Today’s Highlights:
The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Brian Bedford, hosted by David Hyde Pierce, and featuring Bedford (Lady Bracknell), Paxton Whitehead (the Rev. Canon Chasuble), Santino Fontana (Algernon Moncrief), David Furr (Jack Worthing), Tim MacDonald (Merriman), Paul O’Brien (Lane), Charlotte Parry (Cecily Cardew), Sara Topham (Gwendolen Fairfax), Amanda Leigh Cobb (Servant), and Dany Ivey (Miss Prism), begins streaming here.
I and You, by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Melissa Crespo, featuring Phoebe Holden (Caroline) and Cole Taylor (Anthony), begins streaming at Syracuse Stage.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “That’s how we stay young these days: murder and suicide.” ~ Eugène Ionesco, Man With Bags
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Lincoln Center Theatre presents a re-worked version of Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s Pass Over, to run on dates TBA at the August Wilson Theatre, directed by Danya Taymor. Click here for more information about the production.
Casting TBA.
Drawing inspiration from Waiting for Godot and the Exodus story, Pass Over is set on a city street corner. Moses and Kitch stand around – talking shit, pass the time, and hope that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders in their space and disrupts their plans. Evoking heartbreak, hope, and joy, the play crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, illuminating the unquestionable human spirit of young men looking for a way out.
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“An Evening with CARE” (celebrating its 75th anniversary) will stream Tues. May 11 at 8 PM ET here, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.
Presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
Jewel, Michelle Williams, and Katherine McPhee-Foster.
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“Liza on Demand,” the unscripted series, has announced its third and final season, and will premiere this summer (date TBA). Additional information TBA.
The series follows Will Smith on his latest fitness journey, and a new docuseries with Alica Keys.
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A filmed reading of Cornelius Eady’s Brutal Imagination will stream May 20 – June 3 at Off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre, directed by Joe Morton.
Joe Morton and Sally Murphy
The drama is based on Eady’s poem cycle about the 1994 case of Susan Smith, a white woman from South Carolina who claimed that a Black man had kidnapped her children. An FBI search ensued until Smith confessed that the man did not exist and she had, in fact, drowned her kids.
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Mark St. Germain’s Becoming Dr. Ruth will run June 5 – 27 at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre, directed by David Ellenstein.
Tovah Feldshuh
The play chronicles the life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, from her early years fleeing Nazi Germany, live as an orphan in Switzerland, to her service in the Israeli armed forces as a sharpshooter, and her later life and career in New York.
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Video: Adrianna Hicks (Dalmatian) performs “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent.
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Houston’s Alley Theatre has announced its 2021-22 season:
Sweat (Oct. 1-24), by Lynn Nottage, directed by Robe Melrose. Casting TBA.
72 Miles to Go… (Oct. 15 – Nov. 14), by Hilary Bettis, directed by José Zayas. 72 miles. It’s the distance between Tucson, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico – and the distance between a recently deported mother and her American-born husband and children. The play follows one family over a decade as they grow up, fall in love, fight in wars, and fight for each other.
A Christmas Carol (Nov. 19 – Dec. 29), adapted by Doris Baizley, directed by Brandon Weinbrenner.
High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest (Jan. 21 – Feb. 13, 2022), world premiere by Vichet Chum, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene. It’s senior year in Carrollton, Texas, and Riverside High School’s competitive theatre troupe is climbing back to the top from last year’s unprecedented loss. Dara is trying to rally his teammates, while new kid Paul disrupts Dara’s complete understanding of himself and his small town suburban life. When Coach Dirkson and Blow make a bold choice for the one-act-play competition and the community takes issue, friends and rivals duke it out.
Amerikin (Feb. 11 – Mar. 23), world premiere by Chisa Hutchinson, directed by James Black. A new father desperate for community, casually follows his buddy’s advice and tries to join a white supremacist group…but the results of his ancestry test prove surprising.
Sense and Sensibility (Mar. 4-17), by Kate Hamill, directed by Adriana Baer.
Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Apr. 15 – May 8), by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Brandon Weinbrenner. An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café. A stranger at the next table who has had enough. And a dead man. An off-the-wall play about the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption, and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world.
Born with Teeth (May 6 – June 5), world premiere by Liz Duffy, directed by Rob Melrose. An aging authoritarian ruler, a violent police state, a restless polarized people seething with paranoia: it’s a dangerous time for poets. Two of them – the great Kit Marlowe and the up-and-comer Will Shakespeare – meet in the back room of a pub to collaborate on a history play cycle, navigate the perils of art under a totalitarian regime, and flirt like young men with everything to lose. One of them may well be the death of the other.
Noir (June 2 – July 3), world premiere by Duncan Sheik & Kyle Jarrow, directed by Darko Tresnjak. A heartbroken man never leaves his apartment, finding his only solace in the music on the radio. Then a couple moves in next door. Eavesdropping becomes his new entertainment – and his new obsession. Soon he finds himself drawn into a web of love, lies, deceit, and danger.
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Tales from the Wings: A Lincoln Center Theater Celebration! will stream Thurs. May 13 at 7 PM ET here (and available through May 17).
Jordan Conica, Rosemary Harris, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Ruthie Ann Miles, Seth Numrich, Steven Pasquale, Paulo Szot, Ayad Akhtar, Lileana Blain-Cruz, and Bartlett Sher.
An hour-long look back at iconic LCT productions through video excerpts paired with favorite artists sharing “insider” anecdotes, plus a special preview of the 2021-22 season.
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Musical Theatre West presents Madison Claire Parks in concert on Sat. May 22 at 7:30 PM PT at Long Beach’s The Grand.
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The national tour of Wicked will return this summer, with its first stop in Dallas, at the Music Hall at Fair Park Aug. 3 – Sept. 5. Click here to see the upcoming tour schedule.
Lindsay Pearce (Elphaba), Ginna Claire Mason (Glinda), Sam Gravitte (Fiyero), Riley Costello (Boq), Shoba Narayan (Nessarose), Michael McCormick (The Wizard), Michael X. Martin (Doctor Dillamond), and more.
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Long Beach Opera presents Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles May 21-23 (all at 8 PM PT) at Long Beach’s 2nd & PCH rooftop garage on Pacific Coast Highway, directed by James Darrah, choreographed by Chris Emile, and conducted by Christopher Rountree.
Edward Nelson (Paul), Anna Schubert (Elisabeth), Sarah Beaty (Dargelos/Agathe), and Orson Van Gay (Gerard), with dancers Shauna Davis, Samantha Mohr, Maleek Washington, and Joe Davis.
The final piece of Glass’s trilogy based on the works of Jean Cocteau. The story of two orphaned children who live in dangerous isolation from the outside world.
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John Cleese‘s new solo show, Why There Is No Hope, is currently streaming through May 31 here.
Filmed live at London’s Cadogan Hall, Cleese humorously examines the dysfunctional world in which we live. The 60-minute stream includes a question & answer segment at the end.
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Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World will stream May 26 – June 8 at Boston’s SpeakEasy Stage Company, directed by Paul Daigneault, with music direction by Jose Delgado.
Rashed Al Nuaimi, Laura Marie Duncan, Jennifer Ellis, Dwayne P. Mitchell, Davron S. Monroe, Mikayla Myers, Rebekah Rae Robles, Alexander Tan, and Victor Carrillo Tracey.
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Les Misérables – The Staged Concert, which will resume performances May 20 – Sept. 5 at the Sondheim Theatre, has announced additional casting.
Previously announced: Jon Robyns (Jean Valjean), Bradley Jaden (Javert), Lucie Jones (Fantine), Shan Ako (Éponine), Harry Apps (Marius), Gerard Carey (Thénardier), and Josefina Gabrielle (Madame Thénardier).
Newly announced: Charlie Burn (Cosette) and Jamie Muscato (Enjolras).
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A London production of Maltby & Shire’s Closer Than Ever will stream on BroadwayHD this Fall (dates & link TBA), directed by Maltby, Shire & Stacey Haynes.
Dalton Harris, Lee Mead, Kerry Ellis, and Grace Mouat.
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The world premiere of the updated version of Andrew Lippa & Tom Greenwald’s John & Jen will run July 28 – Aug. 21 at the Southwark Playhouse, directed by Guy Retallack, with orchestrations by Jason Robert Brown & Lippa, and music direction by Bob Broad.
Lewis Cornay and Rachel Tucker.
The musical follows Jen and her relationships with the two Johns of her life: her younger brother, and his namesake, the son who is trying to find his way in a confusing world. The show is split over two timelines: 1985 and 2005.