Watch Anita Gillette and Don Scardino Read From The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 4

This post was originally published on Playbill - News

Written by: Bethany Rickwald

Dress Circle Publishing releases of The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 4, the latest in a series by acclaimed historian and producer Jennifer Ashley Tepper on Tuesday, March 9. In celebration of the release, Playbill is presenting exclusive videos of stars featured in the book reading each other’s theatrical tales. Check out Anita Gillette and Don Scardino above.

The multi-volume series tells the stories of all of the theaters on Broadway. The newest edition includes the beloved houses the Imperial, Jacobs, Studio 54, Minskoff, Friedman, and Golden Theatres, as well as the five Broadway theaters that were destroyed in 1982, changing the course of New York City history.

The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 4, which includes over 30 new interviews, features hundreds of theatre professionals discussing everything that makes Broadway essential. A portion of the book’s proceeds will benefit The Broadway Advocacy Coalition.

To order The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 4, visit DressCirclePublishing.com.

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Celebrating Women’s History Month With 60 Inspiring Women

This post was originally published on Playbill - Features

Written by: Felicia Fitzpatrick

In honor of International Women’s Day, we asked our social media followers to share with us the women in theatre who inspire them. Their answers included performers, directors, lighting designers, and more.

Flip through the 54 women our readers nominated below:

Celebrating Women’s History Month with 60 Inspiring Women

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Making Chess Sing: ‘Queen’s Gambit’ to Be Adapted for the Stage

This post was originally published on NY Times - Theater

Written by: Michael Paulson

Beth Harmon is making her next move.

A production company led by a Disney heir is planning to adapt “The Queen’s Gambit” into a stage musical. The fictional story is about an orphan girl — that’s Harmon — who becomes a pill-popping prodigy in the overwhelmingly male world of chess.

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Making Black Lives, Not Just Black Deaths, Matter Onstage

This post was originally published on NY Times - Theater

Written by: Jesse Green

As far as theater is concerned, the pandemic has been a paradox, shrinking life down to lockdown bubbles and simultaneously expanding horizons. When you can stream plays from Europe as easily as from Brooklyn, the world seems more interconnected than in the past — tied together by bonds of humanity.

But also by bonds of inhumanity, as two recent plays from London demonstrate. “Typical,” by Ryan Calais Cameron, is based on the case of Christopher Alder, a British-Nigerian man who died while in police custody in 1998. Its blunt force underlines the universality of racist violence. “Hymn,” by Lolita Chakrabarti, is a subtler, searching look at the tragedies that befall Black men who see racism as the least of their problems.

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Review: Kafka Meets Twitch in ‘Letter to My Father’

This post was originally published on NY Times - Theater

Written by: Elisabeth Vincentelli

Theater instructions used to be simple: Turn off your cellphone and unwrap your candy before the show starts. Now the M-34 company, based in Brooklyn, is recommending that audience members watch a YouTube tutorial before tuning in to its production of Franz Kafka’s “Letter to My Father.”

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How Cody Renard Richard Became One of Broadway’s Brightest Stars From Backstage

This post was originally published on Playbill - Features

Written by: Marc J. Franklin

Cody Renard Richard claims there is no such thing as a superstar stage manager. It’s a nice notion, but it doesn’t exist. It’s antithetical to the function of the role, he insists. But it is a humble little lie, one that is easily disproved by his presence on location in Harlem for a feature photo shoot on an unusually warm day for the middle of December. Dressed impeccably in a sleek black jumpsuit, cornrows, and shimmering silver shoes that could have just walked directly from an Instagram ad and onto his feet, he looks like a CW show’s interpretation of a theatre technician, which is to say: cool to the point of unfair.

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Tootsie’s Lilli Cooper and Santino Fontana Reunite for Virtual Reading of The Belle’s Stratagem February 22

This post was originally published on Playbill - News

Written by: Andrew Gans

Tootsie stars Lilli Cooper and Santino Fontana reunite February 22 for Red Bull Theater’s benefit reading of Hannah Cowley’s The Belle’s Stratagem. Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, the virtual event begins at 7:30 PM ET. A recording of the live stream will be available through February 26 at 7 PM ET.

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