Today’s Highlights:
The Kingston Trio in concert opens at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre.
Shucked, by Robert Horn, Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally, directed by Jack O’Brien, featuring Grey Henson (Storyteller), Ashley D. Kelley (Storyteller), John Behlmann, Kevin Cahoon, Andrew Durand, Caroline Innterbichler, and Alex Newell, with Jimmy Brewer, Audrey Cardwell, Dwayne Clark, Rheaume Crenshaw, Jaygee Macapugay, Scott Stangland, Yasmeen Sulieman, Quinn VanAntwerp, Miki Abraham, Ken Clark, Traci Elaine Lee, and Alan Wiggins, begins previews at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre.
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, by Anna Deavere Smith, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, featuring Hugo Armstrong, Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, Lisa Reneé Pitts, Jeanne Sakata, and Sabina Zúñiga Varela, begins previews at LA’s Mark Taper Forum.
Once, directed by Steve Steiner, featuring Grace Belt (Girl), Grant Brown (Andrej), Mary Ann Carlisle DiPietro (Baruska), Keaton Echhoff (Guy), Morgan Hollingsworth (Eamon), Will Huse (Billy), Becca last (Ivonka), Chris McGraw (Svec), James Michael McHale (Bank Manager), Michael Naishtut (Da), Caitlin Ort (Emee), and Laufen Witman (Ex-Girlfriend), begins previews at Laguna Playhouse.
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Reviews for the world premiere of The Outsiders at La Jolla Playhouse:
New York Times (Alexis Soloski): …The Outsiders, despite its considerable appeal, can’t yet bear too much reality. Awkward, yearning, fast on its feet, the show, like the adolescents it describes, is still trying on various identities. Directed by Danya Taymor from a book by Adam Rapp, with gorgeous, mournful music and lyrics from Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance, of Jamestown Revival, and Justin Levine, this La Jolla version (and I’m sentimental enough to hope that there will soon be other versions) is a musical with growing pains, currently serving too many characters, too many themes, too many styles.
LA Times (Charles McNulty): …The show, based on both Hinton’s novel and Coppola’s film, lets the music by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Justin Levine guide the storytelling… The songs work best when they give expression to the inner lives of the central characters (though the soul-searching on the periphery could use some pruning). The lyrics have a fresh charge but are sometimes overtaxed with too much narrative work… The production, directed by Danya Taymor, is impressively original despite being lumpy in places and incoherent in others.
San Diego Tribune (Pam Kragen): …the superior Outsiders the musical… It successfully blends the best of the book and the movie in a richly detailed story for teen and adult audiences. It reveals its characters thoughts through song lyrics that feel authentic to the book, while still delivering a cinematic-style visual punch, with muscular choreography and, yes, a dazzling rumble in the rain… Imaginatively directed by Danya Taymor… Bookwriter Adam Rapp has faithfully adapted (with the addition of a few curse words) the central story of three orphaned siblings…
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Mar. 5.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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A Little Night Music will run Apr. 25 – May 21 at Pasadena Playhouse, directed by David Lee.
Merle Dandridge (Desiree Armfeldt), Michael Hayden (Fredrik Egerman, Jodie Long (Madame Armfeldt), Sarah Uriarte Berry (Countess Charlotte Malcolm), Chase Del Rey (Henrik Egerman), Adam James King (Frid), Ruby Lewis (Petra), Ryan Silverman (Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm), Kaley Ann Voorhees (Anne Egerman), Georgia Belmont (Mrs. Nordstrom), Jared Bybee (Mr. Lindquist), Kim Dawson (Mrs. Segstrom, Oriana Falla (Mrs. Anderssen), Arnold Geis (Mr. Erlanson), Christanna Rowader (standby for Countess Charlotte Malcolm and Desiree Armfeldt), and more TBA.
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The all-female production of 1776 will run Apr. 11 – May 7 (opening Apr. 12) at the Ahmanson Theatre, directed by Jeffrey L. Page & Diane Paulus, with choreography by Page, with music direction by Ryan Cantwell. 
Every Tuesday at Noon, a block of $20 tickets will be released.
Shelby Acosta, Gisela Adisa, Nancy Anderson, Tiffani Barbour, Dawn Cantwell, Julie Cardia, Sara Gallo, Joanna Glushak, Anissa Marie Griego, Kassandra Haddock, Shawna Hamic, Lisa Karlin, Connor Lyon, Liz Mikel, Oneika Phillips, Lulu Picart, Ariella Serur, Brooke Simpson, Sav Souza, Tieisha Thomas, Jill Vallery, Zuri Washington, Gwynne Wood, and Cadice Marie Woods.
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Tales from the Guttenberg Bible, written by & starring Steve Guttenberg, will run Aug. 1-20 at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater.
A farcical, laugh-out-loud story. This hilarious journey from Guttenbert’s family home on Long Island to the glamour of Hollywood as told by Guttenberg himself – how be broke into the Paramount Lot, to his run-ins with everyone from Paul Reiser to Tom Selleck, Brian Dennehy to Merv Griffin. It would be an unbelievable tale, if it wasn’t true (mostly).
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Suzan-Lori Parks’ theatrical concert, Plays for the Plague Year, will return Apr. 5-30 at Off-Broadway’s Joe’s Pub, directed & choreographed by Nigel Smith.
TBA
A breathtaking anthology of plays and songs that chronicle our collective experience and the hope and perseverance that occurred throughout that troubling year.**********************
Anthony Rapp’s Without You has been extended through June 11 at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages, directed by Steven Maler.
In 1994, Anthony Rapp was twenty-two, out of money and working at a Starbucks, about to audition for a new musical by a young writer named Johnathon Larson. This is where Rapp’s story begins…
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Bob DeRosa’s Gifted will run Mar. 10 – Apr. 2 at North Hollywood’s Loft Ensemble, directed by Jennier DeRosa & Sarah Nilsen.
Biniyam Abreha, Antwan Alexander II, Lemon Baardsen, Isaac Deakyne, John Goodwin, Jay Hoshina, April Littlejohn, Ignacio Navarro, Jazmine Nichelle, Danielle Ozymandias, Bree Pavey, Benjamin Rawls, Madylin Sweeten, and Nate Thurman.
Ash can see the romantic fate of every couple she meets, she just can’t see it for herself. Her gift ostracized her from the people she opened up to in the past, but she has come home again to open herself to friendship, a community of other people with “gifts” and even love … until her gift reveals devastating news. To Ash, her gift is a curse, but can she find a way to use it for good?
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Video: Julia Lester performs “Hold On” from The Secret Garden at the Ahmanson Theatre.
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“Kurt Peterson: On the Steps of the Shubert,” a video commemorating the 50th anniversary of “Sondheim: A Musical Tribute” will take place Sat. Mar. 11, at 7:22 PM EST (the exact time the original concert started on Mar. 11, 1973). Follow this link to watch on Mar. 11 at 7:22 PM ET.
Narrated by Kurt from the steps inside Broadway’s Shubert Theatre in the rear orchestra where he sat beside Stephen Sondheim that evening. The event is approximately 45 minutes. Directed by Burth Shevelove, with choreography by Donna McKechnie, and music direction by Paul Gemignani, and orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, the evet was staged on Boris Aronson’s country-garden set for A Little Night Music. The concert brought together more than 30 stars of his shows, including Angela Lansbury, Larry Kert, Chita Rivera, Dorothy Collins, Alexis Smith, Len Cariou, Nancy Walker and many more. It crystallized for Broadway that Sondheim’s body of work was not just impressive, but extraordinary. The video features unknown highlights of the star-studded night, musical gems not on the original cast LP or CD. Many never-before-seen pics, humorous introductions by artists whose careers were more recognized than him – Jule Styne, Sheldon Harnick, Hal Prince and Leonard Bernstein. There is also a collection of folks who were there and testimonials on how the evening affected them including Jack Viertel, Lonny Price, Angela Lansbury, Donna McKechnie, Paul Gemignani and Frank Rich. Along with other rave reviews, as well as those influenced by the recording for this legendary evening are Sondheim’s own comments.
According to Kurt, “It is the full story of how this accidental, now legendary evening came to be. Beginning with the first phone call, it’s incredible blossoming from a small dinner to what it became, how it was almost derailed and the groundswell of support for a man who was often ignored, dismissed and misunderstood up until this point and event.”
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Ensemble Theatre Company will present Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children Apr. 6-23 (opening Apr. 8) at Santa Barbara’s New Vic, directed by Jenny Sullivan.
Michael Butler, Linda Purl, and Nancy Travis.
Set at a remote cottage on the coast of Britain after a tsunami wreaks havoc on a nuclear reactor, a married couple’s lives are further disrupted by the mysterious appearance of a long-lost colleague, who confronts them with a stunning moral dilemma: what does the older generation owe to those who are young?