Stars in the House continues today 8pm with a very special anniversary of A Chorus Line A Chorus Lineis amusicalwith music byMarvin Hamlisch, lyrics byEdward Kleban, and a book byJames Kirkwood Jr.andNicholas Dante. Set on the bare stage of a Broadway theater, the musical is centered around seventeenBroadwaydancersauditioningfor spots on achorus line.
BOLD, the organization dedicated to building up Black women in the performing arts, will showcase the work of nine Black womxn artists in a free, online short play festival next month. Broadcast online over three nights, BOLD 2020 will feature six new plays written and directed by Black womxn.
The theme of the festival is BOLD 2020, with a focus on artists who are writing with urgency in light of, as well as in response to, the systemic silencing of Black womxn’s voices.
“The restoration of our culture is dependent on the amplification of the Black womxn’s voice,” shares Destinee Rea, the co-founder, with Tia DeShazor, of BOLD. “We are in desperate need of their stories being creatively shared and grafted into the American canon.”
The festival will run August 14, 21, and 28, from 6–7:30 PM ET. Each night will consist of two 10-minute plays, followed by a talkback with the director and playwrights.
The lineup of writers includes Agyeiwaa Asante, Brittani Samuel, Chanel Carroll, Jazmine Stewart, Kristen Adele Calhoun, and Lakhiyia Hicks, with directors Kristolyn Lloyd, Tavia Jefferson, and Bianca LaVerne Jones.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LW Theatres has released an audience guide, detailing new procedures that have been put in place to ensure the safest experience possible for thoseplanning to come to the theatre.
1920 Producer Alexander H. Cohen, known for bringing quality plays to Broadway for six decades, is born. He produces 101 Broadway shows, including the 1964 Hamlet starring Richard Burton, Harold Pinter‘s drama The Homecoming, Peter Brook‘s Tony Award-winning La Tragedie de Carmen, James Joyce‘s Ulysses in Nighttown starring Zero Mostel, Dario Fo‘s Accidental Death of An Anarchist, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Ah, Wilderness!, both starring Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst, and Noël Coward‘s Waiting in the Wings starring Lauren Bacall and Rosemary Harris.
1968 Kristin Chenoweth is born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. On Broadway, she originates the role of Glinda in Wicked, wins a Tony Award for her performance as Sally in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and stars in revivals of The Apple Tree, Promises, Promises, and On the Twentieth Century.
1983 Angela Lansbury, who won the 1966 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Mame, returns to Broadway in a revival of the musical at the Gershwin Theatre. Also in the cast is original Agnes Gooch, Jane Connell. The revival is produced by the composer of the musical that beat Mame for the Tony Award for Best Musical—and beat composer Jerry Herman for Best Score—Man of La Mancha‘s Mitch Leigh.
1996 Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt‘s musical The Fantasticks, which opened Off-Broadway May 3, 1960, plays its 15,000th performance. The story about two young neighbors whose stars are crossed purposely by their fathers’ fake feud runs at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City’s Greenwich Village. It eventually closes in January 2002.
1997 Following a sold-out limited run at Greenwich House, Douglas Carter Beane‘s comedy, As Bees in Honey Drown, begins a commercial Off-Broadway run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Although Bo Foxworth has taken over the lead role from Josh Hamilton, who must leave to honor a film commitment, most of the cast, including J. Smith-Cameron, T. Scott Cunningham, Sandra Daley, and Mark Nelson, remains intact.
2001 Mike Nichols’ production of Anton Chekhov‘s The Seagull begins performances at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline head the cast as Arkadina and Trigorin. Also in the cast are Marcia Gay Harden as Masha, Natalie Portman as Nina, Christopher Walken as Sorin, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Konstantin, John Goodman as Shamrayev, Debra Monk as Polina, Stephen Spinella as Medvedyev, and Larry Pine as Dorn.
2003 Roundabout Theatre Company and Deaf West Theatre present an American Sign Language adaptation of Roger Miller and William Hauptman‘s Big River, which opens on this date at Brodway’s American Airlines Theatre. Featuring a cast of deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing actors, most roles are double cast with one actor speaking and singing, and one signing. Adapted from the novel by Mark Twain, the musical (which first bowed on Broadway in 1985) features a book by William Hauptman, music by Roger Miller, and lyrics by Roger Miller. Directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, the musical earned a Tony nomination for Best Revival of a Musical, as well as a nomination for star Michael McElroy.
2018 The world premiere of Stephen Trask, Peter Yanowitz, and Rick Elice‘s This Ain’t No Disco, a musical the nightclubs and art world of 1979 New York City, opens Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company. The cast includes Will Connolly, Chilina Kennedy, Peter LaPrade, Theo Stockman, and Samantha Marie Ware.
More of Today’s Birthdays: Rose Byrne (b. 1979), Lord Dunsany (1878–1957), William Gillette (1853–1937), Ed Mirvish (1914–2007), Elisabeth Moss (b. 1982), Chris Sarandon (b. 1942).
Watch highlights from the 2015 Broadway revival of On the Twentieth Century, starring Kristin Chenoweth:
Stars in the House continues today 8pm for a reunion of original RENT stars Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp.
With the ever-changing nature of Broadway, the memory of seeing a show can become a collector’s item in its own right, just as much as the cherished Playbill.
Inspired by Playbill’s recent Instagram poll, we’ve created a checklist of the 10 most recent productions to play over 100 performances in each Broadway house. How many of these shows at the Broadhurst Theatre have you seen?
Learn more about the history of the Broadhurst here.
As part of the Flying Free Wicked Inspired Songs series presented with ASCAP, watch an all new video of’Token Goat Song’, written byRona Siddiqui, filmed last year and performed by Broadway’s Mykal Kilgore with WICKED alums Gizel Jimnez and Kathryn Allison.
David Byrne’s American Utopia, which will air on HBO Max later this year, will first open the Toronto Film Festival in September. As previously announced, Oscar winner Spike Lee filmed the theatrical concert during the tail end of its Broadway run.
TIFF 2020, which runs September 10–19, will be presented as a hybrid of virtual and in-person events, according to The Wrap.
American Utopia features songs from Byrne’s 2018 album of the same name, along with hits from his time as Talking Heads frontman and throughout his solo career. Joining him onstage are an eclectic group of international musicians: Jacquelene Acevedo, Gustavo Di Dalva, Daniel Freedman, Chris Giarmo, Tim Keiper, Tendayi Kuumba, Karl Mansfield, Mauro Refosco, Stéphane San Juan, Angie Swan, and Bobby Wooten III.
In 2018, the show played engagements in 27 countries and bowed at Boston’s Colonial Theatre and New York’s Hudson Theatre the following year. A return engagement was slated to begin in September at the Broadway venue but now postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
