the week of september 27 - october 3, 2024
the week of september 27 - october 3, 2024
red hook bars, country music icons, cheerful desecrations
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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Morton | Editorial Support: Ryan Adelsheim
world premieres
Erika Sheffer’s Vladimir is now playing at Manhattan Theatre Club. Daniel Sullivan directs the haunting new work about a Moscow journalist “struggling to maintain sanity and hope in increasingly hostile circumstances” during Putin’s first term.
Sarah Gancher’s The Wind and the Rain: A Story About Sunny's Bar runs September 28 - October 27 in a site-specific production at the Waterfront Museum barge and the titular establishment in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The Vineyard Theatre/En Garde Arts commission immersing audiences in the history of the century-old, family-run bar is directed by Jared Mezzocchi.
John Lavelle’s The Very Best People runs September 29 - October 27 at IAMA Theatre in Los Angeles. Melissa Coleman-Reed directs the dark comedy about a recently deceased, disgraced cop’s two childhood friends seeking redemption “armed only with brotherhood, alternative truths, and ranch dressing, plotting to take down the deep state, one snowflake at a time, from Angelina's Irish pub on the south shore of Staten Island.”
productions
Antigone in the Amazon runs September 27 & 28 at NYU Skirball. Milo Rau directs the “re-examination of the Greek classic as an allegory for political struggle and fierce resistance against the implacable greed of a modern, devastating world.”
Grier Mathiot and Billy McEntee’s The Voices In Your Head is now playing through October 6th from NYC’s Egg and Spoon Collective. Staged for an audience of 20 each night in a storefront church, Ryan Dobrin directs the “intimate, singular experience and haven for weird joy about support group members gathering to share a bizarre bond.”
Romeo + Juliet is now in previews on Broadway. Sam Gold directs the “timeless tragedy about an impulsive pair of star-crossed lovers, left to their own devices in their parents’ world of violent ends, hurtling towards their inescapable fate.”
Romeo and Juliet runs October 1 - November 10 at The Folger Theatre in DC. The “timeless story of star-crossed lovers and the politics of warring families and the violence that consumes them” is directed by Raymond O. Caldwell.
Joe DiPietro’s adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt runs October 1 - November 3 at DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. Christopher Ashley directs the political satire about “a middle-class American everyman plunging headlong into the most spectacular rebellion of his life (using the guest towel) and unwittingly turning the world around him upside down.”
Tony Meneses’ twenty50 starts performances October 2nd at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, AR. Rebecca Rivas directs the near-future drama about “a prosperous rancher locked in a brutally challenging race for Congress in the year 2050.”
Kate Hamill’s Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy runs October 2-20 at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The “reimagining of Bram Stoker’s vampire classic as a full-throated battle cry against toxic masculinity” is directed by Jennifer Pennington.
Green Day and Michael Mayer’s American Idiot starts performances October 2nd at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, produced in collaboration with Deaf West Theatre. Snehal Desai directs the rock opera featuring an ensemble of both Deaf and hearing actors and performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and spoken English.
Jeffrey Lieber’s FEVER DREAMS (of Animals on the Verge of Extinction) runs October 3 - November 3 at TheaterWorks Hartford. The twisty mystery involving “a steamy decades-long affair, a remote cabin, and an unexpected visitor” is directed by Rob Ruggiero.
Miet Warlop’s One Song runs October 3-5 at NYU Skirball. The Belgian multi-disciplinary artist’s newest creation is an “exhilarating and joyful fusion of a live competition and a concert exploring hope, life, death, and resurrection, where throughout the performance an audience votes after each act, a cheerleader offers unwavering support, and a sportscaster provides live commentary.”
Gracie Gardner’s Banya runs October 3-6 at NYC’s Theaterlab from Bad Mother. Claire Pruett directs the two-hander set in a “revealing sauna session as two strangers confront their darkest secrets.”
Kate Hamill’s Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B starts performances October 3rd at Trinity Rep in Providence, RI. The “cheerful desecration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic mystery novels” is directed by Laura Kepley.
Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold On To Me Darling is now playing at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in NYC. Neil Pepe directs the tragicomedy about “a country music icon in an existential tailspin who abandons superstardom to move back to his Tennessee hometown.”
workshops & readings
Julián Mesri’s The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics will have free readings on September 30 & October 1 at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. The “wildly theatrical send up of magical realism is at once a farcical romp through Latin American history and literature and a critical exploration of capitalism, colonialism and US-led economic imperialism.” (The reading will be available to stream online October 21-27.)
Antonia Cruz-Kent’s Ivera will have a reading on September 30th at A.R.T./NY from Latinx Playwrights Circle. Danilo Gambini directs the “love letter to Puerto Rican womanhood and a condemnation of medical racism.”
Jake Brasch’s Salutations, I’m Creative Dave (By Creative Dave) will have free readings on October 3 & 4 at The Flea as part of Page 73’s workshop series. Jess McLeod directs the “queering of the American Family Drama into a batshit comedy about a robot who hates his family.”
award season
Dave Harris’ MANAKIN is the winner of the 2024 Relentless Award. Harris will receive a $50,000 prize as well as developmental opportunities to be announced. Three finalists will be awarded $2,000 prizes: Gloria Majule’s My Father Was Shot in the Back of the Head, Patrick Vermillion’s The Good Boy Game, and Donja R. Love’s The TeeTee & Lala Show.
2024-25 season updates
The Public Theater added two musicals to its 2025 programming. The Off Broadway company will produce Jocelyn Bioh, Michael Thurber, and Saheem Ali’s Goddess (directed by Ali and choregraphed by Darrell Grand Moultrie) and the world premiere of Ethan Lipton’s The Seat of Our Pants (directed by Leigh Silverman).
Primary Stages announced its 2024-25 season. The Off Broadway theatre’s line-up includes Kate Hamill’s The Light and The Dark (the life and times of Artemisia Gentileschi) (directed by Jade King Carroll) and Chisa Hutchinson’s Amerikin (directed by Jade King Carroll).
the regional theatre game of thrones
Christopher Ashley is the next artistic director of Roundabout Theatre Company. He succeeds interim AD Scott Ellis, who stepped into the role after the death of Todd Haimes last year. Ashley will start full-time in July 2026 after he completes his tenure at La Jolla Playhouse, where he has been the artistic director for seventeen years.
dc theatre week(s)
I’ll be moderating a conversation with Naveen Kumar, the new theater critic at The Washington Post, at 4 PM tomorrow at the DC Theatre Week Kick-Off at Arena Stage. (A full rundown of the afternoon is here!)
Earlier this week, I moderated a Smithsonian Associates panel with three of my fave local critics — Chris Klimek, Sarah Marloff, and André Hereford — about the upcoming DC theatre season. (Last year, I wrote a recap of my recommendations and I’m hoping I’ll have the bandwidth to do so again in mid-October once some other projects wrap up.)