Jennifer Fouche, Alana Raquel Bowers, Aigner Mizzelle, Ebony Marshall-Oliver, Josh Adam Ramos, and Brendan Ellis in Chicken and Biscuits
By: David Sheward
June 29, 2021: A new show, a revival, and an altered previously-running show have been added to the 2021-22, post-COVID Broadway calendar. Chicken and Biscuits, a new play, will open at the Circle in the Square, the long-delayed Plaza Suite has announced preview and opening dates, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will resume performances at the Lyric as a condensed, one-evening presentation rather in its previous two parts. Only a few announced productions have not yet claimed dates, so the Broadway schedule is nearly complete.
June 29, 2021: The very last show Scott Coulter produced and hosted at Feinstein’s/54 Below before the pandemic shut everything down was a tribute to composer Jerry Herman. The house was packed, and the atmosphere was jubilant, as is frequently the case when people know the end is coming.
June 27, 2021: Bruce Springsteen re-opened Broadway for a limited run of Springsteen on Broadway at Jujamcyn’s St. James Theatre (246 W 44th Street). Performances began, Saturday June 26 and will continue through September 4.
Tovah Feldshuh, Director Scott Schwartz, Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Photo: Barry Gordin
By: Patrick Christiano
Renowned sex therapist, Dr. Ruth, attended the opening night of Becoming Dr. Ruth at Bay Street theater in Sag Harbor.
June 6, 2021: The re-opening of Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor drew the renowned sex therapist, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who attended the opening night of Becoming Dr. Ruth, the theater’s first post-pandemic production. The play, also, re-unites the six-time Tony and Emmy Award-nominee, Tovah Feldshuh, who stars as Dr. Ruth, with her Broadway, Golda’s Balcony’s director, Scott Schwartz, Bay Street Theater Artistic Director. Becoming Dr. Ruth, a one-woman play by renowned playwright, Mark St. Germain, chronicles, the remarkable life of the noted psychologist Dr. Ruth Westheimer and will play at Bay Street Theater through June 27th.
June 24, 2021: Perhaps you know that, soon after the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and live theatre met cryogenics, I took off my reviewing hat and put one on with which I wrote columns on old-time New York theatre.
The inspiring original works of world-renowned choreographer Matthew Bourne, including The Car Man, Cinderella, and Romeo & Juliet, come exclusively to BroadwayHD
June 20, 2021: BroadwayHD, the premier streaming service for live theater, is bringing four contemporary and thrilling productions by award-winning dance-theatre company New Adventures and acclaimed choreographer Matthew Bourne exclusively to their platform.
Jeff Daniels and Celia Keenan-Bolger
in To Kill a Mockingbird
Broadway Update: Mockingbird, Mormon, Love Supreme Return
By: David Sheward
June 17, 2021: The new Broadway calendar is almost complete. Two more shows shuttered during the pandemic have announced their reopenings and another will have a return engagement. This means nearly every 2020 production has definite dates for a comeback. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Book of Mormon, two shows formerly under the aegis of producer Scott Rudin, have posted their return dates. Rudin has withdrawn from producing due to reports of workplace harassment and toxicity. Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and the highest-grossing straight play in Broadway history, will resume performances at the Shubert Theater on Oct. 5. Jeff Daniels will return to the role of Atticus Finch and Celia Keenan-Bolger takes up the part of his young daughter Scout through Jan. 2, 2022.
June 17, 2021: In a live interview, via Zoom, with John Lloyd Young in California and TheaterPizzazz in New York City, a unique experience unfolded getting to know this Tony Award Winner known to audiences worldwide as Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys original Broadway production.
Broadway Update: Springsteen, Skeleton Crew, Paradise, etc.
By: David Sheward
June 10, 2021: The 2021-22 Broadway and Off-Broadway season continues to take shape with new productions and those postponed from previous seasons announcing dates and theaters. In the latest round of updates, Bruce Springsteen returns to Broadway, Manhattan Theater fills out its roster, a new musical set during the Civil War is slated, and The Lehman Trilogy finally makes the transfer from Off-Broadway to on with one cast change.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Musical In the Heights Is Adapted for the Screen
By: Ellis Nassour
June 9, 2021: The creator of the theatrical blockbuster Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the director of the comedy blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu are debuting one of Summer’s biggest and most anticipated films, In the Heights (Warner Bros.) , down from New York’s Upper Upper West Side Washington Heights, “where the streets are made of salsa music and little dreams become big,” to a cinema near you this weekend.
Hot lineup of New titles features BKLYN-The Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, On the Town and a special playlist to Celebrate Pride Month.
June 7, 2021: BroadwayHD, the premiere streaming service for theater fans, is kicking off the Summer months with a sizzling hot lineup of iconic theater productions, films and documentaries. Leading the slate on June 1st is Tony Award winner John Cameron Mitchell’s vibrant rock odyssey film Hedwig and The Angry Inch and, On the Town,starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin as three fun-loving sailors who have 24 hours of shore leave in New York City and want to make every second count. Hot to Trot, a feature documentary film about the fascinating world of same-sex competitive ballroom dance, comes to BroadwayHD on June 3rd.
John Michael Hill and Namir Smallwood
in “Pass Over”
By: David Sheward
June 3, 2021: The new post-quarantine Broadway season keeps getting earlier and earlier. Pass Over, Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s play focusing on two African-American men dealing with pervasive discrimination, will now begin performances at the August Wilson Theater on Aug. 4 with an opening set for Sept. 12. The production will have a limited run until Oct. 10.
June 2, 2021: Playwright and Emmy-winning actress Dorothy Lymon takes on the illuminating words from her own pen for the next monthly digital presentation of We Have To Hurry. Paired with the previously announced Tony, Emmy, and Golden Globe nominated actor Alfred Molina, Ms. Lyman’s new play about two mature people rediscovering life’s simplest joys streams live via Broadway on Demand for two performances only, Saturday, June 5th at 8pm and Sunday, June 6th at 3pm.
