Voices of all shapes and sizes and platforms are on full display in our Top Ten Best Bets: June 4th – June 7th.
Our top pick this weekend is the voice of playwright Adrienne Kennedy whose play Ohio State Murders stars one of the greatest voices of our time: Audra McDonald.
The music of Adam Guettel, new experiments with voice, the voice of jazz’s future, the history-making voices of male ballerinas, Broadway stars galore and more are all available for your enjoyment.
So let’s get to it. Here are the Top Ten Best Bets: June 4th – June 7th:
*TOP PICK* PLAY READING: Ohio State Murders – Spotlight on Plays – Now – June 7th
Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders is this week’s offering from the Spotlight on Plays series from Broadway’s Best Shows.
The play is set at Ohio State University where Suzanne Alexander, an African-American writer, was a student in 1949. She returns to discuss the themes of violence in her writing.
The stories she tells and the violence she’s examining take viewers down a shocking path as the mystery slow reveals itself.
This reading will star six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, Warner Miller, Lizan Mitchell and Ben Rappaport. Kenny Leon, who directed the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun, directs this reading. Of note, both he and McDonald won Tony Awards for work on that production.
Ohio State Murders had its world premiere in 1992 at the Great Lakes Theater Festival. In 2007 the play opened off-Broadway at The Duke on 42nd Street.
Charles Isherwood, writing for the New York Times, said of the play:
“Like all truly scary horror stories, the tale told in Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders leaves a lasting chill in the bones. Hours after seeing this short, sharp, quietly hypnotic play about an infanticide that ruptures a Midwestern winter in the 1950s, you might find yourself looking anxiously over your shoulder or starting awake with an unsettling thought or image in your head.”
Tickets are $19 with proceeds benefitting The Actors Fund. Tickets allow for on-demand streaming through Monday, June 7th at 6:00 PM ET/3:00 PM PT.
CHORAL/VOCAL: Myths and Hymns: Chapter 4: FAITH – Now – June 30th
The fourth and final chapter of Adam Guettel’s Myths and Hymns from MasterVoices is now streaming.
In this last part of the series, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Jennifer Holliday, Mikael Kilgore, Theresa McCarthy, Miles Mykkanen, Kelli O’Hara, Larry Owens and Nicholas Phan give voice to the final five songs in this song cycle.
Costanzo also directed The Great Highway (which also features O’Hara and Phan). Ted Sperling, the artistic director of MasterVoices directed two of the segments and Tony Award nominated director Trip Cullman directed the final segment, Saturn Returns: The Return.
Joining them are, of course, the MasterVoices singers.
This episode and the entire series are available for viewing on MasterVoices’ YouTube Channel. I love all four chapters of this series. You will, too. Take a look.
There’s no charge to watch Myths and Hymns. Donations are encouraged.
BROADWAY VOCALS: Victoria Clark – Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling – June 4th – June 5th
As long as we’re on the subject of Ted Sperling, his guest for this weekend’s Broadway Stories & Songs is the Tony Award-winning Victoria Clark. She was named Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Margaret Johnson in Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza.
Her performance in that musical was extraordinary.
Clark’s additional Broadway credits include the 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls, the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Titanic, Urinetown, Sister Act, Cinderella and more.
She and Sperling have been friends since college. Their personal and professional familiarity will make this a show that’s a must-see for all fans of Broadway.
Victoria Clark will be live on June 4th at 5:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT. Tickets are $25 and allow for a second viewing (or a first viewing if you can’t watch the show live on June 4th) on Saturday, June 5th at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT.
CHAMBER MUSIC: Tchaikovsky Serenade – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Debuts June 4th – 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT
The wildly ambitious and very successful series Close Quarters concludes what I hope will just be its first season with this final episode. Throughout all 14 episodes, James Darrah and LACO have redefined how classical music can be presented.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, composed in 1880, is being performed in this film.
Grant Gershon, Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, leads LACO in the performance. There are four movements in Tchaikovsky’s composition and in this particular film/performance, the running time is 30 minutes.
Darrah told me recently that this final episode reflects a summation of the entire series and a look at how Los Angeles weathered the pandemic.
You probably don’t need to have watched all previous thirteen episodes. But I can assure you if you just watch this one, you’ll be likely to want to watch all fourteen.
DANCE DOCUMENTARY: Ballerina Boys – American Masters on PBS – June 4th (check local listings)
This fascinating, amusing and moving documentary takes a look at Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (The Trocks). They are an ensemble of male ballet dancers who take their dance seriously and present it with whopping doses of humor.
As the British might say, they take the piss out of the art form. But they do it with a absolute respect for the work.
Filmmakers Chana Gazit and Martha Barylick take a look at the 45-year history of The Trocks. Ballerina Boys features interviews with founding members and also current members as it charts its way through over four decades of entertaining audiences. And as their trailer says, “Changing the world one pirouette at a time.”
I’ve seen this film and it is wildly entertaining and, at times, deeply moving.
JAZZ: Immanuel Wilkins Quartet – Vermont Jazz Center – June 5th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT
I’ve written several times about Immanuel Wilkins and how amazing he is. This Saturday is the best chance for you to see precisely what critics have been talking about.
Wilkins will be joined by Daryl Johns on bass; Kweku Sumbry on drums and Micah Thomas on piano.
This Tiny Desk concert for NPR should give you a good idea.
When I interviewed Wilkins last August as his album Omega was about to be released, he told me that he wrestled with releasing an album during the pandemic and not being able to tour behind it. Amongst the things he told me was:
“People need to hear it live. The band is a live band. It’s definitely something that should be played live and it would have been nice to have a proper release concert.”
Saturday’s concert will be a big step forward for Wilkins and for all of us to hear how dynamic this music is live.
There’s no charge to watch the concert; however, donations are encouraged.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Bang on a Can Marathon of Song – June 6th – 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT
Fans of contemporary classical music, particularly those works that showcase the human voice, will be keenly interested in this Sunday’s Bang on a Can Marathon of Song. Expect multiple uses of the human voice to be employed here.
There are eleven world premieres scheduled.
This streaming marathon runs for four hours. Here is the line-up:
1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT
Arlen Hulsko performs the world premiere of and there was by Mary Kouyoumdjian. Composer Peni Candra Rini gives the world premiere of her new work. Ken Thomson gives the world premiere performance of Zero at the Bone by Anna Clyne. Composer Albert Kuvezin gives the world premiere of Eremchick (The Spider).
2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT
Julian Otis performs Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan D’Arc by Julius Eastman. Composer Fred Frith gives the world premiere performance of his new work. Kyle Brenn’s Still/Exist will be performed. Taja Cheek, performing as L’Rain will perform. David Cossin will give the world premiere performance of RYB by Florent Ghys.
3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT
This hour opens with the world premiere of witness by Matana Roberts. Mark Stewart will perform the world premiere of a new work by Trevor Watson. Composer Eddy Kwan gives the world premiere of his new work. The final performance is by Allison Russell.
4:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT
Vicky Chow gives the world premiere of a new work by Sophie Cash. Robert Black gives the world premiere of Audible Autopsy by Charles Amirkhanian.
There is no charge to watch the marathon. Donations are encouraged.
CABARET: Alex Newell – The Seth Concert Series – June 6th – 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT
You might know Alex Newell from Glee. You might have seen Newell in the 2017 Broadway production of Once on This Island.
Or you might have seen as Mo on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. (If you haven’t watched this NBC series, you’ll definitely need to make up for lost time.)
However you know Newell, there’s one thing you know for sure, he can sing!
Newell and Rudetsky will of course share plenty of music along with the kind of stories that only Broadway insiders know and fans of musical theater will want to hear. As June is Pride Month, what better way to spend some time this weekend than with Alex Newell and Seth Rudetsky.
If you are unable to watch the show at 3:00 PM ET, there is an encore showing at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. Tickets for either show are $25.
TRIBUTE TO BROADWAY: Curtain Up, Light the Lights – Roundabout Theatre Company – June 7th – 7:45 PM ET/4:45 PM PT
If you live in New York, you can join this 2021 Roundabout Theatre Company Gala live in Central Park. Luckily for those who don’t you can stream it live. Either way, here’s what you’ll get:
Tony Winner Jane Krakowski will perform live from Rumsey Playfield with the New York Pops.
Joining her for part of the concert will be Tituss Burgess (her co-star from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). Just for good measure there are a few special guests: Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), EGOT Whoopi Goldberg, Oscar winner Emma Stone (La La Land), Grammy and Emmy Award winner Blair Underwood and Tony Award-nominee Vanessa Williams. Those are the announced special guests. There is word of even more stars to be participating.
As the ghost lights will soon be relieved of 24-hour a day duty and the marquees of Broadway relit in anticipation of theaters re-opening, Curtain Up, Light the Lights will be a great way to welcome the return of Broadway.
Virtual tickets start at $25.
BROADWAY VOCALS: Pajama Cast Party – June 7th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT
If I only said Kristin Chenoweth would that be enough? Certainly she’s popular enough. And maybe she’ll be wearing pajamas.
Yes, the three-time Tony Award nominee (and winner for You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown) and star of Wicked is joining Jim Caruso on Monday for the 61st episode of Pajama Cast Party.
In addition to singing, she’ll be sharing some of the young talented performers who are participating in Broadway Bootcamp of which she is one of the directors.
Also joining is Ryan Silverman who appeared in the 2013 Classic Stage Company production of Passion and appeared on Broadway in the 2014 revival of Side Show.
There is no charge to watch the show. Donations are encouraged with a portion of the proceeds going to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Actors Fund.
Those are our Top Ten Best Bets: June 4th – June 7th. Just a few reminders and on other note before we finish.
A few weeks ago we highlighted We Have to Hurry by Dorothy Lyman. It’s a moving play about two neighbors at a retirement community who fear time is not on their side during a quarantine. The play was so popular that a second live performance of the play is taking place this weekend with the playwright as Margaret and the enormously talented Alfred Molina as Gil. They have two performances (one Saturday and one on Sunday.) You can find details here.
Metropolitan Opera’s programming this weekend features the 2019-2020 season production of Porgy and Bess on Friday (highly recommended); the 2014-2015 season production of Macbeth on Saturday and the 2019-2020 season production of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten on Sunday (also highly recommended).
On Monday the Met presents classic operas told in new ways. Monday’s offering is the 2012-2013 production of Rigoletto. We’ll have full details in Monday’s preview of the entire week.
That officially concludes all the offerings I have for you in our Top Ten Best Bets: June 4th – June 7th. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the performing arts!
Main Photo: Audra McDonald (Courtesy her website)