Dead Outlaw and Outsiders Are Insiders in DD Noms

Dead Outlaw received the most
Drama Desk noms with 11.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Dead Outlaw, the Off-Broadway musical about a the mummified corpse of a small-time crook, continues to dominate theater award season, racking up 11 Drama Desk Award nominations which were announced on Mon. April 29 by Kathleen Turner on WNBC's New York Live hosted by Sara Gore. Among Broadway shows, The Outsiders, the mew musical based on SE Hinton's classic YA novel about restless youths in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma received the most nominations with 9. Unlike the Broadway-only Tony Awards, the DDs consider Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions equally in multiple categories. The awards will be voted on by the Drama Desk membership composed of about 100 theater critics, journalists, editors and published, and will presented on June 10 in a ceremony at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. (On the same day, Bebe Neuwirth read the nominees for the Chita Rivera Awards for dance in theater and film. That will be covered in a separate blog post.)

Last year the Drama Desk, as well as the Outer Critics and the Lortels, eliminated gender-specific categories for performers because of the increasing number of openly non-binary actors. There are double the number of nominees in each of the acting categories with two winners in each. If there is a tie, there may be additional winners. 

In determining the eligibility of productions with runs in prior seasons, the nominating committee considered only those elements that constituted new work. These productions included Appropriate, Cross That River, Gutenberg! The Musical!, Harmony, Here Lies Love, Just For Us, Mary Jane, Prayer for the French Republic, Public Obscenities, Suffs, and Sunset Baby.

Productions deemed not eligible, either because they were considered in their entirety in prior seasons or because they did not invite awards consideration in the current season, included Danny and the Deep Blue Sea , Here We Are, Merrily We Roll Along , The Animal Kingdom , The White Chip , and Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice.

Lizard Boy is nominated for
Outstanding Musical.
Credit: Billy Bustamante

There were a few unusual choices, which is not unusual for the Drama Desks. The all-star Lincoln Center revival of Uncle Vanya was ignored, but the Off-Broadway production of Vanya was nominated for three awards. Lizard Boy, a musical from 2015 which made its Off-Broadway debut last summer in a brief run on Theater Row, was nominated for 3 awards including Outstanding Musical all with Broadway shows Illinoise and The Outsiders and Off-Broadway's Teeth and The Connector.

The Drama Desk Nominating Committee consists of Martha Wade Steketee (Chair; freelance: UrbanExcavations.com); Linda Armstrong (New York Amsterdam News); Daniel Dinero (Theatre is Easy); Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio); Kenji Fujishima (freelance: Theatermania); Margaret Hall (Playbill); and Charles Wright (ex officio)

A complete list of Drama Desk nominations and Special awards follows:

B'way Update: Forbidden B'way Postponed; Theater Award News

The first Broadway production of Forbidden Broadway has been postponed indefinitely. The latest edition of the long-running satirical revue was to have played the Hayes Theater beginning on July 29 with an opening set for Aug. 15. The limited engagement was to have played through Nov. 1. The producers cited the high volume of shows competing for theatergoers' attention and dollars.

“We made the difficult decision today to postpone the upcoming Broadway production of Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole A Song,” said producers Ryan Bogner, Victoria Lang and Tracey McFarland in a statement. “The Broadway landscape is enormously crowded at this moment, and while we adore Forbidden Broadway, we are disappointed that the show will not open at the Hayes on Broadway this summer. New programming for the Hayes Theater this summer will be announced soon.”

The Hayes is currently housing Paula Vogel's Mother Play which is scheduled to run until mid-June. The memory play has received excellent notices and might extend its run depending on cast schedules and if it reaps any Tony Award gold. 

This is the second recent Broadway production to announce a postponement. Rod Madge's solo My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?) was to have played the Lyceum but plans were scuttled in February.

Bebe Neuwirth and Chita Rivera
Credit: Emilio Madrid-Kuser

Theater Award News: Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth, currently starring in the revival of Cabaret, will announce the nominees for the Chita Rivera Awards on Mon. April 29 on ABC's GMA3 during the 1pm block. This means we will have a double dose of theater award nominations. Earlier the same day, Kathleen Turner will give out the Drama Desk nominations on WNBC's New York Live at 11:30 am.

Then, the next day, April 30, the Tony Award nominations will be read by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Renee Elise Goldsberry. A portion of the press conference will be broadcast on CBS Mornings at 8:30am. The full announcement will drop on the Tony Awards' YouTube Channel beginning at 9am.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson and
Renee Elise Goldsberry will
announced the 2023-24 Tony nominees.

B'way Update: Oh, Mary!, Crazy Rich Asians, etc.

Cole Escola in Oh, Mary!
will transfer to Broadway this summer.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Mary Todd Lincoln is coming to Broadway. After a sold-out, twice extended run at the Lortel Theater Off-Broadway, Cole Escola's riotous comedy Oh, Mary! starring Escola in the title role, will transfer to the Lyceum Theater this summer. Performances begin June 26 in advance of a July 11 opening for a limited run through Sept. 15. 

Oh, Mary! stars Escola as a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism and suppressed desires abound in this one act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot (Cole Escola). The show also stars Conrad Ricamora as Mary’s Husband, James Scully as Mary’s Teacher, Bianca Leigh as Mary’s Chaperone, and Tony Macht as Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, with Hannah Solow and Peter Smith completing the cast. 

Mrs. Lincoln has been portrayed on Broadway before in a more serious vein. In the Broadway season of 1972-73, she was portrayed in three productions by Julie Harris in The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play), Eva Marie Saint in The Lincoln Mask and Geraldine Page in Look Away.

Dead Outlaw Lives with 9 OCC Noms

Andrew Durand and Jeb Brown
are both nominated for OCC Awards
for Dead Outlaw.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Dead Outlaw, the Off-Broadway musical tracing the true history of a mummified corpse found in an amusement ride, received the most Outer Critics Circle Award nominations with 9. Stereophonic got the most for Broadway productions with 7. The nominations were announced on April 23 by Merrily We Roll Along stars Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez at the Museum of Broadway. Groff and Mendez won OCC awards last year for the show's Off-Broadway run. 

Founded during the 1949-50 Broadway season by respected theater journalist John Gassner, the Outer Critics Circle's membership includes writers working for more than 90 newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, and online news organizations worldwide. David Gordon leads the group as president, with a board of directors that also includes Richard Ridge, Joseph Cervelli, Patrick Hoffman, David Roberts, Cynthia Allen, Harry Haun, Dan Rubins, Janice Simpson, and Doug Strassler. The board also serves as the nominating committee.

The OCC considers both Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, in some categories together and in others separately. Beginning last year, the organization eliminated gender-specific acting categories.

The winners will be announced on May 13 with a ceremony to follow on May 23 at the Bruno Walter Auditiorium of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts.

Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and
Daniel Radcliffe announced the OCC noms
at the Museum of Broadway.
Credit: Matthew Cubillos / The Museum of Broadway

A complete list of the nominees follows:

2024 OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD NOMINATIONS

 
Outstanding New Broadway Play
Jaja's African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh
Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions by Paula Vogel
Patriots by Peter Morgan
Stereophonic by David Adjmi
The Shark Is Broken by Joseph Nixon and Ian Shaw
 

Drama League Nominations

Lindsay Mendez, Jonathan Groff, and
Daniel Radcliffe of Merrily We Roll Along
are all nominated for the Distinguished Performance
Drama League Award.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Theater award season is now in full throttle. The nominees for the 90th annual Drama League Awards were announced  by Vanessa Williams and Bebe Neuwirth on Mon. April 22 at the Lincoln Center's NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. The awards for outstanding work on and Off-Broadway, will be presented on May 17 at 12 noon at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. First awarded in 1922 and formalized in 1935, The Drama League Awards are the oldest theatrical honors in America. They are the only major theater awards chosen by a cross-section of the theater community — the industry professionals, producers, artists, audiences, and critics who are Drama League members nationwide. The Outer Critics Circle Award noms will be announced tomorrow and the Drama Desk and Tony noms will be next week.

2024 DRAMA LEAGUE AWARDS NOMINATIONS

 
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY
 
THE COMEUPPANCE 
 
FLEX
 
GRIEF HOTEL
 
THE HUNT
 
JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING 
 
MOTHER PLAY
 
OH, MARY!
 
PATRIOTS
 
PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
 
STEREOPHONIC
 
WET BRAIN

Dudley Malone: Supporting Character in Two Musicals

Dudley Field Malone who appears
in Suffs and whom I played
in an Off-Off-Bway musical

In April of 2022, at the end of a marathon of theatergoing to catch up with all the shows opening before the cut-off before Tony and Drama Desk eligibility, I was watching Shaina Taub's musical Suffs at the Public Theater. This inventive historical pageant follows the sweeping story of the Women's Suffrage Movement of the early 20th century. All of the many roles, both male and female, are played an all-woman cast. One of the male roles was that of Dudley Malone, President Woodrow Wilson's Chief of Staff, who resigns in protest over Wilson's opposition to the women's cause and eventually marries Doris Stevens, one of the leaders of the movement. Taub has rewritten and revised the show and now it has just opened on Broadway in another crowded season. I loved it even more this time and hope it survives the Tony nominations.

As I watching this supporting character,  I remembered where I had heard the name before. Malone was later served as co-counsel to Clarence Darrow in the Scopes Monkey trial, defending Tennessee school teacher John T. Scopes for daring to teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in the Bible Belt state. Ironically, Malone was also a character in an obscure musical based on that trial, called--wait for it--Sodom and Gorilla (get it?) And I played that role in an Off-Off-Broadway production.

Tsilala Brock as Dudley Malone and 
Grace McLean as President Woodrow Wilson
in Suffs.
Credit: Joan Marcus

He later specialized in international divorce cases and established an office in Paris. After declaring bankruptcy in 1935, he moved to Hollywood, serving as legal consultant to 20th Century Fox and even appearing in a few films. His resemblance to Winston Churchill got his cast as the British Prime Minister in Mission to Moscow (1943). He is listed on imdb.com as making an unbilled appearance as Churchill in An American in Paris, but I don't remember it. I have to look at the film again. After divorcing Stevens in 1929 in Paris, he married actress Edna Louise Johnson in London in 1930. He died in 1950 in Los Angeles.

Dudley Malone as Winston
Churchill with unbilled
actor as Stalin in
Mission to Moscow

Book Review: Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

(Bought with the remainder of a Barnes and Noble Christmas gift card): I saw this on the counter at Barnes and Noble and the subject matter grabbed me. This actually happened: Ellen and William Craft escaped from slavery in 1848 Macon, Georgia by disguising themselves a young white man and his slave. Ellen was light enough to pass as white and was a clever seamstress. She made herself a suit of clothes and wearing scarves and bandages was able to impersonate a young, white man in ill-health. This was the only disguise that would work. A black man traveling with what appeared to be a white woman would have gotten them both killed. They got on board a series of trains to Philadelphia, then settled in Boston, supposedly beyond the reach of slave catchers. But the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 forced them to move again, all the way up to Canada and then to England. 

Ilyon Woo's narrative reads like a Netflix mini-series with Ellen and William on the verge of being discovered at every moment. Woo details what their trip would have been like with research on what trains, ships, and stagecoaches were like at the time. She also provides context and background with histories of the Crafts' families and their enslavers. Gender issues are also explored. Ellen defied so many rules of the day, but when the couple escaped the Great Britain and went on the lecture circuit, she did not speak. William did the talking because it was considered unseemly for a lady to appear to show agency and speak about it in public. A fascinating read and deep dive into the history of slavery and those who escaped from it.

Woody Allen's Coup de Chance

Niels Schneider and Lou de Laage
in Woody Allen's
Coup de Chance

The main reasons to see Woody Allen's Coup de Chance are the gorgeous shots of Paris and the French countryside in autumn, and, if you are completist like me, to be able to say you've seen all 50 of his films. Otherwise, this latest and perhaps final effort from Allen is another retread of his suspense, trick-ending efforts such as Crimes and Misdemeanors, Scoop, Match Point, You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger, Irrational Man, and Cassandra's Dream, except it lacks the humor of the first two. A woman embarks on an affair with her high school classmate she happens to bump into on the street. Her husband discovers her infidelity and hires underworld goons to "eliminate the problem." Sound familiar? So many of Allen's "suspense" films seem to be about creating plot twists and story problems to solve rather than examining human beings and their foibles. Coup de Chance most closely resembles the Martin Landau plot arc of Crimes and Misdemeanors, which I felt was the weakest part of that film. Allen is fascinated with guilty people operating outside the law and sometimes getting away with it. Perhaps this parallels his subconscious feelings of guilt over the Soon-Yi affair/marriage and his daughter Dylan's accusations of child abuse. Although I don't see the comparisons clearly. Maybe he wants to exact his own form of justice? I saw this at the Quad at 11:30 am on the Monday of the solar eclipse. The film was gorgeous to look at (I didn't look at the eclipse because I had no special glasses), but it felt as empty as Rifkin's Festival, Allen's last film. I didn't care what happened to any of the characters as I did in Radio Days, recently viewed on TCM. There are reports Allen will be filming another movie in Italy this fall. I will probably see it, but not expect anything great.

B'way Update: Duelling Romeo and Juliets????

Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler 
will star in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway
this fall. 

A new production of Romeo and Juliet is coming to Broadway this fall, but not the one with Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers that is opening in London this May. A totally different Romeo and Juliet, starring Kit Connor (Heartstopper) and Rachel Zegler (Steven Speilberg's West Side Story) featuring music by Grammy winner Jack Antonoff and direction by Tony winner Sam Gold (Fun Home) has been announced to open this fall 2024. The UK Mail had reported the London R&J, directed by Jamie Lloyd, was planning to transfer to Broadway after its sold-out West End, but this has not been confirmed. 

So we might have two Romeo and Juliets on Broadway in 2024-25. It's not unprecedented. There were two major simultaneous productions of R&J in NYC in 2013: one on Broadway with Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad, and one Off-Broadway at CSC with Elizabeth Olsen and Julian Cihi.

Director Sam Gold said, “With the presidential election coming up in November, I felt like making a show this fall that celebrates youth and hope, and unleashes the anger young people feel about the world they are inheriting."

The press release explains the story thusly: "The youth are fucked. Left to their own devices in their parents’ world of violent ends, an impulsive pair of star-crossed lovers hurtle towards their inescapable fate. The intoxicating high of passion quickly descends into a brutal chaos that can only end one way."

I Wake Up Streaming, Part 1: Manhunt, Ripley, Gentleman, Franklin

A few weeks ago, I thought this title would be great for a podcast to review everything that's streaming now (A parody of the film I Wake Up Screaming). But I'm too lazy to set up a podcast, so I just jotted down my thoughts on what shows I'm viewing via the various platforms which have replaced cable.

Brandon Flynn and Tobias Menzies in
Manhunt. 

Manhunt (Apple TV): Tobias Menzies stars as Action Cabinet Secretary Edward Stanton persuing Abe Lincoln's killer John Wilkes Booth in this adaptation of a non-fiction book. I love historical series, but this one tries to cram too much into too short a space. The actual hunt for Booth and his accomplice David Herrold took place over 12 days, but so much happens in each day in this series it's ridiculous. For example, Dr. Mudd's slave Mary, gets a land grant, sets up a school, starts teaching and loses her land thanks to mean old President Andrew Johnson all in two days. It's still a fascinating look at a volatile time in our history.

Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn and Andrew Scott
in Ripley.
Credit: Netflix.

Ripley (Netflix): Andrew Scott, now plays the polar opposite of the sensitive screenwriter in All of Us Strangers. He is the sociopathic Tom Ripley in an elegant adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, the first of her five novels about killer-grifter with no scruples about murdering anyone who interferes with his pursuit of wealth and luxury. Previously filmed with Matt Damon and Jude Law, this series is filmed in black and white, much to the annoyance of certain young viewers. Not used to the subtlety of grey, they complained about the lack of color and dropped off after one or two episodes. Scott is perfect as the deadly Ripley. Steve Zaillian wrote and directed the entire series brilliantly, creating taut suspense worthy of Hitchcock. Gen-Zers and millennials don't know what they're missing. There are rumors Zaillian plans to adapt the remaining Ripley novels but Scott wants a break first. This will give me a chance to read the books first.

Book Review: The Outsiders

(Downloaded on my Kindle for $7): SE Hinton's best-selling novel of Oklahoma JDs gets under your skin. I decided to read it after seeing the musical version now on Broadway, plus it's on PBS's list of 100 favorite books. At less than 200 pages, I figured it would be a quick, easy read. It was and very deep. The narrator Ponyboy Curtis hangs out with a makeshift family/gang known as Greasers in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma. They are preyed upon by the upper-middle-class Socs (for Socials). Ponyboy likes to read and draw and gets good grades in school, but his world is beset by senseless violence. A lot of bad stuff goes down, but the plot is not as important as Ponyboy's reflections on his dead-end life. Hinton gets inside the characters. You feel know you them by the end of the book.

B'way Update: Patti LuPone, Mia Farrow, Tom Holland

Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow will return to
Broadway in The Roommate.

According to the New York Post, three-time Tony winner Patti PuPone and Mia Farrow will return to Broadway in a two-person play called The Roommate by Jen Silverman. Directed by Tony winner Jack O’Brien (Hairspray), the play will begin preview performances at the Booth Theater in late August and open in September. After her last Broadway appearance in the revival of Company, LuPone announced she was turning in her Equity card. Guess she will be renewing it now. Farrow last appeared on Broadway for a week of performances in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters. 

The Roommate which premiered in 2015 at the Humana Festival of New Plays at the Actors Theater of Louisville, Kentucky, deals with two Iowa women in their mid-50s sharing a house and discovering each other’s secrets as they start their lives over.

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers and Tom Holland
will star in Romeo and Juliet in London
and possibly Broadway afterwards.
Credit: Jamie Lloyd Company

In other unconfirmed news, the UK Mirror reports that the West End production of Romeo and Juliet starring the latest screen Spider-Man Tom Holland will transfer to Broadway when it completes its London run. The show sold out its entire limited run which begins at the Duke of York Theater in May in two hours. The production directed by Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Boulevard) has been embroiled in a controversy ever since it was announced that Juliet would be played by black actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. Racist comments have flooded the actress's social media, forcing her to shut down the comments section.

The Jamie Lloyd company has issued this statement: "Following the announcement of our Romeo & Juliet cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop. We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment. We will continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs. Any abuse will not be tolerated and will be reported."

A 2013 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet starred actors of different races--Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad and there was no racist outcry. What could explain this disgusting change? I could speculate about the proliferation of hate speech and social media, the election of certain figures who tolerate such vile speech, but this development is a certainly an ugly one.

B'way Update: MTC Season Includes Sondheim, Vladimir, Eureka

Lea Salonga and Bernadette Peters
in Old Friends, transferring to
Broadway in 2025.
Credit: Danny Kaan

Manhattan Theater Club has announced plans for its 2024-25 season on and Off-Broadway, which will include the Broadway premieres of Eureka Day and the London Sondheim revue, Old Friends starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga who will repeat their London performances. The Stephen Sondheim tribute ran in London's West End in 2023 and will begin previews at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theater on March 25, 2025 with an opening date TBA. The show will have a pre-Broadway run at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theater from Feb. 8--March 9. The production was devised by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie. Additional cast members will be announced. 

Book Review: Letter to My Daughter

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights Library): Another essay collection from Maya Angelou. A quick read with lasting, valuable wisdom. These brief pieces focus on life lessons written to the daughter Angelou never had and to the women she had treated like daughters throughout her eventful life. We get advice on cultural sensitivity, never giving up, and social etiquette. There are also reflections on Celia Cruz, activist Fannie Lou Hamer, and Coretta Scott King. The most striking piece details a gruesome encounter with with an abusive, jealous boyfriend--it's harrowing and brutal--and fills in some gaps in her six autobiographical books. I'd like to read a bio that takes up where her memoirs leave off.

Wet Brain Dominates 39th Lortel Award Noms

Wet Brain from Playwrights Horizons
and MCC Theater, received the most
Lortel nominations.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Wet Brain, John J. Caswell's Jr.'s play about a Hispanic family dealing with the father's alcoholism and delusions of being kidnapped by aliens, co-produced by Playwrights Horizons and MCC Theater, received the most nominations for the 39th annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Off-Broadway excellence, with 8. The nominations were announced April 4 by Amber Iman and George Abud, stars of the Broadway musical Lempicka. The Lortels, named for the legendary Off-Broadway producer, will be presented on May 5 at the NYU Skirball Hall. The event is open to the public and tickets are available starting April 11 at tickets.edu.nyu or at the NYU box office, Tues.-Sat., 12-6PM. 

Other productions with strong showings include Stereophonic with 7 and (pray) and Dead Outlaw with 6 each.

Book Review: Even the Stars Look Lonesome

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights Library) In between longer books, I took out three short volumes by two favorite authors: Joan Didion and Maya Angelou. I have read all of Angelou's autobiographies and most of her poetry, but not her essays. (I met her once when I was in high school. She was promoting one of her books at a Philadelphia bookstore. I had written her a letter and enclosed a copy of an essay I had written about her which won a prize. She sent me back an autographed copy of a book of her poetry. She was delightful to me at the bookstore.) At less than 150 pages, this is an easy but powerful read, full of Angelou's personal experiences and observations derived from a rich and varied life. Her relationship to the South is particularly fascinating and the piece on a slavery folk museum in Baton Rogue, LA is poignant. I disagreed with her views on supporting the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. She felt that having an African-American voice on the court outweighted his deplorable record on Civil Rights, that he could be persuaded to see the light. (She doesn't even mention the Anita Hill controversy.) Now decades later, we see the damage Thomas and his wife have done to the country. But her eloquent writing defending her position is wroth reading.

B'way Update: Our Town Cast, Dates and Theater; OCC Noms

Cast members, dates and a theater have been announced for the upcoming Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder's beloved Our Town, to be directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (Purlie Victorious, A Raisin in the Sun). Previews will begin Sept. 14 at the Barrymore Theater prior to an Oct. 10 opening. 

Jim Parsons, Zoey Deutch, Ephriam Sykes, 
Billy Eugene Jones, Katie Holmes and Julie Halston
will star in Our Town.

The 28-member cast will be led by Emmy, Golden Globe & Screen Actors Guild Award-winner Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) as “Stage Manager”, Zoey Deutch as “Emily Webb”, Katie Holmes (All My Sons) as “Mrs. Webb”, Obie & Audelco Award-winner and Drama Desk-nominee Billy Eugene Jones (Purlie Victorious, Fat Ham) as “Dr. Gibbs”, Tony & Grammy Award-nominee Ephraim Sykes (Ain't Too Proud) as “George Gibbs”, Tony & Drama Desk Award-nominee and Emmy-Award-winner Richard Thomas (The Waltons, Race) as “Mr. Webb”, Tony & Drama Desk-nominee Michelle Wilson (Sweat, Confederates) as “Mrs. Gibbs”, 2021 Special Tony Award-winner and Drama Desk-nominee Julie Halston (Tootsie, You Can't Take It With You) as “Mrs. Soames”, Donald Webber Jr. as “Simon Stimpson”, as well as Ephie Aardema, Heather Ayers, Willa Bost, Bobby Daye, Safiya Kaijya Harris, Doron JéPaul, Shyla Lefner, Anthony Michael Lopez, John McGinty, Bryonha Marie, Kevyn Morrow, Hagan Oliveras, Noah Pyzik, Sky Smith, Bill Timoney, Matthew Elijah Webb and Nimene Sierra Wureh.  The final two cast members will be announced at a later date.

Book Review: South and West: From a Notebook

(Taken out of Jackson Heights Library) "In New Orleans in June the air is heavy with sex and death, not violent death  but death by decay, overripeness, rotting, death by drowning, suffocation, fever of unknown etiology." What an opening sentence. Joan Didion's rough drafts are more intoxicating than the finished versions of most writers. This brief treat is taken from Didion's notes for two articles never finished. In the first longer segment, she and her husband travel from New Orleans and head into the South with no particular agenda. In the second, much shorter vignette, she has gone to San Francisco to cover the Patty Hearst trial for Rolling Stone, but winds up writing about herself and her relationship to California the state where she grew up. What emerges is a sharp portrait of a particular place and time. The South cannot forget the past and is trapped by it--to a certain extent, they still are 50 years later. The West has no past and only looks forward. It's very short, you can read it in less than two hours, but Didion will haunt you with her indelible images.