Second Stage News

Vineyard Theatre's Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern and Managing Director Suzanne Appel announce that the company's 2020 Gala fundraiser will celebrate Tony Award-winning producer Daryl Roth and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel. The annual benefit Gala will take place on Monday, April 20, 2020, beginning at 6:00pm at 583 Park Avenue. Vineyard Theatre Board Member Sally Horchow will chair the event.

The fourth annual Lollapalooza Paris has revealed a portion of its lineup today, including headliners Pearl Jam and Billie Eilish, along with Vampire Weekend, Khalid, Burna Boy, Haim, Rita Ora, Illenium, The Struts and many more. Additional artists will be announced early next year. More than 40 artists will perform on four stages at Hippodrome De Longchamp on July 18-19, 2020. Tickets are on sale now at www.lollaparis.com.

Coming up next at Broadway's Hayes Theatre is Second Stage's 10-week engagement of Bess Wohl's new play Grand Horizons. Directed by Leigh Silverman, the play will feature Jane Alexander (Nancy), James Cromwell (Bill), Ben McKenzie (Ben), Priscilla Lopez (Carla), Maulik Pancholy (Tommy), Ashley Park (Jess) and Michael Urie (Brian).

Casting is set for Studio Theatre's production of Pipeline, playwright Dominique Morisseau's searing drama about the school-to-prison pipeline and a mother desperately trying to keep her son from becoming ensnared in it. The production runs January 15-February 16, 2020 and is directed by Awoye Timpo. Starring are DC theatre favorite Justin Weaks (Studio's Curve of Departure) as high school student Omari and Andrea Harris Smith making her Studio debut as his mother, public school teacher Nya. In its recent People Issue, Washington City Paper's called Weaks a 'standout,' going on to say: 'D.C. theater audiences love Justin Weaks. ...Weaks came to D.C. for a job about four years ago, not expecting to stay. But he kept getting cast in shows, and lucky for local theatergoers, he's still here.'

Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) will present Audrey Cefaly's Maytag Virgin, a sweet, Southern romance about starting over again, from January 8 to February 2 at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre at Liberty Hall, according to Executive Director Bonnie J. Butkas and Interim Artistic Director Terry Berliner. Eleanor Holdridge directs.

Director/Producer Stan Zimmerman is putting the finishing touches on The Wendy Chronicles with the casting of Academy Award nominee Michael Lerner, two-time Emmy nominated Mindy Sterling and five other up and coming film and television actors -- Allie Gonino, Danny Gomez, Melody Peng, Brittannie Bohman and Raviv Ullman.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Michael Stotts- Managing Director), recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award, begins the new year with the world premiere Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and written with Richard Curtis. Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber begins performances Thursday, January 30, 2020, and will continue through Sunday, March 1, 2020 at Paper Mill Playhouse (22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, NJ). JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the major sponsor of Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Paper Mill Playhouse's 2019-2020 season is proudly sponsored by Investors Bank. Opening Night is Sunday evening, February 9, 2020 at 7:00pm.

The 5th Avenue Theatre has announced complete casting for the world premiere of Bliss, an empowering original musical fantasy that flips the traditional princess narrative upside down.

WP Theater, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag, has announced that the world premiere of playwright and performer Donnetta Lavinia Grays' Where We Stand, co-presented by WP Theater and Baltimore Center Stage, will star Grays [Men on Boats, In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)], who will alternate select performances with David Ryan Smith (One Man, Two Guvnors; Passing Strange) beginning February 15. Directed by Tamilla Woodard (Hadestown Broadway associate director), previews begin Off-Broadway on Friday, January 31 at WP Theater with an opening night of February 11, 2020. The limited engagement at WP Theater will run through March 1, 2020 before playing Baltimore Center Stage April 2-26.

Second Stage Productions presents Two Thousand Miles, a new musical conceived by Alyssa Williams, on Saturday, January 25th and Sunday, January 26th at 8:00 PM at The BACCA Arts Center in Lindenhurst, NY. SSP's founder and artistic director, Brian Statler directs with musical direction by Matthew DeMaria.

It was announced today that Tony Goldwyn (ABC's a?oeScandal,a?? Broadway's Network) will join the company of Matthew Lopez' THE INHERITANCE, for a four month limited engagement beginning performances Sunday, January 5, 2020.

In Baraboo, Wisconsin, the ground is white with snow and the air is black with laughs. Valerie is the town butcher with an axe to grind. Her daughter Midge is a pharmacist whose clientele extends beyond the drug store. Over one cold February week, the town cop - who just happens to be Valerie's sister-in-law - will try to sniff out this family's secrets and lies.

The second annual Lollapalooza Stockholm has revealed its 2020 lineup which features Post Malone, Ellie Goulding, Zara Larsson performing on Friday, Pearl Jam, The Killers, and Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals taking the stage on Saturday, while Kendrick Lamar, Camila Cabello, and Kacey Musgraves will close out the festival on Sunday.  The lineup features more than 55 artists including Galantis, Of Monsters and Men, Rival Sons, Rex Orange County and many more performing on four stages on June 26-28, 2020 at Gärdet, a beautiful park in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden.

Tony® and Emmy Award winner Lillias White returns to Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Cabaret Series with an autobiographical show filled with musical highlights from her life and career January 23 - 25, 2020 in Samueli Theater. With her powerhouse voice and exuberant stage presence, White has won accolades for her show-stopping performances on the Broadway stage, on television and in films. The New York Times declared, 'Lillias White is a singer who makes the most challenging vocal feats look almost easy.'

TrailBlazer Country Music and Camping Festival, formerly known as Taste of Country Music Festival, announced the megastar 2020 lineup for the eighth-annual event returning to Hunter, NY at Hunter Mountain Resort on June 12-14. Headliners Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan and Thomas Rhett will take the main stage nestled just 100 miles North of New York City. Additional artists including Kelsea Ballerini, Gabby Barrett, Blanco Brown, Clare Dunn, HARDY, Jon Langston, Dylan Scott, Matt Stell, Cole Swindell, The Cadillac Three, with more to be revealed in the coming weeks, will also perform at the picturesque and mountainous festival. The 2020 edition of the festival joins Live Nation's premiere family of country music festivals which includes Watershed in George, WA; Faster Horses in Brooklyn, MI; Seven Peaks in Buena Vista, CO and Tortuga Music Festival in Ft. Lauderdale. FL. Passes for TrailBlazer Festival go on-sale December 13 at 10am ET at TrailBlazerFest.com.

In this fierce world premiere comedy from WP Theater and Second Stage, a gang of teenage girls gathers in an abandoned tree house to summon the ghost of Pablo Escobar. Their journey doesn't stop there, as they embark on a roller coaster ride through the confusion, danger, and unpredictability of girlhood.

The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan will welcome a talented cast to its stage on Thursday, December 18 at 7:30 p.m. for a reading of Anna Ziegler's a?oeThe Wanderers,a?? a funny, insightful, and mysterious new drama. Ziegler is an award-winning playwright whose widely produced play, a?oePhotograph 51,a?? won London's 2016 WhatsOnStage award for best new play. It was also selected as a?oeBest of the Yeara?? play by The Telegraph and The Washington Post. The special reading of a?oeThe Wanderersa?? is a benefit for the JCC's Lambert Center for Arts and Ideas. Tickets cost $20 for members and $25 for the public. Visit jccmanhattan.org or call 646.505.5708 to reserve your seat.

Theatre production company Parity Productions has released its monthly list of Qualifying Productions for December their popular directory of New York City shows in which the individual creative teams have 50% of the positions filled with women and/or trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) artists (directors, designers, and playwrights). 

Out of the Box Theatrics' Founding Artistic Director, Liz Flemming, announced today that their new production of Sybille Pearson (book), Richard Maltby, Jr. (lyrics) and David Shire's (music) heart-warming musical, Baby, will extend its limited engagement through Saturday, December 21, 2019 due to strong ticket sales.

Time stands still but life goes on might be one way of looking at Will Eno's charming and sweetly philosophical The Underlying Chris, receiving a fine premiere production directed by Kenny Leon at Second Stage.