Today’s Highlights:
Judgement Day, world premiere by Rob Ulin, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, featuring Jason Alexander (Sammy Campo), Daniel Breaker (Father Michael) and Candy Buckley (Angel), with Maggie Bofill (Tracy), Olivia Denise Dawson (Della), Joe Dempsey (Jackson), Michael Kostroff (Monsignor), Ellis Myers (Sammy/Casper), and Meg Thalken (Edna), opens at Chicago’s Shakespeare Theater. May 1–19.
Mad Hatter The Musical, by Vincent Connor, Michael J. Polo & Victor Valdez, directed & choreographed by Joe Barros, featuring Dwayne Washington (Mad Hatter), Lauren Zakrin (Queen of Hearts), and Reanne Acasio (Mary Beth/Chrshire Cat Yola), with Tony Castellanos, Aria Kane, Mark Reis, Luis Villabon, Andreas Wyder, Ash Marie Alina, Raven Chareal, Alyssa Chiarello, Lydia Ruth Dawson, Rendell A. Debose, Trisha Ditsworth, Héctor Flores Jr., Liam Garrett, Amanda Lund, Anna Mettes, Chafik Jay, and Mathew Zimmerer, opens at Phoenix’s Herberger Theater Center.
with ≈ MCC Theater’s Miscast24 benefit concert digital broadcast, honoring Jason Robert Brown and Nicole Suazo, featuring Gavin Creel, Leslie Rodriguez, Brian D’acy James, Lea Salonga, Ingrid Michaelson, Ryan Vasquez, Wayne Brady, Amber Iman, Mykal Kilgor, and Jinkx Monsoon, begins its on-demand streaming broadcasts at 7 PM ET here.
Distractions at the Crash Site: Short Plays by Steve Yockey, directed by Ryan Bergmann, featuring Lisa Clifton, Krista Conti, Henry Cruz, Cat Davis, Grace Eboigbe, Sierra Marcks, Ron Morehouse, Trevor Olsen, Gabby Sanalitro, and Joel Scher, with Rebecca Light, previews at Hollywood’s Theatre of NOTE.
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2024 Tony Award nominations: Click here. for the complete list of nominees.
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Winners of the 14th annual Clive Barnes Award for Dance and Theatre:
American Ballet Theatre soloist Jake Roxander
. Dancer Frances Samson,
Musical theatre actress Anna Zabelson.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Apr. 28. Click here for the complete analysis.
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Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias will run May 31 – June 30 at Stages St. Louis, directed by Paige Price.
Amy Loui (M’Lynn), Taylor Quick (Shelby), Jilanne Marie Klaus (Truvy), Abigail Isom (Annelle), Zoe Vonder Haar (Ouiser), and Kari Ely (Clairee), with Lari White, Lexy Witcher, and Meme Wolff.
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Industry readings of Scott Steidl & Mark Hantoot’s Wesley will take place Wed. May 15 at 11 AM & 3 PM at Off-Broadway’s Jerry Orbach Theatre, directed by Mary Duncan. 
: wesleythemusical@gmail.com
Casting TBA.
Based on the true-life story of a biologist who falls in love with an abandoned baby barn owl, this is the story of their astonishing 19-year life together and the remarkable connections that can exist between humans and wildlife.
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The world premiere of Dear Auntie B, written & performed by Becca Lustgarten, will run June 7-24 at LA’s Actors Company, directed by Sally Hughes.
Meet Auntie B: An Upper West Side Manhattanite and advice columnist extraordinaire. B, a self-proclaimed dating guru and a hoot of a cultural commentator, receives terrible news while working on her column that threatens to derail her, both personally and professionally. Dear Auntie B. is about the fight for true love, and, ultimately, how we process and move through grief.
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Jelly’s Last Jam will run May 29 – June 12 (opening June 2) at the Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Kent Gash, with music direction by Darryl Archibals, and choreography by Dell Howlett.
John Clarence Stewart (Jelly Roll Morton), Cress Williams (Chimney Man), and Jasmine Amy Rogers (Anita), Karole Foreman (Gran /Mimi), Wilkie Ferguson III (Jack the Bear), Grasan Kingsberry (Buddy Bolden), Summer Nicole Greer (Miss Mamie), Doran Butler (Young Jelly), Cyd Charisse Glover-Hill (Hunnie), Naomi C. Walley (Hunnie), Janaya Jones (Hunnie), Hannah Yosef (Too Tight Nora), Joe Aaron Reid (Foot-In-Yo-Ass Sam), and Eric B. Anthony (Three Finger Jake), with Davon Rashawn, Amber Liekhus, and Chante Carmel.
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MA’s Barrington Stage Company will present its Mr. Finn’s Cabaret series from June 2 – Aug. 21, held in the lower level of the Massachusetts company’s Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center.
:
Christine Andreas (June 2-3)
Joshua Henry (June 9-10)
Alysha Umpfress (June 30-July 1
Seth Sikes & Nicholas King (July 7-8)
Matt Doyle (Aug. 4-5)
Krysta Rodriguez (Aug. 11-12)
Julie Benko (Aug. 30)
Telly Leung (Aug. 31)
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E2E: Villain Era, world premiere written & performed by Star Stone, will run July 9-11 at 59E59 Theatres, directed by Ryan Cunningham.
Set in 2018 Los Angeles, actress Star Stone accepts a casting for a reality competition show on YouTube. Receiving little instruction from the director, a flustered Stone is thrust onto a soundstage to shoot the episode. Aiming to win the game and receive the prize money, Stone successfully completes the episode, submits a confessional, and goes about her life. A few weeks later, the video went viral with 17 million views. Great! There’s just one problem…Stone was given the villain edit, and she faces a barrage of harassment, ranging from hateful messages to literal death threats. Sharing her story publicly for the first time, Star reveals it all from battling bots, trolls, and the online vegan mafia, and the real effects it had on her.
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The Little Mermaid will run July 8-16 at the St. Louis Muny, directed by John Tartaglia, with choreography by Patrick O’Neill and music direction by Annbritt duChateau.
Savy Jackson (Ariel), Michael Maliakel (Prince Eric), Nicole Parker (Ursula), Christopher Siber (Chef Louis), Ben Davis (King Triton), Fergie L. Philippe (Sebastian), Jen Cody (Scuttle), Kennedy Kanagawa (Flotsam), Adam Fane (Jetsam), Rich Pisarkiewicz (Grimsby), and more TBA.
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DC’sSignature & Wolf Trap will present Broadway in the Park on Sat. June 29 at 8 PM, directed by Matthew Gardiner, and conducted by Jon Kalbfleisch.
Laura Benanti & Jordan Fisher, with Felicia Curry, Rayanne Gonzales, Katie Mariko Murray, Kevin McAllister, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Matthew Scott, and Toabias A. Young.
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Complete casting has been announced for Samantha Hurley’s I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire, which will run June 28 – Aug. 10 (opening July 3) at the Southwark Playhouse, directed by Tyler Struble.
Tessa Albertson (Shelby), Kyle Birch (Brenda Dee Cankles), and Anders Hayward (Tobey Maguire).
Eighth grader Shelby Hinkley deals with an absent father, a neglectful mother, and mean-spirited classmates. To cope with it all, Shelby focuses on the best thing about 2004: “Spider-Man.” When leading an online fan club is no longer enough, she decides to kidnap and marry Tobey Maguire.
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Martha Rosenblatt, Gary Glickstein & Al Tapper’s David, A New Musical will run June 1 – July 13 (opening June 9) at the AMT Theater, directed & choreographed by Kyle Pleasant, with music direction by David Wolfson.
Danny Arnold (Saul), Jay Aubrey Jones (Achish), Jacob Louchheim (Jonathan), Caleb Mathura (Solomon), Kenny Morris (Nathan), Timothy Warmen (David), Olivia Vadnais (Michal), and Ethan Zeph (Young David), with Ashley Marie Arnold, Blair Alexis Brown, Bruce Blanchard, Scott Harrison, Garland Ray, and Jodi Snyder.
The story of the biblical King David, nearing the end of his life, looking back at the decisions he made, good and bad, bemoaning the fact that history may only remember him as ‘the kid with the slingshot.” With the prophet Nathan they recount the dramatic events that led to his rise from obscure soldier to warrior to lover to eventual king of the entire land. Told with humor and poignancy, the musical peels away at the myth to reveal the actual man. A man capable of jealousy, heroism, passion, and leadership.
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Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill will run May 17 – June 30 at Pittsburgh CLO, directed by Tomé Cousin, with music direction by Kenny Green-Tilford.
Gabrielle Lee, Kenney Green-Tilford, Scrappy Mason, Ayana Del Valle, and Alawna Mallory.