Today’s Highlights:
Designing Women, by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, directed by Amy Herzberg & Harry Thomason, featuring Carmen Cusack (Julia Sugarbaker), Amy Pietz (Suzanne Sugarbaker), Sarah Colonna (Mary Jo Shively), Elaine Hendrix (Charlene Frazier), Carla Renata (Cleo Bouvier), Kim Matula (Haley McPhee), and Elizabeth Ofodile (Alfie), begins previews at Arkansas’ Theater Fayetteville (both in-person and streaming).
Stupid Kids FREE benefit streamed reading, by John C. Russell, directed by Michael Mayer, featuring John Clay III (Jim Stark), Lauren Patten (Jane “Kimberly” Willis), Ali Stroker (Judy an), and Taylor Trensch (John “Neechee” Crawford), with stage directions read by Christian Borle, available HERE.
Eli Bolin Has No Friends concert, with special guests PL Adzima, Nick Blaemire, Richard Kind, Paula Pell, Larry Owens, Chrissy Pardo, Shereen Pimentel, Allison Posner, Jed Resnick, and Natalie Walker, at 9:45 PM ET at 54 Below.
Backstage Babble’s Applause reunion conversation, moderated by Charles Kirsch, with special guests Penny Fuller Len Cariou, Lee Roy Reams, Brandon Maggart, Susan L. Schulman, Marilyn D’Honau, Michael Misita, and Patti D’Beck, streams for FREE at 8 PM ET HERE.
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Reviews for NY Theatre Workshop’s Sanctuary City at Off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Theatre:
NY Times (Jesse Green): American playwrights typically stake out a territory and stick to it… Add Martyna Majok to the list. Her territory is Newark, but not just the literal one in the shadow of Manhattan. Hers is the dystopia at America’s back door, where stateless people, desperate for even a foothold in the country where they live, find themselves hounded by danger at every turn… Majok writes about the plight of undocumented immigrants, with a glowering side-eye cast on the rest of us. Her unsparing, unsentimental vision of America, brought to life in Rebecca Frecknall’s thrillingly minimal production…
Theatermania (David Gordon): …This is the kind of piece that Majok… does best, a work of majestic beauty that rips your heart out and shows it to you in its effort to tell the truth about experiences that the largely upper-middle-class audiences wouldn’t otherwise have… Majok, an astute observer of the immigrant experience in America through dramas like Ironbound and queens, is questioning the point of the struggle itself: Why do people come to America when the streets aren’t paved with gold and haven’t ever been?… Majok’s script is expertly matched by the direction of British theater wunderkind Rebecca Frecknall, whose crystalline work is present in every single detail, yet simultaneously invisible.
Vulture (Helen Shaw): …Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City contains other romances, other yearnings. It also breaks its own heart, pivoting in the middle from experimental high-wire act to tendentious issue drama. There are moments in the last section of Sanctuary City that seem to belong to another writer entirely, and characters welch on promises the playwright made on their behalf. Why does Majok do it? I’m feeling my way here (I’m still bruised), but I think it might be because theater’s vicarious heartache isn’t enough for her. To tell the story she wants to tell, she’s willing to let us fall out of love with the play itself.
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GRACE NOTES Quote of the Week: “Ralph Richardson’s Uncle Vanya is just his Falstaff with a hangover.” ~ George Jean Nathan
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Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy, adapted by Ben Power, will resume previews Sept. 25 and opens Oct. 14 at the Nederlander Theatre, directed by Sam Mendes.
Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley, and Adrian Lester
* Opens the day before the desired performance at 9 AM ET and closes at 4 PM ET.
* $40 tickets will be available for each performance.
* Winners will be notified within minutes after the lottery has closed, and will have 60 minutes to pay for tickets online with a credit card.
* Tickets will be delivered via email the day of the performance.
* Seat locations and number of tickets awarded by the lottery are subject to availability, and may be partial view.
* Click here to enter the lottery.
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Pump Boys & Dinettes will run Oct. 30 – Dec. 12 (opening Nov. 4) at Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre, directed by Daryl Brooks, with music direction by Robert Reddrick, and choreography by Rueben D. Echoles.
Rafe Bradford (Eddie), Shantel Cribbs (Prudie Cupp), Ian Custer (Jim), Frederick “Ricky” Harris (L.M.), Melanie Loren (Rhetta Cupp), and Billy Rude (Jackson), with Caitlin Dobbins, J.J. Smith, and Kelan Smith.
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Lowell Ganz, Babloo Mandel, Jason Robert Brown & Amanda Green’s stage adaptation of Mr. Saturday Night will offer presentations of the new musical Oct. 22-24 & 26-30 at Boston’s Barrington Stage, directed by John Rando, with music direction by David O.
Billy Crystal (Buddy Young), Randy Graff (Elaine Young), David Paymer (Stan Yankelman), and Chasten Harmon (Annie Wells), with more TBA.
The new musical is about one man’s meteoric rise to the middle.
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“The Rainbow Lullaby,” the world’s first LGBTQ lullaby album, conceived by Ryan Bauer-Walsh, will be released Oct. 28 on Broadway Records. To sign up for alerts. click here.
(all LGBTQIA+) Bauer-Walsh, Marc Shaiman, and Debra Barsha, and many more.
Michael Buchanan, Ryan Bauer-Walsh, Matt Doyle, Jenn Colella, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Chilina Kennedy, Michael Longoria, Kyle Dean Massey, Lauren Patten, Jelani Remy, Chris & Clay Rice-Thomson, Marissa Rosen, Marty Thomas. Klea Blackhurst, Jonathan Burke, Jamie Cepero, Jenn Colella, Madge Dietrich, C hristine Dwyer, Taylor Frey, Zachary James, Natalie Joy Johnson, Aury Krebs, Caitlin Kinnunen, Jo Lampert, L. Morgan Lee, Richie Leone, Michael Longoria, John Charles McLaughlin, Susie Mosher, Shakina Nayfack, Kyler O’Neal, Lauren Patten, Ernie Pruneda, Jelani Remy, Chris Rice-Thomson, Clay Rice-Thomson, Marissa Rosen, Katie Thompson, and The First Presbyterian Church of New York City Choir.
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Burbank’s Garry Marshall Theatre will present its 4th Annual New Works Festival Sept. 24-26, featuring presentations of the 5 finalists selected this year. 
Viewers will have the opportunity to participate in a post-reading discussion with playwrights.
Sapience (Sept. 24 at 6 PM PT),by Diana Burbano, directed by Fran de Leon.
Best Little Youth Theatre in Lexington (Sept. 25 at 1 PM PT), by Jordan Beswick, directed by Mary Jo DuPrey.
Affinity Lunch Minutes, by Nick Malakhow (Sept. 25 at 6 PM PT), directed by Nancy Cheryll Davis-Bellamy.
Pangea (Sept. 26 at 12 PM PT), by Scott Sickles, directed by Rob Nagle.
Memories of Overdevelopment (Sept. 26 at 6 PM PT), by Caridad Syich, directed by Michael John Garcés.
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A Sherlock Carol, written & directed by Mark Shanahan, will run Nov. 11 – Jan. 2, 2022 (opening Nov. 22) at New World Stages.
Drew McVety (Sherlock Holmes) and Thom Sesma (Ebenezer Scrooge), with Dan Domingues, Anissa Felix, Isabel Keating, and Mark Price.
A grown-up Tiny Tim turns to Sherlock Holmes to solve the peculiar death of Ebenezer Scrooge in the new holiday mystery.
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Chess in Concert will run Sept. 24-26 at San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon, directed by Daren A.C. Carollo & Danny Cozart.
Trixie Aballa, Jillian Bader, Faustino Cadiz, Sean Doughty, Nathanael Fleming, Katie Francis, Will Giammona, Cate Hayman, Lauren Jiang, Christopher Juan, Kamren Mahaney, Jennifer Martinelli, Nick Rodrigues, Johann Santos, B Noel Thomas, Katie Trim, and Jaron Vesely.
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RIP: Willie Garson died yesterday at the age of 57.
He is best known for his long runs on television, as Mozzie on “White Collar,” Stanford Blatch on “Sex and the City,” and Henry Coffield on “NYPD Blue.” Throughout his impressive career, Garson appeared in over 300 episodes of television and more than 70 films.
Garson was also seen onstage with various theater companies such as Naked Angels, Manhattan Theater Club, The Roundabout Theater, and The Geffen.
At the time of his passing, Willie was in the midst of reprising the character Stanford for the “Sex and the City” reboot. And Just Like That…
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Showtime is developing a limited series about Joan Rivers, titled “The Comeback Girl,” directed by Greg Berlanti. A premiere date is TBA.
Kathryn Hahn (Joan Rivers), and more TBA.
Trailblazer. Adored. Cruel. Diva. Joan Rivers a life like no other. At age 54, she was a superstar comedienne…and then it all fell apart. This is the awe-inspiring untold story aof how Joan persevered through near suicide and professional abyss to rebuild herself and her career to become a global icon. The series is primarily set in the aftermath of the cancellation of “The Late Show,” which coincided with Rivers’ husband (and “Late Show producer) Edgar Rosenberg’s death by suicide.
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Ann Kittredge: Movie Nite will take place Sun. Oct. 10 at 8:30 PM ET at NYC’s Birdland, with music direction by Alex Rybeck.
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Complete casting has been announced for the pre-Broadway run of Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop, to run Nov. 22 – Jan. 2, 2022 at DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre, directed by Stephen Brackett, with music direction by Rona Siddiqui, and choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.
Antwayn Hopper (Thought 6), L. Morgan Lee (Thought 1), John-Michael Lyles (Thought 3), James Jackson Jr. (Thought 2), John-Andrew Morrison (Thought 4), Jason Beasey (Thought 5), and Jaquel Spivey (Usher), with Christopher Michael Richardson.
The musical follows a young artist at was with a host of demons, including the punishing thoughts in his own head — in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop.
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Concord Theatricals has announced it new campaign, “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” a digital celebration of the return of live theater and all of the incredible people who help to make it happen.
To participate in the campaign this Fall, theater-makers and theater goers around the world are encouraged to document their triumphant return to the theater on social media using the hashtag #NoBusinessLikeShowBusiness.
Whether you’re onstage of off – a creator, performer, technician, audience member, or fan – Concord Theatricals wants to honor all the incredible people who help to make theater happen. Contributions will be showcased on a new landing page at ConcordTheatricals.com.
Click here to learn more about how to participate… watch Brian Stokes Mitchell’s performance… and watch the first post from theater fans around the world.
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Boston’s Huntington Theatre presents Jen Silverman’s Witch, which will run Oct. 15 – Nov. 14 at the Calderwood Pavilion, directed by Rebecca Bradshaw.
Barzin Akhavan (Sir Arthur Banks), Lyndsay Allyn Cox (Elizabeth Sawyer), Gina Fonseca (Winnifred), Javier David Padilla (Frank), Nick Sulfaro (Cuddy Banks), and Michael Underhill (Scratch).
As an unmarried woman who keeps to herself in a small village, Elizabeth Sawyer is branded a witch and an outcast by the locals, blamed for everything from bad harvests to sick cows and colicky babies. When an alluring devil named Scratch arrives in town, promising to make the residents’ darkest dreams come true in exchange for their souls, he expects Elizabeth to be an easy mark, but finds her intriguingly resistant to both his charms and his offer of sweet revenge.
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The Complete Unknowns — A Tribute to Bob Dylan will take place Sat. Oct. 16 at 8 PM ET at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre.
Michael Weiskopf, Randolph Hudson III, Stuart Sherman, Taka Shimizu, Alex Sarkis, and Lauren Matzen, with “assorted guest performers.”