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Ariana DeBose: There is indeed a place for us. Broadway Barrage Begins! #Stageworthy News of the Week

   Published Date: March 28, 2022  Leave a Comment on Ariana DeBose: There is indeed a place for us. Broadway Barrage Begins! #Stageworthy News of the Week
“Lastly, imagine this little girl in the back seat of a white Ford. Focus. Look into her eyes. You see a queer, an openly queer woman of color and Afro-Latina who found her strength in life through art. And that’s what I believe we’re here to celebrate. So to anybody who has ever questioned your identity, ever, ever, ever, or find yourself living in the grey spaces, I promise you this. There is indeed a place for us….” — Ariana DeBose, 31, Oscar winner as best supporting actress for “West Side Story,” six-time Broadway veteran (Tony-nominated for “Summer”)

This is a week for Black women — Ariana DeBose’s Oscar win, and the opening of two plays Off-Broadway: “Confederates” by Dominique Morisseau starring Michelle Wilson and Kristolyn Lloyd, and “Help” by Claudia Rankine starring April Mathis; my review of a new biography of Lorraine Hansberry. (see below.)

“…I want to thank all the wonderful deaf theater stages where I was given the opportunity to develop my craft as an actor” — Troy Kotsur, Oscar winner as best supporting actor for “CODA” (which also won best picture and best adapted in screenplay), signing in his native language, ASL. Kotsur is the first deaf man to win an Oscar, and a Broadway veteran for “Big River.”

Deaf West Theater Company is adapting the now Oscar-winning “CODA” into a stage musical! The movie is about the hearing child of deaf adults (coda) wanting to become a singer.

See videos of DeBose and Kotsur acceptance speeches below.

“If I only did Shakespeare and August Wilson for the rest of my life, I’d be happy” — Denzel Washington, on the Oscar red carpet.

Complete list of Oscar winners.

Spring 2022 Broadway Preview Guide: At Last
There are now SEVENTEEN openings in the remaining five weeks of the Broadway 2021-2022 season. (“POTUS, Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” has moved up its opening from May to April 27th.)


Broadway Poll: Spring 2022 Shows You Most and Least Want to See


The Week in Theater Reviews

Confederates: Two Black Women 160 Years Apart Fight For ‘Freedom’

Help. A Black Woman on What White People Are Thinking

MicroTeatro 2022 at The Clemente:The Cesar Chavez Story

Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Behind A Raisin in the Sun

The Week in Theater News

Celebrating #WorldTheaterDay 2022. Ukraine and their arts in our hearts

Watch Stars in the House Telethon for Ukraine

“Girl from the North Country” the Bob Dylan musical that was the last Broadway show to open before the pandemic, will return to the Belasco Theatre for 50 performances only, beginning April 29 until June 11.

The Drama Book Shop announced the launch of its online shop, which makes the thousands of scripts and theater books to be found at the New York store available worldwide.

Dierdre O’Connell:
David Henry Hwang

The Lucille Lortel Awards to Make Live Return May 1. Actor Deirdre O’Connell will receive the Lifetime Achievement with playwright, David Henry Hwang is this year’s Playwrights’ Sidewalk inductee.

“SIX” the musical welcomed Keri René Fuller in the role of Jane Seymour, Joy Woods as Catherine Parr, and alternate Hana Stewart to the cast. Fuller will remain in the cast while Abby Mueller takes a medical leave of absence. Stewart will serve as an alternate for the Broadway cast now through April 10

(L-R) Alexandria Wailes, Tendayi Kuumba, Stacey Sargeant, D. Woods, Kenita R. Miller, Director/Choreographer Camille A. Brown, Okwui Okpokwasili, Amara Granderson during rehearsals for the revival of the broadway play “for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf”

Lauren Pazienza, an event organizer, 26, has charged in the death of vocal coach Barbara Maier Gustern (NY Times)

In-person theater is back. A lost generation of artists chose not to return with it (LA Times)

The Humana Festival been canceled since 2020, and may never happen again. (NY Times)

Luminaries of the Theatre: New Yorker profiles over the years 

Liz McCann, 90, pioneering woman producer on Broadway who won nine Tony Awards (from the Elephant Man to Amadeus to Hair) during a 60-year career in theater.

The Broadway community will dim their lights at 6:30 p.m. in honor the memory of Tony-winning producer Elizabeth Ireland McCann on March 29, which would have been her 91st birthday

The Week’s Videos

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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