Today’s Highlights:
After the End, by Dennis Kelly, directed by Lyndsey Turner, featuring Nick Blood (Mark) and Amaka Okafor (Louise), opens at London’s Theatre Royal Stratford.
She Loves Me, directed by Matthew Gardiner, featuring Ali Ewoldt (Amalia Balash), Deven Kolluri (Georg Nowack), Emmanuel Elliot Key (Arpad Laszlo), Bobby Smith (Ladislav Sipos), Maria Rizzo (Ilona Ritter), Vincent Kempski (Seven Kodaly), Lawrence Redmond (Mr. Maraczek), and David Schlumpf (Head Waiter), with Andre Hinds, Christopher Mueller, Daniel Powers, Olivia Ashley Reed, Katherine Riddle, Jillian Wessel, Drake Leach, Sarah Anne Sillers, and Dylan Toms, opens at DC’s Signature Theatre.
Ocean Filibuster world premiere, by Lisa D’Amour & Sxip Shirey, directed by Katie Pearl, featuring Jennifer Kidwell (Mr. Majority/The Ocean), Marshall Hughes, Rachel Share-Sapolsky, Emerson Sieverts, Evan Spigelman, Dawn L. Troupe, and Nia Weeks, opens at Cambridge’s A.R.T.
Notes From Now, world premiere with songs by Jay Adana, Troy Anthony, Masi Asare, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Georgie Castilla & Jaime Lozano, Gretchen Cryer, Tia DeShazor & Derrick Byars, Alexandra Elle & Stephen Schwartz, Adam Gwon, Douglas Lyons & Ethan Pakchar, Peter Mills, Ryan Scott Oliver, Michelle J. Rodriguez, Angela Sclafani, Paulo Tiról, and Amanda Yesnowitz & Deborah Abramson, directed & choreographed by Billy Bustamante, featuring Ashley Blanchet, Thani Brant, Darron Hayes, Josh Lamon, Aline Mayagoitia, Judy McLane, and John Yi, with Genesis Adelia Collado, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theaters.
First Lady of Song: Alexis Roston Sings Ella Fitzgerald, by Angela Ingersoll, previews at Laguna Playhouse.
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Reviews for Out of Time at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater:
NY Times (Laura Collins-Hughes): …a collaboration between the National Asian American Theater Company and the Public Theater that gathers five new solo shorts by Asian American playwrights into a single program… The five performers are Asian American actors, all over 60, deep into careers in which their odds of working have been far tougher than for their white contemporaries… Not all of the art-making succeeds in Les Waters’s uneven production at the Public, but every actor is one you’ll want to see again, and that is a large part of the point…
Theatermania (Kenji Fujishima): …Not only does it feature five new monologues written by Asian-American playwrights, but all five give Asian actors over the age of 60 the kind of acting showcase they aren’t normally afforded. If only the short plays themselves were as worthwhile as the concept binding them together… “My Documentary” stands out simply because Moench crafts a memorable central figure… Mia Katigbak, the star of “Ball in the Air,” can do only so much to impose an emotional through-line to material that stubbornly refuses to cohere…
Theatrely (Juan A. Ramirez): …features unfussy direction by Les Waters… talented cast… Out of Time is very much of the here and now. COVID-19 and its many effects are mentioned matter-of-factly, without sentimentality or a cloying intention of being relevant. As such, it flows smoothly despite the end-of-times vibe sustained throughout many of its pieces… The production’s weakest two monologues close the first, and open the second acts… The five monologues performed in Out of Time benefit from committed performances by talented, world-wise actors.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it’s because I’m not a bitch. Maybe that’s why Miss Crawford always plays ladies.” ~ Bette Davis
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Feb. 27, with a total of $23 million, at 92.8 % capacity. Click here for the complete report.
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Video: A.J. Shively performs “Why Should I Die in Springtime” from Paradise Square, which begins previews Mar. 15 at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
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The Transport Group presents Barry Conners’ The Patsy, to run Mar. 30 – May 1 (opening Apr. 10) at the Abrons Art Center, directed by Jack Cummings III.
David Greenspan.
Patricia Harring is a girl who “runs second” to her older sister. She is the patsy who is blamed whenever anything goes wrong, and is forced to remain in the background in order that her sister my be presented to advantage. Her father, a traveling man, is on her side, and finally declares his independence by putting Ma in her proper place. This brings about Patsy’s ultimate triumph, and, needless to say, afford her happiness as the bride of the man she loves.
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“Better Nate Than Ever” will be released on Apr. 1 on Disney+, written & directed by Tim Federle.
Rueby Wood (Nate Foster), Aria Brooks (Libby), Lisa Kudrow (Heidi), Joshua Bassett (Anthony), and Norbert Leo Butz.
Nate Foster dreams of performing on Broadway and catches a bus to the city with his friend Libby, to crash an open audition. There he meets his lost and struggling actress Heidi.
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The world premiere of Selina Fillinger’s POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive will run Apr. 14 – Aug. 14 (opening May 9) at the Shubert Theatre, directed by Susan Stroman.
Lilli Cooper (Chris), Lea DeLaria (Bernadette), Rachel Dratch (Stephanie), Julianne Hough (Dusty), Suzy Nakamura (Jean), Julie White (Harriet), and Vanessa Williams (Margaret), with Anita Abdinezhad, Gisela Chípe, Jennifer Fouché , and Lisa Helmi Johanson.
An uproarious new comedy about the women in charge of the man in charge of the free world. One four-letter word is about to rock 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, the seven brilliant and beleaguered women he relies upon most risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble.
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Space Dogs, written & performed by Van Hughs and Nick Blaemire, has extended again, now through Mar. 20 at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater.
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Houses on the Moon Theater Company has announced complete casting for the world premiere of Ian Eaton & Warren Adam’s SuperHero, to run Apr. 12 – May 1 (opening Apr. 14) at The Sheen Center, directed by Adams.
SJ Hannah, Valisia LeKae, Jeorge Bennett Watson, and Bryce Michael Wood.
A boy fantasizes about having superpowers, inspired by the playwright’s experiences of navigating strict West Indian parents, girls, and Catholic school amidst the backdrop of 1980’s Manhattanville Projects in Harlem. After a tragic event, Ian’s fantasies of being a “super” man are shattered when a neighborhood bully forces him to confront the kind of man he wants to become.
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A reading of Margaret Cavendish’s The Convent of Pleasure will livestream Mon. Mar. 14 at 7:30 PM ET at Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theater, directed by Kim Weild.
Casting TBA.
When Lady Happy and her friends decide to ignore society’s expectations and consciously choose to avoid men and marriage, they seclude themselves inside a free-thinking and joyous community, creating a radical feminist utopia: the Convent of Pleasure.
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Chicago’s Goodman Theatre has shifted some of its 2022 season:
Relentless (rescheduled to Apr. 1 – May 1, opening Apr. 11), by Tyla Abercrumbie, directed by Ron OJ Parson, featuring Ayanna Bria Makari (Anelle), Demetra Dee (Zhuukee), Travis Delgado (Marcus), Rebecca Hurd (Mary Anna Elizabeth), Xavier Edward King (Franklin), and Jaye Ladymore (Janet), with Sierra Coachman, Jordan Gleaves, Jordan Ashley Grier, Dylan Rogers, Marlene Slaughter, and Jack Magaw. Set in the Black Victoria era, the play looks at the deep personal secrets we keep to protect the ones we love most. The year is 1919. After the death of their mother, two sisters come home to Philadelphia to settle her estate. After discovering diaries left by their late mother, they find themselves confronted with a woman they never really knew, exposing buried truths from the past that are chillingly explosive.
Swing State (moved to Fall 2022 – dates TBA), by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Robert Falls. Casting TBA. Feuds erupt between once-friendly neighbors when an out of state power company starts a land grab in a rural Wisconsin community.
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Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theater presents an online panel discussion, “The Closet or the Stage: A Conversation about Margaret Cavendish’s The Convent of Pleasure” on Mon. Mar. 7 at 7:30 PM ET.
Misty G. Anderson, Liza Blake, Julie Crawford, and Kristina Straub.
Who was Cavendish and why did she not intend her brilliantly theatrical play for the stage? What is the relationship between the often woman-authored and performed household and court entertainments with which Cavendish was familiar, and the highly successful play women (including Aphra Behan and Susanna Centlivre), wrote for the commercial stage in the years immediately following a period of political revolution? How might theater makers use our understanding of Cavendish’s work to imagine new staged futures for her drama, as well as for those plays by women that appeared on stage during her lifetime?
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The world premiere of Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic has been extended again, now through Mar. 27 at Off-Broadway’s New York City Center, directed by David Cromer.
Betsy Aidem, Yair Ben-Dor, Francis Benhamou, Ari Brand, Pierre Epstein, Peyton Lusk, Molly Ranson, Nancy Robinette, Jeff Seymour, Kenneth Tigar, and Richard Topol.
In 1944, a Jewish couple in Paris desperately awaits news of their missing family. More than 70 years later, the couple’s great-grandchildren find themselves facing the same question as their ancestors: “Are we safe?”
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A workshop of Matthew Lopez, Amber Ruffin, Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman’s Some Like It Hot, directed by Casey Nicholaw, took place yesterday in NYC. The new musical is expected to open on Broadway this Fall.
Christian Borle (Joe/Josephine), Kevin Del Aguila (Osgood), J. Harrison Ghee (jerry/Daphne), Adam Heller (Mulligan), Adrianna Hicks (Sugar), Marc Lotito (Spats), and NaTasha Yvette Williams (Sweet Sue), with Tia Altinay, Esther Antione, Ian Campanyo, Jacob Dickey, Casey Gavin, Devon Hadsell, Ashley Elizabeth Hale, Jeremy Hill, Jarvis B. Manning Jr., Brian Martin, Abby Matsusaka, Amber Owens, Destinee Rea, Tyler Roberts, Angie Schworer, Charles South, Brendon Stimson, Anthony Wayne, Raena White, and Richard Riaz Yoder.