Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons will launch the second season of its scripted fiction podcast August 2. Featuring audio plays written for audio specifically for episodes 15-40 minutes in length, the podcast will be available on all major platforms.

The weekly released episodes will kick off with Program B: Rapid Immersion by Sheila Callaghan (Shameless), directed and designed by Alex Barron (nightnight). Premiering August 9 will be Last Words of Uncle Dirt by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (Snow in Midsummer), directed and composed by Michael Roth (The Web Opera).

David Greenspan (She Stoops to Comedy) has written two plays for the season, both directed by Ken Rus Schmoll, (There’s) No Time for Comedy and Loops which will both drop August 16. Sarah Hughes (A Woman Among Women) will direct His Chest Is Only Skeleton by Julia Izumi (Regretfully, So the Birds Are) for the August 23 episode.

Rounding out the season will be The Marriage of Earth and Sky by Agnes Borinsky (A Song of Songs) August 30, directed by Brooke O’Harra (Drum of the Waves of Horikawa), followed by Dave Harris’ Freedom Freedom Freedom Et Cetera under the direction of Taylor Reynolds. Harris and Reynolds previously collaborated at Playwrights Horizons on Harris’ play Tambo & Bones.

READ: Behind Tambo & Bones and Man Cave with Director Taylor Reynolds

Also announced is a collaboration between the Off-Broadway theatre and The Parsnip Ship, a play development company, which will result in two commissioned site-specific audio journeys in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. Kathleen Capdesuñer will direct West Side Quest, written by Opalanietet, and The Mayor of Hell’s Kitchen Presents: A Time Traveling Journey Through NYC’s Wild West by Christin Eve Cato. The audio journeys, which lead audiences to specific locations, will be available August 29–September 18 via mobile devices for free.

“Playwrights Horizons’ Soundstage program asserts our driving, deeply held belief that playwrights are the great storytellers of our time,” says Artistic Director Adam Greenfield in a statement. “As we seek to expand ways to experience theatre as a live event, I’m astonished by the innovation and daring that playwrights have brought to audio, a medium that, in its inherent limitations, offers infinite possibilities. Each episode in our line-up is a singular world, realizing each writer’s voice with striking clarity. Together as a series, they underline the potency of the written word, and prove the power of the theatrical imagination.”

Listen to the introduction to season 2 of Soundstage here.

The Muny production of Legally Blonde The Musical plays the outdoor St. Louis venue July 25–31.

Maggie Burrows directs with choreography by William Carlos Angulo, associate choreography by Shanita Talmor, assistant choreography by UJ Mangune, and music direction by Lon Hoyt.

The cast features Kyla Stone as Elle Woods, Fergie L. Phillipe as Emmett Forrest, Patti Murin as Paulette, Sean Allan Krill as Professor Callahan, Hayley Podschun as Brooke Wyndham, Kelsey Anne Brown as Margot, Gabi Campo as Serena, Kerri George as Enid, Khailah Johnson as Pilar, Dan Tracy as Warner Huntington III, Olivia Kaufmann as Vivienne Kensington, Mackenzie Bell as standby for Paulette and Brooke Wyndham, Gregory Lee Rodriguez as standby for Emmett Forrest, and Dave Schoonover as standby for Professor Callahan.

Rounding out the company are Andrés Acosta, Angela Birchett, Veronica Sofia Burt, Shea Coffman, Taylor Marie Daniel, Abigail Isom, Sydney Jones, Emily Madigan, UJ Mangune, Alora Tonielle Martinez, Adelina Mitchell, Natalia Nieves-Melchor, Ben Nordstrom, Liam Pearce, Gabriel Reyes, Matt Rivera, Cristina Sastre, Rochelle Scudder, Christopher De’Shawn Tipps, Julien Valme, and Ricky and Myrtle as, respectively, Bruiser and Rufus. The company is joined by the Muny Teen youth ensemble.

Legally Blonde has music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and a book by Heather Hach.

The production also has scenic design by Tim Mackabee, costume design by Leon Dobkowski, lighting design by Rob Denton, sound design by John Shivers and David Patridge, video design by Hannah Tran, wig design by Liz Printz, and animals by William Berloni. The production stage manager is Matthew Lacey.

The season also includes The Color Purple, running August 3–9; and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, running August 12–18.

Legally Blonde choreographer Angulo’s steps to the musical’s “Legally Blonde (Remix)” for the theatre’s season-wide dance audition became a viral dance challenge on TikTok earlier this year.

READ: How The Muny’s Dance Call Became a TikTok Viral Dance Craze

Visit Muny.org.

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Graham Techler’s The Panic of ’29 begins previews in Theater B at Off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theaters. Co-presented with Less Than Rent Theatre, the comedy will open July 31, and play through August 20.

Dot, secretary to the New York Stock Exchange’s Vice President, she skips town following the stock market crash in this dark comedy. Joined by a group of misfits, Dot goes on a decades-spanning journey to escape the events of this wild alternate reality of the Great Crash that ended the Roaring Twenties.

Starring are Will Roland (Be More Chill), Olivia Puckett (Dear Evan Hansen), Erik Lochtefeld (King Kong), Joyelle Nicole Johnson (Love Joy), Jaela Cheeks-Lomax, Rachel B. Joyce (The Collision), Julia Knitel (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Jared Loftin (tick, tick…BOOM!), Jack Maloney (Pippin), Will Turner (SeaWife), and RJ Vaillancourt (Saint Joan).

Devin Kessler (Yes), Brian Morabito (Romans), Jacob Presson (Our Town), and Rachel Ravel (Halston) serve as understudies for the production.

Max Friedman serves as both director and set designer for the production. Also serving on the creative team are costume designer Corina Chase, lighting designer Jamie Roderick, sound designer Margaret Montagna, props designer Brandy Hoang Collier, and dramaturg Nora Brigid Monahan. Orchestrations and arrangements are by Barrett Riggins, and fight and intimacy direction are by Lexi Orphanos. Karen Schleifer serves as production stage manager, with Kate Holland as stage manager. McKenna Quigley Harrington is associate producer.

For tickets and more information, visit 59E59.org.