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Saturday, May 18
WATCH→ ABC's annual "Broadway Backstage" special taps Trip to Bountiful star Vanessa Williams as its co-host as the program explores highlights from the 2012-13 Broadway season. Expect tidbits from Annie, The Assembled Parties, I'll Eat You Last, Jersey Boys, Lucky Guy, Matilda, Motown and Pippin, among others. (7 PM ET, ABC. Info.)
Sunday, May 19
LAST CHANCE→ Alec Baldwin, Tom Sturridge and Ben Foster star in the Broadway revival of Lyle Kessler's drama Orphans. Despite an early closing notice, the show was nominated for a Best Revival Tony as well as a nod to Sturridge in the Leading Actor in a Play category. The story follows two brothers—one a petty thief with a penchant for violence (Foster), the other a slow-witted shut-in—who form an unlikely bond with a gangster they've kidnapped (Baldwin). (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W. 45th St., btwn. Broadway & 8th Ave. Click here for Playbill Club discount tickets.)
CLICK→ Winners for the 58th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be announced live at New York City's Town Hall at 8 PM EST. In the running are the best of Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. Check Playbill.com for a complete list of winners!
Monday, May 20
GO→ Tony winner Harriet Harris will play the titular Mrs. Kitty Warren in a reading of Mrs. Warren's Profession. Accompanying Harris on her journey through the famous George Bernard Shaw play about a genial woman whose private profession as a brothel proprietress causes trouble with her estranged daughter, are Matt Doyle, Tony winner Richard Easton and Amelia Pedlo. NY1 anchor and theatre critic Roma Torre will narrate. (7 PM, Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park S., btwn. Irving and Park Ave. $30. Info/tickets.) GO→ Actor, writer and advocate David Drake celebrates the 20th anniversary of his well-known solo The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, performed as a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Drake's show, written at the height of New York City's AIDS crisis, became one of the longest-running solo shows in New York theatre history and has birthed nearly 100 productions worldwide. Joining Drake for the one-night-only celebration are Brandon Cordeiro, two-time Tony Award nominee Robin de Jesús, two-time Tony nominee André De Shields, Claybourne Elder, Tony nominee Rory O'Malley, Anthony Rapp, Wesley Taylor, Chad Ryan, Donald C. Shorter, Jr., Aaron Tone and Tony winner BD Wong. (8 PM, Gerard W. Lynch Theatre at John Jay College, 524 W. 59th Street, btwn. 7th Ave. and Central Park West. Tickets start at $40. Info/tickets.)
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PREVIEWS (LA)→ The Scottsboro Boys, a stirring production that sought to musicalize the infamous Scottsboro rape case of 1931 in which a group of African-American teens were falsely accused of raping two white girls, lasted a mere two months on Broadway despite a moving Kander and Ebb score and inventive staging by Susan Stroman. It still, however, managed to garner 12 2011 Tony nominations, the second most nominations of any show that season. It now heads west in a Center Theatre Group production starring its Tony-nominated leading man, Joshua Henry. Tony winner Hal Linden, Trent Armand Kendall and J.C. Montgomery join Henry with Stroman re-creating her Broadway staging. Officially opens May 29. (Ahmanson Theatre, 601 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA. Info/tickets.)
Wednesday, May 22
PREVIEWS (TX)→ The Stephen Sondheim-John Weidman musical that ended up being Road Show (and Sondheim's last original musical) hasn't had a full-sale production in the US since its New York premiere in 2008. Now, Houston's Stages Repertory Theatre will take up the task of mounting the elusive musical based on the true story of the Mizner brothers who infamously swindled their way to wealth during the real estate boom of the 1920s. Officially opens May 25. (Stages Repertory Theatre in the Houston Center for the Arts building, 3210 Allen Parkway, Houston, TX. Info/tickets.)
Thursday, May 23
OPENING→ Jake Cannavale (son of Bobby) stars in the world premiere of Mando Alvarado's Basilica. Set in South Texas, it explores the relationship between Joe Garza, a hard-working Texan, and a pastor named Gilbert Gonzalez. (Through June 16, Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce St., just below Bleecker St. Click here for Playbill Club discount tickets.)
Friday, May 24
GO→ Fresh off a limited run at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre, blue-eyed soul band The Rascals—known for songs like "Good Lovin'," "Lonely Too Long," "It's a Beautiful Morning," "How Can I Be Sure" and "Groovin'"—kick off a North American tour at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL. The tour will take the Steven Van Zandt-staged "hybrid of a rock ‘n' roll concert and a Broadway show" to 12 spring-summer stops in Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Massachusetts and the NY/NJ area. (Info/tickets.)
Blake Ross is the editor of Playbill magazine. Follow her on Twitter @PlaybillBlake.
Watch Playbill Video's highlights from Orphans:
