Jonathan Mastro News

Listen to RADIO PLAY REVIVAL podcast Season 2, which launched on December 25th, 2022.

PlayMakers Laboratory will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its popular sketch comedy revue That's Weird, Grandma with a free digital special on Thursday, August 5 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. PML will host an in-person viewing party at The Annoyance Theater, 851 W. Belmont Ave. (proof of vaccine required) in Chicago or guests may stream the show on Facebook Live.

Producers Elizabeth Williams and Diane Alexander with Remmel Dickinson, Jonathan Murray & Harvey Reese, John Frost/Suzanne Jones, Julia Peck Mobley, Benjamin Lowy/Adrian Salpeter, Robert Dragotta announced today that #DateMe: An OKCupid Experiment will play its final performance on Sunday, September 15th at the Westside Theatre (407 West 43rd Street). At the time of its closing, it will have played 65 performances.

Tickets for #DateMe: An OKCupid Experiment are now on sale through October 13, 2019, at the Westside Theatre (407 West 43rd Street).

#DateMe: An OKCupid Experiment opened just last night, July 21, at The Westside Theatre. Check out photos from the big night below!

Producers Elizabeth Williams and Diane Alexander with Remmel Dickinson, Benjamin LowyAdrian Salpeter, John FrostSuzanne Jones, Robert Dragotta announced a new student rush policy for #DateMe: An OKCupid Experiment with first preview tonight at the Westside Theatre. An opening night is set for July 8, 2019.

Producers Elizabeth Williams and Diane Alexander with Remmel Dickinson, Benjamin Lowy, Adrian Salpeter, Robert Dragotta, John Frost/Suzanne Jones announced that the Westside Theatre Box Office (407 W. 43rd St) officially opens today Thursday, June 6th at 10AM for for #DateMe: An OKCupid Experiment. The show begins performances on June 20 2019, at the Westside Theatre. An opening night is set for July 8, 2019.

Full casting was announced today for #DateMe: An OKCupid Experiment.  The show begins performances on June 20, 2019 at the Westside Theatre.  An opening night is set for July 8, 2019.

Roadside Attractions has partnered with YouTube to release Viper Club starring Susan Sarandon, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

YouTube has announced the completion of principal photography on VULTURE CLUB starring Academy Award-winner Susan Sarandon and award-winning actors Edie Falco and Matt Bomer. In VULTURE CLUB, a veteran emergency room nurse secretly struggles to free her grown son, a journalist, from capture by a terrorist group. After running into roadblocks with government agencies, she discovers a clandestine community of journalists and advocates who might be able to help her. VULTURE CLUB will debut in theaters and then on YouTube Red later this year.

The CHICAGO ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) returns to The Den Theatre for its seventh year - this time exploring America and Chicago in 2017 in the wake of the Presidential election. The marathon evening of one-minute plays by more than 60 of Chicago's established and emerging playwrights and directors is presented two nights only, Today, February 21 and Wednesday, February 22, 2016 at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets, priced at $18, are currently available at brownpapertickets.com.

The CHICAGO ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) returns to The Den Theatre for its seventh year - this time exploring America and Chicago in 2017 in the wake of the Presidential election. The marathon evening of one-minute plays by more than 60 of Chicago's established and emerging playwrights and directors is presented two nights only, Tuesday, February 21 and Wednesday, February 22, 2016 at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets, priced at $18, are currently available at brownpapertickets.com.

In addition to planning an Off-Broadway series at the Horton Grand Theatre, SDMT is cultivating two, site-specific works; LAST NIGHT IN TOWN - a new musical based on the discography of Ben Folds, and HALL PASS - an immersive musical set and performed in a high school. Both musicals were featured in New York University's Forum on Site-Specific Performance in 2015. LAST NIGHT IN TOWN has another San Diego connection: one of the show's creators, Amy Cordileone, grew up in San Diego and worked locally for many years before moving to New York City.

More than 25 nominations of outstanding actors, directors, designers and ensembles were announced today by The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA), with winners to be revealed at the 34th Annual Elliot Norton Awards on Monday, May 23, 2016 at 7 PM, at Boston's Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre.

Among this year's nominees for Outstanding Musical Production by a Large Theater are WAITRESS and NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE  GREAT COMET OF 1812, both at American Repertory Theatre. Tony winner Jessie Mueller and Denee Benton also each received nods for their respective performances. 

Company members old and new will reunite as Barrel of Monkeys celebrates 15 years of its hit revue THAT'S WEIRD, GRANDMA with two special anniversary performances on Sunday April 17 at 2 pm and Monday, April 18 at 8 pm at its long-time home, the Neo-Futurist Theater, 5153 N. Ashland Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are available at www.barrelofmonkeys.org or by calling (773) 506-7140.

The Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) today announced the nominees for the 20th Annual IRNE Awards, which honors the best of the previous year's actors, directors, choreographers, designers and companies across the full spectrum of large, mid-size and fringe theater companies.

In a departure from traditional seasonal fare, two local theater companies are bringing us back to the simpler days of yesteryear, staging live radio productions of Christmas shows set in the 1940s. Stoneham Theatre offers the frothy, musical bagatelle CHRISTMAS ON THE AIR while Merrimack Repertory Theatre presents an adaptation of the holiday film classic, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY. Replete with evocative sound effects and on-air commercial messages, both plays invite audience participation for applause and a range of emotional reactions, to replicate a live studio broadcast.

Following its hit productions of "The Lion," and "I and You," Merrimack Repertory Theatre prepares to mount "It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play." The charming adaptation by Joe Landry presents the story of the classic film as a 1940's radio drama. George Bailey's timeless tale of renewal comes to life with five actors gathered around microphones to voice more than 40 characters and create sound effects live onstage, with live "studio" audience response an integral part of the broadcast.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. We've got Halloween shows this week, like 'Side Show,' 'Goblin Market,' 'One Brain More' and 'Ride The Cyclone.' There are various 'Rocky Horror' shows, concerts of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and 'No One Here But Us Witches,' dueling downtown concerts by Kristen Chenoweth and Leonard Bernstein, a suburban 'Avenue Q,' and the impending close of 'Million Dollar Quartet.' After how long???