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Go Inside Stars in the House’s $1 Million In-Person Live Show Celebration

In celebration of raising $1 million for the Actors Fund, Stars in the House hosted its first-ever in-person show at Asylum NYC June 30.

Playbill correspondent and SiriusXM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky and producer James Wesley commemorated the milestone with the (fully vaccinated) Stars in the House staff, family, and friends as well as Brenda Braxton, Josh Bryant, Andréa Burns, Liz Callaway, Paul Castree, Kristin Chenoweth, Darius de Haas, Colin Donnell, Beth Leavel, Andrea Martin, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Lisa Mordente, Patti Murin, Chita Rivera, Marc Shaiman, Pearl Sun, Nina West, and more.

“Thanks to the enormous generosity of our viewers from all over the globe, we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate reaching the $1 million mark raised for The Actors Fund on June 30 with our very first in-person show,” said Rudetsky and Wesley in an earlier statement. “And what better way to celebrate this moment than with a ton of live music from our Broadway friends, surrounded by the volunteers and staff of Stars in the House who made it all happen these past 15 months.”

“On March 16, 2020, Seth and James went live with the very first episode of Stars in the House to benefit The Actors Fund, knowing even then that the entertainment community would need monumental support in the months—and as we see now, years—to come,” added The Actors Fund Chairman Brian Stokes Mitchell. “Because of Seth, James, everyone working behind the scenes at Stars in the House, all the guest stars, and the incredible dedication of thousands of fans, the show has already raised close to $1 million for The Actors Fund. I cannot wait to celebrate this upcoming milestone with the Stars in the House team, and on behalf of everyone at The Actors Fund, we thank you for your unwavering support of a life in the arts.”

Stars in the House launched March 16 last year to promote support for The Actors Fund and its services in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to supporting the theatrical non-profit, it has raised over $264,000 for other charities including the NAACP LDF, Trevor Project, Humane Society of New York, Waterkeeper Alliance, You Gotta Believe, Cancer Support Community, New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, Youth Pride Chorus, and more. Rudetsky and Wesley received a special Drama Desk Award for their coronavirus relief efforts.

New shows—streaming Tuesday–Saturday at 8 PM ET—feature performances by stars of stage and screen, in conversation and song with Rudetsky and Wesley. Peter Flynn serves as streaming director.

Click here to watch previous episodes. To make a tax-deductible donation to The Actors Fund visit StarsintheHouse.com/Donate.

A Look Inside Rehearsal of Merry Wives at the Public Theater

Rehearsals are underway for Jocelyn Bioh’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Public Theater. Helmed by Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director Saheem Ali, the production is scheduled to begin performances July 6 at the Delacorte, marking the return of Shakespeare in the Park following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Set in South Harlem amidst a community of West African immigrants, Merry Wives is billed as “a celebration of Black joy, laughter, and vitality.”

The all-Black production stars Abena as Anne Page, Shola Adewusi as Mama Quickly, Gbenga Akinnagbe as Mister Nduka Ford, Pascale Armand as Madam Ekua Page, MaYaa Boateng as Fenton/Simple, Phillip James Brannon as Pastor Evans, Jacob Ming-Trent as Falstaff, Joshua Echebiri as Slender/Pistol, Julian Rozzell Jr. as Shallow, Kyle Scatliffe as Mister Kwame Page, David Ryan Smith as Doctor Caius, and Susan Kelechi Watson as Madam Nkechi Ford alongside ensemble members Brandon E. Burton, Branden Lindsay, Ebony Marshall-Oliver, Jarvis D. Matthews, and Jennifer Mogbock.

Merry Wives will feature scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by Jiyoun Chang, sound design by Kai Harada and Palmer Hefferan, hair, wigs, and makeup design by Cookie Jordan, original music by Michael Thurber, original drum compositions by Farai Malianga, fight direction by Rocío Mendez, choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie, and sound system design by Jessica Paz. Narda E. Alcorn will serve as production stage manager.

The weekly digital lottery for tickets to the free, outdoor production began June 29. For tickets and more information, visit PublicTheater.org.

Brenda Braxton Guest Hosts Stars in the House June 29

Tony nominee Brenda Braxton (Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Chicago) guest hosts Stars in the House, the daily live streamed concert series created by Playbill correspondent and SiriusXM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky and producer James Wesley, June 29.

Braxton looks back at her favorite moments as a guest and guest host of the series during the pandemic. Watch the stream above beginning at 8 PM ET.

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Brenda Braxton Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Stars in the House launched March 16 last year to promote support for The Actors Fund and its services in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It has also raised funds for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund in support of the Black Lives Matter movement as well as Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

New shows—streaming Tuesday–Saturday at 8 PM ET—feature performances by stars of stage and screen, in conversation and song with Rudetsky and Wesley. Peter Flynn serves as streaming director.

Click here to watch previous episodes.

To make a tax-deductible donation to The Actors Fund, visit StarsintheHouse.com/Donate.

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Playbill Vault’s Today in Theatre History: June 28

1902 Birthday of Richard Rodgers, one of Broadway’s most prolific and successful composers. His greatest successes came in partnership with lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II (Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music, etc.) and Lorenz Hart (On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, Pal Joey, A Connecticut Yankee, By Jupiter, etc.).

1926 Birthday of funnyman Mel Brooks, who goes on to write for TV’s Your Show of Shows and Broadway musicals Shinbone Alley and All American before departing for a long career in Hollywood. He returns to Broadway in triumph in 2001 with a musical adaptation of his Broadway satire, The Producers.

1950 Censorship proves to be a problem when Michael Todd’s Peep Show opens at New York’s Winter Garden Theatre. The legendary producer of the title is soon forced to tone down the revue as a result of talks with the city’s Commissioner of Licenses.

1987 Two years after the end of its original Broadway run, Tom Eyen and Henry Krieger‘s Dreamgirls returns to New York. Opening at the Ambassador Theatre, the engagement is the final stop of the musical’s international tour. Director-choreographer Michael Bennett scaled back his original staging for the tour, which first launched in fall 1985. Bennett is sadly not well enough to oversee the new Broadway run, and dies at his home in Arizona from AIDS-related lymphoma four days later.

1990 William Finn follows up his In Trousers and March of the Falsettos with the final piece of his “Marvin Trilogy,” Falsettoland. The all-sung musical starring Michael Rupert, Chip Zien, and Faith Prince throws AIDS into the mix of the already complex issue of sexual identity. The production, which opens at Playwrights Horizons, later transfers to the Lucille Lortel Theatre. March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland are later combined to create the 1992 Broadway musical Falsettos.

1999 27 years after it premiered Off-Broadway at the Truck and Warehouse Theatre, Tennessee WilliamsSmall Craft Warnings sees the New York stage again when Worth Street Theater Company stages the lyrical drama. Based on an earlier Williams one-act, Confessional, the play is set in a bar in a Southern California coastal town.

2001 Phylicia Rashad opens in Off-Broadway’s Blue at the Gramercy Theatre in a Roundabout Theatre Company production. In the Charles Randolph-Wright play, Rashad stars as Peggy Clark, the matriarch of a well-off African-American family who run a funeral home business in South Carolina and who tracks the career of jazz singer Blue Williams. Directed by Sheldon Epps, the cast also features Michael McElroy, Hill Harper, Howard W. Overshown, Jewell Robinson, Randall Shepperd, Messeret Stroman and Chad Tucker, with music is by Nona Hendryx of LaBelle fame (“Lady Marmalade”) and lyrics by Hendryx and Randolph-Wright. Rashad was set to direct a 2020 revival of Blue at the Apollo Theatre when the COVID-19 pandemic forced theatres across the country to close.

2002 To celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of composer Richard Rodgers, Broadway stars gathers for a concert at the Gershwin Theatre. Aptly titled Something Good: A Broadway Salute to Richard Rodgers on His 100th Birthday, the concert features performances by Sutton Foster, Hunter Foster, Lea Salonga, Patrick Wilson, Shuler Hensley, Laura Benanti, John Bucchino, Barbara Cook, John Cullum, Erin Dilly, Marin Mazzie (accompanied by Stephen Flaherty), Howard McGillin, Lauren Mitchell, Louise Pitre, Billy Stritch, Mary Testa, and the chorus of Oklahoma!

2007 Roundabout Theatre Company‘s revival of John Van Druten‘s comedy Old Acquaintance opens on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre. Harriet Harris and Margaret Colin star as two childhood friends who have grown into successful authors.

2010 On the Levee, the Todd Almond-Marcus Gardley play with music that frames the great Mississippi flood of 1927 through the perspective of a white and black family, opens Off-Broadway at the Duke on 42nd Street. Lear deBessonet conceived and directs the project, which stars Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper, Amari Cheatom, Michael Sibbery, Sam Numrich, and Dion Graham.

2011 Brooke Shields gets creepy, kooky, and altogether ooky when she joins The Addams Family as Morticia Addams, replacing original star Bebe Neuwirth.

2017 Lin-Manuel Miranda releases the first official music video from The Hamilton Mixtape. Riz Ahmed (as Riz MC), K’Naan, Residente, and Snow Tha Product perform “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done),” directed by Tomás Whitmore, which explores the unsung impact and hardships of immigrants (“America’s ghost writers,” as Snow Tha Product raps) in American culture.

2018 Melissa Errico opens Off-Broadway tonight in the Irish Repertory Theatre revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane’s 1965 musical, about a young woman who goes to a psychiatrist to cure her smoking through hypnosis but instead discovers that she is the reincarnation of a well-born English lady, also starred Stephen Bogardus and John Cudia.

More of Today’s Birthdays: Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936). Max Gordon (1892–1978). A. E. Hotchner (1920–2020). John Tillinger (b. 1938). Gilda Radner (1946–1989). Bruce Davison (b. 1946). Kathy Bates (b. 1948). Jessica Hecht (b. 1965). Mary Stuart Masterson (b. 1966). Danielle Brisebois (b. 1969).

Watch Sierra Boggess and Julian Ovenden perform the songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein with the New York Pops: