Theater News
- Javier
- 20 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Stagefright by Javier
It is hard to believe that the musical RENT opened on Broadway thirty years ago! To celebrate this occasion, Starring Buffalo will present the popular musical in the company’s signature staged concert format. Direction is by Drew Fornarola, with music direction by Karen Saxon and choreography by Chanon Judson. Leading the cast are Drama Desk Award nominee Kennedy Kanagawa (Into the Woods) as Mark, Broadway's Ben Jackson Walker (& Juliet) as Roger, and American Idol's Alyssa Wray as Mimi. Joining them are Buffalo performers George L. Brown, Jake Hayes, Alexandra McArthur, Kayla McSorley, Blaise Mercedes, Jennifer Mysliwy, Joe Russi, and Josh Wilde. The Starring Buffalo Community Chorus and professional and student dancers from the Western New York region will also appear. One show only: Saturday, May 9th at 2 p.m. at Shea’s main stage. For tickets go to www.starringbuffalo.org.
Daphne Rubin-Vega, the original Mimi Márquez, is now back on the New York stage, appearing off-Broadway in Elmer Rice’s 1923 expressionistic drama The Adding Machine. Since Rubin-Vega left Rent in 1997, she has been very active in movies and TV, but has never abandoned the theater.
RENT was just presented at the Lockport Palace and will be part of O’Connell & Company’s 2026-27 season, a season that includes some other classics: Guys & Dolls, starring Joey Bucheker as Nathan Detroit, Ashleigh Chrisena Ricci as Sarah Brown, and Nicholas Lama as Nicely Nicely; Gypsy … and now it’s Ludwig’s turn, here she comes boys!; and Tony ‘n Tina’s Wedding, starring Maria Kreutinger and Michael Seitz. In the meantime, the musical revue Alive and Kicking! (Laughter Never Gets Old) opens on April 10th at Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center, directed by (and starring) Kelli Bocock-Natale, with Corey Bieber, Sam Crystal, Sandra Gilliam, John Kreuzer, and Phil Salemi, Jr.
Productions are beginning to pile up! April is here; that awful winter is gone; Easter is this weekend. Perfect timing then for MusicalFare, now presenting Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s classic rock-opera about the final week of the life of Jesus Christ, directed by Randall Kramer and Michael Oliver-Walline and choreographed by Oliver-Walline, with music direction by Theresa Quinn. Now playing at Shea’s 710 through April 19th, the production stars Tiger J. Brown as Jesus, Aimee Walker as Mary Magdalene, Quinn McGillion as Judas, Lily Jones as Pontius Pilate, Philip Farugia as Caiaphas, and Kristopher Bartolomeo as Herod. This is MusicalFare’s third production of the musical; the previous outings were at the Pfeifer Theatre, now known as the Town Ballroom. MusicalFare will open the 2026-27 season with another classic rock gem, the musical Hair, co-directed by Eric Deeb Weaver and Alexandria Watts. The season will also include revivals of Sweeney Todd and Beautiful, with Maria Pedro reprising her performance as Carole King. Disney’s Frozen arrives in December under the direction of Weaver, and The Wedding Singer – The Musical, directed by Chris Kelly and choreographed by Oliver-Walline, will mark the pair’s first collaboration.
I wonder if there should be an Artie for Outstanding Revival. Maybe not. Speaking of Pedro, she will be co-hosting the 35th Annual Artie Awards with Jake Hayes and Anthony Chase. Philip Farugia returns as music director. The event will be held on Monday, June 8, 2026, at Babeville. Start shopping for wardrobe now.
The popular Jesus Christ Superstar will also be back in the West End this summer, playing the London Palladium. The show will star Sam Ryder as Jesus. King Herod will be shared by six different actors across the eleven-week run, including Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Boy George.
Now at the Alleyway is a play about what happens to friendships in the face of crisis, Things with Friends by Kristoffer Diaz. The play premiered in Chicago this past September and is described as “funny, witty, sharp, and stormy.” Diaz was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity and wrote the book for the musical Hell's Kitchen, for which he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. Hell’s Kitchen is built on the music and lyrics of Alicia Keys (it’s coming to Shea’s next season). Directed by Christopher Handley, Things with Friends stars Sarah French, Sunny Griffith, Stan Klimecko, Smirna Mercedes, David C. Mitchell, and Shanntina Moore.
Buffalo State alumnus playwright Marco Antonio Rodriguez currently has two productions running at very prestigious venues. The English-language stage premiere of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao has been extended a couple of times at the Goodman in Chicago. At the same time, New York audiences can catch his earlier Spanish-language adaptation, La Breve y Maravillosa Vida de Oscar Wao, at Repertorio Español through April 30th.
David Bondrow and John Kaczorowski, who previously appeared together as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom in The Producers, return to the Lancaster Opera House stage as Oscar and Felix in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. Directed by Thomas LaChiusa, the production also features Dan Morris, Michael J. Galante, Nathan Andrew Miller, John Kennedy, Lori Panaro, and Kate Mulberry. It runs April 10th–26th. Kaczorowski was recently appointed Managing Director of the Opera House. Bondrow serves as Artistic & Executive Director. Are they the real-life odd couple?
We hear that Lancaster Opera House will be including some more serious fare next season, as Drew McCabe will be directing The Elephant Man, starring Rick Lattimer.
Keeping up with her apparent goal of having one of her plays produced by every company in town, First Look Buffalo will present Donna Hoke’s new dark comedy The Lazarus Club in April 2027. The season will also include Squatch, a new play by Jeff Goode coming up in January 2027.
Two local theater companies best known for legit plays have musicals coming up. Road Less Traveled Productions will present Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, book by Stephen King and music and lyrics by John Mellencamp, April 17th – May 17th. Directed by Doug Weyand, the production stars Leah Berst, Ricky Needham, Anna Fernandez, Ryan Butler, Matt Witten, Thomas Evans, and Alex Garcia. Expect a spooky and cautionary tale with many special effects. Next season starts with the stage adaptation of The DaVinci Code, to be directed by David Oliver and starring Chris Avery. And a very warm welcome back to Scott Behrend, who will direct Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a new version adapted by Annie Baker. A favorite of the company, they previously produced Baker’s John, Circle Mirror Transformation, and The Antipodes. Behrend will also direct Epiphany, a modern reimagining of James Joyce's The Dead.
Irish Classical Theatre opens Islander next week, a two-actor folk musical from the UK conceived by Amy Draper, with book by Stewart Melton and music and lyrics by Finn Anderson. The regional premiere runs April 10–26, 2026, in a production directed by Jessica Hillman-McCord and performed by Kayla McSorley and Vanessa Vacanti, using live-looped vocals, with looping machine coach Curtis Lovell, to evoke a remote Scottish island where a solitary girl’s encounter with a stranger from the sea prompts a quiet collision of myth, climate anxiety, and contemporary island life. There have been some administrative changes at the Irish: Benjamin Verdi is now the Interim General Manager.
David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award–winning play Proof is back on Broadway this season after its 2000 premiere, in a production directed by Tony winner Thomas Kail (Hamilton). Proof will also be back in Buffalo, courtesy of Second Generation Theatre as part of the company’s 26-27 season, which will also include the horror comedy rock musical Bat Boy and the off-Broadway dark comedy Georgia Mertching is Dead. All will be performed at Shea’s Smith Theatre. After its huge success with Mamma Mia!, 2nd Gen will return to 710 Main with the musical Mean Girls, directed by Michael Gilbert Wachowiak, in June 2027.
We have already mentioned Drew Fornarola, founder of Starring Buffalo and director of many of the company’s shows. Well, he is also a composer and a playwright. Is there no end to this man’s talent? Years ago, BUA presented his play Straight, which he co-wrote with Scott Elmegreen. Now BUA is presenting the WNY premiere of their new play The Laughing Troll Café, directed by Mike Doben and starring Sandra Roberts, Sabrina Kahwaty Garcia, Samuel Fesmire, and Caitlin Coleman. The play runs April 10–25 at the Compass Performing Arts Center, 545 Elmwood Ave. Roberts will portray Kate in the upcoming Shakespeare in Delaware Park production of Taming of the Shrew.
Actress Valerie Perrine died last week at age 82, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. She received an Oscar nomination for her performance in the film Lenny and starred in several other films, including Superman. I will remember her best for the 1980 film Can’t Stop the Music, a pseudo-biography of the 1970s disco group the Village People. It was directed by Nancy Walker.
