Daniel Aukin News

The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will honor Howard and Elyse Butnick and their family at the annual Generation to Generation event on Wednesday, December 2, 2020. The virtual event also will include an interview The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's Michael Zegen, the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor.

Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director and Barry Grove, Executive Producer) has announced casting for the upcoming world premiere of The Best We Could (A Family Tragedy), written by the company's 2019-20 Tow Playwright-in-Residence, Emily Feldman (Three Women in Four Chairs, My Lover Joan), and directed by Daniel Aukin (Fool For Love, Fulfillment Center).

Today's guest, Michael Zegen, can currently be seen starring on the critically acclaimed Amazon series 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' created by Amy Sherman-Palladino. The series is recently won the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, a 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Television Series, Musical or Comedy and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Comedy Series. 

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) are pleased to announce the full company for the world premiere of The Perplexed, written by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, The Assembled Parties) and directed by MTC's award-winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadow (The Cake, The Assembled Parties, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife).

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Bella Bella, written and performed by Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein (Casa Valentina, Torch Song, Hairspray) and directed by Kimberly Senior (Disgraced, The Niceties), is beginning its final two weeks of performances. The play must close on Sunday, December 1 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).

Manhattan Theatre Club's American premiere of The Height of the Storm, written by Tony Award® nominee Florian Zeller (The Father), translated by two-time Tony Award Winner Christopher Hampton (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) and directed by Tony and Drama Desk Award nominee Jonathan Kent (Long Day's Journey into Night) is beginning its final two weeks of performances. After being extended, the play must close on Sunday, November 24 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street).

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have announced casting for the world premiere of The Perplexed, written by Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, The Assembled Parties) and directed by MTC's award-winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadow (The Cake, The Assembled Parties, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife).

Skintight recently opened at Geffen Playhouse starring Idina Menzel, who returns to the show after starring in the original production Off-Broadway. Critics were in attendance opening night, find out what they had to say!

I had the following to say about playwright Joshua Harmon' s play Bad Jews: 'Excessively harsh reality is at the core of most contemporary dramedies. A character cannot be rude or abrasive enough to arouse a viewer's attention or glean laughs. It's particularly characteristic of the irritating females who talk too fast, too loud and scream their shrewish lungs out. It makes me happy that I live alone; and yes, I do care and respect others and their feelings; but, being pleasant nowadays is considered boring and in drama, it will never win awards, so on with the show. ' Harmon's current play Skintight is receiving its West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse and star Idina Menzel's character Jodi is another shrewish female, selfish and most definitely in need of a lesson or two about how to treat others. The play has already been extended through October 12. It boasts a dynamic six person cast and is worth your time.

Playwright Josh Harmon's SKINTIGHT receives its west coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse, already in previews. Daniel Aukin directs this neurotic family drama featuring the original stars of the Broadway production (Idina Menzel, Will Brittain and Eli Gelb), with Harry Groener, Kimberly Jürgen and Jeff Skowron rounding out the cast. I was lucky enough that Will Brittain (who plays Trey, the young, hunky boyfriend of patriarch Elliott) was able to squeeze in some time for me in his busy rehearsal schedule to answer just a few of my long list of questions.

Get a first look at Idina Menzel in Skintight at the Geffen Playhouse!

Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) and Daryl Roth, Cody Lassen, The Dodgers in association with the Vineyard Theatre have just announced the Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize winning How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel, with original stars Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse, directed by Mark Brokaw.

Geffen Playhouse today announced the full cast for its West Coast premiere of Skintight, written by Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews, Significant Other) and directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin (Fool for Love, Bad Jews). The production features Tony Award winner Idina Menzel (Rent, Wicked) as Jodi Isaac. 

Vassar & New York Stage and Film have announced additional casting for the highly anticipated 35th Powerhouse Season in Poughkeepsie, NY, which continues through Sunday, July 28.

Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have just announced the American premiere of the London Theatre Company (Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr) production of My Name is Lucy Barton starring Laura Linney (Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, 'Ozark'), by Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge), adapted by Rona Munro (The James Trilogy), and directed by Richard Eyre (The Crucible, Notes on a Scandal) as part of Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming 2019-2020 season. The New York production will be produced in association with Penguin Random House Audio.

Vassar & New York Stage and Film announce the programming lineup for their upcoming 35th Powerhouse Season, the annual summer season that brings together some of today's most influential theatrical voices for fully-staged productions, workshop presentations, readings, and other works in progress for theater, film and television.

La Jolla Playhouse is pleased to bring back for a seventh year its acclaimed play development initiative, the DNA New Work Series, a weekend of readings of new works, taking place May 2 - 5, 2019 in the Playhouse's Rao and Padma Makeneni Play Development Center (PDC) and Seuss 1 rehearsal spaces.

be mean to me, a new play by Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, will make it's premiere at the IATI Theatre and run April 18th-April 27th. This production is directed by Sarah Blush.

Three more productions have been announced for Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming 2019-2020 season.

The Tank will present the World Premiere of I thought I would die but I didn't by Bailey Williams (Buffalo Bailey's Ranch for Gay Horses, Troubled Teen Girls and Other: a 90 Minute Timeshare Presentation at the 2018 Exponential Festival), directed by Sarah Blush (Sehnsucht at JACK), at The Tank (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues), May 9-23.