Columns
My View: Opening Night…”peerless” at Primary Stages
PRIMARY STAGES (Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Shane D. Hudson, Executive Director; Casey Childs, Founder) and 59E59 Theaters (Val Day, Artistic Director; Brian Beirne, Managing Director), in association with Jamie deRoy, presented peerless, last night at 59E59’s Theater A by 2019/20 Tow Playwright-in-Residence Jiehae Park (Hannah and the Dread Gazebo) and directed by Margot Bordelon (…what the end will be)
Check out the opening night photos:
peerless began previews at 59E59’s Theater A (59 E 59th Street) on September 24, 2022, and opened October 11 for a limited run through November 6, 2022.
A darkly comedic twist on Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in the cutthroat world of elite college admissions, Jiehae Park’s clever and incisive adaptation, peerless, is a comedy…until it’s not. This new version of the classic story centers on M and L, twin Asian-American siblings who have given up everything to get into The College. When another classmate claims what they feel is rightfully “their spot,” the twins decide they have only one option: murder.
The cast of peerless includes Marié Botha (“Dickinson”) as “Dirty Girl/Preppy Girl,” Anthony Cason (Oklahoma!) as “BF,” Sasha Diamond (Teenage Dick) as “M,” Benny Wayne Sully (My First Native American Boyfriend) as “D/Brother” and Shannon Tyo (The Chinese Lady) as “L.”
peerless features scenic design by Kristen Robinson (Oratorio for Living Things), costume design by Amanda Gladu (The Jury), lighting design by Mextly Couzin (Which Way to the Stage), compositions and sound design by Palmer Hefferan (The Skin of our Teeth), fight direction by Michael Rossmy (These Paper Bullets), and props supervision by Sean Sanford (Sanctuary City). Vickie Ramirez is the Cultural Consultant, Megan Schwarz Dickert is the Stage Manager, Malie Fujii is the Assistant Stage Manager, and Tameishia Peterson is the COVID Safety Manager. Casting is by Stephanie Yankwitt, CSA, of TBD Casting and Tanis Parenteau is the Casting Assistant.
The performance schedule for peerless is as follows: Tuesday – Saturday at 7:00pm and Saturday – Sunday at 2:00pm. Exceptions: there will be no performances on Tuesday October 18, Tuesday October 25 or Friday October 28.
Tickets to peerless begin at $25 and are available now at 59e59.org/shows/show-detail/peerless.
peerless is made possible, in part, through the generous support of The Tow Foundation, public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
peerless was developed during Jiehae Park’s 2019-2020 Tow Playwright Residency at Primary Stages. Previous production and development include the world premiere produced by Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, CT (James Bundy, Artistic Director and Victoria Nolan, Managing Director); developed by the Cherry Lane Mentor Project (Angelina Fiordellisi, Artistic Director); originally developed in the Soho Rep Writer Director Lab (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director and Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director).
ABOUT PRIMARY STAGES
Primary Stages is an Off-Broadway not-for-profit theater company dedicated to inspiring, supporting, producing. and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 135 new plays, including Theresa Rebeck’s Poor Behavior and Downstairs; Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice and Little Women; Billy Porter’s While I Yet Live; Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist and Olive and the Bitter Herbs; Sharon Washington’s Feeding the Dragon; Leah Nanako Winkler’s God Said This; In Transit by James-Allen-Ford, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Russ Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth (on Broadway in 2017); Horton Foote’s The Roads to Home, The Day Emily Married, Harrison, TX, and Dividing the Estate (two Tony nominations); Donald Margulies’ The Model Apartment (1995 premiere and 2013 revival); David Ives’ Lives of the Saints and All in the Timing (original 1993 production and 2013 revival); Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Informed Consent; Ike Holter’s Exit Strategy; Tanya Saracho’s Fade; Michael McKeever’s Daniel’s Husband; A.R. Gurney’s Black Tie; Terrence McNally’s Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams and The Stendhal Syndrome; Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter’s In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa, and Scotland); and Conor McPherson’s St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright’s U.S. debut). Our productions and artists have received critical acclaim, including Tony, Obie, Lortel, AUDELCO, Outer Critics’ Circle, Drama League and Drama Desk Awards and nominations. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings, and our education and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), Creative Access Grants, the Echoes Writers Group, the Free Student Matinee Program, and the Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project. Through these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important—and often transformative— connections within the theater community.
JAMIE deROY started producing theater by accident…which has led to 10 Tony Awards and credits on 100+ Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including Leopoldstadt, The Piano Lesson, Death of a Salesman, Ohio State Murders, The Lehman Trilogy, Hangmen, TINA, Ain’t Too Proud, Company, The Inheritance, Beetlejuice, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Play That Goes Wrong, among others. For Primary Stages, Jamie has co-produced 25 shows, including Downstairs, Dividing the Estate, Feeding the Dragon, and Exit Strategy (Off-Broadway Alliance Award, Best Play), among others. Additional awards include nine MAC Awards, nine Drama Desk awards, two Audience Choice Awards, 10 Drama League Awards, three GLAAD Awards, four Back Stage Bistro Awards, numerous Telly Awards and CaB Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been honored by Theatre Works/USA, Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement, The Ruth Kurtzman Benefit Award, and Primary Stages – twice! A frequent presence on the New York night scene, Jamie has produced nine CDs for the Jamie deRoy & friends series on Harbinger and PS Classics. Her long-running variety shows have benefitted The Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund) and she also hosts a TV variety show which has been on the air for over 30 years. Onstage, she appeared with René Auberjonois in The Threepenny Opera and The Drunkard with musical direction by Barry Manilow. Other producing credits include Jamie deRoy & friends, CityArts including the Emmy nominated “The Biggest Little Operas in Town,” and the documentaries “Broadway: The Golden Age” and “Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age.” Jamie has also produced two short films: Wish on the Moon (16 Film Festivals) and Daddy’s Girl, just released.
ABOUT 59E59 THEATERS
59E59 Theaters was established by the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation in 2004 to grant professional space and expertise to non-profit theater companies premiering their work in New York City. Under the leadership of Val Day, Artistic Director, and Brian Beirne, Managing Director, 59E59 Theaters presents a year-round curated program of Off Broadway plays and musicals that are nurtured and supported through highly-subsidized rental rates as well as production, ticketing, FOH, marketing, and press support.
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Ken Fallin's Broadway
Ken Fallin’s Broadway: Musical Director Ian Niederhoffer

Musical Director Ian Niederhoffer’s dynamic musical group Parlando presents “Odysseys,” the opening concert of its 2023-2024 season, Wednesday, October 4th at 7:30 pm at Merkin Hall at The Kaufman Center.
Founded by Ian Niederhoffer in 2019, Parlando provides the musical and historical context to prepare every audience member for the music they are about to hear. Through short introductions to each piece, Parlando bridges the gap between audience and performer, creating an intimate, accessible orchestral experience.
Every Parlando program has a theme and contains a blend of new, underrepresented, and standard works. By connecting each piece through a shared theme, the concert becomes a story, and the audience is able to carry the experience from one piece to the next. Parlando strives to leave every audience member knowing more about classical music than when they walked in.
The focus of a Parlando concert is always on the music itself. The introductions are in service of the ensuing performance, preparing the audience to enjoy the music as much as possible.
Cabaret
My View: Barrington Stage Co. on 42nd Street Oct. 30 For Its Gala at Green Room 42
The evening of cocktails, dinner, and cabaret show headlined by Billy Stritch celebrates the inaugural season of newly appointed Artistic Director Alan Paul and Managing Director Lynsey Shade.
Proceeds from the Gala will benefit the Julianne Boyd New Works Fund.
Mary Ann and Bruno Quinson are presenting the event which is sponsored in part by Rhoda Levitt. Eda Sorokoff is Chair with Violet Eagan & Rosita Sarnoff Co-Chairs
Since its inception in 1995, Barrington Stage (BSC) has produced 41 new works, 21 of which have moved on to New York and major regional theatres around the country.
BSC believes that new work is the heart and soul of theatre. If theatre is to thrive and create meaningful and new experiences for audiences, then it is vital to support playwrights and their visions of the world we live in.
BSC’s New Works Fund takes a two-pronged approach – PlayWorks supports the creation of new plays while our acclaimed Musical Theatre Lab develops new musicals. In both of these programs, BSC seeks artists whose unique voices speak to our audiences with relevant new plays and musicals. BSC hopes our new work will ask questions of the world we live in – questions that may not have answers but will begin a dialogue between the artists and our audiences.
Ken Fallin's Broadway
Ken Fallin’s Broadway: Dracula: A Comedy Of Terrors

Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, is now playing at New World Stage, 340 West 50th Street, until January 7, 2024 or beyond.
In this caricature you will find James Daly’s Dracula and clockwise: Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Arnie Burton, Ellen Harvey and Jordan Boatman who make up this amazingly talented cast.
You can read T2C’s mouth watering review here.
Book Reviews
Ken Fallin’s Broadway: “Leading Lady; the Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy”…NEW autobiography of Charles Busch

Tony Award-nominated writer of The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and the long-running hit Off-Broadway play Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and a Sundance Festival award winner, Charles Busch has created a unique place in the entertainment world as a playwright, LGBT icon, drag actor, director, and cabaret performer, with his extraordinary gift for both connecting with and channeling the leading ladies of show business.
In wonderfully readable chapters, by turns comic and moving, Charles writes how ever since his mother’s death when he was seven, he has sought out surrogate mothers in his life. In his teens, Charles moved to Park Avenue in Manhattan to live with his Auntie Mame-like Aunt Lil, who encouraged and nourished Charles’ talents and dreams, and eventually he discovered his gifts for writing plays and performing as a male actress.
Busch also shares his colorful and sometimes outlandish interactions with film and theatrical luminaries including the hilarious comedian Joan Rivers (who became a mother figure to Charles after Aunt Lil’s death), Angela Lansbury (who attended her first Passover seder with Charles), Rosie O’Donnell, Claudette Colbert, Valerie Harper, Kim Novak, and many others.
Full of both humor and heart and featuring rare photos, Leading Lady is for readers of entertainment books as well as anyone who enjoys real-life stories of artists who break the mold, ditch the boundaries, and find their own unique way to sparkle.
Events
Theatre News: Michael McGrath, Harmony, NY Forever, Spain, The People Versus Lenny Bruce and Golden Rainbow

T2c is saddened by the passing away of Tony Award winning Michael McGrath. He was 65. McGrath was best known for his starring roles in over 14 Broadway shows including Plaza Suite, Tootsie, Spamalot (Tony nominated), Memphis, My Favorite Year, Swinging on a Star, Little Me and Nice Work if You Can Get It, which earned him a Tony award. He was a twice nominated for a Tony award, three-time Drama Desk Award nominee, Outer Critics Circle nominee and Theatre World Award winner. McGrath also the sidekick-announcer to Martin Short on “The Martin Short Show.” His roles on the big screen included “Changing Lanes,” and “The Interpreter.” He also was a voice in multiple animated features including “The Secret of Kells” and “Wolfwalkers.”
McGrath is survived by his wife of 30 years, actress Toni Di Buono and daughter, actress Katie Claire McGrath. He and Di Buono are reputed to have met on the set of the Boston production of “Forbidden Broadway.”
Ringing in the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah on Thursday, September 14th at 1:30 pm cast members, playwright and lyricist, Bruce Sussman and Rabbi Jill Hausman from The Actor’s Temple gave a blessing and a traditional nosh of apples, honey and rugelach. Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s musical Harmony with direction and choreography by Warren Carlyle will begin previews on Wednesday, October 18, ahead of a Monday, November 13 official opening night.8
For the second consecutive year, NY Forever, in partnership with City National Bank and the New York City Department of Transportation will present Broadway Forever, a series of free, star-studded, pop-up concerts and community service activations, empowering New Yorkers across the city to build a better city for all.
At both event dates, fans will have the opportunity to sign up for future community service opportunities in these neighborhoods, which will be coordinated by New York Cares and their partner organizations.
NY Forever is a non-profit organization working to recapture faith and pride in New York by organizing and motivating New Yorkers from every borough and generation to participate in the city’s civic rebirth. It aims to support the well-being of our city by encouraging and facilitating New Yorkers to participate in gestures big and small. NY Forever is calling all New Yorkers to take the pledge and commit to New York’s future.
Performing are Broadway Forever creators Erich Bergen and Richard Mumby, Amber Ardolino (Broadway: Back To The Future), Casey Cott (Broadway: Moulin Rouge! The Musical), Charity Angél Dawson (Broadway: Waitress), Olivia Holt (Broadway: Chicago), Cheyenne Jackson (Broadway: Into The Woods), Christopher Jackson (Broadway: Hamilton), Alexis Michelle (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Jelani Remy (Broadway: Back To The Future), as well as current cast members from Moulin Rouge! The Musical(Jacqueline B. Arnold, Heather Makalani, David Merino and Kelsey Orem), and Some Like It Hot! (Kayla Pecchioni).
Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Lisa Lawer Post, Interim Executive Director) today announced complete casting for Spainby Jen Silverman anddirected by Tyne Rafaeli. Tony Award winner Andrew Burnap (Camelot, The Inheritance) and Danny Wolohan (Camelot, Macbeth)join the previously announced Tony Award nominee Marin Ireland, Zachary James, and Erik Lochtefeld.
This limited engagement will begin previews on Wednesday, November 8, 2023 and will officially open Thursday, November 30, 2023 at the Tony Kiser Theater (305 West 43rd Street).
Step into a sophisticated, slippery world where the line between truth and fiction is all in the packaging. It’s 1936, and a pair of passionate filmmakers have landed their next big project: a sweeping Spanish Civil War film with the potential to change American hearts and minds. It just happens to be bankrolled by the KGB. This seductive and funny new play about the art of propaganda and the dangerous ongoing Disinformation Age explores how art can change the world—for better and worse.
Food For Thought Productions, now in its 22nd year, continues celebrating the oft-neglected one-act play and theatre at its best with Award-winning actors, writers and directors, with a unique series set for its 2023 Season. Zach Grenier, Larry Pine, Penny Fuller, Bob Dishy, Michael Citriniti and special guest Martin Garbus
The People Versus Lenny Bruce is the third segment of “All The Court’s A Stage,” a series of one-act plays that are based on seven of Martin Garbus‘ cases and directed by Antony Marsellis. Martin Garbus, who has been called “One of the world’s finest trial lawyers”, has represented: Lenny Bruce, Philip Roth, Samuel Beckett, Igor Stravinsky, John Cheever, Daniel Ellsberg, Al Pacino, and Susan Sontag, to name a few! He also smuggled letters from Andrei Sakharov to Jimmy Carter.
In April 1964, Lenny Bruce appeared twice at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village, with undercover police detectives in the audience. He was arrested along with club owners Howard and Elly Solomon, who were arrested for allowing an obscene performance. On both occasions, Bruce was arrested after leaving the stage. A three-judge panel presided over his widely publicized six-month trial, prosecuted by Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Richard Kuh, with Ephraim London and Martin Garbus as the defense attorneys. Bruce and Howard Solomon were found guilty of obscenity on November 4, 1964. The conviction was announced despite positive testimony and petitions of support from—among other artists, writers and educators—Woody Allen, Bob Dylan, Jules Feiffer, Allen Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, William Styron, and James Baldwin, and Manhattan journalist and television personality Dorothy Kilgallen and sociologist Herbert Gans. Bruce was sentenced to four months in a workhouse; he was set free on bail during the appeals process and died before the appeal was decided. Solomon, the owner of the club where Lenny was arrested, later saw Bruce’s conviction overturned
The October 3rd, 2:00pm performance (Preceded by luncheon), directed by Antony Marsellis, will be available live via Streaming as well as in-theatre audience. A Q&A will follow the performance with the cast, Playwright/FFTP Founder Susan Charlotte, Directror Antony Marsellis and Martin Garbus himself! The FFT series is presented at 3 West Club. Tickets for the ‘live’ performance are $65, and with discounted code ‘FFTP’ tickets are $45. For additional information and zoom tickets please contact FFTP at: 646-366-9340 or email: info@foodforthoughtproductions.com
The York Theatre Company, announced today the cast and creative team for its production of Golden Rainbow, with book by Ernest Kinoy and music and lyrics by Walter Marks, the third offering of the Fall 2023 “Musicals in Mufti” series.
The cast features Felipe Barbosa Bombonato (Les Misérables), Jonathan Brody (The Sorceress), Nick Cearley (The Skivvies), Robert Cuccioli (York’s Rothschild & Sons), Mara Davi (Dames at Sea), Max Von Essen (York’s Tenderloin), Danielle Lee Greaves (Parade), Jillian Louis (York’s The Game of Love), Gina Milo (York’s Subways Are for Sleeping), Benjamin Pajak (The Music Man), and Maria Wirries (York’s Penelope: or How The Odyssey Was Really Written).
Golden Rainbow is directed by Stuart Ross (York’s Enter Laughing), with music direction by David Hancock Turner (York’s Cheek to Cheek and Desperate Measures).
Golden Rainbow (based on Arnold Schulman’s play A Hole in the Head) is the jazzy, heartfelt story of a single dad trying to achieve success in Las Vegas while raising his extremely bright and savvy son. His late wife’s sister arrives and tries to bring stability to the boy’s life, but unintentionally falls in love with her brother-in-law. The musical originally opened on Broadway on February 4, 1968 and ran nearly a year. It starred the married couple of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, major stars from their extensive work in the recording, television, and concert industries. The musical introduced the enduring standard “I’ve Gotta Be Me,” recorded by Sammy Davis, Tony Bennett, Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Klea Blackhurst, and many others.
Golden Rainbow will play the following 11-performance schedule— First Week: Saturday at 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 & 7:00 p.m. Second Week: Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. (Opening Night), Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Talkbacks follow all matinee performances.
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