this week in theater

SHAKESPEARE EVERYWHERE

Who: F. Murray Abraham, Angela Bassett, Annette Bening, Biko’s Manna and Family, Jonathan Cake, Merle Dandridge, Keith David, Dame Judi Dench, Maureen Dowd, Ralph Fiennes, Gideon Firl, Amadou Kouyate, Harry Lennix, Norm Lewis, Dame Helen Mirren, Joe Morton, Antonio Parker Quintet, Nova Y. Payton, Nancy Robinette, Kalen Robinson, Mary Michelle Schaefer, Liev Schreiber, Russell Thomas, Courtney B. Vance, Simon Godwin, more
What: Shakespeare Theatre Company online gala
Where: Shakespeare Theatre Company
When: Saturday, October 3, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: William Shakespeare knew a thing or two about being quarantined during a health crisis. So it’s more than apt that the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual gala this year will be taking place virtually, with theaters closed. The DC company’s popular fundraiser goes virtual on October 3 at 7:00, featuring an all-star roster performing and discussing the Bard, including F. Murray Abraham, Angela Bassett, Jonathan Cake, Merle Dandridge, Dame Judi Dench, Maureen Dowd, Ralph Fiennes, Harry Lennix, Norm Lewis, Dame Helen Mirren, Kalen Robinson, Liev Schreiber, Russell Thomas, Courtney B. Vance, the cast of The Amen Corner, and artistic director Simon Godwin, among others; the event is codirected by LeeAnet Noble and Alan Paul. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted; there is also a preshow virtual cocktail reception and a silent auction, where you can bid on art, food and wine, trips to Ireland, Greece, and other countries, costumes and props, and sponsoring an episode of Shakespeare Hour Live!

NEW FEDERAL THEATRE PRESENTS OCTOBERFEST

Who: New Federal Theatre (NFT)
What: Retrospective reading series
Where: New Federal Theatre online
When: Fridays in October, free (donations accepted), 7:00 (available through the following Sunday at midnight)
Why: Recently named a “Legend of Off Broadway,” Woodie King Jr. has been a New York City theater fixture since founding New Federal Theatre in 1970. As part of its fiftieth anniversary, during the pandemic NFT is looking back at its history, presenting readings of several rarely performed plays that deal with such issues as racism, slavery, and the civil rights movement. As it explains in its mission statement, NFT seeks to “integrate artists of color and women into the mainstream of American theater by training artists for the profession and by presenting plays by writers of color and women to integrated, multicultural audiences — plays which evoke the truth through beautiful and artistic re-creations of ourselves.” The “Octoberfest” series takes place every Friday night at 7:00 and is dedicated to the late Chadwick Boseman, who began his career at NFT, winning an AUDELCO Award for his performance in Ronald Milner’s Urban Transitions: Loose Blossoms in 2002 and serving on the board of directors; each play will be available for viewing through the following Sunday at midnight. The works explore the friendship between Mary White Overton and Dr. W. E. B. DuBois; tell the story of rape survivor and civil rights activist Endesha Ida Mae Holland; use WPA recordings to dramatize remembrances by former slaves; examine PTSD in a Vietnam veteran who received the Black Congressional Medal of Honor; and focus in on a blues singer and a church congregant facing loneliness and a loss of faith. Below is the full schedule, along with the year the show was originally staged by NFT; tickets are free but donations will be accepted.

Friday, October 2
Do Lord Remember Me, written by Jim De Jongh, directed by Regge Life, starring Ebony JoAnn, Barbara Montgomery, Roscoe Orman, Kim Sullivan, and Glynn Turman (NFT, 1996-97)

Friday, October 9
Dr. Du Bois and Miss Ovington, written by Clare Coss, directed by Gabrielle Kurlander, starring Kathleen Chalfant and Peter Jay Fernandez (NFT, 2014)

Friday, October 16
From the Mississippi Delta, written by Endesha Ida Mae Holland, directed by Ed Smith, starring Brenda Denmark, Elain Graham, and Verniece Turner (NFT, 1987-88)

Friday, October 23
Medal of Honor Rag, written by Tom Cole, directed by A. Dean Irby, starring Royce Johnson, Micah Stock, and Beethovan Oden (NFT at Theater De Lys, 1976)

Friday, October 30
Stories of the Old Days, written by Bill Harris, directed by La Tanya Richardson Jackson, starring Pauletta Washington and Michael Potts (NFT, 1986)

NETFLIX’S THE BOYS IN THE BAND LIVE DISCUSSION AND Q&A

Who: Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Joe Mantello, David Canfield
What: Live virtual discussion about The Boys in the Band
Where: 92Y online
When: Friday, October 2, free, 7:00
Why: In the spring of 2018, Mart Crowley’s 1968 play, The Boys in the Band, finally made its Broadway debut; at the time, I called it “a raucous fiftieth-anniversary adaptation lavishly directed by Joe Mantello. . . . All these years later, it is evident that Crowley, who wrote a sequel, The Men from the Boys, in 2002, captured more than just a moment in time; he was embracing individuality as well as the very zeitgeist of homosexuality, even as the party devolves amid the onslaught of personal demons coming to the fore. Crowley also touches on racism and anti-Semitism in addition to homophobia.” The show starred a cast of out actors playing gay men at a birthday party: Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Robin De Jesús, Andrew Rannells, Tuc Watkins, Michael Benjamin Washington, Brian Hutchison, and Charlie Carver. The production has now been made into a movie produced by Ryan Murphy that will debut on Netflix on September 30 with the full, original Broadway cast. On October 2 at 7:30, the 92nd St. Y will host a free, live discussion with Parsons (Michael), Quinto (Harold), Bomer (Donald), and Mantello, moderated by EW’s David Canfield, that will explore this illuminating and controversial exploration of gay culture in New York City. Sadly, Crowley, who cowrote the screenplay with Ned Martel, passed away on March 7 at the age of eighty-four.

HOW I MISS BROADWAY

Hillary Clinton will discuss how much she misses Broadway in livestreamed New York Times discussion

Who: Hillary Clinton, Audra McDonald, Danielle Brooks, Jessie Mueller, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Paulson
What: New York Times Offstage event
Where: New York Times online
When: Thursday, October 1, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: In February 2017, I was at the Palace Theatre, waiting for Sunset Boulevard, the musical with Glenn Close, to start. We all soon realized why the curtain was being delayed: Hillary Clinton was just coming in, being ushered to her orchestra seat. The applause was enormous, lasting several minutes in an outpouring of love and respect for our near-president; in fact, it was the best part of the evening. Hillary, with and without Bill, is a Broadway regular; on October 1 at 7:00, she is the centerpiece of the livestreamed discussion “How I Miss Broadway.” The New York Times “Offstage” event will be moderated by theater reporter Michael Paulson; after the initial talk, they will be joined by six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald (Porgy and Bess, Master Class), Tony nominee Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple, Much Ado About Nothing), and Tony winners Jessie Mueller (Waitress, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) and Neil Patrick Harris (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Cabaret). Registration is free; Broadway may be dark because of the pandemic, but this should be a cathartic experience bringing part of the theater community together for an evening.

The Times’s “Offstage” series kicked off June 11 with “Opening Night: Explore Broadway as It Was, Is, and Will Be,” featuring critic at large Wesley Morris speaking with Adrienne Warren, Daniel J. Watts, Celia Rose Gooding, and Kenny Leon, followed by discussions with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, Sonya Tayeh, and Jeremy O. Harris and performances by Mary-Louise Parker, Elizabeth Stanley, Mare Winningham, and the casts of Company and Six. You can watch that presentation here.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Who: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
What: Live telephone play
Where: Your personal phone
When: October 1 – November 1, $7
Why: One of my favorite, and most unusual, artistic experiences during the pandemic lockdown has been On Site Opera’s To My Distant Love, a reimagining of Beethoven’s six-song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte, which starts out over email and finishes in a big way over the phone, with a singer and pianist performing just for you, using only sound, no images or video. DC-based Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is also taking the sonic route with Human Resources, a telephone play developed by Brittany K. Allen, Christopher Chen, Hansol Jung, Sarah Lunnie, Stowe Nelson, Zeniba Now, and Yuvika Tolani in conjunction with Telephonic Literary Union. For a $7 minimum fee, you call up a “human resources” department to file a complaint or for another reason and go on an adventure of the mind as you seek fulfillment during these difficult times. Each ticket gives you a four-day window to complete the call. During the Covid-19 crisis, Woolly Mammoth is also participating in Play at Home, a free collection of ten-minute plays written specifically for people to read and/or perform at home, not onstage, in partnership with Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, the Public Theater, and the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; among Woolly’s commissions are Alshea Harris’s If, Can, Mayhap, Mike Lew’s Performance Review, Diana Oh’s The Impossible Play, Dani Figueroa Edidi’s The Diaz Family Talent Show, and Michael R. Jackson’s Trees on Broadway.

THE NAATCO NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP PROJECT: ROMEO AND JULIET

Who: National Asian American Theatre Company, Two River Theater
What: Virtual benefit reading of modern verse translation
Where: Two River Rising,
When: Wednesday, September 30, and Thursday, October 1, $25, 7:00
Why: In 2015, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced “Play On Shakespeare,” an ambitious project in which thirty-six contemporary playwrights would provide modern translations of all thirty-nine of the Bard’s plays. On September 30 and October 1, the NAATCO National Partnership Project (NNPP), in a collaboration between the National Asian American Theatre Company and Two River Theater in New Jersey, will present an online benefit reading of South Korean playwright Hansol Jung’s (Wild Goose Dreams, Cardboard Piano) interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, originally commissioned for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. The all-Asian American cast features Mitchell Winter as Romeo, Stephanie Hsu as Juliet, Joel de la Fuente as Capulet, David Huynh as Mercutio, Tina Chilip as Tybalt, Vanessa Kai as Lady Capulet, Mia Katigbak as the nurse, Andrew Pang as Friar Laurence, Jon Norman Schneider as Petruchio, and Jeena Yi as Benvolio, with all performers taking on multiple roles; Obie winner Chay Yew (A Language of Their Own, Wonderland) serves as director.

“To most theater lovers, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a dramatic palimpsest; resonant and complicated, it remains a core myth for many,” TRT artistic director John Dias said in a statement. “Itself layered with borrowed stories and cultural appropriation, R&J beats with a universal heart of love and hate. The play still has much to teach us, and I love the echoes and layers that Hansol has added to it.” The first part of the show will be livestreamed on September 30 at 7:30, with part two streaming October 1 at 7:30, followed by a Q&A. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Asian Pride Project, which “celebrates the journeys, triumphs, and struggles of LGBTQ individuals and our Asian and Pacific Islander families and communities.” Future NNPP productions include NAATCO collaborating with Long Wharf Theatre on Madhuri Shekar’s Queen in February 2021 as well as with New York Theatre Workshop and Soho Rep.

VIRTUAL READING: THE TRIBUTE ARTIST

Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist goes virtual September 30 – October 4

Who: Charles Busch, Mary Bacon, Julie Halston, Keira Keeley, Carole Monferdini, Jonathan Walker
What: Virtual reading
Where: Primary Stages, 59E59
When: September 30 – October 4, $35 (opening night $50 with Zoom talkback and reception)
Why: In 2014, Primary Stages presented Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist at 59E59. In my review, I wrote that the show “is a wonderfully entertaining homage to the classic screwball comedies and films noir of the 1930s and ’40s. . . . Busch is a hoot as Jimmy, chewing up the scenery in Gregory Gale’s fab costumes and Katherine Carr’s wacky wigs while mixing in the wacky slapstick of Lucille Ball and the grace of Katharine Hepburn, and Julie Halston has a field day as his loud, acerbic, quick-witted sidekick. Busch veteran Jonathan Walker supplies a big dose of testosterone to the proceedings, including a scene-stealing monologue late in the second act.” The original cast, which also features Mary Bacon, Keira Keeley, and Carole Monferdini, is back for six live readings, directed again by Carl Andress, from September 30 through October 4 via the renewed partnership between Primary Stages and 59E59; tickets are $35 except for opening night, when $50 also gets you into a Zoom talkback and reception with members of the cast and crew. Primary Stages is also hosting the online workshop “Seeing Between the Lines” (September 29, $40, 6:00) with associate artistic director Erin Daley. Busch previously reunited with the cast of The Confession of Lily Dare for a terrific Plays in the House one-time-only benefit reading for the Actors Fund; you can get a sneak peek at the Zoom edition of The Tribute Artist here.