Mr. Steinglass: Donald Trump cannot shoot someone during rush hour on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
Mr. Blanche: Objection your Honor.
The Court: Sustained
Mr. Steinglass: You, the jury, have the ability to hold the Defendant accountable.
And they did last Thursday, unanimously finding the Defendant guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The Trump “hush money” trial was not televised, but the entire transcript is available online. As tedious as I’m sure it was to sit through, there are enough riveting – and dramatic – passages to make one wonder: Will somebody eventually turn the trial into a play?
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of theater in the month of June, and beyond:
June 2024 New York Theater Openings
The Tony Awards Quiz
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
The outdoor bilingual musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s shortest play has returned, just as festive and comically confusing as it was last summer, but now the main attraction of Free Shakespeare in the Park, since the Delacorte Theater in Central Park is shut down for renovations. “The Comedy of Errors” is touring through all five boroughs over the next month. Full review
How To Eat An Orange
There is a sly strategy to the fanciful title of this solo play, as there is to performer Paula Pizzi’s soft-spoken lyricism. They make it easier, for one, to take in the underlying horror. “How to Eat An Orange” does indeed begin with Pizzi sitting at a table slicing into an orange with a knife and fork, but it winds up telling the fascinating true story of Claudia Bernardi’s life’s work, using her practical skills as a visual artist to excavate some justice and beauty in the face of mass murder.
Her activism began when, after getting an MFA from Berkeley, she returned to her native Argentina to volunteer with the forensic anthropology team that was locating and identifying the bodies of the Argentines who had been “disappeared” during the country’s military dictatorship. Full review
The Week in New York Theater News
Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald will star in the sixth Broadway production of “Gypsy” directed by six-time Tony winner George C. Wolfe, opening December 19 at the Majestic (the first tenant in this Broadway house after The Phantom of the Opera’s 35-year run.) This brings to twenty the number of shows with opening dates and venues in the Broadway 2024-25 season.
“It’s one of the great roles in musical theater, and I’ve always thought maybe some day I could try it. It scares me to death, but I certainly feel old enough now, and having experienced motherhood, perhaps I have what is needed to dive in.”
Here she is, boys! Here she is, world! 🌹 Watch Audra McDonald’s appearance on the @todayshow with @HodaAndJenna talking all things GYPSY. Tickets for #gypsybway are available now at the link in our bio. pic.twitter.com/VkGJPzIPll
— Gypsy on Broadway (@gypsybway) June 1, 2024
Let’s start with the extremely recent past. Three days ago, you went to the Met Gala. How was your night?
The big headline for me was Lea Michele was pregnant, and I sat next to her at the table, holding her giant train thing while she peed…
Tell me about the moment you chose to come out publicly. You were at the National Equality March, in 2009…
A month after I left “Spring Awakening,” I went to Italy by myself. I saw Michelangelo’s David, and I started hysterically crying. My brother came to meet me in Rome, and he was the first person that I came out to. Then I came out to my friends and family, and I broke up with my “roommate,” who was my boyfriend for three and a half years. I did “Hair” in Central Park, but there was no occasion to announce that I had come out. I was just sort of living.
Then I fell in love with Gavin Creel. We were doing this march on Washington. The woman from Broadway.com was interviewing me, and she was, like, “Who do you represent at this march?” And I froze. She saw me get tight and was, like, “Oh, never mind.” I remember looking at Gavin, who was holding a bullhorn, directing people into the march. And I was, like, I fucking love him so much. I’m coming out. I’m at the fucking gay marriage-equality march! I walked back over to her and said, “I’m here because I’m gay. And that’s what I’m sharing with you.” She said, “On the record?” And I said, “Yes, on the record.” I hadn’t planned it. It just happened that way.
[He bursts into tears.] I can’t tell why I cry! When we were about to start rehearsal for “Merrily,” I would listen to “Our Time,” and I couldn’t sing it without crying….The whole reason that I’m here now is because of that person, but that person no longer exists….
Details of the third annual Pride in Times Square celebration of free programming during Pride Weekend on June 28 & 29.
Details of the Flea’s fourth annual line-up of FREE Juneteenth public performance
When the Stage Harnesses the Power of the Movies (NY Times)
Movie critic Alissa Wilkinson look at the latest wave of screen-to-stage shows, from Tony nominees The Notebook,” “The Outsiders” and “Days of Wine and Roses,” to ‘interesting theater from movie sources hailing from left field,” – Teeth at Playwrights Horizons and The Hunt at St. Ann’s Warehouse….“There are more to come. Productions of “Death Becomes Her” (based on Robert Zemeckis’s 1992 satirical black comedy) and “Good Night, and Good Luck” (based on the 2005 drama directed by George Clooney, who will star in the Broadway show) have been announced in recent weeks. And while Disney has been in the theater game for a long time, producing shows at the New Amsterdam Theater, other film companies are eyeing the stage too. In 2023, the indie darling movie production company A24 bought the Cherry Lane Theater, a small but venerable venue in Greenwich Village. Netflix, meanwhile, is a co-producer on “Patriots,” which nabbed a Tony nomination for its star, Michael Stuhlbarg.”
