Ben Brantley News

Vineyard Theatre and Second Stage Theater have announced the complete cast for Michael R. Jackson’s new musical, WHITE GIRL IN DANGER.

Looking for the best deals on Broadway shows? Welcome to our new weekly guide to the most popular shows listed on BroadwayWorld. Check out which shows are selling this week, December 5, 2022.

New Village Arts (NVA), North County's cultural hub, will present playwright Jez Butterworth's masterful international Tony Award winning  Best Play (2019) “The Ferryman” January 27-March 5, 2023 – in the first United States production after Broadway – and the first in the newly renovated and renamed Conrad Prebys Theatre at the Dea Hurston New Village Arts Center.

A Number written by British Playwright Caryl Churchill first premiered in September of 2002 at the Royal Court Theatre in London, England. The play starred Michael Gambon in the role of Salter, and Daniel Craig in the role of Bernard (Et al.). Under critical reception, Churchill’s play was lauded for its use of “significant intellectual depth while imploring an effective economy of style.” Told in a series of five vignettes, the story is set in the near future, where a relationship/conflict between father and sons comes to a head when conflict about the use of human cloning becomes the topic of conversation. The play expresses the deeply divided differences between nature vs. nurture, and the idea that “if we had a do-over, could we atone for our mistakes?” In an article for the New York Times, Ben Brantley described Churchill’s work as, “stunning” and a “gripping dramatic consideration of what happens to autonomous identity in a world where people can be cloned.”

In this, the second installment in our series on women playwrights, the playwrights speak about critical interpretation of their work and the lack of powerful female critics. Please read Part I here, which discusses the more general issues female playwrights face.

The ASCAP Foundation recognized playwright, composer and lyricist Michael R. Jackson, creator of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical A Strange Loop, with The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award.

There is a reason why August Wilson is one of the more prolifically produced playwrights in modern American theater. He just gets it. The same could be said for RADIO GOLF director Gregg T. Daniel.

Frog and Toad are the amphibious best buddies from Arnold Lobel's well-loved children's books. The pair takes to the stage in A Year with Frog and Toad, with music by Robert Reale, and book and lyrics by Willie Reale, opening at Santa Fe Playhouse at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 3. Previews are Thursday, December 1 and Friday, December 2.

Wagner College Theatre has announced that the winner of the 2022 Stanley Drama Award is Luke Yankee for his play Marilyn, Mom and Me.

The Dramatists Guild of America is presenting season four of The Dramatists Guild Presents: TALKBACK. The Guild celebrates writers from a diverse array of backgrounds and how they’ve built meaningful careers within a constantly evolving industry. The first episode of the season debuts today with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Listen here!

The Florida premiere of Heisenberg by acclaimed British playwright Simon Stephens opens October 28 at GableStage.

Sophia made her Broadway debut in David Harrower’s Blackbird, co-starring Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams. Not long afterwards, she starred as “Lydia” in Warner Bros’ cult Broadway favorite, Beetlejuice. On television, Sophia played “Brigitta von Trapp” on NBC’s Emmy award-winning The Sound of Music Live! and NBC’s SMASH, with Bernadette Peters.

Michael R. Jackson's WHITE GIRL IN DANGER will begin previews on March 15, 2023 and will officially open on April 10, 2023 at Second Stage’s Off-Broadway home, the Tony Kiser Theater. The limited 8-week run will play through Sunday, May 21, 2023.

Dance Nation by Clare Barron and directed by Jenna Place opens Olney Theatre Center's 84th season in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab. Preview performances begin Wednesday, September 28.

Kicking off its 20th Anniversary Season, the Hermitage Artist Retreat has announced new community programs in October and November with acclaimed Hermitage Fellows in music, theater, visual art, dance, literature, and more.

Playwrights Horizons has announced its most recent slate of commissioned artists, providing crucial support to today’s most imaginative writers, and to the realization of works that will shape the future of the American theater.

See Tom Stoppard on Leopoldstadt, Wendell Pierce, Sharon D. Clarke, André De Shields, and Miranda Cromwell on Death Of A Salesman, Joel Grey, Steven Skybell, and Zalmen Mlotek on Fiddler On The Roof In Yiddish and more at 92NY this fall.

The 92NY Unterberg Poetry Center’s 84th season will feature a wide range of acclaimed novelists, playwrights and poets, who will visit to read from and discuss highly-anticipated new books – and pay tribute to other great writers. 

Former Beetlejuice star Sophia Anne Caruso has dropped her brand-new single “Snow & Ice.” This Fall, she will star opposite Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington in Paul Feig’s original Netflix film THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL. She is also currently recording her first album with Empire of the Sun’s Nick Littlemore.

To open their 50th Anniversary Season in Barboursville, Four County Players, in collaboration with Barboursville Vineyards, will present Shakespeare at the Ruins: As You Like It by Williams Shakespeare, directed by John Holdren, running July 15 through July 30 at the Historic Barboursville Ruins.