the week of june 6-12, 2025
birdwatching, edward r. murrow, lilliputian athletes
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icymi: bills, bills, bills
Bills, Bills, Bills celebrated its third anniversary with a compilation of anonymous financial advice and dishy purchase history from hundreds of Nothing for the Group readers:
I’ll reveal that I was the one extolling the virtues of this backpack and a red light therapy mask. (Never pay full price for the latter! It’s HSA/FSA-eligible and Higher Dose has frequent sales.) I'm fully crediting that purchase with someone thinking I was twenty-nine earlier this year. (I am decidedly not.)
world premieres
Rogelio Martinez’s The National Pastime runs June 11 - 29 at Syracuse Stage. Johanna McKeon directs the drama about “two nations [Cuba and the United States] playing a dangerous game in the shadows, with their shared national pastimes—baseball and espionage—as their weapons of choice.”
Jenny Connell Davis’ Anton Chekhov Is A Tasty Snack is now running through June 28th at Penfold Theatre in Round Rock, TX. The “fast-and-loose adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, capturing the absurdity and challenges of making art at a small-yet-ambitious Texas theatre company” is directed by Liz Fisher.
Lauren Yee and Heather Christian’s A Wrinkle in Time starts performances June 12th at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Lee Sunday Evans directs and Ani Taj choreographs the new musical adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery Medal-winning classic novel.
productions
Mickle Maher, Merel van Dijk and Anthony Barilla’s musical Small Ball runs June 6 - 29 at Philadelphia Theatre Company. Taibi Magar and Tyler Dobrowsky direct the offbeat musical “where a melancholy journeyman basketball player has recently started playing in the international league with the Lilliput Existers—as in Lilliput, from Gulliver’s Travels.”
The Comedy of Errors and Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker start performances on June 6 & 8 at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, NY. Shakespeare’s madcap comedy of human folly is directed by Ryan Quinn, while Wilder’s “comic masterpiece and delightful exploration of love, adventure, and the pursuit of happiness” is directed by Davis McCallum.
All’s Well That Ends Well runs June 8 - July 6 at The Old Globe in San Diego. Peter Francis James directs “one of Shakespeare’s wittiest comedies that winds into flights of hilarity and passion.”
Sarah Cameron Sunde’s translation of Jon Fosse’s A Summer Day runs June 10–29 at The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. The Norwegian playwright’s haunting drama “delving into the depths of human connection, memory, and existential longing” is directed by Yury Urnov.
Diana Son’s Stop Kiss starts performances June 12th at Theater Mu in Minneapolis. Katie Bradley directs the drama about “a kiss that changes two women's lives forever.”
festivals, workshops, readings
T4T FEST: BY trans artists, FOR trans audiences is now running through June 8th at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn, NY. The “powerhouse line-up of rollicking farce, romance, sci-fi, mystery, drag, and more (no trauma mining here)” is produced by Noah Pyzik and includes Dom Martello’s POWPOWPOWKABOOM, R. Jahan’s The Show Girl, Oscar K.’s Narcissus AS PLOT FORM: A TRANSSEXUAL RAGE(R), Nay Harris’ Dr. Glo-Werm, Roger Q. Mason’s The Pride of Lions, Carmi Burbridge’s Further South, Esmé Ng’s THE JADE RABBIT IS CRASHING OUT OVER EL*N M*SK, Aster Drewe’s chaos god of the orion sun, Saphire Oshun’s Club Chakra, Ema Zivkovic’s swearing in english., A.A. Brenner’s Good Girls Don’t Go to Hell, Alle Mims’ His Majesty, Her Self, Oliver Indictor’s The Archetypes, D.A. Mindell’s Somebody Told Me There’s a Monster in the Lake, Noma Mirny’s MIKEY & STEVE FACE THE MUNICIPAL COURT!, Sloth Levine’s Let Me Not Be Myself, and Kaila Tacazon’s The Ghost of Leslie-fucking-Feinberg.
Mat Smart’s A Black-Billed Cuckoo will have readings on June 9 & 10 at Shogun Players in Berkeley, CA. The comedy about “a close-knit group of Brooklyn birdwatchers turned upside down over a rare bird sighting” is directed by Mary Ann Rodgers.
En Garde Arts’ playdate Fest! runs June 13th from 6-8 PM at Downtown Brooklyn’s Abolitionist Place Park. Baba Israel hosts the “one night only free outdoor performance showcase” featuring Lola Mobéy Irizarry and her multi instrumentalist band Tó Ara, excerpts from Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s Mexodus, and punk folk musician Josh Fox.
audio, digital, streaming
The current Broadway production of George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Good Night, and Good Luck will stream live on CNN on June 7th at 7 PM ET. The special presentation of the David Cromer-directed, Tony-nominated drama is the first time a live Broadway play has ever been broadcast and televised.
Jeremy McCarter’s six-episode immersive audio adaptation of Hamlet will be released on all podcast streaming platforms on June 10th from Make-Believe Association. The “bold new take on Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy dropping the listener inside the fractured perspective of the grieving prince” features binaural sound design from Mikhail Fiksel and is executive produced by Emilia LaPenta and McCarter.
2025-26 season updates
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Dog Day Afternoon will premiere on Broadway in spring 2026. Rupert Goold will direct Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in the “true crime story, which previously inspired the 1975 film of the same name, centering on a bank robbery gone wrong that turns into a hostage situation.”
A.R.T. announced its 2025-26 season. The Cambridge, MA theatre will produce The 7 Fingers’ Passengers (directed, written, and choreographed by Shana Carroll), Sam Kissajukian’s solo performance 300 Paintings, Jen Silverman and Dave Malloy’s musical adaptation of the 2010 film Black Swan (directed and choreographed by Sonya Tayeh), and the world premiere of Sarah Ruhl and A Great Big World’s musical adaptation of the novel Wonder (directed by Taibi Magar).
Second Stage Theater announced its 2025-26 season. The line-up includes Broadway productions of Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime (directed by Anne Kauffman) and Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw (directed by Trip Cullman), as well as three Off-Broadway productions: Aya Ogawa's MEAT SUIT, or the shitshow of motherhood; Adam Bock’s The Receptionist; and the world premiere of Talene Monahon's Meet the Cartozians (directed by David Cromer).
Lincoln Center Theater announced its 2025-26 season. The company will produce the previously announced revival of Ragtime (directed by Lear deBessonet), Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s Kyoto (directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin), Amahl and the Night Visitors (directed by Kenny Leon), Whoopi Goldberg’s The Whoopi Monologues (directed by Whitney White; starring Kerry Washington and Kara Young), The Lazours’ Night Side Songs (directed by Taibi Magar), Julia May Jonas’ A Woman Among Women (directed by Sarah Cameron Hughes), a reading series curated by six “distinguished LCT playwrights”, a silent disco listening party of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis’ concept album Warriors, a collaboration with Chef Kwame Onwuachi of Tatiana, public community choir events in collaboration with Jeanine Tesori, and a stand-up series co-produced with Seaview featuring Jenny Slate.
(A true honor that LCT dramaturg Jenna Clark Embrey continues to curate Bills, Bills, Bills and enthusiastically respond to all of my “can I be a huge bitch for a second” texts when she’s simultaneously managing all of this.)
award season
The Drama Desk Awards were announced on Monday. Maybe Happy Ending won six awards, including Outstanding Musical; in the play categories, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose received Outstanding Play and Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day won Outstanding Revival.
John Proctor is the Villain received two Drama Desks: Amalia Yoo for featured performance and Danya Taymor for direction. The show also announced an extension to August 31st and we were a clue on Jeopardy this week, which, to quote my dad: “You know you’ve made the big time when that happens”:
the regional theatre game of thrones
Fran de Leon is the next artistic director of Theater Mu. The director/actor/producer succeeds Lily Tung Crystal, who departed the Minneapolis company to lead East West Players in Los Angeles.