Curtain Call: Kenny Leon Set To Direct Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town' Broadway Revival
Kenny Leon - Arturo Holmes
Broadway: Kenny Leon will direct the new Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Our Town. Wilder’s play premiered in 1938 and was last seen on Broadway in 2002. Considered by some to be one of the greatest American plays ever written, Our Town depicts the lives of citizens in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire between 1901 and 1913. The revival is set to premiere for the 2024-2025 season.
The Notebook has announced its principal cast with Jordan Tyson as Younger Allie, Joy Woods as Middle Allie, Tony Award winner Maryann Plunkett as Older Allie, John Cardoza as Younger Noah, Ryan Vasquez as Middle Noah, and Dorian Harewood as Older Noah. The new musical will begin performances on February 10, 2024, with the official opening on March 14, 2024 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
Additional casting will be announced by the Telsey Office.
Quincy Tyler Bernstine has been cast in the role of Mrs. Muller in the first Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning 2005 play Doubt. Bernstine was last seen on Broadway in In The Next Room. Her off-Broadway credits include Marys Seacole, where her performance garnered her a Lortel Award, and Ruined where she received an Obie Award.
Mona Moriya
Off-Broadway: Colored Silk: A Civil War Odyssey has opened at The Players Theatre. Tami Tyree’s play tells the story of Elizabeth Keckley, a dressmaker for Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. Elizabeth Keckley (1818-1907) was America’s first black fashion designer and gained national prominence after writing the narrative, Behind The Scenes: Thirty Years A Slave, Or Four Years in the White House (1868). Born into slavery, Keckley came into the world with no opportunities, until her self-emancipation propelled her into the Nation’s Capital.
Colored Milk: A Civil War Odyssey will be playing until November 19, 2023.
Paolo Montalban is set to star in White Rose: The Musical Off-Broadway as Prof. Kurt Huber, the professor of a group of students in Nazi Germany who fight against the unjust laws imposed by the Third Reich. Based on a true story, White Rose: The Musical will debut Off-Broadway with a limited 12-week run beginning January 17, 2024. It’s set to open on January 25, 2024, at Theatre Row’s Theatre Three. Paolo Montalban’s Broadway credits include Funny Girl and Pacific Overtures.
The National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) has appointed Mona Moriya as Managing Producer. She will be in charge of general program administration and will support NAATCO’s work in a producorial role. Mona Moriya is a queer, first-generation Japanese-American actor, arts administrator, and producer from Los Angeles, based in New York City. Her acting credits include Law & Order: SVU, Flea Fridays, and Serials at The Flea Theater.
Angel Raii Gómez
Regional: Darren Aronofosky’s Protozoa Pictures and the Los Angeles Media Fund have launched the LAMF/Protozoa Theater Fund: a joint venture focused on commissioning and producing live theater projects. The Fund announced the recipients of its first three commissions: James Ijames, Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony nominee for Fat Ham; Sylvia Khoury, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Selling Kabul; and Sarah Einspanier, author of the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway play Lunch Bunch.
Grammy Award-winning artist Q-Tip, known for his work in the hip-hop collective A Tribe Called Quest, has joined the creative team of Ali, the Muhammad Ali musical. Q-Tip will serve as a music producer and co-lyricist for the musical debuting at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Ali’s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, in Fall 2024.
Additional members of the team will be announced at a later date.
The full cast and creative team for the Los Angeles debut of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Holiday Show has been announced. The holiday version of the stage adaptation will be playing this winter at the El Portal Theatre from November 25 through January 21, 2024. The cast for the Los Angeles production includes Paula Moore, Becki Park, Sean Tibangin, and Leonard Moore.
Created by Jonathan Rockefeller, The Very Hungry Caterpillar has become a worldwide sensation with sold-out shows in the United Kingdom, New York, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Dubai, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands.
The Giargiari Bel Canto Competition has concluded in Philadelphia and among the winners are Angel Raii Gómez and Ethel Trujillo. Hosted by the Academy of Vocal Arts, the Giargiari Bel Canto Competition has showcased the brightest of up-and-coming opera stars for over 40 years. Gómez, a lyric tenor, won the awards for audience favorite and first prize. Trujillo, a lyric soprano, won the third prize.
Jenna Agbayani and Judy Song have been announced to star in Lloyd Suh’s new play The Heart Sellers. Directed by May Adrales, the production will run from November 21 to December 23, 2023 at the Calderwood Pavilion. Based in 1973, The Heart Sellers centers on two women, Jane and Luna, who meet each other in a grocery store on Thanksgiving to find that they’re both recent Asian immigrants, struggling with homesickness in a new country and loneliness while living with their husbands.
Junaid Khan
International: Casting for the new Disney musical Hercules in Hamburg has announced that Benét Monterio will take on the title role. Additionally, his single version of Go the Distance was released on October 27. This is a quick second title role for Monteiro after he was on stage for Hamilton in Hamburg. The complete cast album is expected to be released in July 2024.
Yamin Choudury, Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Hackney Empire, will be resigning from his position next year, according to Chair Sir William Atkinson and the company’s board. Choudury will remain in his position until September 2024 and is set to direct the 2024 Artist Development Programme show.
Opera News, the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s monthly publication, is now under the editorial direction of the U.K.’s Opera magazine. Due to economic shortcomings, the Metropolitan Opera Guild announced that it would scale back its operations this fall, however the monthly publication will continue under the supervision of Opera Magazine beginning in December. Additionally, the Guild’s annual fall luncheon and spring Opera News Awards will be discontinued.
Monique Ashe-Palmer has joined Tasmin Taheri, Joseph Ayer, and Sian Breckin for the world premiere of £1 Thursdays by Kate Rose-Martin. Ashe-Palmer and Taheri play Stacy and Jen, two 17-year-old best friends who search for an escape at their favorite club on Thursday nights. Ashe-Palmer’s previous credits include Six at the Vaudeville Theatre along with the national tour of Waitress.
The revival of the musical Sister Act, which is premiering worldwide on November 4 in Busan, showcased its diverse cast at an open rehearsal at Dongseo University. The starring roles include Nicole Vanessa Ortiz as Deloris, Mary Gutzi as Mother Superior, and South Korean actress Kim So-hyang as Mary Robert. Kim was the first Asian cast member in the Asian tour of the original Sister Act in 2017.
Junaid Khan will be making his screen debut with YRF’s Maharaj. It will be performed on November 15, 2023 at the Prithvi Theatre. Over the past six years, Junaid Khan has pursued his passion for theater with his debut in August 2017 for Director Quasar Thakore Padamsee’s adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children.
Tara Lopez is set to become the director of participation at Nottingham Playhouse. Before, she was the executive director for The Spark Arts for Children in Leicester, and before that, she led Critical Mass, an inclusive mass participation project, which was an intrinsic element of the Birmingham 2022 Festival and Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.
Klin Theatre associate director Amit Sharma has been announced to take over as artistic director and CEO of the North East London theater in December. Sharma is an award-winning theater and television director who was formerly the deputy artistic director of Birmingham Rep, associate artistic director at nortthe Royal Exchange, Manchester, and associate director at Graeae Theatre Company. His credits include Retrograde, The Boy With Two Hearts, Prometheus Awakes, along with his co-direction of the award-winning BBC and Netflix drama Then Barbara Met Alan.
