Atlantic Theater Company News

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today's top stories: The Homecoming Queen opens tonight off-Broadway, Party Face opens at City Center, and more!

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announces the cast and creative team for Mary Stuart, Peter Oswald's electrifying new take on the famously bitter rivalry between Mary, Queen of Scots, and her cousin Elizabeth I, Queen of England. The two fiercely independent women at the center of the showdown are portrayed by acclaimed actresses K.K. Moggie as Mary and Kellie Overbey as Elizabeth. Award-winning director Jenn Thompson, former artistic director of The Actors Company Theater (named Company of the Year by The Wall Street Journal), stages the production in CST's Courtyard Theater, February 21 April 15, 2018.

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev go head-to-head in Blind Date, a new play by Rogelio Martinez directed by Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls. Today, Falls announced his cast for the world-premiere production, which features as characters some of the figures who shaped the political landscapes of the 1980s and beyond.

Performances begin tomorrow for Blind Date, Rogelio Martinez's slyly comic, behind-the-scenes glimpse of two of the most powerful world leaders Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev directed by Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls. Martinez, a fresh and funny talent (Backstage) who finds new twists on old topics (Variety), continues his multi-play exploration of the Cold War Era with this Goodman world premiere, which features as characters some of the figures who shaped the political landscapes of the 1980s and beyond. In an era before Twitter, Tinder and 24/7 news, Ronald Reagan (Rob Riley) and Mikhail Gorbachev (William Dick) seek to thaw the seemingly intractable tension between the United States and Soviet Russia. Despite their advisors' best efforts to keep them on track, a crafty game of one-upmanship ensues, as the world's two most powerful leaders eschew conventional protocols to discuss pop culture and old movies while Nancy Reagan (Deanna Dunagan) and Raisa Gorbachev (Mary Beth Fisher ) mirror their husbands' negotiations in a passive-aggressive tango over tea and fashion choices.

Photos have been released for Ngozi Anyanwu's The Homecoming Queen at Atlantic Theater Company's Stage 2. Check them out below!

The Huntington Theatre Company presents the powerful drama Skeleton Crew, by Dominique Morriseau (Detroit '67 and Paradise Blue) and directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian (Nat Turner in Jerusalem at New York Theatre Workshop and The Convert at Underground Railway Theater). Skeleton Crew runs from March 2 through March 31, 2018 at the South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today's top stories: we asked Lena Hall your questions on a live broadcast on Facebook, and more!

Atlantic Theater Company's Hangmen begins previews tonight, January 18th and will open Monday, February 5th for a limited engagement through Sunday, March 4th, 2018 Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company's Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street).

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced today the cast and creative team for Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, which will perform at Hartford Stage Thursday, February 15, through Sunday, March 18.

59E59 Theaters will present of THE UNDERTAKING, written and directed by Steve Cosson with creative collaboration and psychopomp guidance by Jessica Mitrani. Produced by The Civilians, THE UNDERTAKING begins performances on Thursday, January 11 for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 4. Press Opening is Today, January 17 at 7:15 PM.

Ghostlight Records has announced the original Broadway cast recording of THE BAND'S VISIT, the best reviewed musical of the season, will be available on physical CD online, in stores and at the theater on Friday, February 23. THE BAND'S VISIT Original Broadway Cast Recording is currently available in digital and streaming formats.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) announces the cast and creative team for Hamlet, directed by STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn and featuring acclaimed actor Michael Urie as the tortured Danish prince. Shakespeare's most celebrated tragedy will run January 16-February 25, 2018 at Sidney Harman Hall.

The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) released its annual report, 'Ethnic Representation on New York City Stages' today for the 2015-16 theatre season. The report detaild the ethnic breakdown of actors on Broadway and at the 16 largest non-profit theatre companies in New York City. The report also tallies numbers for disabled actors. This year's report amasses 10 years of data, tracking hiring practices from the 2006-07 to 2015-16 seasons. It is the only publicly available report of its kind.

The entirely youth run Eternal Theatre Collective presents the Canadian Premiere of SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN by Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen), at Studio 16 from March 7 - 10, 2018.

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today's top stories: Atlanta Real Housewife @Kandi Burruss makes her Broadway debut in @ChicagoMusical, and more!

The Barrow Group Theatre Company, recipient of a Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award, continues their 2017-2018 season with the World Premiere of The Thing with Feathers, a play by Scott Organ.

The Left Wing, in association with John Turturro, presents the world premiere production of Brandon Cole's Imperfect Love, a serious comedy in two acts. Directed by Michael Di Jiacomo, Imperfect Love is inspired by the tumultuous life of the great Italian actress Eleonora Duse (1858 1924) and her nine-year love affair with the poet and playwright Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863 1938). The production, which runs January 25 February 18 at The Connelly Theater, features costume and set design by the Academy Award-winning Italian designer Gianni Quaranta (Merchant-Ivory's A Room with a View, Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet) and is scheduled to open on February 4. Turturro's 1998 film, Illuminata, which was co-written by Cole and Turturro, was based on Cole's Imperfect Love.

Following the show's development at The Orchard Project in 2017, LubDub Theatre presents The Doubtful Guest, an immersive contemporary s ance featuring cocktails and sleight-of-hand and exploring the legacy of American spiritualism. The piece premieres at The Public Hotel (215 Chrystie St., New York, NY) following sold-out developmental performances at The Inn at Saratoga and Guild Greene Gallery.

The Old Globe today announced it will present the fifth annual Powers New Voices Festival, a weekend of readings of new American plays by professional playwrights, playing January 12 14, 2018. The festival will kick off today, January 12 at 7:30 p.m. with Voices of the Community: Celebrating Local Playwrights, an evening of work created by San Diego residents through the Globe's arts engagement initiatives Community Voices and coLAB, and will continue with four readings by some of the most exciting voices writing for the American theatre today. The new American play readings commence on Saturday, January 13 at 4:00 p.m. with Laurel Ollstein's They Promised Her the Moon, directed by Giovanna Sardelli (Somewhere, The Whipping Man at the Globe), followed at 7:30 p.m. by Too Heavy for Your Pocket by Jir h Breon Holder, directed by Patricia McGregor (Globe for All's Measure for Measure).The Festival continues on Sunday, January 14 at 3:00 p.m. with The Tale of Despereaux, with book, music, and lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co. (The Old Man and The Old Moon at the Globe), based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo and the Universal Pictures animated motion picture. The Festival will wrap up that evening at 7:30 p.m. with The Great Leap by Lauren Yee, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Globe's Skeleton Crew).

The 13th Annual Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals, produced by Goodspeed Musicals' Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre, kicks off its much-anticipated three-day festival of brand-new works today, January 12, 2018 at The Goodspeed with a staged reading of the rousing new musical Five Points by Ethan D. Pakchar (Music) and Douglas Lyons (Music and Lyrics), and McKnight Fellowship winner Harrison David Rivers (Book).