The Geffen Playhouse News

Rise and shine, BroadwayWorld! It is July 2, 2025 and it's time to catch up on all of the theatrical happenings you may have missed in the last 24 hours.

Following a run at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, AVA: The Secret Conversations, written by and starring Elizabeth McGovern is preparing to make its New York premiere! Check out photos of the cast meeting the press here!

What did our critic think of THE RESERVOIR at Geffen Playhouse Gil Cates Theater? “Well, the Geffen sure knows their audience,” remarked my guest at the media preview of, THE RESERVOIR.  And I’d have to agree.  Between the spontaneous audience call backs, guffaws, tears, and chant-alongs that happened much in the second act, it’s probably safe to say, the show’s a hit.

Award-winning composer Lewis Flinn, along with special guests Julie Benko (Broadway's Funny Girl) and Susanna Phillips (Metropolitan Opera) will perform a one-night-only concert at the Laurie Beechman Theatre (407 W 42nd St) this Friday, June 20 at 7PM, doors opening at 5:30PM. 

This production is erotic, evocative, lean as a bone and, at a certain point, leaves HAMLET behind entirely. Director Robert O'Hara (SLAVE PLAY, BARBECUE) cracks HAMLET open, exposes it to the sun and then keeps on probing.

AVA: The Secret Conversations, written by and starring Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Emmy Award-nominated actress and Evanston native Elizabeth McGovern, will make its Chicago premiere. Learn more!

Amidst a national funding crisis, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference will return to McCall, Idaho June 2-14 to celebrate its 25th year with a powerful lineup of new plays and events.

The Cape Cod Theatre Project has revealed its 31st Season of New Plays, running weekend nights in July from July 3 through July 26 at Falmouth Academy's Simon Center for the Arts. See the lineup and learn more!

The Vagrancy will present a world premiere staged reading as part of Blossoming 2025, its celebrated new play development series. The reading will take place Wednesday, May 21 at 7 PM at Skylight Theatre.

Apple has just released the trailer for Lulu Is a Rhinoceros, the new musical special featuring Broadway alums Auli’i Cravalho, Alex Newell, Dulé Hill, and Utkarsh Ambudkar. Watch it now!

Tickets are on sale now for the first production of The Rep’s 2025 SummerStage season, ME AND THE DEVIL The play with music is written and directed by The Rep’s new Artistic Director, Little Rock-native and Broadway director, Steve H. Broadnax III. 

Following 2019's Cats, Tom Hooper is returning to the director's chair for a film adaptation of Anna Ziegler's play Photograph 51. Ziegler will adapt her script for the movie, which is now set to star Natalie Portman as scientist Rosalind Franklin.

The clock is ticking, in the moment and in a greater sense, and a.k. payne’s characters can’t fully enjoy the luxury of a deep restorative breath. So neither, in this haunting but quite tender play, should we.

a.k. payne’s West Coast premiere of FURLOUGH’S PARADISE is a lyrical look at envy, resentment, and perspective, and it serves a reminder that there is always hope even if offered only as glimmers.

Mindplay celebrated its 100th performance at Greenwich House Theater. Learn more about the production and see how to purchase tickets to the extended run!

Written by Jack Brasch and directed by Shelley Butler, the three-theatre, co-production, world-premiere of THE RESERVOIR arrives on the heels of its presentation as a finalist for the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition.

Broadway alums Auli’i Cravalho, Alex Newell, Dulé Hill, and Utkarsh Ambudkar are lending their voices to an all-new family musical special for kids from Apple TV+, Lulu Is a Rhinoceros.

Geffen Playhouse has unveiled the seven productions that will make up its 2025/2026 season lineup, including two world premieres and more. See the full lineup and learn how to purchase tickets.

Rehearsals are now in full swing for Studio Theatre's fully immersive production of Paradise Blue, the modern classic by Dominique Morisseau, part of her acclaimed Detroit Trilogy.

AVA: The Secret Conversations, written by and starring Elizabeth McGovern will make its New York premiere this summer at NY City Center, Stage I. Learn more about the production and see how to purchase tickets.