Today is the second annual #LoveTheatreDay, originating in the United Kingdom but spread throughout the world.

This afternoon, Spring Awakening will perform at the White House, and simultaneously live-streamed at the White House website

as part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act. This is a good time to point out:

You do NOT have to know sign language to “get” @SpringBway. It’s clear as crystal, & just as beautiful. https://t.co/H1NE0mbgWA — Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 18, 2015

Week in New York Theater Reviews

Misery

Misery on Broadway is the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s story about a writer who’s imprisoned by a berserk fan. It’s not as good as either King’s novel nor the movie, but it’s likely to appeal to those who don’t know either, and to the number one fans of Bruce Willis.

Incident at Vichy

Incident at Vichy, presented by the Signature Theater in the first major New York production since its short Broadway run in 1964, is intelligent, well acted, and occasionally so relevant that it’s chilling. The action takes place in Vichy, France in 1942, when some dozen men have been rounded up, waiting in an old warehouse that is being used as a detention center as they are brought in one by one for interrogation by both French police and a Nazi professor from the “Race Institute.”…It’s stagey..But there are gasp-worthy moments that make Miller feel like a prophet

A View from the Bridge

A View From The Bridge, one of Arthur Miller’s most popular plays, has been on Broadway four times before, most recently just five years ago, starring Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson in an impressive Broadway debut. But it’s safe to say that the new View, at the Lyceum, is unlike any staged before, mostly for better, but also a bit for worse. The intense performance by Mark Strong, making hisBroadway debut, supported by the rest of the outstanding cast, makes this View worth viewing, but the powerful acting is not what makes this production distinct from previous versions. It’s the direction by Ivo van Hove….The director has staged this story with brutal abstraction, shorn of period details, props and backdrops, and even of shoes: All the actors are barefoot.

Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom

It sounded like a good match: Batman and Lost Boy movie director Joel Schumacher, versatile master of action and suspense, in his New York stage debut directing a play by Jennifer Haley, a writer I’ve called the first major playwright of the digital age, whose The Nether, a play that depicts a near future in which people lose themselves in a virtual world, won awards and entranced critics in New York and London earlier this year.

But “Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom” at the Flea Theater, for all its promise, doesn’t have the requisite dread and is doomed to disappoint.

Week in New York Theater Views

Five Lessons The Grateful Dead Can Teach Live Theater

Veterans and the Arts

How Can Theater Help in a Time of Crisis?

At the American Theatre Critics Association annual New York meeting:

Dramatists tallking to critics pic.twitter.com/uhL3ojMPWc — Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 13, 2015

We keep writing plays because we hope our fondest hopes & darkest fears are universal, and can help bring us together~#DougWright — Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 13, 2015

Revivals are wonderful.If it goes well, you soak up the glory; if badly, you had nothing to do with it~#DougWright #ATCANY15 — Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 13, 2015

When @WomensProject began, they figured they’d disband after fixing gender disparity.That was in 1978.~@LisaMcNulty #ATCANY15 — Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 13, 2015

In reviews of plays about women, there’s overwhelming reference to soap operas, as a way to say: Stay away~@MarshaNorman #ATCANY15 — Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 13, 2015

Week in New York Theater News

Sondheim,Spielberg,Streisand, Emilio and Gloria Estefan, Itzhak Perlman,James Taylor et al win Presidential Medal of Freedom

Jesse Tyler Ferguson to play 40 characters in revival of Fully Committed ,a comedy about trendy restaurant.Starts April 2 Lyceum

Phylicia Rashad to star in Head of Passes, new play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, directed by Tina Landau opening at the Public Theater March 28, 2016

Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow & Hamilton composer @Lin_Manuel win @nyhistory 2015 History Makers Award pic.twitter.com/fJiRBcyRjA — Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 11, 2015

At The Tony Awards committee meeting, both Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr of Hamilton were ruled eligible as Best Actor

Report: NYC schools are closer to the legal requirements in arts education,thanks to more money and #ArtsMonday training

Movie studio Broad Green is planning a movie of the life of Tennessee Williams, based on John Lahr’s bio

Fall,2016 Roundabout will present: A new adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard by Stephen Karam (author of The Humans), 2. Love,Love,Love by Mike Bartlett (author of King Charles III)

Hir at @PHnyc extends 2 more weeks through Sun, Dec 20 My review (I loved it) https://t.co/DXBLwa8MTR pic.twitter.com/CcsVpLUfY2 — Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 9, 2015

Casting Conflicts

NYC playwright Lloyd Suh objects to white actors playing Indian characters in his Jesus in India, so Pennnsylvania college production canceled.

Playwright @KatoriHall reacts to casting of white MLK Jr in her The Mountaintop https://t.co/xhJD4dTiX4 pic.twitter.com/6uicRiWGOT — Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) November 11, 2015

Dramatists Guild President Doug Wright blasts directors who cast against playwrights’ wishes.

The Wiz Live on NBC, December 3

Uzo Aduba as Glinda, Good Witch of the South Queen Latifah as The Wiz Shanice Williams as Dorothy — (Photo by: Paul Gilmore/NBC) Ne-Yo as Tinman — (Photo by: Paul Gilmore/NBC) Common as the Bouncer Elijah Kelly as Scarecrow — (Photo by: Paul Gilmore/NBC) David Alan Grier as Lion — (Photo by: Paul Gilmore/NBC)

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