I have a little bit of everything in Best Bets: July 13th – July 19th. I have Broadway singers in a park; five women tackling a legendary one-woman show; two new operas and a new musical. Let’s dive in.
BROADWAY BY THE BOARDWALK – Clinton Cove – New York, NY – July 13th – August 10th
For five consecutive Monday nights, five Broadway stars will take to the stage in the Broadway by the Boardwalk series. All the events are free. Here is the schedule:
July 13th: Max von Essen (Tony nominee for An American in Paris) with Billy Stritch
After they open the series it continues as follows:
July 20th: Ali Louis Bourzgui (Tony Award winner this year for The Lost Boys)
July 27th: Ali Stroker (Tony Award winner for Oklahoma!)
August 3rd: J. Harrison Ghee (Tony Award winner for Some Like It Hot!)
August 10th: Mandy Gonzalez (In the Heights)
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
THE WHOOPI MONOLOGUES – Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center – New York, NY – Now – August 30th
OPENING NIGHT: JULY 13th
On October 24, 1984, Whoopi Goldberg officially opened her one-woman show at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. It was a critical and commercial success and cemented Goldberg as one of our funniest comedians and a keen observer of human behavior.
So unique a talent is Goldberg that The Whoopi Monologues, which uses the same material in her show, now features five women tackling her writing.
Those women are Dominique Fishback, Kecia Lewis (Tony Award-winner for Hell’s Kitchen), Danielle Pinnock, Kerry Washington and Kara Young (two-time Tony Award winner for Purlie Victorious and Purpose). For the record, I would see Kecia Lewis do anything!
Whitney White directs a production that, based on production photos I have seen, has created a new world and approach to Goldberg’s provocative original.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
Photos by Angela Marie Orellana/Courtesy Lincoln Center Theater
THE TEMPEST / COSÌ FAN TUTTE / BEYOND OPERA: LAW OF DESIRE AFTER DARK– Teatro Grattacielo at La Ma Ma Ellen Stewart Theater – New York, NY – July 16th – July 19th
For me, the main attraction here is the world staged premiere of a new opera based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The opera was composed by Joseph Summer and the libretto is by Eve Summer.
A studio recording of the opera was released in 2015, but it has not been produced until now.
Daniel Klein sings the role of Prospero; Kayla Viviana sings Ariel; Sara Kennedy sings Miranda; Benjamin Sieverding sings Caliban and Omar Najmi sings Ferdinand.
Steanos Koroneos directs and Enrico Fagone conducts.
On alternate nights, Mozart’s Così fan tutte is being performed in a new production directed by Cate Pisaroni. Abdiel Vázquez conducts.
On Saturday, July 18th, Beyond Opera, a party set in a “crumbling 1980s film studio overtaken by synthetic jungle takes place. Following The Tempest means this is likely to be an idiosyncratic way of having fun where genres are thrown away and the priority is a magical evening.
For tickets and more information for The Tempest, please go HERE. For Così fan tutte, please go HERE. For Beyond Opera: Law of Desire After Dark, please go HERE.
THE FAMILY ALBUM – La Jolla Playhouse – La Jolla, CA – July 17th – August 23rd
Mia Bing, an Asian singer-songwriter, is the focus of this world premiere musical by MILCK (Connie K. Lim) and AG (Adrianne Gonzalez) with a book by Sam Chanse. Jess McLeod, who directs, also wrote the story with Chanse and MILCK.
MIa is summoned home just as she’s about to get the big break she’s been work so hard for.
There’s a lingering secret that weighs heavily on her family (who think she’s disappointing), that Mia must work through. What better way to do that through her music?
The cast is Aury Krebs as Mia with marc Delacruz, Jodi Long, Paul Nakauchi, Courtney Reed and Claire Kwon and Kendyl Sayuri Yokoyama sharing the role of Young Mia.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS – Festival Napa Valley Stage at Charles Krug – St. Helena, CA – July 18th
This one-act opera is inspired by a shocking wine tasting in 1976 where California red and white wines were blindly tasted next to French Bordeaux and Burgundies. The result put California wines on the map and rattled the wine world that though only old-world wines were high caliber.
Composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer were commissioned to write this work by Festival Napa Valley for this, their 20th anniversary season.
The five-person cast is Danielle De Niese, Quinn Kelsey, Simone McIntosh, Nicholas Phan and Brenda Rae. Kent Nagano conducts. Jean-Romain Vesperini directs.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
That’s all for Best Bets: July 13th – July 19th.
Enjoy your week and go see a show (or two)!
Main Photo: Kecia Lewis in The Whoopi Monologues (Photo by Angela Marie Orellana/Courtesy Lincoln Center Theater)