Week in Review 3.25.16

New York City Ballet Teases New Season
The full lineup, including specific performance dates, has not been announced yet, but New York City Ballet did announce the outline of its 2016-2017 season. Most noteworthy is that the season will feature two world premieres by female choreographers. (The last time the company premiered a ballet by a female choreographer was in 2011.) Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and principal dancer Lauren Lovette will choreograph ballets that will premiere at the company's Fall Gala, which will also include a new work by soloist and resident choreographer Justin Peck (one of three ballets he'll create in the season), and a new work by corps de ballet member, Peter Walker. Continuing its focus on new(er) works, the spring season will include a four-week festival of ballets that were commissioned in the last 30 years. Highlights of the festival, I'm sure, will be all–Peck, all–Christopher Wheeldon, and all–Alexei Ratmansky nights. (The company isn't totally forgoing its storied repertoire. The 2016-2017 season will include 23 Balanchine ballets and six Robbins ballets.) The New York Times has more, and Lovette took to Instagram to reflect on the news.

Drama League Special Honors
The Drama League will honor three creative forces at its May awards ceremony. In addition to the competitive categories, the Unique Contribution to the Theater award will be presented to Deaf West Theatre, whose production of Spring Awakening was on Broadway this fall; the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater award will be presented to Sheldon Harnick, represented this season by Fiddler on the Roof and She Loves Me; and the Founder Award for Excellence in Directing will be presented to Ivo van Hove, who has barnstormed the New York theatre scene with A View from the Bridge and Lazarus, and is directing the upcoming revival of The Crucible. Nominees in the competitive categories will be announced April 20, and everyone will be honored on May 20. Playbill has more.

Behind the Scenes at New York City Ballet
Dance Spirit magazine goes behind the scenes at NYCB with the company's resident lighting designer, Mark Stanley. In this brief video, Stanley describes how different lights and lighting designs affect ballets. (Much of rehearsal footage is of Paz de La Jolla, likely footage shot for the documentary about the making of that Justin Peck ballet, Ballet 422.)


Casting News
  • Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant (Hold On To Me Darling) will star in the Netflix original series, Santa Clarita Diet. The series will premiere in 2017. Visit The Hollywood Reporter for details.

  • Mary Louise Parker (Heisenberg), Guy Pearce (Memento), Emily Skeggs (Fun Home), Austin McKenzie (Spring Awakening), and Rachel Griffiths (Other Desert Cities) have been cast in the ABC limited series, When We Rise, written by Dustin Lance Black, and chronicling the recent challenges and triumphs for LGBT rights. The Hollywood Reporter has more.

  • Rebecca Naomi Jones (American Idiot, The Fortress of Solitude) is joining the cast of the FX series, Sex and Drugs and Rock + Roll. Deadline has more.

  • Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) will portray disgraced figure skated Tonya Harding in the in-development flick, I, Tonya. Deadline has more.

  • Tony winner Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur, Fool for Love) has joined the cast of the upcoming David E. Kelly Amazon series, Trial. Arianda will star alongside Billy Bob Thornton, Olivia Thirlby, and others. Deadline has more.

  • Tony nominee Geneva Carr (Hand to God) and Morgan Spector complete the cast of Incognito, the new Nick Payne (Constellations) play that will have its US premiere at MTC this spring. Previews begin May 3, and opening night is May 24. Playbill has more.

  • The cast of Brain Dead continues to grow. Tony nominee Beth Malone (Fun Home) will have a recurring role. She joins the previously announced Aaron Tveit, Nikki M. James, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Tony Shalhoub, and others. Playbill has more. (And check out the just-released key art, at right.)

  • Complete casting for the world premiere of Gregory S. Moss's Indian Summer has been announced. The cast for the Playwrights Horizons production include Joe Tippett (currently on the PH stage in Familiar), Elise Kibler (The Heidi Chronicles), and more. Visit Theater Mania for the full cast list. Previews begin May 13.
National Recording Registry
25 songs/recordings will enter the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. Each year, songs are added to the registry, which canonizes recordings that have a cultural, artistic, and/or historical significance in American life. Among the recordings being added to the registry are: a recording of Mahler's ninth symphony; "A Love Supreme," by John Coltrane; "Where Did Our Love Go," by The Supremes; the George Carlin album, Class Clown; "Piano Man," by Billy Joel; and "Master of Puppets," by Metallica. For the full list of recordings being added to the registry, visit loc.gov.

Hamilton on Tour and Across the Pond
The national tour of Hamilton will make stops in Boston and Las Vegas during the 2017-2018 season. Theater Mania has more about the Boston stop, and Broadwayworld.com has more about the Las Vegas stop. Meanwhile, plans for a West End production of the hit musical continue to develop. According to recent speculation, Hamilton will play the Victoria Palace Theatre. The venue's current tenant, Billy Elliot, is vacating on April 9. After that, the theatre will be refurbished. If the theatre is ready in time, reports suggest, the revolution will move in. Broadway.com has more about that.

Dig This
  • Not so diggable: the Tony-winning production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time will conclude its Broadway run on September 4. The play will have run for two years, a remarkable achievement. Broadway.com has more.

  • The Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra will perform Broadway songs that have been reinvented with swing arrangements. The concerts will take place April 14-16. Playbill has more.

  • LA's Ahmanson Theatre has announced its 2016-2017 season, and it includes Ivo van Hove's production of A View from the Bridge and Fiasco Theatre's production of Into the Woods, as well as Amelie, Fun Home, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and Jersey Boys. Broadwayworld.com has more.

  • The hilarious Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been renewed for a fourth season. E! Online has more.

  • Tony winner Johnny Gallagher stopped by Paste magazine to perform a few songs from his debut album, Six Day Hurricane. Gallagher (American Idiot, The Newsroom) will soon be back on Broadway in Roundabout's revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night.

  • Ta-nehisi Coates, Lynn Nottage, Branden Jacobs-Jenkin (Gloria), and Stephen Adly Guirgis (Between Riverside and Crazy) are among the American Academy of Arts and Letter Literature Award winners. Read the press release for the full list.

  • Check out the trailer for the fifth season of Veep, premiering on HBO on Sunday, April 24 (the same night as Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley).

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