio, Aydin Eyikan, Manuel Herrera, Gabriel Hyman, Kolton Krouse, Mattie Love, Krystal Mackie, Yani Marin, Nando Morland, Khori Michelle Petinaud, Ida Saki, Ron Todorowski, and Neka Zang.
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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a musical adaptation of John Berendt’s 1994 novel, is currently in development, with a book by Taylor Mac and a score by Jason Robert Brown, directed by Rob Ashford, with choreography by Tanya Birl & Sarah O’Gleby.
Casting TBA.
The musical tracks an antiques dealer through four trials for murdering a male prostitute in Savannah, Georgia. The story is modeled on the real -life shooting of Daniel Lewis Hansford.
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LA Theater Works return this year with a full live season of 3 audio productions, all at UCLA’s James Bridges Theatre. Casting and additional details TBA.
The Confession of Henry Jekyll, M.D. (Apr. 14-16, adapted by David Rambo from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel. On the last night of his life, Henry Jeckyll records the harrowing story of his years-long struggle to maintain his high-profile, esteemed reputation as a physician and philanthropist while secretly attempting to suppress a voracious beast he had long felt lurking within him.
The Great Gatsby (May 19-21), adapted by Anna Lyse Erikson. Set in the Jazz Age of New York, self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby is consumed with desire for Daisy Buchanan, drawing new neighbor Nick Carraway into their world of lavish wealth, wild parties and free-flowing liquor.
Exodus: The Shanghai Jews (June 23-25), by Kate McCall. It’s 1938 and Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe are faced with a difficult choice: to stay and hope for better times, or escape to the only country willing to offer them a safe haven – China. Adapted from interviews with people who faced that decision, this documentary-style drama tells their moving, and ultimately uplifting stories.
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Spamalot will run May 12-21 at DC’s Kennedy Center, directed & choreographed by Josh Rhodes, with music direction by John Bell.
Alex Brightman (Sir Lancelot), James Monroe Iglehart (King Arthur), Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer (Lady of the Lake), Rob McClure (Historian), and more TBA.
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Bob Gale, Alan Silvestri & Glen Ballard’s Back to the Future will begin previews June 30 and open Aug. 3 at the Winter Garden Theatre, directed by John Rando, with choreography by Chris Bailey, and music direction by Ted Arthur.
Casey Likes (Marty McFly), Roger Bart (Doc Brown), Hugh Coles (George McFly), and more TBA.
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& 
Al Pacino will discuss the origins and arc of his legendary career with David Rubenstein on Wed. Apr. 19 at 7 PM at NYC’s 92Y.
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Correction: York Theatre Company‘s production of Jack Heifner & David Kirshenbaum’s Vanities – The Musical will run Mar. 21 – Apr. 22 (opening Mar. 30) at Theatre at St. Jean’s, directed by Will Pomerantz, with choreography by Shannon Lewis, and music direction by Deborah Abramson.
Jade Jones (Mary), Amy Keum (Kathy), and Hayley Podschun (Joanne), with Olivia Kaufmann.
A heartfelt and humorous chronicle of the lives of Joanne, Kathey, and Mary – tracing them from their late teen years through adulthood. They grow and change, testing the limits of what they thought they knew about themselves, as well as the narrow views of women society has presented them.
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Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap continues through Mar. 19 at Boston’s Lyric Stage, directed by Michael Hisamoto.
Barlow Adamson, Jihan Haddad, Gary Thomas Ng, and Tyler Simahk
It’s 1989 San Francisco and Manford Lum, a gifted, fast-talking teenager, dominates the high school basketball courts. Facing an uncertain future, he convinces Saul, a cynical and crusty coach, to let him travel to Beijing for a “friendship” game in China. Waiting there is a Chinese national coach with unfinished business, both with Saul and with Manford. On the eve of historic demonstrations, all three men are challenged to define their pasts and futures.
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The Chita Rivera Awards will take place Mon. May 22 at the NYU Skirball Center.
Nominations will be announced Fri. Apr. 28