Today’s Highlights:
Hamlet, directed by Robert O’Hara, featuring Patrick Ball (Hamlet), Coral Peña (Ophelia), Gina Torres (Gertrude), James T. Alfred (Head Attendant), Joe Chrest Detective Fortinbras), Fidel Gomez (Gravedigger), Ty Molbak (Laertes /Rosencrantz), Ramiz Monsef (Polonius,) Jakeem Powell (Horatio), Ariel Shafir (Claudius), Jaime Lincoln Smith (First Player /Attendant), and Daniel Zuhlke (Guildenstern, begins previews at LA’s Mark Taper Forum.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending May 25.
Click here for the complete analysis.
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Watch (most, if not all) Miscast 2025 for free here.
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The Williamstown Theatre Festival has announced its Summer 2024 Season, which runs July 17 – Aug. 3.
Click the link above for the complete schedule and additional information.
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A reading of Raffaele Pacitti’s Mr. Halston will take place Mon. June 2 at 2 PM at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre, directed by Kevin Hourigan.
Ken Barnett (Halston).
It is early spring, 1987, New York. Late afternoon, spilling into dusk. We are in the living room of the East 63rd Street apartment of famed American fashion designer, Halston. The journalist has arrived. A fictionalized version of the interview that led to a seminal New York Times article about the legendary designer. Throughout the interview, we learn about varied aspects of Halston’s life and career. We meet the people Halston knew and loved, as well as the cultural figures who influenced him. We hear about the visionary work that not only gripped the fashion world for decades, but also helped shape the evolution of identity, gender politics, sexuality, and style—in America and around the world.
Video: Trailer
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Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara has announced its 20 25-26 season. Casting TBA.
War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast (Oct. 11-26), adapted by Joe Landry, directed by Jamie Torcellini. It was the night that shook America. Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio drama, which convinced listeners that an alien invasion was real, is brought vividly to life in this masterful reenactment. The power of storytelling—and its ability to spark both wonder and fear—has never felt more relevant.
The Complete Jane Austen, Abridged (Dec. 6-21), by Jessica Bedford, Kathryn MacMillian, Charlotte Northease, and Meghan Winch, directed by Robert Kelly. What happens when you take the wit, romance, and wisdom of Jane Austen’s greatest works and distill them into a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud experience? A fresh and hilarious take on Austen’s most beloved heroines, proving that great love stories—and great comedy—are timeless.
The Shark is Broken (Feb. 2-22, 2026), by Ian Shaw & Joseph Nixon. 1974. The set of Jaws. The mechanical shark is malfunctioning, the schedule is in shambles, and three actors—Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, and Roy Scheider—are stuck on a boat, battling egos, alcohol, and artistic frustration. A razor-sharp, behind-the-scenes look at the making of one of the greatest films of all time.
A Night with Janis Joplin (Apr. 4-19), by Randy Johnson, directed by Brian McDonald.
Every Brilliant Thing (June 6-21), by Duncan Macmillan & Jonny Donahoe. What makes life worth living? A child starts a list of every brilliant thing in the world, hoping to help their mother through depression. As the list grows—ice cream, the color yellow, the sound of laughter—the audience is invited on a heartwarming, interactive journey through life’s highs and lows, discovering joy in the simplest things.
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Robert Hastie’s Operation Mincemeat, directed by Hastie, the 2025 Tony Award nominee for Best Musical & the 2024 Olivier Award winner for Best New Musical, has paused its Tony campaign to write Tom Cruise: The Cruisical, ahead of the movie release of “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.”
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Watch the complete Miscast 2025 here.
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Charles Barnett’s The Last Days of Cleopatra will run June 13-22 at Bethlehem, PA’s The Ice House, directed by Ara Barlieb, with choreography by Jenna Atkinson, and music direction by Lynn Flickinger.
Sami Kennett (Elizabeth Taylor) and Albert Nelthropp (Richard Burton), with Jenna Atkinson, Bruce Brown, Lauren Curley, Nina Elilas, Sharon A. Ferry, Robert Jacobs, Herman Marsh, Robert Tollinger, Dan VanArsdale, Pamela McLean Wallace, and Sawyer Whitted.
A new musical comedy about the making of the film “Cleopatra.” An entertaining romp of a farce about love, betrayal, and triumph, all told in a setting of strife and midcentury-modern glamour. It’s 1961. After a calamitous start in London, the cast and crew of the film “Cleopatra” move to Cinecittà Studios in Rome to restart the film. The dazzling Elizabeth Taylor has stayed on in the role of Cleopatra, but she has a new co-star: Richard Burton, a famed Shakespearean actor, who has joined the cast as Mark Antony. With the largest budget in Hollywood’s history and an acclaimed new director, Joseph Mankiewicz, the production seems to be back on track. But in reality, this esteemed cast and crew are in the process of making one of the biggest turkeys of all time. All while Taylor and Burton strike up a world-famous adulterous affair that ends Taylor’s marriage and drenches the production in scandal. As Taylor learns hard lessons, though, other troupers meet sunnier fates, finding friendship or true love on the set of this colossal disaster.
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Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theatre will present its 2025 Short New Play Festival 2025: DEFIANCE on Mon. June 23 at 7:30 PM at Off-Broadway’s Symphony Space.
Click the link above for playwrights, casting, and additional information.
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Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience will run June 25 – July 27 (opening June 28) at Maryland’s Olney Theatre, directed by Aria Velz.
Stan Kang (Appa), Tuyết Thị Phạm (Umma), Justine “Icy” Moral (Janet), and Zion Jang (Jung) daughter Janet, and Zion Jang (Jun), and Jonathan Del Palmer (mulitple roles), with Morganne Chu, Franklin Dam, Jay Frisby, and Andrew V. Ly.
Written in the pre-Trump era, and set in Toronto, this tender comedy about an immigrant family feels suddenly so relevant. It’s a great reminder of the powerful emotional dynamics at work in an immigrant family and the contributions they make to their communities.