GRACE NOTES: Wednesday, September 18, 2024

 

Today’s Highlights:

  Fatherland, written & directed by Stephen Sachs, featuring Ron Bottitta (Father), Patrick Keleher (Son), Anna Kahja (US Attorney), and Larry Poindexter (Defense Attorney), begins previews at Off-Broadway’s New York City Center Stage II.

  Kritzerland’s 14th Anniversary Concert, directed by Bruce Kimmel, featuring Anastasia Barzee, Jason Graae, Ava Madison Gray, Kerry O’Malley, Adrienne Stiefel, Bruce Vilanch and Robert Yacko, at 8:30 PM at  Hollywood’s Catalina Jazz Club.

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 Broadway Grosses for the week ending Sept. 15.

Click here for the complete analysis.

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 Kyle Falconer, Laura Wilde & Johnny McKnight’s No Love Songs will run Sept. 27 – Oct. 20 (opening Oct. 3) at CT’s Goodspeed, directed by Andrew Panton.

  John McLarnon (Jessie) and Anna Russell-Martin (Lana).

  The story of Jessie and Lana—young and in love one second and pregnant the very next. When Jessie is called away to tour with his band in America and post-partum depression sets in for Lana, they must learn to navigate the unique challenges of their new lives as parents.

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   Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater has announced its 11th Annual Title Wave: 2025 New Works Festival, which will be held in May or June, 2025 (exact dates TBA). Pre-registration begins Sept. 22.  As is tradition, the festival will introduce four new full-length plays to the Bay Street stage over the course of the weekend.

Submissions will open Oct. 1, 2024 and will close when a maximum of 300 plays have been submitted (or no later than Oct. 31)

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  Hanna Eady & Edward Mast’s The Mulberry Tree will run Oct. 10-20 (opening Oct. 14) at La MaMa, directed by Alexandra Aron.

  Ramzi Khalif, Rachel Botchan, Laith Zuaiter, Najla Said, Khalifa Natour, and Haythem Noor.

  As 1948, the year of the founding of the state of Israel, approaches, a Palestinian boy and his beloved neighbor, the village Rabbi, struggle to maintain their friendship in a village where Jews, Christians, and Muslims have lived side by side, trying to go about life as usual – until it becomes impossible.

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  Gingold Theatrical Group’s Golden Shamrock Gala will take place Mon. Sept. 23 at 6 PM at NYC’s Robert Restaurant (2 Columbus Circle).

Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty

Brenda Braxton and Santino Fontana

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  Medea: A Musical Comedy, written & directed by John Fisher, will open Oct. 10 for an open-ended run at Actors Temple Theatre, with choreography by Hunter Hope Barnett, and music direction by Bobby Weil.

  Jenna Arkontaky, Hunter Hope Barnett, Ryan Borgo-Christian, Anthony Chavers, John Fisher, Emily Sweeney Goldstein, Mike Kinzer, Darius Mullens, Laura Pachnos, and Bobby Weil. Standbys and understudies include Noah Hartwell, Daniel Kushner, and Emerese Noel.

 A campy and critically-acclaimed musical take on Euripides’ Medea.

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  VideoAdam Lambert and Auli’i Cravalho in Cabaret on Broadway.

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Melissa Errico: Interpreting Sondheim from Stage to Concert, Performance Workshop, with Michael Kirk Lane & Yasuhiko (Yaz) Fukuoka. will take place Fri.  Oct. 25 (6-9 PM) and Sat. Oct. 26 (10 AM-1 PM & 2-5 PM) at  NYC’s 92NY.

  This immersive workshop, designed to shed light on the practice and techniques of singing Sondheim, will also touch on the ways that Errico, famously, ‘turns a set list into a story’ — goes about taking songs from their original theatrical context while reimagining them in a cycle that has a narrative arc and meaning all its own.

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  VideoJoy Woods & Ryan Vasquez perform Sondheim’s “Losing My Mind” at the Apr.15  Miscast Concert.

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  Following a nationwide search, it has been announced that Emily Shooltz (after 14 years as the Associate Artistic Director of Off Broadway’s Signature Theatre), has been named the new Artistic Director of the company.

Shooltz will replace Paige Evans, who has led the Off-Broadway company since 2016.

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  The 50+ Comedy Tour will play Sat. Oct. 26 at 8 PM at Long Island’s Bay Street Theatre.

  Peter BalesJohn ZieglerMaria Walsh, and Eric Haft.

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  Guinevere Govea & Anna Pickett’s Spells of the Sea will run Oct. 12-20 at the Kennedy Center, directed & choreographed by Rachel Klein, with music direction by Andy Peterson.

 Brittney Mack (The Mermaid), Lance Roberts (Crank), Ryan Knowles (Dad/Pirate King), Livvy Marcus (Finley), Elisa Galindez (Princess), and Celia Mei Rubin (The Doctor), with Bianca Rose and Nichalas Lancaster Parker.

  When Finley Frankfurter’s father, a famed fisherman, is struck by the Big Bad Sickness of the Sea, she embarks on an extraordinary quest for a cure.

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  Nathan Englander’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank will run Oct. 4 – Nov. 23 at the Marylebone Theatre, directed by  Patrick Marber.

  Joshua Malina (Phil), Caroline Catz (Debbie), Dorothea Myer-Bennett (Shoshana), Simon Yadoo (Yerucham), and Gabriel Howell (Trevor).

  The play follows two high school friends who, after years apart, reunite at a dinner party with their respective husbands that goes off the rails. Described in press notes as a “serious new comedy,” the play covers everything from identity, politics, Gaza and Israel, the Holocaust, and more.

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  Two world premiere one-act plays will run Oct. 10 -27 at Hollywood’s Art of Acting Studio.

  Someone Like Me, written & directed by Richard Gustin, featuring Bianca Foscht and Marcus Wellsm with Angelika Giatras.   A biting comedy focusing on Jordan, who is on the edge with her fiancé when a stranger enters her world and turns it upside down. He leads the two of them into an increasingly pointed debate about the tides of culture, love, and Jordan’s own looming commitment.

  In Whose Eyes?, by George Kappaz, directed by Johnny Patrick Yoder, featuring  Suzanne Ford, George Kappaz, Kirsta Peterson, Walter Rodriguez, William Salyers,  and Elizabeth Ivy Southard.   A man caught in a cascade of historical events threatens everything he holds dear. His ability to survive these events is both remarkable and inexplicable. But a trial in the afterlife draws into question the morality of his choices and the destination of his soul.

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  Kate Hamill’s Dracula, A Feminist Revenge Fantasy Really, will run Oct. 16 – Nov. 3 at Virginia Stage Company, directed by Melissa Mowry.

 Brianna-Lynn Baker (Marilla), Robert Beitzel (Dracula), Victoria Blake (Miller/Merchant), Madeline Calais-King (Mina Harker), Dan Cimo (Dr. George Seward), Eric Harrell (Jonathan Harker), Darlene Hope (Doctor Van Helsing), Yayra McGodfred (Maid), Lizzie Morgan (Lucy Westerna), Komal Smruti (Drusilla), and Anna Sosa (Renfield).

A bold and subversive retelling of Bram Stoker’s classic novel “Dracula” offers a fresh, feminist perspective, blending horror with humor to explore themes of power, gender, and revenge.

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  A private industry presentation of Christopher Lennertz, Amena Brown & Francisca Da Silveira’s BeAPart will take place Sept. 30 in NYC, directed by Ellie Heyman, with music direction by Issac Hayward.

 Amber Iman, Jennifer Damiano, Brenda Braxton, Marcus Paul James, Marcus M. Martin, Jaime Cepero, Brooke Simpson, Alan Wiggins, Dwayne, and Khadija Sankoh.

  The play about chosen family, gentrification, returning home, and the sweet, smoky love of barbecue.

 


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