Dear Evan Hansen wants the humorous but scathing energy that Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick has in spades. The similarities between Hansen and Teenage Dick run deep. Both shows follow awkward, lonely teenage guys trying to get through high school. Both protagonists gain incredible social power through the force of their storytelling. They use this power to woo their popular love interests, and excuse their gaslighting because of their disabilities. And in the end, everything comes crashing down because of dangerous lies exacerbated by social media. Both shows have had large cultural moments this year. Hansen’s film adaptation premiered in movie theaters this past September and re-opens on Broadway this weekend. Teenage Dick, which previously ran off-Broadway in 2018, is now touring through some of the most well-known regional theatres in America. Having already played at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company this fall, the show is now running at the Huntington Theatre Company and will head over to Pasadena Playhouse in February.

Get ready to Sell! Sell! Sell! The beloved film Trading Places will have its world-premiere musical at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta next spring directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon. Based off the 1983 film from Paramount Pictures, Trading Places is a contemporary reimagining of the prince and pauper fable. Billie Rae Valentine, a savvy hustler down on her luck, and Louis Winthorpe III, a minted commodities-trading firm director, have their lives deliberately switched by the devious Duke brothers to settle a petty bet in an outrageous debate of nature versus nurture. Trading Places is helmed by an exciting creative team including television and film writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, musical writing team Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, acclaimed film, television, and music video choreographer Fatima Robinson, associate director Tinashe Kajese-Bolden.

Carolee Carmello has been wowing audiences for years with iconic roles in Parade, The Addams Family, Scandalous, The Hello Dolly National Tour — the list could keep on going. She is now back for her first performance post quarantine in Paper Mill Playhouse’s new vibrant production of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World. I recently caught up with Carmello as she was headed to the gym (yes, exercise), to chat about her fabulous co-stars, a quick rehearsal process, and jumping back into musical theatre. 

More than 17 months after COVID-19 forced theatres around the country to cancel performances, Papermill Playhouse is back and rocking it to the rafters with a vibrant revival of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World. “Songs for a Thousand Cabarets” could be the alternative title for this revue-like collection of ardent musical theatre-pop-soliloquies given its popularity with soloists and cabaret artists. Those artists include stars as varied as Karen Akers, Betty Buckley, Audra McDonald, and Shoshana Bean―not to mention hundreds of thousands of aspirants around the world. Having grown up belting the original cast recording with my musical theatre friends as we skipped to rehearsal, I have always loved the show. But going into this Mark S. Hoebee directed production, I found myself wondering, “How does the full show of stand-alone solos, duets, and quartets stack up 26 years after its premiere?” As led by the sensational Carolee Carmello, as brilliantly as it did back in 1995.

We caught up with Bobby Conte Thornton, playing “Man 2” in Songs For A New World at the Cape Playhouse, as the show moves rehearsals from New York City up to Massachusetts, on what it's like to be performing in a show for the first time in sixteen months.

Following a world premiere on the West End earlier in May produced by Sonia Friedman, TheaterWorks Hartford has taken this new ambitious drama and produced a rather incredible US Premiere of Amy Berryman's Walden. One of the most thrilling and satisfying nights at the theatre that I have had the pleasure of attending in a very long time — this is one of those performances that will be with you for many days. 

The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, Artistic Director), in association with The Foxboro Company, today announced that Destiny of Desire, written by critically acclaimed playwright Karen Zacarías (Native Gardens) and directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Broadway’s Jitney), will complete its 2021–2022 Season. Prior to an anticipated 2022 Broadway run produced by The Foxboro Company, the Guthrie is pleased to produce Destiny of Desire for its audiences.

It was announced today that Broadway’s Rema Webb (Book of Mormon, The Color Purple, Lion King) will step into the spotlight as the unforgettable jazz icon Billie Holiday in The Cape Playhouse’s upcoming production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill which runs July 14 through the 24th in Dennis, Massachusetts.

Directed by BT McNicholl, the hilarious musical comedy is the perfect production to introduce patrons back to in-person performances with Spamalot at Ogunquit Playhouse.

The Guthrie Theater today announced its 2021–2022 Season, including the national tour of the critically acclaimed What the Constitution Means to Me by famed writer Heidi Schreck; a world-premiere adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Lavina Jadhwani, featuring all-new creative design; Lorraine Hansberry’s heralded A Raisin in the Sun; William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, directed by former Artistic Director Joe Dowling in his first return to the Guthrie; Kate Hamill’s world-premiere adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, commissioned by the Guthrie; Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat; and a seventh title to be announced.

Ogunquit Playhouse, the crown jewel of Maine’s Southern Seacoast and a renowned destination for regional theater for almost 90 years, is bringing live theater outdoors this summer. Rising from the grounds of The Playhouse campus’s south lawn is The Leary Pavilion, a 25,700 square foot open-air venue — nearly three times the size of their indoor theater — designed to give audiences the best theatrical experience in the safest possible environment.