Curtain Call: ‘A Strange Loop’ Finally Opens On Broadway After Pandemic Struggle
Broadway: A Strange Loop is the much-anticipated musical that has been plagued with a series of postponements since early April. This unwanted struggle to open, caused by a series of confirmed Covid-19 cases within the company, finally reached its conclusion and opened on April 26th at the Lyceum Theatre.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical had its Off-Broadway premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 2019. Jaquel Spivey plays Usher, a gay, young, black theatre writer struggling with his inner thoughts as he attempts to write a musical where the main character is also struggling with their inner thoughts while trying to write a musical.
The upcoming Broadway revival of The Piano Lesson has announced more of its cast members. The previously confirmed Samuel L. Jackson and Danielle Brooks will be joined by Trai Byers, Ray Fisher, April Matthis, and Michael Potts. This assortment of performers come from many different corners of the entertainment media landscape, ranging from FOX’s Empire to Zack Snyder’s Justice League to the original cast of The Book of Mormon.
After a ten-day hiatus, Paradise Square has resumed performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. This announcement of this postponement dates as far back as 3 months ago, and it occurred as a response to New York City’s spike in cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 at the time.
This original musical takes place at the beginning of the American Civil War, when a mixed community of Irish and Black Americans in the Five Points area of Manhattan have their lives disrupted by the first-ever, racially selective, federal draft.
A stage musical adaption of Some Like It Hot is set to begin performances at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre this upcoming November. This musical reimagining of the 1959 film makes a groundbreaking choice in reimagining the central love interest, Sugar, as a black woman.
Off Broadway: The Manhattan Theatre Club has begun previews for Golden Shield. The play, written by Anchuli Felicia King, is a legal drama that follows Julie Chen, an American lawyer as she battles through a class action lawsuit involving a technology corporation and the Chinese government while also navigating her relationship with her sister and translator Eva. The show is set to open on May 17th at the New York City Center.
Danai Gurira, known for her roles in The Walking Dead and Black Panther will be playing the titular role of Richard III for The Public Theater’s 2022 season of Free Shakespeare in the Park. Daniel J. Watts and Michael Potts will join her in this production at The Delacorte Theater this summer.
The first four performances of Wedding Band have been cancelled at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center. The cancellation of this revival is the result of two positive COVID cases within the Theatre for a New Audience company.
The play, starring Brittney Bradford and Rosalyn Coleman, is an interracial love story that takes place in Charleston, South Carolina near the end of WWI and in the midst of a historic flu pandemic. The new previews now begin on April 28th, with the opening still scheduled for May 8th.
Regional: The Hollywood Bowl production of Kinky Boots is set to be staged from July 8-10th. Wayne Brady will be reprising his role as Lola, and Kelly Marie Tran, known for voicing the titular character in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, will be playing Lauren.
The Tony award-winning musical tells the story of Lola, a drag queen whose broken heel leads to an unlikely friendship with Charlie, a struggling factory owner. This production will be the 21st fully staged Broadway musical to appear at the venue.
The La Jolla Playhouse has tentatively pushed its world premiere of the play, Mother Russia to the 2023-2024 theater season considering the current geopolitical climate. Replacing it will be Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, a one-woman comedy inspired by the volunteer mask-sewing group Kristina founded at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The show explores her thoughts on the pandemic and what it means to find community in a time of isolation. The show is set to run from September 20-October 16th.
A new play from Obie winner Kirsten Greenidge opened at the Huntington Theatre in Massachusetts. The play, titled Our Daughter, Like Pillars, explores a single, charged week, in the lives of the modern-day black Boston family. Initially, the production was set to premiere in March of 2020, now, after the venue shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has opened in April of this year.
International: The Brixton House Production of Mugabe, My Dad & Me ended its run on April 1st at the York Theatre Royal. Initially delayed as a result of the pandemic, the drama explores the relationship between politics and family relationships as author Tonderai Munyevu reflects on his experience of his father during Zimbabwe’s gaining independence in 1980 through Robert Mugabe’s controversial period of leadership.
