Today’s Highlights:
* Carnegie Hall‘s Virtual Opening Night Gala Celebration, directed by Habib Azar, featuring Rhiannon Giddens with Our Native Daughters, Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, Jon Batiste, Gustavo Dudamel, Michael Feinstein, Angélique Kidjo, Lang Lang, Wynton Marsalis, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, James Taylor, and Michael Tilson Thomas, streams for FREE at 7:30 PM.
* “Under the Greenwood Tree,” a FREE documentary about The Public Theater’s 2017 production of As You Like It, adapted by Shaina Taub & Laurie Woolery, featuring Ato Blankson-Wood (Orlando), Darius de Haas (Duke Senior), Rebecca Naomi Jones (Rosalind), Joel Perez (Touchstone), and Taub as (Jaques), streams at 8 PM ET here.
* Excerpts from Salem (by Kira Stone, featuring Stone & Antonio Cipriano)…. and… Shapeshfters: A Queer Comic Book Musical (by Thruth Bachman), directed by Sarna Lapine, streams at 7 PM ET on the Theatre Barn website.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: 3D entertainment has been around for thousands of years. It’s called “theater.” ~ Anonymous
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Video: “Stars in the House,” a Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish cast reunion, with Joel Grey, Samantha Hahn, Steven Skybell, Rachel Zatcoff, and Max Steinmetz. (1:14:17)
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The concert premiere of John McDaniel & Scott Logsdon’s Sticks & Stones, in support of BC/BFA, will take place Fri. Oct. 16 at 8 PM ET here (and will remain available through Oct. 20 at 8 PM ET).
Joshua Colley (David), Audra McDonald (David’s Mother), Javier Muñoz (Jesse), George Salazar (King Saul), and Mykal Kilgore (The Prophet Samuel).
The musical adapts the Biblical story of David and his triumph over Goliath to address the issue of teen bullying.
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The cappella group, Voctave, will release its 8th album, “The Corner of Broadway and Main Street Vol. 2.” The 16-track album combines favorites from Broadway musicals and Disney movies to create a beautiful arrangement of songs.
Kirstin Maldonado, Liz Callaway, and Mariachi Cobre.
Sample the album and download the mp3 here.
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The Actors Fund has announced that the next “Life on the Stage: Conversation and Film” will take place Tues. Oct. 13 at 7:30 PM here, offering a discussion about the 2008 film “Frost/Nixon,” moderated by Dori Berinstein.
Ron Howard
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FORWARD. TOGETHER. A Virtual event to support The Public Theater will take place Tues. Oct. 20 at 8 PM ET here, directed by Kenny Leon, with music direction by Ted Sperling.
Sam Waterston and Audrey & Zygi Wilf.
Jelani Alladin, Jacqueline Antaramian, Antonio Banderas, Laura Benanti, Kim Blanck, Ally Bonino, Danielle Brooks, Jenn Colella, Elvis Costello, Daniel Craig, Alysha Deslorieux, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Holly Gould, Danai Gurira, Stephanie Hsu, David Henry Hwang, Oscar Isaac, Nikki M. James, Alicia Keys, John Leguizamo, John Lithgow, Audra McDonald, Grace McLean, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kelli O’Hara, Mia Pak, Suzan-Lori Parks, David Hyde Pierce, Phylicia Rashad, Liev Schreiber, Martin Sheen, Phillipa Soo, Meryl Streep, Sting & Trudie Styler, Will Swenson, Shaina Taub, Kuhoo Verma, Ada Westfall, Kate Wetherhead, and more.
An exciting evening featuring stories from Public Theater alumni…… songs from Public Theater musicals including a performance by Jelani Alladin of a brand new song written just for Public Works’ production of Hercules…… and a preview of “Say Their Names”: a visual installation to be projected on the facade of The Public Theater building dedicated to the Black lives lost to police brutality and white violence.
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“The West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote” benefit reading of “The West Wing” Season 3’s “Hartsfield’s Landing” episode, will premiere Thurs. Oct. 15 on HBO Max.
Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Rob Lowe, Bradley Whitford, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney and Anna Deavere Smith, and Sterling K. Brown.
The special will also will include act breaks with guest appearances from Michelle Obama, President Bill Clinton and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Composer W.G. Snuffy Walden will perform The West Wing score on guitar, and folk rock band The Avett Brothers will close out the special.
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Off-Broadway’s Prospect Theater Company has announced its Fall Season of Filmed Musicals (dates TBA):
* The Band at the End of the World, by Bandits on the Run (a.k.a. Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn), directed by Bart Cortright.
* Lady Lawyer Lockwood Rides Her Tricycle, by Britt Bonney, directed by Cara Reichel, and featuring Ali Ewoldt, Tina Stafford, Jacob Keith Watson, and Fiona Santos.
* UNRAVELL’D, a movement narrative conceived & directed by Kristen Brroks Sandler, with a score by Or Matias, and choreography by Thistle Dance/Kristin Brooks Sandler.
* Lady Apsara, by Naveen Bahar Choudhury & Kamala Sankaram, directed by Zi Alikhan, featuring Angel Desai, Chris Cornwell, Shinya Miyamoto, and Debbie Christine Tjong.
* Don’t Stay Safe, by Cheryl L. Davis & Douglas J. Cohen
* Brain. Storm., by Jay Alan Zimmerman.
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Off-Broadway’s Mint Theater Company presents a filmed performance of Miles Malleson’s Conflict, to stream Oct. 19 – Nov. 1, directed by Jenn Thompson.
Jeremy Beck, Henry Clarke, Graeme Malcolm, James Preendergast, Jessie Shelton, Jasmin Walker, and Amelia White.
It’s the Roaring 20’s, London. Lady Dare Bellingdon has everything she could want, yet she craves something more. Dare’s man, Sir Major Ronald Clive, is standing for Parliament with the backing of Dare’s father. Clive is a Conservative, of course, but he’s liberal enough to be sleeping with Dare, who’s daring enough to take Clive as a lover, but too restless to marry him. Clive’s opponent, Tom Smith is passionate about social justice and understands the joy of having something to believe in. Dare is “the woman between” two candidates who both want to make a better world—until politics become personal, and mudslinging threatens to soil them all.
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RIP: Actor Clark Middleton has died at age 63 from West Nile Virus.
In 1977, Middleton wrote the one-person play Miracle Mile, about his lifelong struggle with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. He made his Broadway debut in The Iceman Cometh.
Off-Broadway credits include The Late Henry Moss, Chicago, A Few Stout Individuals, The Golem, The Hope Zone, The Madwoman of Chaillot, Paradise Lost, Richard III, Baal, Body of Bourne, Heir Apparent, Curse of the Starving Class, Don Quixote, and Greetings.
Film credits include “Kill Bill: Vo. 2,” “Sin City,” “Fringe,” “Snowpiercer,” “The Blacklist,” and many more. On TV, Middleton recurred on “Law & Order” as a forensic technician.
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An Australian filmed, socially distant adaptation of the musical comedy Who’s Your Baghdaddy, or How I Started the Iraq War , directed by Neil Gooding, is now available to stream (see below).
Blake Erickson, Doug Hansell, Phillip Lowe, Laura Murphy, Matthew Predny, Adam Rennie, Katrina Retallick, and Troy Sussman.
Video ($16), and will also be available on BroadwayHD on Nov. 11.
The musical is set in a church basement as a group of disgraced spies trace how their actions may have led to the start of the Iraq War through a mix of false intelligence, rash decisions, blind ambition, and unrequited affection.
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Off-Broadway’s York Theatre presents An Evening of New Musical Theatre, offering a presentation of material from 3 new musicals, on Fri. Oct. 9 at 7 PM ET. Performers TBA.
* Boundless, by Alison Weller & Peter Hodgson. An exploration of the changing small-boat fishing industry off Cape Cod, merging an interview-based text with original pop and folk music.
* Double Helix, by Madeline Myers. The true story of Rosalind Franklin, the brilliant scientist whose pivotal contributions to the discovery of DNA were written out of the history books.
* Coming Attraction, by Gray Horan, Amanda D’Archangelis & Sami Horneff. In 1920s Hollywood, two talented female artists — photographer Ruth Harriet Louise and actress Greta Garbo — must navigate the narrow pathways available to them, while asking, “What does it take to follow your dreams?”
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Georgia Stitt‘s album “A Quiet Revolution” is now available on CD, digital, or streaming. 
Order/Download here.
Video: Album trailer
Video: “The Great American Black and White,” with Brandon Victor Dixon
Audio: “Stop” with Sutton Foster
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A reading of Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moor will take place Mon. Oct. 12 at 7 PM ET here.
(Original Off-Broadway cast): Keith Hamilton Cobb and Josh Tyson.
The play takes place in the audition room as an African-American actor responds to the demands of a white director presuming to better understand Shakespeare’s iconic black character, Othello. An essential look at the experience and perspective of black men in America while challenging the capacity of the American theatre to make all people fully visible and embraced.