The Public Theatre News

The Brooklyn-based playwright/director's play about identity politics makes its west coast debut.

The Hartt School Community Division (HCD) presents the in-demand, NYC-based JP Jofre Hard Tango Chamber Band tonight, November 14, at 7:30 p.m.

The Old Globe's 18th annual production of DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, starring J. Bernard Calloway in the title role, opens tonight, November 12, 2015 and will run through December 26th.

As BroadwayWorld reported yesterday, AMERICAN PSYCHO just announced that Tony Award-winner Alice Ripley and Tony Award nominee Jennifer Damiano will reunite onstage in the highly-anticipated musical. Both received Tony nominations (and a win for Ripley) for their performances as mother and daughter in NEXT TO NORMAL in 2009. To celebrate the big news, we're flashing back to their NEXT TO NORMAL days below!

Due to critical acclaim and popular demand, Playwrights Horizons has announced a second extension of their New York premiere production of HIR, a new play by Obie Award-winning theater artist Taylor Mac (A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, The Lily's Revenge, The Walk Across America for Mother Earth, The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac, The Young Ladies Of).

AMERICAN PSYCHO just announced that Tony Award-winner Alice Ripley(Next to Normal), Tony Award nominee Jennifer Damiano (Next to Normal) and Helene Yorke (Bullets over Broadway, 'Masters of Sex') will join previously announced Benjamin Walker (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) in the cast of the highly-anticipated musical. Directed by Rupert Goold (King Charles III), AMERICAN PSYCHO, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, has music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winner Duncan Sheik, a book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa ('Glee') and choreography by Lynne Page (La Cage Aux Folles).

Connecticut Repertory Theatre continues the 2015-16 season with a production of William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, directed by Victor Maog.  It is the second show of the mainstage series and will perform in the Nafe Katter Theatre.   CRT brings audiences a Twelfth Night infused with the music and jollity of the Christmas season.  Wrapped in carols and mistletoe Shakespeare's finest comedy is a paean to the restorative power of love and the uproarious joy of the holidays.  Performances begin December 3rd and run through December 13th.  For tickets and information please visit crt.uconn.edu or call (860)-486-2113.

Hartford Stage will present Dan O'Brien's bold, radically theatrical and poetic true story, The Body of an American, with direction by Jo Bonney and featuring Michael Crane and Michael Cumpsty, from January 7-31, 2016.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival wrapped up its 80th year Sunday night, November 1, with the final performances of Much Ado about Nothing and Pericles. Preparations for the 2016 season are well under way; 2016 member ticket sales start this week and preview performances begin February 19. The 2016 opening weekend is February 26-28.

MAD LIBS LIVE! the official musical inspired by the popular fill-in-the-blanks game, Mad Libs premieres tonight, November 2, at New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, NYC for a limited run through January 3, 2016.

It's not every day a new Broadway musical gets a glowing review from the leader of the free world.

Wild and wacky fun, just in time for the holidays, is onstage when Philadelphia Theatre Company presents the hilarious McCarter Theatre/Arena Stage production of Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery running November 27-December 27 at PTC's home, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Directed by Amanda Dehnert, the ensemble cast features Henry Clarke, Crystal Finn, Adam Green, Ron Menzel, and Matt Zambrano.

Chicago's Eclipse Theatre Company, the Midwest's only theatre company to focus on a single playwright each season, will feature the works of Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis for their 2016 Season.

The Hartt School Community Division (HCD) presents the in-demand, NYC-based JP Jofre Hard Tango Chamber Band on Saturday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m. Featuring cellist Amy Kang, a former Simsbury resident and HCD alumna, the concert will be held in the Millard Auditorium at the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford. The performance is free and open to the public, but tickets must be reserved by calling 860.768.4228or online at hartford.edu/tickets. Attendees may make a suggested donation of $10 to support HCD activities and scholarships.

HOMELESS AND HOW WE GOT THAT WAY -- a new play by Dan McCormick -- will be given its world-premiere this fall when Roust Theatre Company produces the play at the Access Theatre (380 Broadway, one block below Canal St.), with previews starting tonight, October 22 prior to a press opening October 25.  James Phillip Gates directs.

Amphibian Stage Productions (Kathleen Culebro, Artistic Director) has announced the creative team for its third developmental staged reading of the 2015 season, Daedalus by David Davalos.

Lewiston's Public Theatre opened its twenty-fifth season with a finely tuned, engrossing production of Frederick Knott's classic thriller, Wait Until Dark. Presented in a well-crafted adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher which moves the action to the film noir world of the 1940s and directed by Janet Mitchko, this six-character drama retains all the spine-tingling creepiness of both the film and original stage versions.

Updated this week! Check out upcoming Equity Auditions from Sunday, October 18, 2015 for both productions in your area and around the country including what/when/where and how to audition!

B Street is pleased to present the regional premiere of HANDLE WITH CARE as the Mainstage offering for the 2015 holiday season.

The first season of HBO's drama THE LEFTOVERS was one of the most divisive 10 episodes in recent television history. Supporters hailed it as a dark and intelligent allegory for surviving trauma, while detractors slammed it as 'grief porn.' However, Season 2 has been able to maintain the show's intense mystery, while creating a more thrilling, less depressing, motif. One of the major changes was the introduction of Erika and John Murphy and their twin teenagers. Erika, played by recent Emmy-winner Regina King, is a hearing-impaired doctor, while her husband, played by Kevin Carroll (Broadway's ANGELS IN AMERICA, TAKE ME OUT, and more) is a convicted felon turned vigilante fire captain.