Today’s Highlights:
Tammy Faye, by James Graham, Elton John & Jake Shears, directed by Rupert Goold, featuring Katie Brayben, Andrew Rannells, Zubin Varla, Kelly Agbowu, Amy Booth-Steel, Ashley Campbell, Peter Caulfield, Danny Collins, Richard Dempsey, Fred Haig,Georgia Louise, Robyn Rose, Nicholas Rowe, Martin Sarreal, Steve John Shepherd, and Gemma Sutton, opens at London’s Almeida Theatre.
Straight Line Crazy, by David Hare, directed by Nicholas Hytner & Jamie Armitage, featuring Ralph Fiennes (Robert Moses), David Bromley (Stamford Fergus), Alana Maria (Shirley Hayes), and Guy Paul (Henry Vanderbilt), with Judtih Roddy (Finnuala Connell), Helen Schlesinger (Jane Jacobs), Mary Stillwagon Stewart (Nicole Savage), and Danny Webb (Governor Al Smith), opens at Off-Broadway’s The Shed.
Camp Siegfried, by Bess Wohl, directed by David Cromer, featuring Johnny Berchtold and Lily McInerny, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Tony Kiser Theatre.
The New Group‘s Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, by Will Arbery, directed by Danya Taymore, featuring Quincy Tyler-Bernstine, Jeb Kreager, Ken Leung, and Rachel Sachnoff, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Signature Center.
Love Among the Ruins, world premiere by Robert A. Papazian & James G. Hirsch, directed by Michael Arabian, featuring JoBeth Williams (Jessica Midlicott), Peter Strauss (Sir Arthur Granville-Jones), Ava Burton (Stenographer), CJ Blaine Eldred (Alfred Pratt), Martin Kildare (George Druise), Tom Shelton (Judge Philip Tandy), Katy Tank (Hermione Davis (Tyee Tilghman (Sir John Francis Dive), Patrick Merck Vest (Herbert/Bailiff), and Wendy Worthington (Fanny Pratt), with Nick Molari, begins previews at Laguna Playhouse.
In the Heights, directed & choreographed by Luis Salgado, featuring Ryan Reyes (Usnavi), Luis Pablo Garcia (Sonny), Mariana Herrera Juri (Salgado), Laura Lebrón (Vanessa), Susan Oliveras (Daniela), Yan Carlos Diaz (Carla) Danny Bolero (Kevin), Laura Castrillián (Camilla Rosario), Corinne Miller (Nina), Jeffrey Nunez (Piragua Guy), Pranjaal Luna’rai (Yolanda), Suzanna Guzmán (Abuela Claudia), and Jalon Matthews (Benny), with Bryan Menjivar, Racquel Williams, Pranjaal Luna’rai, Malachi Durant, Jovany Ramirez, Jose Carlos Rivera, Ximena Valentina Alvear, Raegan Delgado, and Dreamer Wilson, begins previews at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre.
The New York Philharmonic‘s The Journey gala, with special guests Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bernadette Peters, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Renée Fleming, Vanessa Williams, Sara Bareilles, Brandon Victor Dixon, and Joaquina Kalukanto, at 7 PM at NYC’s David Geffen Hall.
Look to the Rainbow/The Songs of Yip Harburg concert, hosted by Andrea Marcovicci, featuring Karen Akers, Ari Axelrod, Danny Bacher, Elena Bennett, Anna Bergman, Leanne Borghesi, Michael-Demby Cain, Clearly Now (Sean Harkness, Lina Koutrakos, Marcus Simeone, Tovah Feldshuh, Christian Holder, Paula Dione Ingram, Maude Maggart, Madalynn Mathews, Marissa Mulder, Todd Murray, Marta Sanders, Josephine Sanges, Those Girls (Eve Eaton, Rachel Hanser, Karen Mack, Wendy Russell), and Andrew Walesch, at 6 PM at Lincoln Center‘s Rose Hall.
The Rocky Horror Skivvies Show concert, starring Nick Cearley and Lauren Molina, with special guests Nick Adams, Tamika Sonja Lawrence, Travis Kent, Eric Ulloa, Pablo Torres, Diana Huey, and Rob Morrison, plus band members Nathan Ellman Bell, Andy Gutauskas, and Rob Morrison, at 8 PM at PA’s Buck’s County Playhouse.
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Reviews for A Raisin in the Sun at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater:
New York Times (Jesse Green): …not merely a revival but a further “exploration” of an earlier production of a 1959 classic … How, then, to make it new? Apparently, on the evidence of this staging, by furiously underlining its subtleties and downplaying its conventional strengths, a reversal of standard procedure that produces a sometimes stunning, sometimes stunted result… It’s not as if the play needed help to feel relevant… it offers a piercing psychological portrait of Black manhood in distress… O’Hara signals from the start (and reiterates throughout) that he will flip the focus, at the same time broadening and darkening it…
Theatermania (Zachary Stewart): …Hansberry’s play is a masterpiece of American drama, offering an intimate view of racial, sexual, and class dynamics in our country through the story of one Black family on the brink of taking a major step on the path of the American Dream: They’re buying a house. Hansberry’s keen insights still astound, despite the efforts of the director to interrogate the play through select moments of provocation… Thankfully, several of the performances rescue Raisin from the excesses of its director…
Time Out (Regina Robbins): …a well-acted and agonizingly relevant production that makes the magnitude of Hansberry’s achievement crystal clear… Tonya Pinkins anchors the production as family matriarch Lena Younger… Director Robert O’Hara…approaches this classic with fresh eyes… O’Hara’s vision includes a few creative embellishments to Hansberry’s largely naturalistic text that seem like attempts to fix what isn’t broken: an offstage sex scene, several appearances by the ghost of Walter Sr., a final tableau that defies anyone to call the play’s ending happy. But the revival is buoyed less by these metatheatrical flourishes than by the full-bodied performances of the cast…
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Broadway Grosses for the week ending Oct. 23. Click here for the complete analysis.
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Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields’ The Play That Goes Wrong will run Nov. 11 – Dec. 18 (opening Nov. 13) at Boston’s Lyric Stage, directed by Fred Sullivan Jr.
Kelby T. Akin, Alexa Cadete, Nora Eschenheimer, Dan Garcia, Mitch Kiliulis, Michael Leibhauser, Marc Alexander Pierre, and Dan Whelton, with Margaret Clar, Patrick French, and Matt C. Rya.
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Joseph Leo Bwarie, Lori Marshall & Rachel Lawrence’s Cindy & The Discot Ball: The Musical has been extended through Nov. 6 at Burbank’s Garry Marshall Theatre, directed by Bwarie & Christine Lakin.
Christopher Baker, Jasiana, Caraballo, Malynda Hale, Hayden Kharrazi, and Abigail Kate Thomas.
The musical time-travels back nearly fifty years to a decade that was dy-no-mite! Colorful fashion, sensational songs, and disco dance moves bring an all-new Cinderella story to life.
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Sharr White’s Pictures From Home will begin previews Jan. 10, 2023 and open Feb. 9 at Studio 54 (link TBA), directed by Bartlett Sher.
Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein, and Zoë Wanamaker.
The play brings to vivid theatrical life a comic and dramatic portrait of a mother, a father, and the son who photographed their lives.
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Patti Murin & Collin Donnell‘s new album, “Something Stupid” will be released Nov. 18 on most platforms. Click here to pre-order.
Conceived during lockdown, Murin and Donnell engineered their own vocals for the record from their newly formed home studio. The forthcoming album goes far beyond the couple’s well-known musical roots to include a variety of genres and beloved songs by Bruce Springsteen, Sara Bareilles, Jason Robert Brown, Paul Simon, and more.
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& 
The Broadway Podcast Network has announced the launch of its new series, “Celebrating Lucy Simon,” offering a five-part video & podcast series featuring never-before heard stories from the Late Lucy Simon herself and her collaborators Judy Collins, Marshall Brickman, Marsha Norman, Victoria Clark, and many more.
Sierra Boggess, Daisy Eagan, John Cameron Mitchell, Ramin Karimloo, and more TBA.
Video: Watch the video series here.
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Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s will run Nov. 15 – Dec. 18 (opening Nov. 19) at the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Kate Whorisky.
De’Adre Aziza (Clyde), Kevin Kenerly (Montrellous), Reza Salazar (Rafael), and Garrett Young (Jason), with Danielle Davis, Lewon Johns, Maya Vinice Prentiss, Arik Vega, and Gage Wallace.
The formerly incarcerated staff of Clyde’s truck stop diner are looking to start their lives over in the kitchen under the pressure of the fiery rule of their owner. In pursuit of the perfect sandwich, the chefs imagine a future they have been constantly told is out of reach.
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Lolita Chakrabarti’s Life of Pi will begin previews Mar. 9, 2023, and open Mar. 30 at the Schoenfeld Theatre, directed by Max Webster.
Casting TBA.
After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a 16-year-old boy name Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive?
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Bonnie & Clyde The Musical will return to the West End Mar. 4 – May 11, 2023 at the Garrick Theatre, directed by Nick Winston.
Casting TBA.
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Denée Benton will return to the role of Cinderella Nov. 22 – Dec. 24 in Broadway’s Into The Woods, which continues through Jan. 8 at the St. James Theatre.
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Christina Anderson has won the 2022 Horton Foote Prize for her play, the ripple, the wave that carried me home.
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LA’s Fountain Theatre will present staged readings of Lee Catluna, Fatima Dyfan, Lisa Loomer, Dael Orlandersmith, Sarah Ruhl, Mary Hall Surface, V (formerly Eve Ensler), and “Anonymous”‘s My Body, No Choice on Wed. Nov. 2 (live, at 8 PM), and Thurs. Nov. 3 (live & livestreamed, at 8 PM), directed by Judith Moreland.
Veralyn Jones, Tamika Katon-Donegal, Jenny O’Hara, Amy Pietz, and Pam Trotter.
The performances are staged readings of monologues commissioned by Arena Stage. Eight female playwrights share what choice means to them through the telling of fiction and non-fiction stories rooted in personal experience.
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Video: DC’s Signature Theatre production of Into the Woods in rehearsal, featuring Christopher Bloch (Narrator/Mysterious Man), Kurt Boehm (Steward), Simone Brown (Rapunzel), Alex De Bard (Little Red Riding Hood), Sherri L. Edelen (Jack’s Mother), Crystal J. Freeman (Cinderella’s Mother/Granny), Vincent Kempski (Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf), Jake Loewenthal (The Baker), David Merino (Jack), Adelina Mitchell (Florinda), Katie Mariko Murray (Cinderella), Nova Y. Payton (The Witch), Lawrence Redmond (Cinderella’s Father), Maria Rizzo (Cinderella’s Stepmother), Paul Scanlan (Rapunzel’s Prince), Erin Weaver (The Baker’s Wife), and Chani Wereley (Lucinda), with Drake Leach, Julia Wheeler Lennon, Dylan Toms, and Cassandra Victoria.
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Red Bull Theater presents a benefit performance of Hal Lester & Danny Apolinar’s Your Own Thing on Mon. Dec. 12 at 7:30 PM at NYC’s Symphony Space, directed by Gabriel Barre.
Eddie Cooper (Sebastian), Lilli Cooper (Viola), Santino Fontana, Jennifer Sánchez, Michael Cerveris, Robert Cucciolo, Tovah Feldshuh, Richard Kind, Ken Page, Patrick Page, Estelle Parsons, Jay O. Sanders, Mary Testa, John Douglas Thompson, and Bruce Vilanch.
A storm shipwrecks an up-and-coming music duo, twins Viola and Sebastian. The pair ends up in the land of Illyria, which looks very much like New York City, circa 1968. And the rest is Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night – well, kind of.
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Video: Jefferson Mays‘ goodbye to Broadway’s The Music Man, as he prepares for his solo A Christmas Carol.
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The world premiere of Lucy, written & directed by Erica Schmidt will run Jan. 28 – Feb. 5, 2023 at the Minetta Lane Theatre (link TBA).
Casting TBA.
The play, which explores the range of emotions that new parents go through, concerns Ashling, a professional nanny with warmth, experience, and a sunny attitude. But from the moment Mary hires her to look after her young daughter and infant son, things start feeling a little off.