Curtain Call: ‘Mama Mia!’ Opens In Japan
Broadway: A group of Broadway professionals have teamed up to present a killer new show. Directed by Marc Bruni, A Killer Party: A Murder Mystery Musical will grace most computer screens on August 5 in a nine episode series. Alex Newell, Michael James Scott, Jeremy Jordan, Miguel Cervantes, Laura Osnes, and Krystina Alabado, among others, will star on this new spin on classic murder mystery stories with music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and a book by Kait Kerrigan.
The premise of the musical focuses on an artistic director of a failing theatre in Duluth who is murdered. Detective Justine Case, played by Jessica Keenan-Wynn, takes the lead to be recognized as a great detective by uncovering the truth. The season can be preordered on Vimeo via the musical’s official website.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has released a potential COVID-19 safety program for workers in theaters and live performance venues. The 27-page document establishes the need for frequent testing for the cast, crew or any other employee that comes in physical contact with anyone outside immediate family, while also asking workers daily to self-certify that they do not have any COVID-19 symptoms.
The international union also showcases the importance of creating formal COVID-19 policies that comply with federal, state health, and safety guidelines, which must include an autonomous compliance officer to implement a safety plan or address any issues on site. The creation of these guidelines stem from the collaboration with local union officers that work in all departments in the United States and Canada.
The Black Theatre Coalition has launched its program with the purpose of expanding opportunities for Black theater professionals within the next 10 years. The organization was founded by actor T. Oliver Reid, choreographer Warren Adams, and philanthropist Reginald “Reggie” Van Lee, who announced that the coalition will produce a series of three shows per year in New York City composed of an original musical, a revival, and a play.
The group also announced a partnership with the upcoming revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, with producers of the musical providing 10 paid internships for young Black men and women. The internship will aim to cover every department of the production and will last from its first rehearsal to opening night. The Black Theatre Coalition has outlined three initial steps in their program with the purpose to mobilize, implement, and transform the theater business after reopening.
Winning playwright Lynn Nottage is set to join Second Stage Theater’s 2021 lineup. The untitled production will be directed by Kate Whoriskey, who previously directed Nottage’s Pulitzer-winning play Ruined. The play is described to take place in a truck stop sandwich shop with previously incarcerated employees who have a shot at redemption and will begin performances in the fall of 2021 at the Helen Hayes Theater.
Off-Broadway: The Public Theater has announced an extension of the play The Line. The virtual play premiered via a YouTube live stream on July 8th, with announced performances until August 4th. Directed by Jessica Blank, the docu-play includes Santino Fontana, Arjun Gupta, John Ortiz, Alison Pill, Nicholas Pinnock, Jamey Sheridan, and Lourraine Toussaint as New York City front line medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blank, who also wrote the play with Erik Jensen, stated that the story was inspired after conducting anonymous interviews with essential workers. Aimee Mann joins the project as the original music composer, while Janelle Caso serves as the production stage manager. The extension will run through September 1st on the Public Theater’s official YouTube channel.
The Playroom Theater has closed permanently due to the ongoing pandemic shutdown. The venue, which opened in September 2011, closed on June 30th after serving as the home to several new musicals and a five year resident theatre company named The Tank. William Mastrosimone’s Rules of Desire became the last show to be presented at the Off-Broadway theatre, after closing on March 7th.
Eric Krebs, who created the 62-seat space, reinforced the importance of small theatres for emerging artists in New York City. He also stated that the future demise of the theatre was inevitable due to the current high rents for space in the area. The theatre was also the home for other productions including That Chemistry Show, That Physics Show, and The Bullpen.
Theater for the New City has announced that it will continue its Street Theater Tour in the virtual world. The company announced the adaptation of their 2020 tour by live streaming their new production Liberty or Just Us: A City Park Story. The oratorio piece is directed and written by Crystal Field and composed by Joseph Vernon Banks.
The piece will honor New York City Parks as sites of activism by revisiting impactful movements through the eyes of a contemporary parks manager. Each performance will pay tribute to the location the performance was originally scheduled for and will invite audiences to join in through a sing-a-long. Liberty or Just Us: A City Park Story will stream August 1st through September 13th every Saturday and Sunday at 2pm via the company’s official website and Facebook page.
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International: The Kanagawa Arts Center in Yokohama, Japan opened a production of the widely popular ABBA inspired musical Mamma Mia!. The musical opened on July 14th under COVID-19 guidelines that included temperature checks, social distancing and masks among audience members. The opening was originally scheduled for March 28th, but was postponed as theaters were forced to close down.
The musical is scheduled to run through August 23rd with frequent tests and health monitoring of its theater staff and cast. The show is also scheduled to premiere in Fukuoka’s Canal City Theatre and Kyoto Theatre after its run in Yokohama. Mamma Mia! premiered for the first time in Tokyo in 2002 leading to a total of 3,017 performances in nine cities.
The UK charity Acting For Others has announced Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Vice President. The creator of the Emmy-winning series Fleabag joins the project, which provides financial and emotional support to theatre workers. Waller-Bridge joins fellow Vice Presidents Patrick Stewart, Trevor Nunn, and Mark Rylance, among others, under President Judi Dench.
Waller-Bridge made her NTLive presentation of Fleabag, which inspired her Amazon series, available for streaming in April for a COVID-19 relief aid. The actress accomplished to raise over £1 million with beneficiaries that included 14 charities. These charities fell under the Acting For Others project and the Broadway Cares’ COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund.
Regent Park’s Open Air Theatre has found its cast for Jesus Christ Superstar. The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical will be presented as a special concert staging with a six-week run that is set to open on August 14th. Directed by Timothy Sheader, the production will have nine performances a week in order to make the production economically feasible.
Due to this, the announcement comes with the peculiar detail that some actors will perform the same role in different dates. Decla Bennette and Pepe Nufrio will both star in the role of Jesus, while Tyrone Huntley, Ricardo Afonso, Anoushka Lucas, and Maimuna Memon will share the roles of Judas and Mary respectively. The theatre also announced all productions originally scheduled for 2020 have been postponed until summer 2021.
