Theatre Development Fund (TDF), a not-for-profit group which promotes accessibility to the theater, will spearhead autism-friendly performances of five Broadway shows next season for families with children and adults on the autism spectrum, including “The Lion King,” “Frozen,” “Wicked,” “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and “Aladdin.” “The energy in the theatre is electric at the autism-friendly performances … It comes from an audience knowing they are free to be themselves enjoying the show, and actors who embrace the opportunity to share it with them,” Lisa Carling, TDF’s Director of Accessibility Programs, said in a statement. For more info visit tdf.org.
Harry Connick Jr. is returning to Broadway
Harry Connick Jr., who was last seen on Broadway in a misguided flop revival of the musical “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” will return for the holidays with a new concert celebrating and reinterpreting the work of songwriter Cole Porter (“Anything Goes,” “Kiss Me, Kate”). It will play the Nederlander Theatre (where “Pretty Woman” is about to close) in December. Last year, Connick headlined the world premiere of a musical adaptation of the 1973 film “The Sting” at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.
Full cast of ‘Rose Tattoo’ with Tomei announced
Emun Elliott, who played Marillon (the singer who suffered an unfortunate fate at the hands of King Joffrey Baratheon in season one of "Game of Thrones"), has joined the cast of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo,” which stars Marisa Tomei and begins previews on Sept.19. The cast also includes Cassie Beck (“The Humans”), Paige Gilbert (“School Girls”) and Greg Hildreth (“Frozen”) and Kecia Lewis (“Once On This Island”).
PBS to present Off-Broadway dramas
Three recent Off-Broadway productions — Richard Nelson’s version of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” Jocelyn Bioh’s teen drama “School Girls” and Martín Zimmerman’s monologue “On the Exhale” — will be screened on PBS/Thirteen as part of the Theater Close-Up series beginning Aug. 16. Plays that have previously been featured on the series include John Strand’s “The Originalist” and Nelson’s “The Apple Family Plays.”
Spotted …
Michelle Obama at “Hadestown” … Michelle Visage at “Oklahoma!”…Anna Wintour at “Moulin Rouge!”…Lin-Manuel Miranda at “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
