Audra McDonald on tour… The Phantom turns 25…Stephen Sondheim and the hunt of a lifetime…and Mother’s Day comes early to Primary Stages.
Blake
Saturday, October 1
LAST CHANCE (FREE)? The Tenant, the newest offering of site-specific immersion theatre, features a retelling of Roland Topor’s novel and subsequent Roman Polanski film of the same name. Created by the Woodshed Collective and featuring an accompanying score by Tony winner Duncan Sheik, audience members explore five stories of a church transformed to look like a Paris apartment building, while dozens of actors perform around them. (West-Park Presbyterian Church, Amsterdam Ave. and 86th St., info/reservations for free tickets)
GO? Prior to bringing her critically acclaimed performance in the ART version of Porgy and Bess to Broadway this December, Audra McDonald will tour the country in concert. The four-time Tony Award winner will launch her multi-city tour at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and make stops in Boston, Washington, DC, New Jersey, California, New York, Michigan, Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and ending in University Park, PA. (Multiple locations, Click here for a tour itinerary)
Sunday, October 2
WATCH? Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its London premiere with a lush restaging at Royal Albert Hall, to be simulcast at movie theatres around the globe. The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall will feature Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess (who originated the roles of Phantom and Christine in the Phantom sequel Love Never Dies). (Simulcasts begin at 2 PM ET, Click here for a compete list of screenings near you)
Monday, October 3
GO? Attendees at the 20th Anniversary Celebration for Friends in Deed, hosted by Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, will go on a wild goose chase throughout the Museum of Natural History thanks to none other than Stephen Sondheim. Beyond the usual gala hoopla, this benefit will feature a treasure hunt designed by Sondheim, with music provided by Barbara Cook and Raúl Esparza. (6:30 PM, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West & 79th St., $1,500 tax deductible, info/tickets)
Tuesday, October 4
OPENING? Mothers of all different shapes, sizes and sexes are explored in Motherhood Out Loud. Featuring a mélange of short stories from writers Leslie Ayvazian, David Cale, Jessica Goldberg, Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley, Lameece Issaq, Claire LaZebnik, Lisa Loomer, Michele Lowe, Marco Pennette, Theresa Rebeck, Luanne Rice, Annie Weisman and Cheryl L. West, Motherhood explores the many ways to “mother” someone — from a playground-hating stay-at-home mom, to a newly-minted gay father, to a bitter lover of a mama’s boy, to a man taking care of his ailing mother. (Through October 29, Primary Stages, 59 E. 59th St., btwn. Park & Madison Aves., info/tickets)
Wednesday, October 5
OPENING? Annette O'Toole and Jeff McCarthy star in Southern Comfort, a new musical based on the Sundance award-winning documentary about transgender friends in rural Georgia. Featuring a folk/bluegrass score from Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis, Comfort follows Robert (played by O'Toole) and Lola (played by McCarthy) as they struggle for acceptance and normalcy in the back hills of “Bubba Land” Georgia. (CAP21 Black Box Theatre, 18 W. 18th St., btwn. 5th & 6th Aves., $18, info/tickets)
Thursday, October 6
GO? Broadway's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying dedicates an evening to The Trevor Project. A portion of the ticket sales from this Thursday’s performance, as well as items from a post-show auction hosted by Daniel Radcliffe, will benefit the organization that provides crisis intervention services for LGBT youth. If you’re unable to make that evening’s performance, you can support the initiative by purchasing tickets to another performance through Givenik.com, which donates 5 percent of tickets sold to the organization. (Al Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 West 45th St., btwn. 8th and 9th Aves., info/tickets)
Friday, October 7
RELOCATING? The doctor is once again in as the long-running Mark St. Germain play Freud’s Last Session makes another move, this time to New World Stages. (The production began at Barrington Stage Company in Massachusetts before making its New York City debut at the Upper West Side's new Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater). Germain’s drama imagines a fictional meeting between a then-burgeoning Christian writer C.S. Lewis (Mark H. Dold) and the atheist psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (Martin Rayner). (New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St., btwn 8th & 9th Aves., Click here for Playbill Club discount tickets)