Today’s Highlights:
Encores‘ Into The Woods presentation, directed by Lear deBessonet, featuring Heather Headley (Witch), Sara Bareilles (Baker’s Wife), Neil Patrick Harris (Baker), Julia Lester (Little Red), Jordan Donica (Rapunzel’s Prince), Shereen Pimentel (Rapunzel), Cole Thompson (Jack), Denée Benton (Cinderella), Gavin Creel (the Wolf / Cinderella’s Prince), Annie Golden (Cinderella’s Mother / Grandmother / Giant’s Wife), Ann Harada (Jack’s Mother), David Patrick Kelly (Narrator / Mysterious Man), Tiffany Denise Hobbs (Lucinda), Brooke Ishibashi (Florinda), Kennedy Kanagawa (Milky White), Lauren Mitchell (Cinderella’s Stepmother), and David Turner (Steward), opens at NY City Center.
Ken Page: There’s So Much To Talk About… (And Sing About, Too) concert, directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, both live & livestreamed at 7 PM ET at 54 Below.
54/54/54 concert, (54 songs, 54 singers, 54 seconds each), hosted by Philip Romano, with music direction by Ben Caplan, featuring Dylan Adler, PJ Adzima, Caroline Aimetti, Grace Aki, Samara Ariel, Max Bartos, Kev Berry, Eli Bolin, Amara Brady, Aaron F. Brateman, Ben Cameron, Jerusha Cavazos, Bill Coyne, Emma Degerstedt, Erin Dugan, Seth Eilser, Mikey Erg, Adam Feldman, Ellie Fishman, Noëlle Francis, Skye Alyssa Friedman, Tavi Gevinson, Abby Govindan, Audrey Hayes, Fernell Hogan, Z Infante, Danté Jeanfelix, Erin Kommor, Janet Kruping, April Lavalle, Cassie Levine, Taylor Lynn Lewis, Nicole Magallón, Isabelle McCalla, Devon Meddock, Madeline Metzger, Jessica Murphy, Susannah Perkins, Alex Prakken, Ben Rappaport, Pearl Rhein, Laura Schein, Ellie Schnitt, Allie Seibold, Alec Silver, Matt Stoke, John Rodney Turner, Eric Ulloa, Zurin Villanueva, Emily Walton, Jason SweetTooth Williams, Mara Wilson, and more, at 9:30 PM ET at NY’s 54 Below.
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Reviews for Jerusalem at London’s Apollo Theatre:
The Guardian (Arifa Akbar): Full disclosure: I did not love Jerusalem the first time around… Butterworth’s language contains great riches and Johnny “Rooster” Byron, the play’s outsider, antihero, rebel and messiah rolled into one, is a blazing creation. But what about the peculiarly flat, Little Britain-style humour of the first act? The peripheral female characters and queasy pejoratives of women? And its harking back to a bygone England – a “holy land” filled with ancient energies, druids and Stonehenge giants – that carries the discomforting idea that Englishness was a better, purer version of itself then?… Its language predates #MeToo and Black Lives Matter – and it shows… But Rylance’s Rooster is surely the greatest performance of the century.
New York Times (Matt Wolf): There’s mighty, and then there’s Mark Rylance in Jerusalem, a performance so powerfully connected to its part that it feels almost superhuman… In a thrilling revival…everything feels enriched by time… The creative team, headed by Ian Rickson, the most empathic of directors, is the same as it was in 2009. To this run’s credit, it is no museum piece coasting on past kudos, but a vital experience with a revitalizing effect… the play itself transcends nationality to speak to any disaffected outsider who won’t be easily silenced and who gathers acolytes like moths to an inextinguishable flame… Worthington-Cox is the most moving Phaedra I have experienced.
What’s On Stage (Sarah Crompton): …I worried that this revival, with Mark Rylance and Mackenzie Crook returning to their original roles as Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron, roistering king of misrule and his timid hanger-on Ginger, might somehow disappoint. Silly me! The production is, if anything, even better than before, the performances richer, the strain of melancholy that underpins its fierce comic energy stronger. It is a masterpiece of the first order… Butterworth once told me that essentially Jerusalem is a play about loss, and I’ve always seen it through that prism… It’s a piece that defies reductive definition and in that lies its shining magnificence… So much of its power and its humour springs from the detail and flex of the writing.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “An agent is a guy who is sore because an actor gets 90% of what he makes.” ~ Alva Johnston
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The 2022 Tony Awards have rescheduled its nominations announcement to Mon. May 9.
Eligibility for shows opening in the 2021-2022 season has been extended to Wed. May 4.
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending May 1.
Click here for the complete analysis (scroll down).
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The Broadway revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, originally scheduled to close Aug. 14, will now close May 22 at the Booth Theatre.
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FL’s Asolo Rep has announced complete casting for Douglas Carter Beane & Lewis Flinn’s HOOD, to run June 3-26 (opening June 11), directed by Mark Brokaw. with choreography by Ellenore Scott.
Anthony Chatmon II (Robin), Savy Jackson (Marian), Billie Aken-Tyers (Much), Caitlin Humphreys (Lady Ann), Erin Kei (Lady Jane), Aury Krebs (Meg), Daniel Lopez (Troubadour), Jamen Nathakumar (Friar Tuck), Luke Antony Neville (Will Scarlet), Nick Rehberger (Sheriff of Nottingham), Zachary Francis Stewart (Little John), and Imani Youngblood (Gamble Gold), with Jordan Sam Rich, Mikhail Roberts, Darius Vines, Danielle Vivcharenko, and Taylor Erin Wade.
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Video: The definitive version of “I’ve Never Been in Love Before”
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Concert for Ukraine will take place Mon. May 23 at 8 PM ET at Carnegie Hall, directed by Marc Bruni, with music direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.
Angel Blue, Michael Feinstein, Denyce Graves, Evgeny Kissin, Isabel Leonard, Midori, Itzhak Perlman, Cécile, McLorin Salvant, Chris Thile, Jessica Vosk, Adrienne Warren, members of the Ensemble Connect, and the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York.
100% of the ticket sales will support Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid non-profit organization that provides urgently needed medical supplies to relief groups on the ground in Ukraine.
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Tickets to the Broadway production of Company are now available on TDF!
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Broadway By The Year: From The Ziegfeld Follies To Moulin Rouge will take place Mon. May 23 at 8 PM ET at NYC’s Town Hall, directed & hosted by Scott Seigel, with choreography by Danny Gardner.
Tony Danza, Tom Wopat, Anais Reno, Douglas Ladnier, Danny Gardner, and more TBA…
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National Theatre Live presents a live theater screening of London’s Donmar Theatre production Henry V, starring Kit Harington, on Sat. June 18 at 3 PM PT at UCLA’s James Bridge’s Theater, directed by Max Webster.
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Hollywood Blank Theatre has announced the winners of its 30th Anniversary Young Playwrights Festival (aged 15-19). Directors, casting, and additional information for the festival are TBA.
* Droplets, Pellets Bullets, by Isabel Tongson, age 17
* The Legend of Caeneus, by Zander Pryor, age 19
* bLack is a rIver, by kHalib kEnnedy, age 18
* Gray Area, by Simone Chaney, age 17
* Last Will and Testament and Other Wild Frog Facts, by Alethea Shirilan-Howlett, age 19
* Dollface, by Jeremino Sutton, age 17
* So-fish-ticated, by Ava Ditto, age 17
* Under My Skin, by Dish Cattamanchi, age 19
* Here’s to All the Broken Girls, by Elizabeth Shannon, age 18
* Lemon, by Cady Walls, age 15
* Stand. Up. Hit!, by Win Thomas, age 18
* I’ll Love You Forever, by Spencer Opal-Levine, age 19
* Venus, and What Else is Nocturnal, by Dylan Malloy, age 18.
The plays are divided up into weekly offerings of three plays and, for only the second time, an additional fifth week offering — a feature called YPF Plus (YPF+).
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Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: Nellie Oleson Live! will take place Sun. May 8 at 4 PM ET at NYC’s Laurie Beechman Theatre.
Alison Arngrim (aka Nellie Oleson from “Little House on the Prairie”) presents an uproarious evening of storytelling, stand-up, and multi media event about life as everyone’s favorite toxic pre-teen brat, complete with petticoats and ringlets.
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A table read of Kalani Queypo & Kyle Puccia’s Missing Peace will take place Mon. May 23 at NY’s Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, (link TBA), directed by Devanand Janki, with music direction by Yan Li.
Glenn Stanton, Brandi Porter, and Nic Rouleau.
Chase wakes up from a coma, but his past is a blur. Much to his family’s surprise, he is happy and carefree until the dark memories flood black like quick cuts of a movie trailer that just don’t ass up.
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Manhattan Theatre Club has announced its Spring Gala, to take place Mon. May 23 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s Cipriani, with music direction by Jason Michael Webb.
Roberta G. “Bobbie” Olsen (former member of MTC’s Board of Directors).
Casts of many of the most acclaimed musicals on Broadway, including Company, Girl From the North Country, MJ, Mrs. Doubtfire, Paradise Square, Six, Tina, and more.
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& 
Ann Morrison: Merrily from Center Stage will take place Tues. May 17 at 7 PM ET at NYC’s 54 Below.
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Actors Equity has published a further statement and its demands for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, following the cancellation of the London production of Cinderella.
The musical will close its West End run on June 12, and some cast members revealed that they read the news of the cancellation on social media or news outlets before being told themselves.
The union reported that “not only was the news shared on a Sunday before a bank holiday – meaning those affected could not contact their agent for support – but we understand that some cast members and stage management heard the news first through social media or the press. This is unacceptable… That they have been told they have lost this work now, points to the long running precarity of the entertainment industry, perpetuated by poor management and a lack of respect for our members…”
Click here to read the complete article.
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Video: Daniel Radcliffe transforms into “Weird Al” in a teaser for “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”