Today’s Highlights:
Manhattan Theater Club‘s We Had a World, by Joshua Harman, directed by Trip Cullman, featuring Andrew Barth Feldman, Joanna Gleason, and Jeanine Serralles, opens at NY City Center Stage II .
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Broadway Grosses for the week endingMar. 16.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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Musical Theatre Guild‘s The Drowsy Chaperone concert presentation will take place Sun. Mar. 23 at 7 PM at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage, directed by Lewis Wilkenfeld.
Michael Kostroff (Man in Chair), Ashley Moniz (Janet), Matthew Patrick Davis (Robert), Diane Vincent (Drowsy), Trance Thompson (Aldolpho), Keven Symons (Feldzieg), Jasmin Ejan (Kitty), Joshua Finkel (George), Will Collyer (Gangster #1), Leslie Stevens (Gangster #2), Barbara Carlton Heart (Mrs. Tottendale), Robert Yacko (Underling), Domonique Paton (Trix), andGabriel Navarro (Super).
Video: “Women’s Club Blues” and “I Remember It Well” in rehearsal.
The musical depicts over two centuries of American history, through the eyes of a family who never ages. The musical explores the intimate aspects of a marriage through a juxtaposition of heartfelt scenes and satirical vaudeville acts.
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Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends will begin previews Mar. 25 and open Apr. 8 at the Samuel James Friedmen Theatre, directed by Matthew Bourne & Julia McKenzie, with choreography by Stephen Mear.
Bernadette Peters, Lea Salonga, Jacob Dickey, Kevin Earley, Jasmine Forsberg, Kate Jennings Grant, Bonnie Langford, Beth Leavel, Gavin Lee, Jason Pennycooke, Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Kyle Selig, Maria Wirries, Daniel Yearwood, Paige Faure, Alexa Lopez, Greg Mills and Peter Neureuther.
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David Valdes’ The Great Reveal will run Apr. 4-27 at Boston’s Lyric Stage, directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary & Charlotte Snow.
Paige Clark (Lexie), Arthur Gomez (Christopher), Jupiter Lê (Linus), and Antonia Turilli (Dosia).
Newly married and seven months pregnant, Lexi has planned the perfect backyard gender-reveal party with every detail immaculately in place. But not everyone is as enthusiastic about the celebration. Her immature husband, Christopher, is rattled by what the future holds for him as a father. Her brother Linus, a trans man, is caught between his sister and his partner Dosia, who is tasked with making the cake for an event that goes against everything they stand for. When emotions escalate and revelations are shared, a family and the importance of being true to oneself is tested as they grapple to find ways to keep on loving each other.
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Muse/Ique’s According to Ray: Ray Charles Message to America will run Mar. 21-23 at the Mark Taper Forum.
Brandon Victor Dixon and DC6 Singers Collective.
For the first few decades of his career, Ray Charles electrified us with his genius knack for blending gospel, blues, jazz, rock and soul. Then, in 1972, the ultimate musical trailblazer did something even he’d never done before: he infused his work with an anthemic message of empathy at a time when we really needed it. With his album, A Message From the People, and its cornerstone reinterpretation of “America The Beautiful,” Charles expressed his own vision of America—confronting our contradictions and lighting a path back toward our ideals.
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Tennessee Williams’ In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel will run Apr. 9 – May 18 (opening Apr. 11) at the Hudson Backstage Theatre, directed by Jack Heller.
Paul Coates, Remington Hoffman, Susan Priver, and Rene Rivera.
Written in 1968, this rarely seen play was first staged off-Broadway in 1969. It shines an undeniable light on the chasm between spiritual ambition and carnal need. The central characters, a debilitated painter and his lonely, desperate wife, express their anguish through plaintive notes of poetry recalling Tennessee Williams at his very best. Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission.
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Manhattan Theatre Club has announced the first 2 productions of its 2025-26 season:
Monsters, written & directed by Ngozi Anyanwu. LIL has been obsessed with fighting and one fighter in particular: her older brother, BIG. LIL admires BIG’s success in the local Mixed Martial Arts circuit from afar, until she decides to show up on his doorstep.
Punch (Fall 2025): by James Graham, directed by Adam Penford. Based on Jacob Dunne’s memoir Right From Wrong, Punch traces Dunne’s journey in restorative justice after one impulsive punch led to fatal consequences. After spending more than a year in prison, he connected with the victim’s parents, sparking a profound transformation.
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The Negro Ensemble Company‘s production of Lonne Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark Old Men will run Apr. 11 – May 18 (0pening Apr. 18) at Theatre at St. Clements, directed by Clinton Turner Davis.
Norm Lewis, James Foster Jr., Jeremiah Packer, Calvin M. Thompson and Bryce Michael Wood.
It’s New York in the 1950s. Russell Parker, a ne’er-do-well barber and the widowed father of three adult children, spends his days playing checkers and reminiscing about his life in vaudeville as a song and dance man. His two sons, Theo and Bobby, are dreamers of a different sort – a pair of petty criminals looking for a “score” in the form of ill-conceived and dangerous bootlegging and numbers schemes. Russell’s daughter, Adele, the only gainfully employed member of the family, eventually threatens to walk out, refusing to work herself into an early grave like her mother. When Adele’s long-simmering resentments boil over and the boys’ criminal enterprise falls apart, tragic consequences ensue for the whole family.
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Hershey Felder’s Rachmaninoff and the Tsar will run Apr. 3 – 20 (opening Apr. 5) atSanta Barbara’s Ensemble Theatre Company, directed by Trevor Hay.
Hershey Felder and Jonathan Silvestri.
Having safely left Russia during the 1917 revolution, legendary pianist-composer Sergei Rachmaninoff made his home in the United States. In 1942, at the age of 68, he applied for American citizenship and bought a home in Beverly Hills, but his soul never left Russia. Six months thereafter, a terminal illness brought forth the memory of an encounter with Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II, and the Tsar’s daughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. This memory would haunt him until the end. This new work delves into the fascinating intersection of art and power, showcasing Rachmaninoff’s genius against the backdrop of history.
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Sara Ruhl’s Eurydice will run May 13 – June 22 at the Signature Theatre, directed by Les Waters.
Brian d’Arcy James (Father), Maya Hawke (Eurydice), Caleb Eberhardt (Orpheus), T. Ryder Smith (A Nasty Interesting Man/The Lord of the Underworld), Maria Elena Ramirez (Loud Stone), David Ryan Smith (Big Stone) and Jon Norman Schneider (Little Stone).
Ruhl wrote the play for her late father, reframing the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus around Eurydice’s relationship to her father.
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York Theatre Company‘s All Dancing, All York 2025 Spring Gala, will take place Mon. Mar. 24 at 7:30 PM at Off-Broadway’s Theater at St. Jeans, directed by Mark Waldrop, with music direction by Eugene Gwozdz.
Karen Ziemba, Jelani Remy, Ben Vereen, Christine Pedi, Tony Yazbeck, and American Dance Machine.
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The world premiere of Cracked Open, written & directed by Gail Kriegel will run May 6 – June 28 (opening May 20) at Theatre Row.
Paul Castree, Pamela Bob, Katherine Reis, Bart Shatto, Joyia D. Bradley, Rubén Caballero, Blaire DiMisa, Scott Harrison, Madeline Grace Jones, Lisa Pelikan, Katherine Reis, and Jeene Vath.
A loving family is broken apart with the onset of mental illness in their 17 year old daughter. And the whole family enters the wilderness: the absurd, comical and nightmarish maze of doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, a super market variety of diagnoses and medications. As they grope through the darkness, the violent consequences of a poorly run state facility, and the fierce stigma of mental illness – the family finds a new way to come together again.