The Public Theater News

New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian's world premiere stage adaptation of his novel MIDWIVES is set to kick off 2020 in George Street Playhouse's new home at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. Performances begin next Tuesday, January 21st. In this brief rehearsal video, the production's leading ladies discuss Bohjalian's gripping new play.

On Sunday, January 26, 2020, Encompass New Opera Theatre (Nancy Rhodes, Artistic Director), The Board of Trustees and The Encompass Honorary Gala Chair, Sheldon Harnick will pay tribute to Academy Award and Tony Award-winning luminaries, ESTELLE PARSONS and MAURY YESTON, with a star-studded musical salute. The elegant evening - hosted by Midge Woolsey of Thirteen/WNET and WQXR Radio - will feature recollections and tributes by well-known Musical Theatre and Opera personalities and friends. Dazzling musical entertainment will feature stars of stage and screen.

Huntington Theatre Company has announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere family comedy, Our Daughters, Like Pillars. Obie Award-winning playwright and Boston native Kirsten Greenidge (Luck of the Irish, Milk Like Sugar at the Huntington) joins forces with director Kimberly Senior (Sweat and The Niceties at the Huntington; Disgraced on Broadway) to tell the funny and moving story of one whirlwind weekend in the life of a contemporary black American family. Our Daughters, Like Pillars begins performances at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (527 Tremont Street, Boston) on Friday, March 20, 2020 and will run through Sunday, April 19, 2020. The official press opening night is Wednesday, April 1. Tickets are now available.

The Bushwick Starr presents the world premiere of The Conversationalists, created by the popular downtown musician-storyteller duo James & Jerome (Piano Tales at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, Ink at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and developed with and directed by Annie Tippe (Octet at Signature Theatre, Ghost Quartet at The Bushwick Starr, etc.).

Producer Jeffrey Seller and the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts announce a digital lottery for HAMILTON tickets will begin in conjunction with the show's first performance (January 28) in West Palm Beach at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. 

The music of Bob Dylan is coming to Broadway this February with The Girl From the North Country, and we're getting a peek inside rehearsals! Check out the video to see what happens in the rehearsal room as the show's cast and creative prepare to move into the Belasco Theatre!

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater has announced the full company for the world premiere of Eduardo Machado's (Havana Is Waiting, The Cook) Celia and Fidel.

Ron Legler, President of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, home of the Hippodrome Theatre, has announced the lineup for the new 2020-21 CareFirst® BlueCross BlueShield Hippodrome Broadway Series.

Plenty of those who weren't nodding their heads in agreement reacted with incredulousness or perhaps a big guffaw three years ago when Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared on 'Meet The Press' to defend White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's statements about the size of the crowd at Donald Trump's inaugural with the phrase 'alternative facts.'

All 9 of our regular contributors have gathered: Aurin, Ben, David, Jack, Jose, Liz, Nicole, Patty, and PennyMaria! We're back together for our year-end spectacular, our annual episode in which we discuss the best and worst theater of the year.

'Europe was pushing against me, so I just kept pushing back,' writes Selina Thompson in her autobiographical solo drama of cultural discovery, salt.

The Marsh Berkeley celebrates Black History month with a special, one-night-only performance of Not a Genuine Black Man, the longest running solo show in San Francisco theater history. This funny, honest, and harrowing piece by award-winning actor, playwright, and talk show host Brian Copeland recounts the struggles Copeland faced growing up in what was declared one of the most racist suburbs in America.

Huntington Theatre Company has announced the extension of the Boston premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Sweat.  Due to high ticket demand, this a?oebreathtakingly timelya?? (The Wall Street Journal), Tony Award-nominated play by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed by Kimberly Senior (The Niceties at the Huntington, Disgraced on Broadway) will now run at the Huntington Avenue Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue, Boston) from Friday, January 31, 2020 through Sunday, March 1, 2020.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced that Bay Area natives and provocateurs, Culture Clash, are returning with their latest production, Culture Clash (Still) in America. The play, written and performed by Culture Clash and directed by Obie Award winner Lisa Peterson, marks the fifth time the satirical group has performed at Berkeley Rep.

Jay Wegman, Director of NYU Skirball, has announced the cancellation of Polish director Krystian Lupa's The Trial, based on the Franz Kafka novel, due to the withdrawal of financial support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM), the international exchange program of the Polish Cultural Ministry.

Since its founding in 1989, Ma-Yi Theater Company has distinguished itself as one of the country's leading incubators of new work shaping the national discourse about what it means to be Asian American today.

Classic Stage Company (CSC; Artistic Director, John Doyle) has announced that Ethan Slater will join their John Doyle-directed upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, as Lee Harvey Oswald/The Balladeer.

This winter and spring, Joe's Pub a?" a program and venue of The Public Theater a?" is honoring new voices in musical theater through a variety of shows. From Broadway performers in concert to new musicals presented in the concert setting, there's something for every fan of musicals happening this season. Audiences are invited to celebrate the art of musical theater in non-conventional yet intimate ways with returning artists and new faces alike at Joe's Pub.

Asolo Rep continues its 2019-20 season with George Brant's INTO THE BREECHES! Helmed by Cleveland Play House Artistic Director Laura Kepley, this bright new comedy, set during World War II, puts the women on the front lines. INTO THE BREECHES! previews February 12 and 13, opens February 14 and runs in rotating repertory through March 21 in the Mertz Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the performing Arts.

Soul to Soul, the electrifying and emotionally captivating theatrical concert that explores the parallels of African American and Jewish history takes the stage this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend. Presented by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF), Soul to Soul will include for the first time the participation of Oscar- and Grammy-nominated IMPACT Repertory Theatre. The event will begin with an introduction by Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President of The New York Board of Rabbis, and New York City Council Member Robert E. Cornegy, Jr., who represents the Council's 36th District spanning Bedford Stuyvesant and Crown Heights.