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Saturday, June 22
GO→ Caramoor, a private country estate-turned-cultural-center nestled in Westchester, NY, celebrates its 68th Summer Festival with a 50th anniversary production of the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick musical She Loves Me. Tony nominees Santino Fontana, Brad Oscar, Jonathan Freeman and Montego Glover, Tony winner John Cullum, Alexandra Silber and Ryan Silverman round out the cast of this 1963 musical about clerks in a European parfumerie who turn out to be more than just co-workers due to a series of mistaken identities. (Through June 23, Caramoor, 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, NY, $15-$85. Info/tickets.)
Sunday, June 23
GO→ Broadway Bares celebrates 23 years of delicious debauchery with United Strips of America. This annual summer striptease event featuring hundreds of scantily-clad Broadway dancers began in 1992 by Jerry Mitchell and has gone on to raise $9.8 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Special guests include 2013 Tony Award winners Judith Light and Billy Porter, Tony and Olivier Award winner Alan Cumming, Bravo’s Andy Cohen, Max von Essen, Christopher Sieber, Charl Brown, Lesli Margherita, Kate Rockwell and Eric LaJuan Summers. (9:30 PM & midnight, limited availability, Roseland Ballroom, 239 W. 52nd St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave. Info/tickets.)
GO (FREE)→ Summer in the city means lots of free, outdoor theatre! Check out New York Classical Theatre productions that have audience members roaming about alongside the actors in various NYC hotspots. This week’s production is Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, and it starts in Central Park off 103rd Street. Other summer productions find themselves in Battery Park, Governor’s Island and the World Financial Center. And if you’re in the market for more theatre under the stars, read this Playbill guide to outdoor summer theatre! (7 PM, Central Park, 103rd St. & Central Park West, no prior reservations required. Info.)
Monday, June 24
GO→ Charles Busch, Robert Cuccioli, Jackie Hoffman, Martin Moran, Michael Musto, Ed Dixon and George S. Irving star in a one-night-only reading of George Bernard Shaw’s Too True to be Good. The madcap comedy about two glamorous jewel thieves is produced as part of the ongoing Project Shaw series, dedicated to preserving the legacy of Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Time Out New York’s memorably mustachioed critic Adam Feldman will narrate. (7 PM, The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park South, 20th St., east of Park Ave., $30. Info/tickets.) Wednesday, June 26
GO (FREE)→ TKTS, the discount ticket booth that has become an icon of Times Square, celebrates its 40th birthday with a gaggle of performances and appearances by some of Broadway’s best. Harvey Fierstein, a performance by the cast of Forbidden Broadway, Julie Halston, Broadway karaoke and a display of famous Broadway costumes from the TDF Costume Collection are expected at the celebration in Duffy Square. Since opening in 1973, the TKTS booth has sold close to 60 million tickets! (11 AM, Duffy Square, Broadway btwn. 46th & 47th Sts. Info.)
GO→ Andrew Lippa debuts and stars in a new concert piece, I Am Harvey Milk, about the eponymous firebrand politician who was assassinated for his outspoken championing of gay rights in 1970s San Francisco. Tony winner Laura Benanti will also be featured in Lippa’s oratorio that utilizes Milk’s own words to paint a musical portrait of this pioneering politician. (Through June 28, Nourse Theatre, Van Ness & Hayes St., San Francisco, CA, $25-$65. Info/tickets.)
Thursday, June 27
OPENING→ The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin opens at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Off-Broadway outpost, the Laura Pels Theatre. David Morse (of “House” fame) stars as the titular Durnin, a white-collar criminal who attempts to reconnect with his family after a stint in jail. Also starring Christopher Denham, Lisa Emery, Sarah Goldberg and “Man Men” star Rich Sommer. (Through July 3, Laura Pels Theatre, 111 W. 46th St., btwn. 6th & 7th Aves. Click here for Playbill Club discounted tickets.)
photo by Karl Giant |
GO→ How you doin’, Chicago? Talk-show host Wendy Williams will be the latest celebrity to join the Broadway cast of Chicago for a limited run. The famously bewigged and bejeweled Williams will join the company — which includes Amy Spanger, Amra-Faye Wright and Alexander Gemignani — as Matron “Mama” Morton for a seven-week stint. (Ambassador Theatre, 215 W. 49th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave. Click here for Playbill Club discount tickets.)
GO→ “Annie: It’s a Hard-Knock Life, From Script to Stage” chronicles the development of Broadway’s newest revival of the famous Martin Charnin-Charles Strouse-Thomas Meehan musical. The one-hour PBS documentary gives a behind-the-scenes look at the earliest stages of development of the family-favorite musical to its opening night at Broadway’s Palace Theatre. (9 PM ET, PBS. Check local listings.)
Blake Ross is the editor of Playbill magazine. Follow her on Twitter @PlaybillBlake.
Watch highlights of Broadway's Annie: