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Today’s Highlights:
* To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Robert Sean Leonard, opens at London’s Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park.
* Murder Ballad, featuring John Ellison Conlee, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Will Swenson and Caissie Levy, opens at Off-Broadway’s Union Square Theatre.
* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Douglas Hodge, with Nigel Planer, Myra Sands, Jack Shalloo, Alex Clatworthy. Paul J. Medford and Jasna Ivir, begins previews at the West End’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
* Erica Lipez’s The Tutors, featuring Louis Ozawa Changchien, Matt Dellapina, Aubrey Dollar, Keith Nobbs and Chris Perfetti, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Second Stage Uptown.
* Rod MacLachlan’s Good Television world premiere, featuring Talia Balsam, Jessica Cummings, John Magaro, Kelly McAndrew, Zoe Perry, Luke Robertson, Andrew Stewart-Jones and Ned Van Zandt, begins previews at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company.
* 22@54 benefit concert, hosted by Joe Iconis, featuring NYU graduate writers Danny Abosch, Avi Amon, Nikko Benson, Landon Braverman, John Carden, Jason Carlson, Ashley Chapman, Thirza Defoe, Nolan Doran, Jesse Goldman, John Grimmett, Kiran Gupta, Julia Gytri, Benjamin Halstead, Derek P. Hassler, Jiyoung Kim, KiYun Kim, Sujin Kim, Yan Li, Teresa Lotz, Daphny Maman, Collin Martin, Naomi Matlow, Helen Park, Shane Parks, Kendell Pinkney, Jason Purdy, Aden Kent Ramsey, Sarah Rebell, Janine Robledo, Tidtaya Sinotuke, Clare Tran and Patty Weinstein, with performances by Max Crumm, Daniel J. Edwards, Sevan Greene, Adam Halpin, Patty Nieman, Eileen Patterson, Aaron Riesebeck, Katie Thompson, Carrington Vilmont, Benjamin Eakeley, Jenny Fellner, Sara Jean Ford, Karl Josef Co, Megan McGinnis, Curtis Wiley, Jason “SweetTooth” Williams and Remy Zaken, at 11 PM at 54 Below.
* Frances Ruffelle‘s Beneath the Dress concert, at 9:30 PM at 54 Below.
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Encores! has announced its 2014 season (no link available yet):
* Little Me (Feb. 5-9), directed by John Rando, starring Christian Borle.
* The Most Happy Fella (Apr. 2-6), directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, starring Shuler Hensley.
* Irma La Douce (May 7-11), directed by John Doyle.
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Luis Bravo’s Forever Tango returns to Broadway July 9 – Sept. 15 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The production features Gilberto Santa Rosa, 16 tango dancers, one vocalist and an 11-piece orchestra.
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2013 Off-Broadway Alliance Award winners:
New Musical: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
New Play: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Musical Revival: Closer Than Ever
Play Revival: The Piano Lesson
Unique Theatrical Experience: Buyer & Cellar
Family Show: Bunnicula
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“On Stage Across America,” a new monthly series uniting Playbill Magazine and Time Warner Cable news channel NY1, will launch in June, bringing in-depth theatre coverage to television viewers across the U.S.
The new 30-minute segment, to air the first Saturday of each month, is based on NY1′s popular “On Stage” series, which debuted in 1998. NY1 theatre reporter Frank DiLella and Playbill Magazine editor Blake Ross co-host the series that will showcase coverage from Broadway, national tours, regional theatre and high school drama programs.
“On Stage Across America” will launch June 1 with a segment featuring interviews with the Aaron Tveit as well as coverage of regional high school musical theatre competitions.
Each show will also include a list of local theatre events relevant to each Time Warner Cable market. The series will also be available on local On Demand channels in TWC markets.
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GN Quote of the Week: “Cesar Romero would attend the opening of a napkin.” ~ Jim Backus
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Michael John LaChiusa offers a May 24 post-show talkback at Kansas City, MO’s Spinning Tree production of Hello Again.
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Audio: Caesar Samayoa performs “Jaquenetta” from the upcoming Shakespeare in the Park world-premiere musical Love’s Labour’s Lost.
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Mike Birbiglia’s My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend will be presented June 2 at 8 PM at Carnegie Hall.
The evening will mark the final performance of the show, which has been seen in more than 20 cities.
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The New Voices Collective will present the world premiere of Leaving Home (music by Sam Davis, book and lyrics by Sean Hartley), a bill of three one-act musicals, June 10 at 8 PM at Off-Broadway’s Symphony Space. Annette Jolles directs, with musical direction by David Loud.
The cast includes Stanley Bahorek, Sarah Corey, Malcolm Gets, Edward Hibbert, Kirsten Scott, A.J. Shivley and Sally Wilfert.
“Leaving Home brings together three short musicals, each of which explores the lives of young women as they emerge from the relative innocence of childhood into the darker, more intriguing world of being an adult,” press notes state. “The plays take familiar folk tales or myths as their starting point—each one updated and transported to present-day New York City and environs.”
Home After Dark is based on the myth of Persephone and Demeter and set in the suburbs of New Jersey. In the musical, a teen-aged girl with an overly possessive mother makes a date over the internet with an older man.
Love and Real Estate, a dark take on “The Three Little Pigs,” follows three sisters who come to Manhattan, buy apartments, and meet the same mysteriously charming—and potentially dangerous—young man.
Pamela, the final play in the trilogy, is based on Hamlet but set in Darien, CT. A young woman has come back to her childhood home to attend her father’s second wedding and is visited by the ghost of her recently departed mother, who claims she was murdered by the father’s new wife.
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Carol Burnett is the recipient of the 2013 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
The Oct. 20 gala evening will be filmed for broadcast Oct. 30 on PBS stations nationwide.
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Morrison will perform June 2 at 9:30 PM and June 4 at 7 PM. An additional performance has been added June 1 at 8 PM.
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Judy Kuhn will celebrate the release of her latest solo recording — “Judy Kuhn: All This Happiness,” due June 4 — with two concerts at 54 Below June 10 and 12 at 7 PM.
Album Track List
“Help Me”
“I Love the Way You’re Breaking My Heart”
“Happiness / In Buddy’s Eyes”
“Temptation”
“Something Cool”
“The Best Is Yet to Come”
“Losing You”
“Dance Me to the End of Love”
“Forbidden Fruit”
“Goodbye Joe”
“Life Is But a Dream”
“Night Ride Home”
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Audio: Lindsay Mendez performs “Hand in Hand” from “Kerrigan-Lowdermilk Live.”
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The Public Theater has announced a fourth and final extension for the critically acclaimed musical Here Lies Love, starring Jose Llana and Ruthie Ann Miles, which will now continue through July 28.
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Brynn O’Malley will join the previously announced Rob McClure and Tony Danza in Jason Robert Brown’s Honeymoon in Vegas at NJ’s Paper Mill Playhouse, to run Sept. 26 – Oct. 27.
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Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre presents Lend Me a Tenor May 28 – June 23 (opening June 1), directed by Don Stephenson.
The cast features Judy Blazer, Scott Cote, Betsy DiLellio, Donna English, Nancy Johnston, Noah Plomgren, Steve Rosen and Roland Rusinek.
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Upcoming at the Starry Summer Nights Concert Series at NYC’s Town Hall (all at 8 PM):
July 8: Brian Stokes Mitchell
July 15: Broadway Rising Stars
July 18: The Hit Men
July 22: Linda Eder
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Video: Behind the scenes of Sleepless in Seattle, which begins previews May 24 at Pasadena Playhouse.
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The fourth annual Broadway on the High Seas cruise will visit Tahiti, Bora Bora, Moorea and the surrounding French Polynesian Islands Mar. 20-29. Information and reservations: playbill@judyperlcruises.com.
The cruise will be an intimate affair, catering to a limited amount of passengers — 150 cabins only — and will include a two-day stay in Tahiti with a seven-day cruise to the surrounding islands. Packages include round-trip air from Los Angeles, gratuities, open bar, complimentary water sports, hotel packages and an entertainment itinerary jam-packed with concerts, interviews, Broadway trivia, cocktail parties and late-night gatherings with our stars and more.
Performers: Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Lea Salonga, Sutton Foster, Christine Ebersole, Rebecca Luker, Will Swenson and Danny Burstein. Seth Rudetsky will return for his fourth year as music director, performer and host.
Broadway on the High Seas website.
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Roman Polanski and David Ives have written a film adaptation of “Venus in Fur,“ which will be directed by Polanski. No timeline has been announced.
The film stars Emmanuelle Seigner and Louis Garrel.
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Lapham’s Quarterly has announced its annual gala, The Decades Ball: The 1950s, to be held June 3 at NYC’s Capitale (130 Bowery at Grand Street).
Oskar Eustis, artistic director of The Public Theater, will emcee the evening, which will feature readings and performances that highlight voices from screen, stage, music and literature of the era.
Performers: Tom Hanks, Patricia Clarkson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Martha Plimpton, Ari Graynor, Tony Kushner and Paul Muldoon and Nellie McKay.
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