Broadway
What To Watch December 1st To Take Away The Blues
Remember the Ribbon: A Tribute to World AIDS Day In honor of those living with HIV and AIDS and in memory of those lost to AIDS, Playbill will present the Gilead Storytellers series to commemorate World AIDS Day. On December 1, Playbill will broadcast Remember the Ribbon: A Tribute to World AIDS Day, a concert event unlocking performances from the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS video vault to uplift and inspire audiences.
Leading up to Remember the Ribbon, Hamilton leading man Javier Muñoz, Rema Webb (The Color Purple), Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Executive Director Tom Viola, and more will offer moving performances and/or share personal stories about their experiences with HIV/AIDS, the challenges they have overcome, and the hopeful reality of today.
Hadestown Tony winner André De Shields will host Remember The Ribbon: A Tribute to World AIDS Day December 1, a concert event sponsored by Gilead Sciences featuring fan-favorite performances from the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS vault. The stream begins at 8 PM ET on Playbill.com/Storytellers and Playbill’s YouTube. While free to watch, donations are encouraged to support Broadway Cares. In addition to a video showcase of past Broadway Cares special moments, Remember the Ribbon features appearances from Gilead Storytellers Javier Munoz (Hamilton), Rema Webb (The Lion King), Broadway Cares/EFA Executive Director Tom Viola, and playwright Donja R. Love (one in two) with musician Jamar Rogers (The Voice). The evening will close with Aisha Jackson performing a new song, “The Test of Time,” written by Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar. Lyons, Helen White, and Nasia Thomas provide background vocals. Follow up-to-date information about the special event on social media with #RememberTheRibbon.
Wilma Theater: Heroes of the Fourth Turning Wilma Theater Four Catholic conservative friends gather at a late-night backyard party in Wyoming, shortly before the 2017 eclipse. As they wait for the arrival of their mentor, and newly appointed college president, secret passions and fears surface, revealing their troubled place in a divided country.
2pm: Ball Change Ted Snowdon’s Reading Series Manhattan Theatre Club: Set at the switchboards of an elite celebrity answering service, Ball Change examines how our communication technologies (and metropolitan mythologies) become obsolete. When we first meet the “Chimes” in the swinging 60s, all is glam and good fun, but fifty years of economic, social, and technological upheaval sure leave their mark on a girl. This is a time-traveling tale about how objects and ideas go out of style, commissioned by MTC through the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
4pm: CyberTank Variety Show By The Tank A weekly, remote, multidisciplinary, variety arts gathering open to all where we explore theatricality + themes by you.
The CyberTank Weekly Variety Show is a remote, multidisciplinary variety arts gathering open to everyone. The arts community has been presented with a challenge to re-examine theatricality, and The Tank has reframed this as the gift of an opportunity to grow and choose community over despair. Each weekly installment is centered around a specific question and features guest artists who will perform and facilitate conversation.
5pm and 8 pm: World AIDS Day Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens benefitting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Donate here.
Starring are Brooks Ashmanskas, Laura Bell Bundy, Paul Castree, Richard Chamberlain, Charity Angél Dawson, Robin de Jesús, Fran Drescher, J. Harrison Ghee, Stephanie Gibson, Gideon Glick, Lana Gordon, Alan H. Green, Lena Hall, Jayne Houdyshell, Lisa Howard, James Monroe Iglehart, Famke Janssen, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Cherry Jones, Francis Jue, Joaquina Kalukango, Tari Kelly, Nathan Lane, Norm Lewis, Vicki Lewis, Telly Leung, Alyse Alan Louis, Andrea Macasaet, Stanley Wayne Mathis, Kevin McHale, Varla Jean Merman, Jessie Mueller, Eric William Morris, Cynthia Nixon, Michael Notardonato, Okieriete Onaodowan, Royina Patel , Anthony Rapp, Krysta Rodriguez, Seth Rudetsky, Kirsten Scott, Matthew Scott, Michael James Scott, JK Simmons, Robin Lord Taylor, Evan Todd, Mariand Torres, Alysha Umphress, Anna Uzele, Marisha Wallace, and Michael Xavier.
There will also be special appearances by longtime Broadway Cares friends Danny Burstein, Judith Light, Billy Porter (also a member of the Broadway Cares Board of Trustees), and Michael Urie.
7pm: Plaguey Hill Irish RepIrish Repertory Theatre is proud to present a reading of Plaguey Hill, a new work by Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon, read by Tony winner Liev Schreiber and featuring new music by Lenny Pickett.
Written over the first two weeks of April 2020, Plaguey Hill is an impressionistic account of day-to-day life during the Covid-19 pandemic. Though the poem is set in Sharon Springs, New York, it harkens back to memories of the burial mound of Plaguey Hill, in Friars Bush graveyard, Belfast, where victims of the 1830s cholera epidemic were laid to rest.
The poem takes the form of an intricately locked series of 15 sonnets known as a crown, or corona.
7pm: The Nice List On December 1st, 2020 – our National Day of Giving – we all come together for one common purpose: to celebrate kindness, generosity and the spirit of giving back.
In that spirit The Nice List will be brought to you for FREE on YouTube during the month of December for your family holiday enjoyment.
This special glimpse into the North Pole has been made possible by Masie Productions in partnership with Starhawk Productions who have assembled a diverse cast from Broadway and Television to tell an original heartwarming Christmas tale with Santa’s magical workshop like we have never-seen-before.
The Nice List aimsto “celebrate the power of the human spirit as we come together for the happiest time of the year” says Wendy Gillespie. Elliott Masie draws the comparison that “the Elves in our story are just like the millions of employees and families right now that are navigating the world working remotely, communicating in new ways and discovering that the power of empathy and laughter through music can bring us comfort in these challenging times.”
7pm: Love, M. Horizon Theatre marks World AIDS Day with new play, “Love, M.” Told through letters, Love, M. is the story of two mothers at the dawn of AIDS. Atlanta white socialite Deborah writes to her son, Chris, who is pursuing his dream of becoming an actor. Myrtle, a Black southern Baptist, writes to her son, Timothy, an idealistic young lawyer. With humor and humanity, and the AIDS Quilt as backdrop, Love, M.weaves the abiding threads of the healing power of love, as the characters piece their way towards acceptance.
7pm: Fast & Furious 45 By The Tank Live performance exists to serve as America’s cultural conscience. It is the artist’s responsibility to make work that shines a light on things when they’re wrong, celebrate them when they’re right and model alternative possibilities. This kind of work can change hearts and minds. The artist’s ability to act fast and create work quickly in response to events, policies and general dumpster fires has never been more crucial, as they participate in building the language of resistance.
Each month, a group of artists comes together to create performance pieces in the 7 days leading up to the event in response to the headlines of the week. The work tends to be made very quickly and, in many cases, very furiously! Artists interested in presenting work can e-mail host and producer, Tank Associate Artist Kev Berry at kev@thetanknyc.org for more information.
7pm: La MaMa Puppet Slam By La Mama La MaMa Puppet Slam returns this year with new short works of genius! In the virtual world these condensed works of puppetry are original, compelling, brilliant, witty, tragic, funny, stunning, startling, ironic, exotic, political, lyrical, musical, beautiful, intellectual, experimental, wild…. and always demonstrate genius in a matter of minutes!
Featuring performances by: Paul Zaloom, Maiko Kikuchi, Spica Wobbe, Concrete Temple Theater, Maria Camia, Hobey Ford, Larry Reed – Shadow Light Productions, Adelka Polak, Anurupa Roy Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust (India) and Lake Simons.
Curated by Jane Catherine Shaw
7:30pm Verdi’s Aida Boasting one of opera’s most popular and thrilling scores, Verdi’s immortal tragedy about a love triangle in ancient Egypt delivers passion, intrigue, and heartbreak in equal measures. The characters—including a celestially beautiful Ethiopian princess, the formidable daughter of the king of Egypt, and the dashing commander they both love—are larger than life, and the scenery is as grand as it gets.
8pm: The 24 Hour Plays’ 20th Annual Broadway Gala The 20th annual The 24 Hour Plays (Virtual) Broadway Gala will feature familiar faces from throughout that history in an unmissable experience where six new plays are written, rehearsed, performed, and streamed in 24 hours!
Proceeds from the gala support The 24 Hour Plays’ year-round non-profit programs, including The 24 Hour Plays National Fellows, The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues, productions of The 24 Hour Plays with theater partners worldwide, and subsidized productions for schools and colleges.
Scheduled to appear are: Genevieve Angelson, Kelly AuCoin, David Cross, Hugh Dancy, Merle Dandridge, Andra Day, Dagmara Domínczyk, Mike Doughty, Rachel Dratch, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Jesse Eisenberg, Noah Galvin, Joel Marsh Garland, Michelle Gomez, Adam Gwon, Josh Hamilton, Marcia Gay Harden, Amy Hargreaves, Russell G. Jones, Matt Lauria, Vella Lovell, Katherine McNamara, Portia, Solea Pfeiffer, AnnaSophia Robb, Sheila Vand, M. Ward and more to be announced. They will perform pieces written by Rachel Axler, David Lindsay-Abaire, J. Holtham, christopher oscar peña, Jonathan Marc Sherman, and Lauren Yee.
Broadway
Broadway’s A Doll’s House Meticulously Stunning Revival Soars Like a Birdie Above That Clumsy Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
For a revival to find its footing, it has to have a point of view or a sense of purpose far beyond an actor’s desire to perform a part, whether it suits them or not. It needs to radiate an idea that will make us want to sit up and pay attention. To feel its need to exist. And on one particular day in March, I was blessed with the opportunity to see not just one grande revival, but two. One was a detailed pulled-apart revolutionary revival of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House that astounded. The other, unfortunately, was a clumsy revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that fell lazily from that high-wired peak – not for a lack of trying, but from a formulation that never found its purpose.
But over at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre, a reformulation chirps most wisely and wonderfully, bringing depth and focus to a classic Henrik Ibsen (Hedda Gabler) play that I didn’t realize was in such need of an adaptation. With no extravagance at its core, Amy Herzog (Mary Jane) dynamically takes the detailed structure and beautifully adapted it with due purpose. It hypnotizes, dragging in a number of light wooden chairs, Scandinavian in style, I believe, onto the stage, one by one, by their black-clad counterparts in a determined effort to unpack what will unfold. There is no artifice to hide behind in this rendering, as designed most impeccably by scenic and co-costume designer Soutra Gilmour (NT’s My Brilliant Friend; Broadway’s & Juliet) and co-costume designer Enver Chakartash (Broadway’s Is This A Room), only A Doll’s House’s celebrated star, Jessica Chastain (Broadway’s The Heiress; “The Eyes of Tammy Faye“) rotating the expanse of the bare stage before the others join her slowly and deliberately. She sits, arms crossed, staring, daring us to look away, while knowing full well we won’t. Or can’t. And without a word, it feels like she has us exactly where she wants us. Needs us to be. And all that transpires before the play even begins.
They sit on that bare and stark stage, waiting, in a way, to be played with, like dolls patiently wanting some children to come and give them a voice through their imagination. As Nora, Chastain delivers forward a performance that is unparalleled. To witness what transpires across her face during the course of this extra fine adaptation is to engage in a dance so delicately embroidered that we can’t help but be moved and transported. She barely moves from her chair, as others, like the equally wonderful Arian Moayed (Broadway’s The Humans) as Torvald, are rotated in to sit beside her, conversing and delivering magnified lines, thanks to the brilliant work of sound designers Ben & Max Ringham (West End’s Prima Facie), that dig deep into the underbelly of the complicated interactions. This pair of actors find a pathway through the darkness, never letting us come to any conclusions until they are ready to unleash a moment that will leave you breathless. This is particularly true for Moayed’s Torvald, who seems decent enough at the beginning, but once the shift occurs, when the beautiful thing doesn’t happen as it should, his unveiling is as gut-wrenching to us as it is to Nora. Even though we knew it was coming long before the play even began to spin forward.
The art of the unfolding is steeped within the whole, refocused inside the brilliant shading, shadowing, and starkness of the cast. As Krogstad, the powerful Okieriete Onaodowan (Broadway’s Hamilton), alongside the deliciously tight Jesmille Darbouze (Broadway’s Kiss Me, Kate) as Kristine, find an engagement that sits perfectly in the structuring. They push the reforming to the edge, approaching and receding away from Chastain’s brilliant centering helping move the piece towards the required conclusion.
The same can be said of the wonderful Tasha Lawrence (LCT’s Pipeline) as Anne-Marie, and the exquisitely emotional turning of Michael Patrick Thornton (Broadway’s Macbeth) as Dr. Rank. Thornton, in particular, finds a telling and emotional space to connect, unearthing an engagement that breaks the circle apart, leaving Chastain’s Nora and all of us observers shattered and broken in its black X’d finality.
As directed with the same magnificently detailed energy and flat-walled framework as the previously seen Betrayal on Broadway and the West End, Jamie Lloyd gives us A Doll’s House that will never be forgotten. The focus is so deliberate, and the formulations are just so strong, pushed forward in black and white by the exacting lighting design of Jon Clark (West End/Broadway’s The Lehman Trilogy). Forced while remaining ever so intimate, the cascading of the statement delivered registers in a precise way, more exacting than I ever remembered, and I’ve seen numerous renditions of this epic play. And even though, from what I hear, many on the left couldn’t see the epic exit of Nora, a moment that typically registers throughout theatre history, the symbol of a woman, steadfast and true, leaving the safe and simple artifice of A Doll’s House for engagement in the hard cruel reality of the world outside is as clear as can be. The delicacies of this birdie trapped inside a cage, poisoned with lies and excuses, and beautifully brought forth by Chastain, registers the reasonings for this revival to exist. It has found a new and deliberate place to sing, and for that, I am truly grateful.
I wish I could say the same about Ruth Stage‘s modern take on the Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire) classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, currently being re-delivered at the Theatre at St. Clements. As directed by Joe Rosario (Hemingway and Me; Ruth Stages’ The Exhibition), the play doesn’t find its rationale for existing in the modern day beyond the simplistic sexualization of its boxing-ring corners. Matt de Rogatis (Austin Pendleton’s Wars of the Roses) as the tense athletic Brick stays broken and damaged in his corner, riding out the moment, waiting for the click, while in the other corner is the tense Maggie, played without hesitation by Courtney Henggeler (Netflix’s “Cobra Kai“) poised and ready for the bell to ring.
The battle is only heightened by the presence of two other fighters in the opposing corners, Big Daddy, played with determination by Frederick Weller (Broadway’s To Kill a Mockingbird) in the third, and Big Mama, played with a strong intent by Alison Fraser (Gingold Theatrical’s Heartbreak House), in the fourth. And watching and cheering for their own personal perspective wins are the obnoxious Mae, typically portrayed by Christine Copley (although I believe I saw an understudy), the weasely Gooper, played by Adam Dodway (Theatre Row’s Small Craft Warnings), Rev. Tooker portrayed by Milton Elliott (Ruth Stage’s Hamlet), and Doc Baugh, typically played by Jim Kempner (“The Girlfriend Experience“) (although, once again, I believe I saw an understudy).
Generally, this is a battle that rages deceptively strong and subtle for the length of the play, swimming cruelly in the hazy heat of its Southern charm. But somewhere in this modernization, the reasonings never get fully realized, leaving the cast to wander in their stereotypical delivery without a sharp focal point in the horizon to zero in on. Hidden behind the bar and the drink, de Rogatis finds a Brick to be engaged with. He’s definitely handsome and desirable, especially in the eyes of the far-too-straightforward Henggeler’s Maggie the Cat, and his occupation of drinking rings more true than most. I’m not sure if the modernization has been created to fit his chest-baring delivery of a broken Brick, but I will say that his artful approach to the part is one of the stronger components of this otherwise clunky reimagining.
Given so much to unpack, Henggeler runs a little too fast and furious, not weaving a pause into her thoughts and actions. It’s all forward flowing, ignoring the laws of silence and deliberation. Big Mama and Big Daddy, ignoring the fact that they don’t seem to fit in with their surroundings or the set-up, find their way into the same cage as the two central figure fighters, giving us something else to contemplate in their constructs, beyond their tight fitting jeans and dress. There’s not much of a father/son connection, nor does their familial energy register, even as it moves and twitches within the pauses well. The details of attachment are lost, as they talk around things, with everyone else playing at high volume, courtesy of a sound design by Tomás Correa (Hudson Street’s Adam & Eve), delivering the Southern drawl with the intensity of an SNL skit. That’s a problem to the whole and one that doesn’t work for this rendering.
Most of the cast is all hock and no spit, moving around the room with a strange case of physicalized mendacity while never really finding a reason for their existence. The artifice gets in the way of the movement, especially in Matthew Imhoff’s (off-Broadway’s soot and spit) busy and overly clumsy set, with some distracting fading in and out by lighting designer Christian Specht’s (SSTI’s Cabaret). The storm approaching is as false as the formula and the reasoning for this retelling. It showcases some basically good actors embracing the chance to play iconic Big roles that I’m sure they have always wanted to dig their Southern-accented chomps into, possibly because one or two of them might never otherwise get the chance as they don’t exactly fit the literal sashaying of the “fat old” bodies out and around the staging of this play. The idea breeds curiosity, but one that doesn’t save this Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from falling quick and hard from its perch, I’m sad to say. While the birdie in A Doll’s House flies strong out into the cool Broadway air, with solid reasoning on its stark wings, reminding us all what makes for a worthy reimagining of a classic.
You are seriously asking for it, when you make the title for your musical Bad Cinderella, however the show is not bad, it’s just seriously lacking. For an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which is normally rich in melody, the only song that has any kind of hold is “Only You, Lonely You” sung by Prince Sebastian (Jordan Dobson or in my performance the wonderful Julio Ray). The lyrics by David Zippel and book by Emerald Fennell, adapted by Alexis Scheer are inane. It doesn’t help that the cast for the most part speaks and sings with mouths full of cotton. The orchestrations sound tinny and computerized, The lead Linedy Genao has no charisma or vocals that soar musically, instead she is rather nasal, like Bernadette Peters with a cold. Why this show is two and a half hours long is beyond me.
Grace McLean and the hunks Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
The show is based in a town called Belleville (beautiful town en Francais), that is based solely on looks and prides itself on its superficiality. The opening number starts with “Beauty Is Our Duty,” the Queen (a fabulous Grace McLean) is into her hunks including her missing son Charming (Cameron Loyal).
Christina Acosta Robinson Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
And the fairy godmother (Christina Acosta Robinson) is a plastic surgeon who sings “Beauty Has a Price”. In a day and age, where we are suppose to see past all that, this show is politically incorrect.
Linedy Genao Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Cinderella a Gothic, and a graffiti artist, naturally does not fit into the town’s mold of beauty, which is how she earns her nickname. Her rebel move happens when she defaces a memorial statue of Sebastian’s older brother, Prince Charming. Sebastian is more of a geek, and he and Cinderella are in the “friend zone,” since both lack communication skills in admitting their love.
Carolee Carmello Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Sebastian is being forced by his mother, the Queen to find a wife at a ball and invites Cinderella. Cinderella’s stepmother (the always remarkable Carolee Carmello) blackmails the Queen to get one of her daughters Adele (Sami Gayle) or Marie (Morgan Higgins) the gig.
Grace McLean, Carolee Carmello Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
McLean and Carmello are the bright spots in the show and if the show had been about these two, maybe we would actually have a show that could work. These two steal the show.
Linedy Genao, Jordan Dobson, Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Cinderella has not one, but two what should have been show stopping numbers “I Know I Have A Heart (Because You Broke It)” and “Far Too Late,” but she does not have the vocals, the character development or the star power to carry them off.
The set and the revenge porn costumes by Gabriela Tylesova, are just over the top, with the storybook set faring much better than the over complicated flowered pastels that waltzed across the stage.
The direction by Laurence Connor is just dull and lacks oomph.
If you like buff men and Chippendale type choreography this is the show for you.
Bad Cinderella, Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street.
On Friday, March 24th, the 96-year-old John Kander was given a Mayoral Proclamation from Mayor Eric Adams in celebration of the first performance of his new Broadway musical New York, New York. Following the proclamation, Lin-Manuel Miranda unveiled the sign renaming 44th Steet ‘Kander & Ebb Way. On hand was the Manhattan School of Music to performed the iconic Kander & Ebb song “New York, New York.”
New York, New York opens Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at Broadway’s St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street).
-
Tech2 years agoHow to Take Advantage of Virtual Numbers for SMS
-
Business2 years agoEntre Institute Review – Is Jeff Lerner’s Program a Scam?
-
Entertainment2 years agoA Star is Born – Barvina Takes Entertainment World by Storm
-
Events3 months agoNew Year’s Eve Traditions In The US and Around The World
-
Film9 months agoElvis and The Mob Connection
-
Broadway2 years agoBroadway Reopening: The Theatre Listings
-
Events2 years agoThe Question On Everyone’s Mind Should Be How Did The Haitians Get To Mexico
-
Spiritual2 years agoThe History of Numerology
-
Family2 years agoWho Is Justine Ang Fonte and Why Are We Letting Her Near Children?
-
Broadway11 months agoFunny Girl Makes Julie Benko a Star