One year later Time Stands Stills opened at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Friedman Theatre. Later that same year it moved to Broadway where the play received two tony Award nominations including one for Best Play. The production starred Eric Bogosian, Brian d’Arcy James, Laura Linney (the other Tony nominee) and Alicia Silverstone. Daniel Sullivan directed.

The Broadway cast is reuniting for this week’s edition of Spotlight on Plays from Broadway’s Best Shows under Sullivan’s direction. The reading begins streaming December 3rd and will remain available through December 7th.

The play depicts the relationship between a couple who are both journalists: James (d’Arcy James) is a reporter and Sarah (Linney) a photographer. Not long after James left Sarah back in war-torn Iraq, she is badly injured in an attack. Back home in New York they try to re-acclimate themselves into domestic life while recovering not just from the physical cost of war, but the psychological one as well.

That recovery gets complicated when Sarah’s mentor and former editor Richard (Bogosian) re-enters her life with his hot new girlfriend, Mandy (Silverstone). How dissimilar are James and Sarah’s lives post-war than those of her mentor and his girlfriend? Will that alter their perceptions of life upon their return just as they struggle to overcome their recent experiences.

Charles Isherwood, in his New York Times review of the play, summed up the challenges the characters face in Time Stands Still.

“Sarah and James have spent much of their lives bearing witness to horrific violence, but Mr. Margulies’s quietly powerful drama illustrates just how much pain and trauma are involved in the everyday business of two people creating a life together, one that accommodates the mistakes of the past, the reality of the present and the changes that the future may bring.”

Tickets to watch this reading are $5 and are available through Today Tix. The premiere is at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST on December 3rd and allows for repeated viewing through December 7th. A portion of the proceeds will go to The Actors Fund.

Photo: Playwright Donald Margulies (Courtesy Geffen Playhouse)

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Kushner’s play takes a look at the early days of the AIDS crisis through the eyes of a closeted-Mormon man married to a a woman who experiences Valium-induced visions, a gay couple where one of the two men has just been diagnosed as having AIDS, notorious attorney Roy Cohn, a direct but compassionate nurse and an angel who tells one of the characters he is a prophet.

Over the course of sixty minutes scenes from Kushner’s monumental work will be performed. Here’s the cast:

Glenn Close as Roy Cohn, Paul Dano as Prior Walter, Linda Emond as Phosphor, Jeremy O. Harris as Belize, Brian Tyree Henry as Prior Walter, Nikki M. James as Lumen, Laura Linney as Hannah Pitt, Vella Lovell as Harper Pitt, Patti LuPone as Fluor, S. Epatha Merkerson as Belize, Larry Owens as Belize, Andrew Rannells as Prior Walter, Daphne Ruben-Vega as Candle, Lois Smith as Harper Pitt and Brandon Uranowitz as Louis Ironson.

As you can tell, multiple actors take on the same role. This should be quite interesting. Kushner will provide an introduction to the program.

During the show there will be interstitial moments featuring Alan Cumming, Whoopi Goldberg and Jake Gyllenhaal.

There is no charge to watch The Great Work Begins. However, there is an exclusive post-show conversation with Kushner; Paul Wontorek, Editor-in-Chief of Broadway.com; Kevin Robert Frost, CEO of amfAR; director Ellie Heyman and several actors from the performance. A minimum donation of $100 is required to view this 45-minute post-show event. To make a donation, please go here.

amfAR, which was formed in 1985, has made finding a cure for HIV/AIDS as its priority. The funds they raise turn into grants that are focused on finding that cure. They have also been active on the political front having been instrumental in the Ryan White CARE Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990 and the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993.

The title of this event comes from the closing moments of Angels in America: Perestroika:

“We won’t die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come. Bye now. You are fabulous creatures, each and every one. And I bless you: More Life. The Great Work Begins.”

Photo: Playwright Tony Kushner (Photo by Emilio Madrid for Broadway.com/Courtesy Broadway.com)

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On Thursday, July 16th, Broadway Barks will take place at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT and can be watched on Broadway.com’s Facebook page.

This year marks the 22nd annual event. Each event features celebrities and shelter pets that are available for adoption. This year, with the pandemic, animals and celebrities are being paired up within the safety of their homes.

Peters and her colleagues have assembled a great line-up of talent:

Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Betty Buckley, Danny Burstein, Michael Cerveris, Kristin Chenoweth, Victoria Clark, Alan Cumming, Ted Danson, Ariana DeBose, Raúl Esparza, Gloria Estefan, Sutton Foster, Victor Garber, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Goldblum, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Joel Grey, Josh Groban, Jake Gyllenhaal, Julie Halston, Jon Hamm, Emmylou Harris, Sean Hayes, Hugh Jackman, Andy Karl, Nathan Lane, Laura Linney, Rebecca Luker, Audra McDonald, Malcolm McDowell, Laurie Metcalf, Bette Midler, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Rita Moreno, Bebe Neuwirth, Alex Newell, Kelli O’Hara, Orfeh, Mandy Patinkin, Randy Rainbow, Andrew Rannells, John Stamos, Mary Steenburgen, Will Swenson, Michael Urie, Nia Vardalos, Adrienne Warren and Vanessa Williams. 

32 different shelters will participate both in providing dogs and cats available for adoption and in receiving money raised during the event. There is no cost to join Broadway Barks online, but donations are encouraged.

Every year Broadway Barks is a hugely successful pet adoption event. Over the twenty-two years it has taken place they have been able to place approximately 85% of the animals. That means if you fall in love with one of the dogs or cats you see online, you better act quickly!

During Bernadette Peters: A Special Concert, Michael Urie talked about how passionate Peters is in rescuing animals. He said that she regularly goes to shelters that have a “kill policy” (meaning that animals will be euthanized after a certain amount of time has passed) and takes them to shelters that do not have the same policy.

She and co-founder Mary Tyler Moore found a way to take their passion for our four-legged friends and add their celebrity to help animals find homes.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Broadway.com are producing the event. Paul Wontorek, who produced the recent Buyer and Cellar and Take Me to the World events, produces for Broadway.com

Photo: Bernadette Peters at the 2018 Broadway Barks events (Photo by Emilio Madrid for Broadway.com/Courtesy of Broadway.com)

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