The Broadway Blog’s editor Matthew Wexler rounds up three of our favorite picks for August.
The dog days of summer are here so what better time to ensconce yourself in a cool, dark theater where someone else is paying the electricity bill? And if you’re entertained, all the better. Our picks for the month run the gamut from star concerts to new works and a few classics for good measure. Take your pick!
Megan Hilty (Photo provided by Provincetown Art House.)
Megan Hilty at the Provincetown Art House
August 13 -17
Megan Hilty was a breakout star of NBC’s Smash and starred on Broadway in Wicked and 9 to 5: The Musical. She most recently starred as Liz on NBC’s Sean Saves The World with Sean Hayes of Will & Grace fame. She returns to the original Broadway @ The Art House series this month by popular demand after her sold-out debut run at the theater last summer. She will be joined by husband and fellow Broadway star Brian Gallagher on guitar August 13, 14, 15 and 18, and will be joined by series host and SiriusXM star Seth Rudetsky at piano on August 16 and 17. For tickets, visit The Art House website, or call 508-487-9222.
A native of Seattle, Hilty made her Broadway debut as Glinda in Wicked shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and went on to perform the role in both the national tour and in Los Angeles. She has also appeared on New York stages as Lorelei Lee in the Encores! production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, for which she earned rave reviews. For her critically acclaimed portrayal of Doralee Rhodes in Broadway’s 9 to 5: The Musical she received nominations for the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League Awards, as well as the L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award. She has previously performed with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center and with the Cincinnati Symphony. Hilty was recently signed to Sony Music in a partnership between Sony Masterworks and Columbia Records. Her new album, It Happens All The Time, was released last spring, including fresh interpretations of compositions by contemporary songwriters and producers.
Seth Rudetsky is the afternoon Broadway host on Sirius XM satellite radio and has played for more than a dozen Broadway shows as well as performing stand-up comedy and appearing on Broadway in The Ritz. As an author, he wrote the books The Q Guide to Broadway, Broadway Nights, and just released his new novel My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan on Random House, and as an audio book on audible.com. This past summer he co-produced of the critically acclaimed play Unbroken Circle by James Wesley, and is co-playwright and star of the hit new Off-Broadway ‘disaster movie musical’ Disaster!, which ran this past season at St. Luke’s Theatre in New York.
About the Series:
This Broadway concert series was inaugurated in 2011 by Mark Cortale at The Art House in Provincetown featuring Seth Rudetsky as pianist and host. This 2013-14 series began in Los Angeles @ The Broad Stage, Fort Lauderdale @ The Parker Playhouse, The Poconos @ The Stroudsmoor, Woodstock, NY @ The Woodstock Playhouse, Hartford @ The Bushnell, Detroit @ The Berman Center for the Performing Arts… and next at a city near you soon!
CLICK HERE for tickets.
Can’t make the show, consider Kristen Chenoweth (Aug. 10), Bryan Batt (Aug. 24) or Cheyenne Jackson (Aug. 29-31).
The New York International Fringe Festival
August 8-24
FringeNYC returns for another year, presenting the largest multi-arts festival in North America. Take your pick from more than 200 companies from around the world. The 16-day festival is presented in more than 20 venues with a staggering 1,200 performances.
A few highlights include:
<50% (Photo by Hunter Canning via The Broadway Blog.)
Annie Hall meets Inception in the new unromantic comedy <50%, which reunites Gianmarco and his ex-girlfriend-of-five-years to reenact the creation of an autobiographical show that may never have happened. With shifting fourth-walls, stand-up comedy confessionals, and an extraordinarily unreliable narrator, the audience is left to uncover the truth for themselves. Directed by Helen Hayes Award-nominated Max Freedman (son of Tony Award Winner Robert L. Freedman, book writer for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder).
Kraine Theater, 85 East 4th Street
Friday 8/8 @ 7:45pm
Monday 8/11 @ 2:30pm
Friday 8/15 @ 5:30pm
Thursday 8/21 @ 5pm
Saturday 8/23 @ 1pm
CLICK HERE for tickets.
tangleplay
boom! theater company
Abrazo Interno at the Clemente, 107 Suffolk Street
Glenda Strong enters a place called The Maze where she is commissioned to lose her identity with the help of the people she meets including the audience. Prequel to “boxplay”, awarded Excellence in Overall Production at FringeNYC 2012.
Wednesday, 8/8 @ 2pm
Friday, 8/15 @10:15pm
Sunday, 8/17@1:45pm
Monday, 8/18 @7:30pm
Thursday, 8/21 @ 9:30pm
Sunday, 8/24 @ 2:45pm
CLICK HERE for tickets.
The 8th Fold
Sheen Center – The Loretto, 18 Bleecker Street
Two planes, two towers and four boys forced into manhood, searching for a path towards a brave new beginning. Direct from London, this new musical celebrates the power of friendship, hope and the courage to start again.
Friday, 8/8 @ 9:15pm
Monday 8/11 @ 4:15pm
Saturday 8/16 @ 4:15pm
Monday, 8/18 @ 9p.m.
Saturday 8/23 @ 12pm
CLICK HERE for tickets.
There’s more! Take the leap for our final pick.
John Lithgow and Clarke Peters in “King Lear” (photo: Joan Marcus via The Broadway Blog.)
King Lear
Shakespeare in the Park, Delacorte Theater
Revenge, rage, grief and delusion thunder upon the Delacorte as Tony® and Emmy® Award winner John Lithgow takes the stage as one of theater’s great tragic heroes, King Lear. Tony winner Daniel Sullivan directs Shakespeare’s classic drama about a King who loses everything—including his mind—when he disowns his favorite daughter, and finds himself betrayed in return.
New York’s most treasured summer tradition, Free Shakespeare in the Park, celebrates its 52nd season in Central Park’s famous Delacorte Theater. Love and madness, laughter and tragedy combine for a uniquely thrilling season of exciting theater and exceptional performances under the stars. Join over 5 million people who have enjoyed The Public Theater’s free performances and experience the heights of romance and the depths of duplicity in a setting unlike any other, in the heart of Manhattan.
Through August 17.
CLICK HERE for three ways to obtain free tickets.
