Today’s Highlights:
Thoughts of a Colored Man, by Keenan Scott II, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, featuring Dyllón Burnside, Bryan Terrell, Da’Vinchi, Luke James, Forrest McClendon, Tristan “Mack” Wilds, and Esau Pritchett, opens at Broadway’s Golden Theatre.
Girl From the North Country, by Bob Dylan & Conor McPherson, directed by McPherson, featuring Todd Almond, Jeannette Bayardelle, Jennifer Blood, Law Terrell Dunford, Matthew Frederick Harris, Caitlin Houlahan, Robert Joy, Marc Kudisch, Luba Mason, Ben Mayne, Matt McGrath, Tom Nelis, Jay O. Sanders, John Schiappa, Austin Scott, Kimber Elayne Sprawl, Rachel Stern, Chiara Trentalange, Bob Walton, Chelsea Lee Williams, and Mare Winningham, resumes performances at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre.
Eureka Day, by Jonathan Spector, directed by Robert Hupp, featuring Drew Hirshfield (Eli), LeeAnne Hutchinson (Suzanne), Tanisha Jackson (Winter), Jason O’Connell (Don), Laura Yumi Snell (Meiko), and Stephanie Weeks (Carina), with Theorri London, Thom Miller, Sarah Sakita Mozeson, Roslyn Seale, Blake Segal, and April Sweeney, opens at Syracuse Stage.
Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream, by Roger Bean, directed & choreographed by Jonathan Van Dyke, featuring Willie Beaton II (Wally), Alex Fullerton (Denny), Noah A. Lyon (Eugene), Dorian Quinn (Duke), and Sophia Swannell (Lois), begins previews at La Jolla Playhouse.
Songs for a New World, by Jason Robert Brown, directed by Mark S. Hoebee, featuring Roman Banks, Carolee Carmello, Andrew Kober, and Mia Pinero, with Dion Simmons Grier and Olivia Hernandez, begins previews at NJ’s Paper Mill Playhouse.
Sutton Foster in Conversation: “Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life” conversation, in person & online, at 7 PM ET at NYC’s 92Y.
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Reviews for 2nd Stage Theatre’s Letters of Suresh at Off-Broadway’s Tony Kiser Theatre:
NY Times (Alexis Soloski): …it’s surprising, yet not surprising at all, to sit down at Rajiv Joseph’s Letters of Suresh… and discover a follow-up to Animals Out of Paper, his petite and practically perfect dramedy from 2008… an epistolary play, with a script composed entirely of letters. Well, letters and one FaceTime conversation… If narrating letters to nowhere seems like a writerly conceit, that’s because it is, though Ahn’s messy charisma puts it over… Letters of Suresh, sweet and even soppy, finds its characters in various stages of heartbreak, with no fracture fully healed… Mixing originality and cliché, the play surveys the near impossibility of connection…
Theatermania (David Gordon):… You needn’t have seen the original to follow and enjoy this lovely sequel [to Animals]… This is a play and production that are filled with longing, a trait that all four actors have intrinsically imbued in their performances in different ways… May Adrales’s swift production underscores the distance between the characters through the use of a very wide set… I was surprised by how moved I was to watch a play about difficulties in communication now… but we are in the wake of a pandemic that cut everyone off from each other… That extends to theater, too, as we gather for our first shows back, and this uncommonly graceful play is a very nice welcome back.
New York Stage Review (Melissa Rose Bernardo): Thirteen years after his beautifully constructed Animals Out of Paper, playwright Rajiv Joseph continues the journey of one of that play’s characters with the moody, melancholic Letters of Suresh… a companion piece rather than a sequel, a collection of monologues that attempts to link a disparate group of people…through little more than the power of the written word. There are other connections, some more tenuous than others… Joseph’s writing is as vivid and poetic as ever…
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “I never let them cough. They wouldn’t dare.” ~ Ethel Barrymore.
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Video: Stars in the House, offering an In The Heights game night, with special guests Michael Balderrama, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Marcy Harriell, Javior Muñoz, Krysta Rodriguez and Rickey Tripp. (1:47:27)
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The Shed will present Cecily Strong in her theatrical debut in Jane Wagner’s The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, which will run Dec. 21 – Feb. 5, 2022 at the Griffin Theatre, directed by Leigh Silverman.
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Playwright Jeremy O. Harris’ has announced that his Tony-nominated hit Slave Play will once again arrive on the west coast next year as a part of Center Theatre Group‘s 2021-22 season.
Earlier this month, the playwright withdrew the play from the season citing an overwhelmingly male-authored lineup of plays.
Harris posted the news on Twitter last night, explaining that he had reached a resolution with CTG leadership upon their agreement to a number of terms Harris set forth to promote equity and diversity at the institution going forward.
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David West Read’s & Juliet has resumed performances at the Shaftesbury Theatre, directed by Luke Sheppard, with choreography by Jennifer Weber.
Miriam-Teak Lee (Juliet), Cassidy Janson (Anne Hathaway), David Bedella (Lance), Oliver Tompsett (William Shakespeare), Jordan Luke Gage (Romeo), Melanie La Barrie (Nurse), and Tim Mahendran (Francois), and Alex Thomas-Smith (May), with Roshani Abbey, Jocasta Almgill, Josh Baker, Ivan De Freitas, Rhian Duncan, Kieran Lai, Nathan Lorainey-Dineen, Jaye Marshall, Grace Mouat, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Billy Nevers, Kerri Norville, Christopher Parkinson, Kirstie Skivington, Alex Traner, Sophie Usher, and Rhys Wilkinson
The most famous story of all time… remixed. Join Juliet on this sensational journey of self-discovery and second chances, told through some of the most glittering pop anthems of the last three decades from songwriter Max Martin.
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Complete casting has been announced for Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue, to run Nov. 9 – Dec. 12 (opening Nov. 18) at the Geffen Playhouse, directed by Stori Ayers.
Tyla Abercrumbie (Silver), Wendell B. Franklin (Blue), Alani iLongwe (P-Sam), John Earl Jelks (Corn), and Shayna Small (Pumpkin).
Welcome to the sultry, jazz-filled Paradise Club. It’s 1949 in Detroit, and trumpet-playing club owner Blue has a tough decision to make. Should he sell his jazz joint as gentrification is banging on the door? The house band is desperate to stay, Blue’s demons are tempting him to leave, and the arrival of a seductive stranger turns everything upside down. A makeshift family and their troubled bandleader find themselves fight for the future of Paradise.
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Manhattan Theatre Club has extended its production of Lackawana Blues through Nov. 7 at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
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Boston’s SpeakEasy Stage Company will present Aziza Barnes’ BLKS Oct. 29 – Nov. 20 at the Calderwood Pavilion, directed by Tonasia Jones.
Thomika Marie Bridwell, Kesley Ferdinand, Meghan Hornblower, Sandra Seoane-Seri, Shanelle Chloe Villegas, and Sharmarke.
The play explores the lives of three twenty-something black women trying to find intimacy and purpose in a city that just doesn’t seem to care about them. In the wake of a serious of health scare, Octavia recruits her besties June and Imani to join her for one last epic night on the town. But as the evening unfolds, a string of increasingly wild adventures tests their friendship.
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Schele Williams will direct Disney Theatrical’s new musical adaptation of the film “Hidden Figure.” Casting and creative team TBA.
The story of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson: three Black female mathematicians whose work with NASA propelled astronaut John Glenn into orbit and the U.S. into the Space Race.
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As contract negotiations and potential walkouts still loom over the film and TV industry, the dust has at least settled on one of Washington, D.C.’s biggest stages. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 22 has averted a strike via the ratification of a new agreement with the Kennedy Center.
The new contract, in effect through 2023, stipulates modest raises in its latter two years and establishes COVID safety protocols for stagehands. The agreement also addresses the one item that remained uncertain at the time of the authorization vote: jurisdiction over the Washington, D.C. organization’s new REACH wing.
Performances at the Kennedy Center, including the D.C. premiere of Hadestown (Oct. 13–31), will go on as scheduled.
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The Troubadour Theatre Company presents Santa Clause is Comin’ to Motown Nov. 23 – Dec. 24 at Burbank’s Garry Marshall Theatre, directed by Matt Walker .
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Bess Wohl is adapting Lillian Hellman’s “The Children’s Hour” as a limited TV series, which will use the real-life legal case that inspired Hellman’s work and expand upon the world of the school and the psyche of the accuser. Timeline, casting, and release date TBA.
The play follows two schoolmarms who are accused of a lesbian relationship by students, upending their professional and personal lives.
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The London production of Anything Goes, starring Sutton Foster, has been filmed and will be will screened Nov. 18 & Dec. 1 only in U.K. theaters.
However, international screenings will follow. Stay tuned…
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An Evening with David Sedaris will take place Thurs. Nov. 10 at 8 PM PT at Northridge’s Soraya.
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Florian Zeller’s film adaptation of “The Son,” adapted by Christopher Hampton is currently in development. Timeline, release date and additional information TBA.
Anthony Hopkins (role not announced), Hugh Jackman (Peter), Zen McGrath (Nicholas), Laura Dern (Kate), Vanessa Kirby (Beth), and more TBA.
The film follows two parents as they deal with their child’s response to their separation.
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Atlanta’s City Springs Theatre Company has announced Shuler Hensley as its new Artistic Director.
Hensley has been an integral part of the company from its inception in 2017.
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West End Musical Christmas take place Mon. Dec. 20 at 8 PM at the Lyric Theatre (closing date TBA), directed by TBA, with music direction by TBA, and hosted by Shanay Holmes.
John Owen-Jones, Emma Hatton, Oliver Ormson, Jodie Steele, Obi Ugoala, and Idriss Kargbo, Shany Holmes, and more TBA.
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Mamma Mia! will run Oct. 29 – Nov. 21 (opening Oct. 30) at CA’s La Mirada Theatre, directed by T.J. Dawson, with music direction by Keith Thompson, and choreography by Dana Solimando.
Marie-France Arcilla (Donna Sheridan), Eric Kunze (Sam Carmichael), Gabriela Carrillo (Sophie Sheridan), Taubert Nadalini (Sky), Danny Bernardo (Harry Bright), Michael Cavinder (Bill Austin), Emily King Brown (Tanya), Candi Milo (Rosie), Joi D. McCoy (Ali), Momoko Sugai (Lisa), Rodrigo Varandas (Pepper), Dillon Klena (Eddie), and Dylan Pass (Father Alexandrios), with Chris Bona, Gillian Bozajian, Markesha Chatfield, Juan Guillen, Brandon Halvorsen, Michael James, Ashley En-Fu-Matthews, Jonathan McGill, Isabella Olivas, Christina Papandrea, Kelly Powers-Figueroa, Hannah Jean Simmons, Scott Spraags, Fana Tesfagiorgis, and Adam Turney.