Hugh Jackman-led movie musical The Greatest Showman demonstrated an unexpected level of persistence following its 2017 debut, bucking lukewarm reviews to become ubiquitous through 2018, spurring plans for a sequel that were only boosted by Jackman’s Showman-song-heavy arena tour. It’s unclear if the sequel—which, like the original, would likely star the Deadpool & Wolverine frontman as an extremely soft-pedaled P.T. Barnum—is still in play, but now there’s another Showman plan afoot. The movie will be adapted into a live theater spectacle, Disney announced Friday, a staged musical that is likely Broadway-bound.
The news came at D23, a three-day event for fans of everything Disney (which includes the universes of Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and more). At a Friday panel on the entertainment monolith’s musical theater plans, after announcements of new Frozen stage show dates and a West End adaptation of the company’s animated Hercules film, “the iconic howl from the 2017 movie musical sounded across the arena,” Variety reports.
That howl, “Ladies and gents, this is the moment you’ve waited for,” kicked off a surprise rendition of “The Greatest Show,” performed by singers led by Ryan Vasquez in the Hugh Jackman role. Under a sign that reads “The Greatest Showman: The New Musical,” the cast of five teased the upcoming show, a video posted to social media reveals.
The staged adaption of the film will be produced by the Disney Theatrical division, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Typically, stage shows produced by that division end up on Broadway: past productions include the currently running Aladdin and The Lion King adaptations, as well as 2018’s Frozen show.
Dates or a destination for the Showman show were not revealed on Friday, but Page Six appears to have a clue, reporting Saturday that the production will land first in the southwest England town of Bristol “in early 2026” and then will “play the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London.”
It’s International Cat Day, and in the spirit of dogs being man’s best friend and cats being man’s apathetic roommate, get out of your cat’s fur for a little bit this week and check out our best bets. This week, we’ve got a classic movie musical from 1978, Houston’s largest horror convention, and a classic adventure tale. Keep reading, and don’t worry – your cat will still love you when you get home.
Grease is still the word for generations of fans, including apparently the Prince and Princess of Wales. According to a new biography, Prince William and Kate Middleton took to the floor at their Buckingham Palace wedding reception and lip-synced along to “You’re the One That I Want,” which “brought the house down.” On Thursday, August 8, at 8 p.m., you too can sing along with the Pink Ladies and T-Birds when Movies Under the Stars at Market Square Park screens the 1978 musical Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Bring a blanket or lawn chair to be comfy as you watch a good girl and greaser try to keep their summer love going once back in the reality of their 1950s high school. The screening is free, and you can register for it here.
We’ve still got a little more than 80 days left until Halloween, but you can get your horror fix this weekend when the Houston Horror Film Fest, H-Town’s largest horror film festival and expo, returns on Friday, August 9, from 5 to 10 p.m. at the Houston Marriott of Westchase. The horror con promises more than 100 vendors and over 70 screenings, special Q&A panels, and, of course, celebrity meet and greets with actors from franchises like Child’s Play, Halloween, and Twilight. The fest continues on Saturday, August 10, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, August 11, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets can still be purchased at the door, with single-day passes available for $50 and three-day passes for $60. Children 12 and under are free with an adult ticket.
Creative Movement Practices will bring Robert Louis Stevenson’s adventure classic Treasure Island, about a kid who finds a treasure map and clashes with pirates, to the MATCH on Friday, August 9 at 7:30 p.m. Though CMP’s founding artistic director, Sarah Sneesby, has adapted the story for adults, the show is still all-ages-welcome and family-friendly. Performances will continue through Sunday, August 25, at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Monday, August 19; 3 p.m. Sundays and Saturday, August 17, and Saturday, August 24; with a special sensory-friendly performance on Saturday, August 17, at 11 a.m. Tickets are available here for $15 to $30, with lap children aged two and under free, and pay-what-you-can performances on Monday and Thursday nights.
Experience the avant-garde work of women making films between 1920 and 1970 during Framing Abstraction, a short film program that will be presented over at The Menil Collection on Friday, August 9, at 8 p.m. The program will feature film works from women like Germaine Dulac and Carolee Schneemann, as well as Texas-born Mary Ellen Bute, a pioneer in visual music; Marie Menken, who not only made a name for herself via experimental filmmaking but inspired (along with her husband Willard Maas) Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; and Maya Deren, who “nearly single-handedly put experimental cinema on the American cultural map” and “became the name of avant-garde cinema by becoming its face.” As always, programs at the Menil are free and open to the public.
And finally – Monday, August 12, marks the return of Houston Theater Week. For the third year, the tradition returns to give you one week (through August 18) to take advantage of a pretty good offer: Buy one, get one free tickets to stage productions, dance works, operas, and musical performances from companies and organizations all across the city. One thing for sure is that this is your chance to lock in tickets to see the shows that are certain to make this very list in the coming months.
The tale of two star-crossed lovers fated for a tragic end may not sound like a great night out on its face, but I think we all know when it’s by William Shakespeare and it’s Romeo & Juliet, it holds great promise.
This is why, like many others, I once again traveled down to Miller Outdoor Theatre for the second opening night of the Houston Shakespeare Festival – this time, braving the temperature and insects to see Romeo & Juliet.
Shakespeare’s classic tale starts with a street brawl erupting on the streets of Verona between the men of the Montague family and those of the Capulets. It’s the third such fight, and the Prince of Verona is not happy about it. In a show of just how unhappy he is, he promises that any more such quarrels will be punished by death.
One young man unbothered by the violence is Romeo, Montague’s son, and that’s because he only has eyes for a woman named Rosaline. Upon learning that Rosaline has been invited to a party hosted by the Capulets, he crashes it. But he meets Juliet, the Capulets’ teenage daughter, there instead, and they quickly become infatuated with each other. Despite learning each other’s identities, they decide to defy their families’ enmity and marry the very next day. Their happiness is short-lived, however, as their actions set off a chain of events that leads to more violence, death, exile, and even more death.
It’s been 17 years since the Houston Shakespeare Festival, produced by the University of Houston’s School of Theatre & Dance and the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts, performed Romeo and Juliet, one of the Bard’s most famous tragedies. It’s supposed that Shakespeare wrote Romeo & Juliet between 1594 and 1596, right around the same time he was working on several others, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which, though used for comedic effect, features a brief retelling of Pyramus and Thisbe, a tragic love story that may or may not have helped inspire Shakespeare’s own. (Not for nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream just happens to be playing in repertory with Romeo & Juliet during this year’s festival.)
From the moment the curtain rises to dramatically reveal the chorus, who delivers the prologue in chill-inducing unison, we know we’re safe in director Jack Young’s hands. Young, who doubles as the production’s sound designer, directs the show with clarity and a keen sense of the show’s comedic notes. Young also displays a keen eye for pacing. Things happen fast, but the choices of when and where to linger are sound.
While you can probably guess by its name, Romeo & Juliet really starts and stops with the casting of its Romeo and Juliet. Luckily, this production boasts wonderful performances from Sophia Marcelle and Kyle Clark.
Marcelle’s Juliet is girlishly sweet, giggly and excitable. In Marcelle’s hands, it’s easy to remember (and believe) Juliet’s youth – not yet 14 years old at the start of the play – both in the giddiness she displays at the first blush of love to the deep despair she falls into as things begin to go so wrong. Clark’s Romeo is just as exuberant in love, so much so that the spotlight could barely keep up with him at times, though it’s tempered throughout with an angsty sincerity. Their chemistry is palpable, and their likeability is off-the-charts.
Supporting the two are more than a dozen talented actors, all breathing such life into the production. As saucy in mannerisms as in dialogue, Alan Brincks fast-talks his way through Mercutio’s dude-bro discourse, holding court in every scene. Laura Frye is a mother hen of sorts as Juliet’s nurse, warm and a touch naughty. The distress and naivety in Avery Kenyatta as the Friar lingers even after he’s left the stage, particularly after his final monologue, and Robby Matlock is barely checked angry as Tybalt.
Michael Sifuentes’s rage at Juliet’s disobedience as Capulet is enough to have the audience flinching, though he and James Cardwell as Montague appear as such pitiable figures at the play’s end. Austin Hanna’s exasperated Prince, Wesley Whitson’s proper Paris, Jack Stansbury’s futile Benvolio, and the humor Andrew Chavez’s injects into the brief moments as Peter all deserve a special mention, too.
Leah Smith’s solid costumes display the division between Capulet and Montague in blues and reds, with the berets, vests, and dresses the characters wear indicating their allegiance. Jon Young’s scenic design is beautiful in its simplicity. Relatively minimalist in terms of set dressing and props (aside from a few that are used to great effect, like Peter’s umbrella and the nurse’s fan), the stage still comes alive under Clint Allen’s lighting designs, which illuminated the backdrop, a watercolor-like picture of wispy clouds.
There are some excellent fight scenes, skillfully choreographed by the production’s fight director, Adam Noble, and, once again, much credit to Christina Keefe, who serves as the festival’s voice and text coach, for the natural flow every member of the cast seems to have.
Music director Samuel Gonzalez also does right by the production, from the sound of springtime that welcomed the audience in, to the overwhelming sense of doom conjured when everything goes wrong.
Houston Shakespeare Festival’s production of Romeo & Juliet is one to fall in love with. It’s a perfect night at the theater, whether it’s your first time seeing the show or your hundredth. Turns out, departing from this production of Romeo & Juliet was, in fact, sweet sorrow.
Performances of Romeo & Juliet, which is playing in repertory with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, will continue at 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday, August 6, Thursday, August 8, and Saturday, August 10, at Miller Outdoor Theatre, 6000 Hermann Park. For information, call 832-487-7123 or visitmilleroutdoortheatre.com. Free.
Characters are often haunted by life in the chilling and unforgettable plays of Conor McPherson.
In “The Weir,” bruised souls cluster around a bar trading ghost stories to ward off the descending gloom. In the Tony-winning “Girl from the North Country,” downtrodden survivors of the Great Depression alternately cling to and rage against each other in small town 1934 Minnesota, occasionally breaking into song to dispel the blues.
Written and directed by the masterful Irish playwright (also known for “Shining City”), “Girl,” in its regional premiere at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre, is an existential gem that’s both sparse and sublime in its staging, evoking a world that is sorrowful but beautiful in its bleakness.
Though it spins around the iconic songbook of Bob Dylan, this is the antithesis of the usual Broadway jukebox musical. There’s nothing here that smacks of singalong comfort food, the likes of “Mamma Mia!,” in this memorable tale of aridity and disenchantment writ large.
Hope doesn’t exist in this grim universe where black men go to jail for crimes they didn’t commit and a preacher (an explosive Jeremy Webb) is as likely to pick your pocket as say a prayer.
As Nick (the mournful John Schiappa), who runs the two-bit Duluth flophouse these rolling stones call home, puts it, love is no salvation here.
“You live too long, you see too much. It chips away at you. … How can you love someone who ain’t got a soul?”
To be sure, there are times when the dialogue and the songs seem to exist on two different planes, one mundane and the other supernatural. But at other times there’s an almost mystical act of conjuring onstage, a summoning of spiritual decay when all hopes are stripped away and only regret remains.
In this dark and brooding place, justice is a pipe dream. In this vision of Americana, whole families are casually thrown onto the street and the common man longs for a “strongman” to be President, someone who has “energy,” even if he’s in the wrong. Sound familiar?
Nick almost despises his wife Elizabeth (the magnetic Jennifer Blood), who suffers from dementia, while he longs for the widow Mrs. Neilsen (Carla Woods) and tries to keep a roof above their heads until he can marry off their adopted daughter, Marianne (Sharaé Moultrie) who is pregnant and black in an age when either condition could mean trouble.
The musical interludes blend hypnotic vocals with mesmerizing choreography that captures the bittersweet impulse of a town yearning to celebrate in the face of tragedy.
Blood’s harrowing rendition of “Like a Rolling Stone” forces you to hear the lyrics anew. Alan Ariano lends a gentle wryness to the narrator, Doc Walter. All of the songs, such as poignant “I Want You,” “Make You Feel My Love,” “Forever Young,” and “All Along the Watchtower,” feel reimagined with delicacy.
Shades of Thornton Wilder and John Steinbeck flicker in this elegy to the down and out, the dreamers and the sinners who lose everything, even their sense of themselves.
You won’t soon forget the fate of these vagabonds, huddled in the gloom, their voices thick with sadness, keening into the darkness, framed by fiddles and banjos.
Contact Karen D’Souza at karenpdsouza@yahoo.com.
‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’
Book by Conor McPherson, music and lyrics by Bob Dylan, presented by BroadwaySF
Through: Aug. 18
Where: Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St., San Francisco
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, one intermission
Playwright Adi Teodoru hopes that seeing her play, Melville & Hawthorne, just might make you want to dig up a copy of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.
If you do, one of the first things you might notice is that Melville dedicated his book to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Melville met the author of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, and the two spent more than a year living just a mile from each other in the Berkshires. The time the two spent together deeply affected Melville as he developed Moby Dick, and we know this from letters the two exchanged, but they don’t tell the whole story.
“These two are generally considered to be the peak of American literary canon, and many people tend to read Moby Dick, myself included, not realizing that the book is dedicated to Hawthorne. But even those that do, I don’t think, ever consider it beyond two authors that lived next to each other and inspired each other.”
While studying at the University of Houston, Teodoru first encountered Melville’s letters to Hawthorne, which she says “read quite amorous for a relationship at that time.” Further research revealed that following Hawthorne’s death in 1864, his son, Julian, began writing a biography about his father and approached Melville, asking for the letters Hawthorne sent the man. Melville, however, stated that he burned the letters because they were too personal.
“It immediately became a mystery that I wanted to solve,” says Teodoru.
In 2008, Teodoru set out to fill in the missing pieces of their story, and this weekend, Thunderclap Productions will present the result when they open the world premiere of Melville & Hawthorne as part of their John Steven Kellett Memorial Series.
The series seeks to produce a play focusing on equality and LGBTQ+ themes annually.
Teodoru’s play is rooted in fact, so much so that she says her favorite part of the play may be “people coming out of it and researching everything that happens in it and realizing that it’s, I would say, 99% true.”
According to Teodoru, “the thread of the show” is Melville’s writing of Moby Dick, a standard in high school English classes across the country that most everyone has either read or at least knows from “the CliffsNotes version so that we can get through the test,” jokes Teodoru. But the focus, she says, tends to be on the whale-obsessed Ahab as opposed to the fact that almost all of the characters in the book are people of color or the romance between Ishmael and Queequeg, which is “in the text.”
“Melville had some very specific opinions in this book about equality and people being equal in a time where that kind of idea was really innovative,” adds Teodoru, noting that the book written in 1850 and 1851, a time when the country was heading into a civil war. “[Ishmael’s] love for Queequeg transcends not only Queequeg’s race and ethnicity but also the fact that it would have been forbidden, which is probably why Moby Dick did not do well during Melville’s lifetime.”
Though he may have held innovative ideas, with Teodoru describing him as “a man out of time,” Melville was also known to be abusive, someone described by his family as “a monster or a beast.” He was also disliked by society. Partly, Teodoru says, because of his ideas, and partly because of the way his personality was molded by a life spent in poverty and working on the sea as a whaler.
“I had in my mind this idea of the romantic hero and then I came up against the hard wall of reality. I had to readjust my thinking, not just about him, but about the progression of the plot; how do we start off thinking about Melville and how do we end the play thinking about Melville,” says Teodoru. “The play is as much about Melville’s relationship with Hawthorne as it is ours [the audience’s] relationship to Melville as a person.”
Since Teodoru started writing Melville & Hawthorne in 2008, there have been several iterations, with Teodoru saying that each reflected her development not only as a writer, but as a person. However, she points to the influence of current events, and specifically the events of 2020, on the play.
“It was mind-boggling to me the parallels between the time Melville was living in and what we’re living through now,” says Teodoru. “In 1851 to 1852, this nation was essentially drawing the lines of the two-party system and people were choosing sides. This was really the first time the nation decided there are two sides to our views and those two sides have continued to combat each other throughout our history and, of course, we still do that today.”
Despite featuring modern themes like social justice, racial equality, and sexual liberation, one subject you will not see is homophobia. For this reason, Teodoru calls the play “a safe space” for audiences.
“I always wanted this story to be about love, a period love story for queer audiences, which you almost never get to see on stage. You have all your Pride and Prejudices and your Bridgertons – which, of course, I’m obsessed with – but we don’t get to see a lot of it on stage and feel [a sense of] comfort,” says Teodoru, who adds that audiences should feel safe to “come and fall in love and have your heart broken.”
While Teodoru is hesitant to reveal too much about the show, she does acknowledge that “we know history says they did not end up together, and I did not change that. I did want it to be realistic.” Regardless, Teodoru hopes that audiences will still enjoy the story whether they’re there “to see a queer story or just a story about two authors and the writing of a book.”
“I think this story has a little bit for everybody,” says Teodoru. “I’m just hoping that people will come and find something to relate to in the story and then go out and read The Blithedale Romance and Moby Dick and the American canon.”
Performances of Melville & Hawthorne are scheduled from August 1 through August 10 at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and August 3, 5 and 8; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, August 4; and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, August 10 at the MATCH, 3400 Main. For more information, visit thunderclapproductions.com. $15-$25.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): One meaning of the word “palette” is a flat board on which painters place a variety of pigments to apply to their canvas. What would be a metaphorical equivalent to a palette in your life? Maybe it’s a diary or journal where you lay out the feelings and ideas you use to craft your fate. Perhaps it’s an inner sanctuary where you retreat to organize your thoughts and meditate on upcoming decisions. Or it could be a group of allies with whom you commune and collaborate to enhance each other’s destinies. However you define your palette, Aries, I believe the time is right to enlarge its size and increase the range of pigments you can choose from.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The star that Westerners call Arcturus has a different name for Indigenous Australians: Marpeankurrk. In their part of the world, it begins to rise before dawn in August. For the Boorong people of northwest Victoria, this was once a sign to hunt for the larvae of wood ants, which comprised a staple food for months. I bring this up, Taurus, because heavenly omens are telling me you should be on the lookout for new sources of sustenance and fuel. What’s your metaphorical equivalent of wood ant larvae?
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Seventy percent of the world’s macadamia nuts have a single ancestor: a particular tree in Queensland, Australia. In 1896, two Hawaiian brothers took seeds from this tree and brought them back to their homestead in Oahu. From that small beginning, Hawaiian macadamia nuts have come to dominate the world’s production. I foresee you soon having resemblances to that original tree, Gemini. What you launch in the coming weeks and months could have tremendous staying power and reach far beyond its original inspiration.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ketchup flows at about 0.03 miles per hour. In 35 hours, it could travel about a mile. I think you should move at a similar speed in the coming days. The slower you go, the better you will feel. The more deeply focused you are on each event, and the more you allow the rich details to unfold in their own sweet time, the more successful you will be at the art of living. Your words of power will be incremental, gradual, and cumulative.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Astrologer Chris Zydel says every sign has superpowers. In honor of your birthday season, I’ll tell you about those she attributes to you Leos. When you are at your best, you are a beacon of “joyful magnetism” who naturally exudes “irrepressible charisma.” You “shine like a thousand suns” and “strut your stuff with unabashed audacity.” All who are lucky enough to be in your sphere benefit from your “radiant spontaneity, bold, dramatic play, and whoo-hoo celebration of your creative genius.” I will add that of course you can’t always be a perfect embodiment of all these superpowers. But I suspect you are cruising through a phase when you are the next best thing to perfect.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo-born Friedrich August Kekule (1829–1896) transformed organic chemistry with his crucial discovery of the structure of carbon-based compounds. He had studied the problem for years. But his breakthrough realization didn’t arrive until he had a key dream while dozing. There’s not enough room here to describe it at length, but the image that solved the riddle was a snake biting its own tail. I bring this story to your attention, Virgo, because I suspect you could have practical and revelatory dreams yourself in the coming weeks. Daydream visions, too. Pay attention! What might be your equivalent to a snake biting its own tail?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Please don’t succumb to numbness or apathy in the coming weeks. It’s crucial that you don’t. You should also take extreme measures to avoid boredom and cynicism. At the particular juncture in your amazing life, you need to feel deeply and care profoundly. You must find ways to be excited about as many things as possible, and you must vividly remember why your magnificent goals are so magnificent. Have you ruminated recently about which influences provide you with the spiritual and emotional riches that sustain you? I encourage you to become even more intimately interwoven with them. It’s time for you to be epic, mythic, even heroic.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Historically, August has brought many outbreaks of empowerment. In August 1920, American women gained the right to vote. In August 1947, India and Pakistan wrested their independence from the British Empire’s long oppression. In August 1789, French revolutionaries issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man, a document that dramatically influenced the development of democracy and liberty in the Western world. In 1994, the United Nations established August 9 as the time to celebrate International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. In 2024, I am officially naming August to be Scorpio Power Spot Month. It will be an excellent time to claim and/or boost your command of the niche that will nurture your authority and confidence for years to come.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): August is Save Our Stereotypes Month for you Sagittarians. I hope you will celebrate by rising up strong and bold to defend our precious natural treasures. Remember that without cliches, platitudes, pigeonholes, conventional wisdom, and hackneyed ideas, life would be nearly impossible. JUST KIDDING! Everything I just said was a dirty lie. Here’s the truth. August is Scour Away Stereotypes Month for you Sagittarians. Please be an agent of original thinking and fertile freshness. Wage a brazen crusade against cliches, platitudes, pigeonholes, conventional wisdom, and hackneyed ideas.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You’re never too old or wise or jaded to jump up in the air with glee when offered a free gift. Right? So I hope you won’t be so bent on maintaining your dignity and composure that you remain poker-faced when given the chance to grab the equivalent of a free gift. I confess I am worried you might be unreceptive to the sweet, rich things coming your way. I’m concerned you might be closed to unexpected possibilities. I will ask you, therefore, to pry open your attitude so you will be alert to the looming blessings, even when they are in disguise.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A friend of a friend told me this story: One summer day, a guy he knew woke up at 5 a.m., meditated for a while, and made breakfast. As he gazed out his kitchen window, enjoying his coffee, he became alarmed. In the distance, at the top of a hill, a brush fire was burning. He called emergency services to alert firefighters. A few minutes later, though, he realized he had made an error. The brush fire was in fact the rising sun lighting up the horizon with its fiery rays. Use this as a teaching story in the coming days, Aquarius. Double-check your initial impressions to make sure they are true. Most importantly, be aware that you may initially respond with worry to events that are actually wonderful or interesting.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): At least a million ships lie at the bottom of the world’s oceans, lakes, and rivers. Some crashed because of storms, and others due to battles, collisions, or human error. A shipwreck hunter named Sean Fisher estimates that those remains hold over $60 billion worth of treasure. Among the most valuable are the old Spanish vessels that sank while carrying gold, silver, and other loot plundered from the Americas. If you have the slightest inkling to launch adventures in search of those riches, I predict the coming months will be an excellent tine. Alternately, you are likely to generate good fortune for yourself through any version of diving into the depths in quest of wealth in all of its many forms.
Homework: What message would you like to send your 12-year-old self?
Hours after Kamala Harris emerged as a presidential contender, Shaina Taub realized that Suffs—her new Tony-winning musical about pioneering suffragists in the early 1900s—was suddenly playing to a different crowd.
“The energy and joy in the audience that got released—it was like a balloon,” Taub tells Observer. “People are so ready to feel some sense of hope, and we celebrate that. There’s a lot of work to do, a lot of organizing and campaigning, but I think there’s a new light under everyone to get it done.”
One of the people to thank for Suffs is the last female Democratic nominee to run for President of the United States, Hilary Rodham Clinton, who, impressed with Taub and the show, came aboard late as a lead producer. You can’t make this stuff up. Taub’s word for this message-laden connection is “surreal.”
The company of Suffs.Joan Marcus
The idea of doing a musical based on the suffragists—from their 1913 march on Washington the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration to the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920 giving women the right to vote—did not originate with Taub. Producer Rachel Sussman had dreamed about it since she was 12 and suggested it to Taub over dinner in 2010. She also gave her a copy of Doris Stephens’s 1920 book, Jailed for Freedom, a firsthand account of the movement. Taub read it in one night and signed up immediately, shocked that it was all news to her. To say she was inspired would be an understatement: she wrote the book, lyrics and music for Suffs. The plan was to do a show celebrating the centennial of the 19th amendment, but Covid-19 took care of that.
Suffs tried to world-premiere Off-Broadway on April 6, 2020, and closed quickly for two weeks because of the number of Covid cases among the cast. “I got Covid on what would have been our opening night,” Taub remembers. “We never got to have an opening night at The Public. It was a really low moment of having that ritual taken away from us by the circumstances of the world.”
The show weaved through its initial engagement under the cloud of Covid, nursing some critical body-blows which Taub translated into learning experiences. “The work never stopped,” she noted. “There was no reset. Some people say, ‘Oh, did you go back to the drawing board after The Public?’—but I felt that we never left the drawing board. We—my wonderful collaborator, director Leigh Silverman, and I—knew we weren’t done. We were just excited to keep going.”
Mostly, Taub followed the advice of Lin-Manuel Miranda. “There’s so much you can learn about a musical once it gets in front of an audience. You can do workshops and readings for years, but the audience will tell you real fast. I was so energized to use the intellect from the audience.”
Hannah Cruz as Inez Milholland and the company of Suffs.Joan Marcus
Taub tapped into the audience’s intellect not from the wings, but from the stage—in addition to creating the show, she stars as Alice Paul, a key figure in the movement. “Performing in the show helps because you get their data pool,” she says. The audience became her guide when it came to revising the show before it’s Broadway debut. “I know what always works. I know what never works. I know what works sometimes, and I can make the necessary adjustments based on that.”
By the time Suffs got to Broadway and the Music Box Theater last October, Taub had added dialogue scenes to the originally sung-though musical. She is the first woman to ever independently win Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score in the same season—and the second woman to write the book, lyrics and music for a show and act a leading role; the last (and only other) person to accomplish this was Micki Grant for 1972’s Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope.
It took Taub a decade to create Suffs—and two more years to overhaul it. Depending on how you count it (which is difficult), Broadway is getting 17 new, or relatively new, songs. “Basically, I’m not sure,” she admits of the count. “Some songs the music completely changes. Some songs, I change the lyric. Some songs, I kept the lyric but added a new melody. It’s hard to quantify.”
One new addition gets the show off to a bouncy, ingratiating start—a marked improvement over the Brechtian Off-Broadway opener “Watch Out for the Suffragette,” in which the ensemble of revolutionary women (made up of female and nonbinary actors) sock it to their male detractors and threaten “to scold you for three hours.” That opener played for years in development before Taub realized how off-putting it was for audiences who knew nothing of what they were getting into, so she lightened the lecture-to-come with a sprightly bit of vaudeville, “Let Mother Vote.”
“Those three words were like a campaign slogan for the suffrage movement of that era,” Taub explains. “There were buttons that said ‘Let Mother Vote.’” Taub says she “palmed that” and thought, “Why not have a fun, upbeat ditty that would convey that message?”
The number clarifies what’s to come for the uninitiated much like the way the late addition of “Comedy Tonight” told people what to expect from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Almost all the cast show up for it, including some name-brand performers parading as vintage suffragists: Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt, Emily Skinner as Alva Belmont, Nikki M. James as Ida B. Wells, Hannah Cruz as Inez Milholland. These characters are old and young, moderate and radical, Black and white—they don’t mix well, but, despite the clashes, their eyes are on the prize.
Nikki M. James as Ida B. Wells and the company of Suffs.Joan Marcus
Once these ladies sing their say, Taub makes her entrance—16th in a cast of 17—as the young and impatient Alice Paul, singing the firebrand’s anthem, “Finish the Fight.” In her mind, Taub says she was thinking of her own fight: “I’ve been trying to finish the show all these years.”
The song is reprised at the very end of the show, followed by another late addition number that literally gives the audience its marching orders, a rousing closer called “Keep Marching.”
Will Taub be leaving Suffs to play the anarchist revolutionary, Emma Goldman when City Center’s Encores! stages Ragtime from October 30th to November 10th? “Yes and no,” she answers. “I’ll be out for most of those two weeks, yes. But I’m excited that on election night and on the Wednesday matinee the day after the election, they’re not having Ragtime performances—so I can do Suffs those 24 hours. No matter what happens, it will be quite an intense and emotional place to be.”
Being able to perform in both Ragtime and Suffs is particularly exciting for Taub, since Ragtime is her favorite show. “That’s what I grew up listening to,” she says. “It was such an inspiration for me.” In fact, the Ragtime song “He Wanted to Say”—which has Emma Goldman narrating the thoughts of another character—inspired a song in Suffs, “She and I,” a duet between Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt. “I use a similar form where you get to hear Carrie’s inner life, which she can’t express too well,” says Taub. “That’s my homage to ‘He Wanted to Say.’”
There’s a certain casting logic that would turn Taub from Alice Paul into Emma Goldman.
“I love giving to play a fiery activist—especially Emma,” she admits, “I grew up in rural Vermont, where there was no Jewish community per se, but I became so obsessed with Ragtime that it made me look up Emma Goldman. She is the first model of a Jewish activist I ever had as a kid.”
Goldman shows up in several musicals—not just Ragtime but in Assassins and Tintypes. That last one, Taub says with pride, “I actually did at summer camp. Emma’s winding in and out of American-history musicals. I hope eventually that someone writes an Emma Goldman musical, full stop.”
Whatever, it won’t be her, she promises. “I may take a break from historical musicals.”
Evidently so: She spent the summer of ‘22 in Chicago, supplying lyrics to Elton John’s music for The Devil Wears Prada. More work is needed. “When it became clear the schedules were going to overlap, I wanted to make sure that Prada would have someone who would be there to meet in the room and collaborate when I’m bound to the Music Box Theater for God knows how long.”
Will she be leaving Suffs to go to London to work on Prada? The answer to that, she’s happy to say, is an emphatic no. “I actually brought on an additional lyricist, Mark Sonnenblick, who will do additional lyrics and revisions because I can’t be there. I’m in touch with him every day, weighing in from afar, but there’s only so much you can do when you don’t have eyes and ears on it.”
With projects that take years from start to stage, such an arrangement makes sense. “I think we should normalize that kind of collaboration in musical theater,” Taub says. “Given our schedules and our lives, it’s not always realistic to be fully there.”
Meanwhile, crowds keep coming to the Music Box. “Our audiences have blown me away. To look out there at a full house or meet people at the stage door is wonderful. They’re of all ages and genders—but especially mothers and daughters and grandmothers.” Return visits are common, she adds.
“The hunger, I think, that people have for a story like this—a feeling of possibilities in these hard times—I hope we’re lucky enough to get to continue providing that for them as long as we can.”
It’s been quite the week, huh?
Post-Beryl, we hope everyone is safe and well, and we wish you all working electricity
and Wi-Fi, air conditioning and refrigeration, and (hopefully) a well-deserved break
from recovery efforts. If you were lucky enough to come through unscathed, or
just need a place to go with working AC, we’ve put together a list of this
coming week’s best bets. Keep reading for musicals, classical music, a
non-American holiday celebration and more.
Get an early start on Halloween at Insomnia Gallery’s Summer Slashers – Horror Art Show + Night Market at Hardy & Nance Studios.
Photo by Natalie de la Garza
We are officially 112 days from
Halloween, so there’s no better time to celebrate all things horror, which you
can do on Friday, July 12, from 8 p.m. to midnight when Insomnia Gallery presents their
annual Summer
Slashers – Horror Art Show + Night Market at Hardy & Nance Studios. The art
show will showcase the works of local artists, all putting their unique spins
on different scary movies and TV shows, while the horror-themed night market
will feature vendors that specialize in spooky. Of course, you can also expect complimentary
drinks from City Orchard, Equal Parts Brewing, Bad Astronaut Brewing Co. and Eureka Heights Brewery as well as
food from Boom Box Tacos. The show is
free and there’s no ticket required for entry.
Ian Lewis and Danny Hayes in Main Street Theater’s production of The Woman in Black.
Photo by Andrew Ruthven
There’s nothing better than a ghost
story in the summer, and Main Street
Theater has one for you: The Woman in Black,
opening on Saturday, July 13, at 7:30 p.m. The play, adapted by Stephen
Mallatratt from a novel by Susan Hill, is about a man named Arthur Kipps, who’s
sure his family is cursed. Danny Hayes, who plays the actor Mr. Kipps hires to
help tell his story, told the Houston Press the play is “really
unsettling,” but that it is “not
just scary for scary’s sake or trying to be scary with silly jump scares,” noting
that the characters “are
very human” and the play is “so
well crafted.” Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through
Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. through August 11. Tickets are available here for $39 to $59.
The 14th of July is Bastille Day, a public
holiday in France that commemorates the day Parisians stormed the Bastille – a
prison that at one time held Voltaire (as well as the Marquis de Sade) – and
kicked off the French Revolution. You can find a little “liberté, egalité, fraternité”
right here in the Bayou City on Sunday, July 14, at 5 p.m. when the Consulate General of France
in Houston hosts Celebrate
Bastille Day at Rice University Stadium.
Francophiles can enjoy a showcase of sports (remember, the Olympics are in Paris this year),
music, space and cuisine during the festivities. We’ll also go out on a limb
and bet you’ll hear at least one rendition of “La Marseillaise.” Admission is
free, but registration here
is mandatory.
Hundreds of dollars in alcohol and other concessions were stolen Monday night from the Historic Elitch Theatre after thieves broke through a door on the roof, causing $1,000 in damages to the 133-year-old building.
“The thieves managed to gain entry by kicking in a door on the rooftop, causing damage to the frame and door,” said Ellie Walker, a member of the theatre’s board of directors. “They spent a considerable amount of time inside, exploring various parts of the theatre, including the rooftop, auditorium, stage and fly building.”
A fly building is an area backstage that typically houses a system of ropes, pulleys and counterweights to lift actors and props into the air.
According to a police report filed with the Denver Police Department, the thieves caused $1,000 in damages when they climbed onto the roof and kicked in a door to the theater’s dome, meant to access a flag pole on top of the building.
One of the Historic Elitch Theatre Foundation’s board members discovered the break-in Tuesday around 4:30 p.m., police said in the report.
“It’s weird to show up at the theatre and find a door (that is never used) propped open… what??,” the foundation wrote in a Tuesday evening post on Facebook. “Much more upsetting is to realize that someone (or several people) spent a fair amount of time rummaging around this historic building.”
Police said the intruder gained entry to the theater through the compromised door and proceeded to steal eight cases — or about $200 — of alcohol, specifically beer and hard seltzers.
Walker said the alcohol stolen by the thieves was intended for several of the theater’s upcoming events, including a Friday night screening of “Barbie” and several other summer movies.
Greg Rowley, the president of the foundation’s board of directors, said they suspect a group of teenagers broke into the theater and stole the alcohol.
At some point during the invasion, at least one person appears to have climbed a 70-foot ladder in the backstage area – a climb extremely unsafe without the proper rigging equipment, according to the foundation’s post.
“The good news is that these misguided vandals weren’t injured,” the foundation stated in the Facebook post. “There are many unsafe locations in this 133-year-old theatre that is still mid-restoration.”
Denver police have yet to identify a suspect, but confirmed officers are continuing to investigate the incident.
“They unplugged some laptops — as if they intended to steal them — but they ultimately just stole cases of alcohol,” Rowley said in an emailed statement to the Denver Post.
The Historic Elitch Theatre was built in 1891 and was once part of the original Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park — before the amusement park moved to downtown Denver in 1994.
The theater sat vacant for years before Rowley and a group of volunteers began to host movie screenings and backstage tours, raising money for its restoration.
“Despite this challenge, the Historic Elitch Theatre has a legacy of resilience, having served our community for over 130 years,” Walker said. “We are determined to continue our work and ensure our events proceed as planned.”
It’s the weekend to let freedom ring, and we’ve got plenty of Independence Day activities for you to check out, not to mention a little more Americana, including the music of country legends and a classic kids’ baseball film. Once you get your fill of July 4th festivities, we’ve also got an Oscar-winning animated film, a live role-playing game, and an erotic thriller from 1984. Keep reading for more on our picks for this week’s best bets.
If you’re looking for the perfect setting to celebrate Independence Day, may we suggest heading over to the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens for their annual Fourth of July Celebration on Thursday, July 4, from 1 to 5 p.m. The afternoon of family-friendly festivities includes an art workshop; readings of the Declaration of Independence by actors from Brave Little Company (not to mention the chance to sign the document with a quill pen) and of Faith Ringgold’s We Came to America; costume expert Tommy Attaway talking about what the British and American armies wore and carried during the American Revolution; and live musical performances from acts like the Lonestar Bluegrass Band and the Houston Brass Quintet. Admission to the celebration is free, and be sure to tour the first floor of Bayou Bend while you’re there.
Join 50,000 of your closest friends in Houston for Freedom Over Texas.
Photo by Kennon Evett
Or, if you’re interested in celebrating Independence Day with the rest of the city, you’ll want to make your way down to Eleanor Tinsley Park on Thursday, July 4, from 4 to 10 p.m. for Freedom Over Texas. The fun includes a dozen acts scheduled for a concert – including Chapel Hart, Jo Dee Messina and headliner Russell Dickerson – which will start at 7 p.m. And because we know this is probably the most important question you’ll have – the fireworks are scheduled to start at approximately 9:35 p.m. Tickets to the festivities are available online here and at the gate for $10 (with kids five and under set to get in free). If you’re not inclined to party with around 50,000 Houstonians, you can also catch the action at home on ABC13.
It’s no secret that the national anthem of the United States is no easy song to perform. For every classic performance, say Whitney Houston at Super Bowl XXV back in 1991, there’s a Kat DeLuna, and a Fergie, and a Christina Aguilera. But if you want to hear a version that won’t disappoint, head out to Miller Outdoor Theatre on Thursday, July 4, at 8:30 p.m. for Star-Spangled Salute. Houston Symphony, at the baton of Conductor Jason Seber, and tenor Rafael Moras will celebrate Independence Day with a program full of patriotic hits, including “God Bless the U.S.A.,” “America the Beautiful” and The Stars and Stripes Forever. Tickets for the free show can be reserved here, but if they’re no longer available, you can always sit on the no-ticket-required Hill.
If you’re one of the many fans of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, but you sometimes find it lacking in Shakespearean characters and references, Classical Theatre Company (CTC) has been answering your prayers Monday nights on Twitch during To Be or RPG. The livestreamed D&D play series features regulars from CTC with an added theatrical flair befitting the company’s focus on classics (with proceeds benefitting the company). The cast and crew will open season two of the series in-person and in front of a live audience on Saturday, July 6, at 8 p.m. with To Be or RPG LIVE! at The DeLUXE Theater. And don’t worry – no experience with D&D or season one of the web series is needed to enjoy the show (or the drinks, which will be provided by Saint Arnold Brewing Company). Tickets are available here for $8.
We wouldn’t want to try picking the best country artist of all time, though Rolling Stone certainly did when they put together their list of the “100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time.” On Saturday, July 6, at 8:30 p.m. you can hear classics from some of those “one-of-a-kind” list-makers– like Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams – when the Houston Symphony returns to Miller Outdoor Theatre for The Legends of Country. The concert, which will also include music from more contemporary artists like Carrie Underwood and Faith Hill, will also feature the vocal talents of Patrick Thomas (The Voice) and Rachel Potter (The X Factor). The show is free and you can reserve tickets here starting on Friday, July 5, at 10 a.m. As always, no tickets required to sit on the Hill.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The “nirvana fallacy” is the belief that because something is less than utterly perfect, it is gravely defective or even irredeemably broken. Wikipedia says, “The nirvana fallacy compares actual things with unrealistic, idealized alternatives.” Most of us are susceptible to this flawed approach to dealing with the messiness of human existence. But it’s especially important that you avoid such thinking in the coming weeks. To inspire you to find excellence and value in the midst of untidy jumbles and rumpled complexities, I recommend you have fun with the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. It prizes and praises the soulful beauty found in things that are irregular, incomplete, and imperfect.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You are coming to a fork in the road — a crux where two paths diverge. What should you do? Author Marie Forleo says, “When it comes to forks in the road, your heart always knows the answer, not your mind.” Here’s my corollary: Choose the path that will best nourish your soul’s desires. Now here’s your homework, Taurus: Contact your Future Self in a dream or meditation and ask that beautiful genius to provide you with a message and a sign. Plus, invite them to give you a wink with either the left eye or right eye.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Last year, you sent out a clear message to life requesting help and support. It didn’t get the response you wished for. You felt sad. But now I have good news. One or both of the following may soon occur. 1. Your original message will finally lead to a response that buoys your soul. 2. You will send out a new message similar to the one in 2023, and this time you will get a response that makes you feel helped and supported. Maybe you didn’t want to have to be so patient, Gemini, but I’m glad you refused to give up hope.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): The Fates have authorized me to authorize you to be bold and spunky. You have permission to initiate gutsy experiments and to dare challenging feats. Luck and grace will be on your side as you consider adventures you’ve long wished you had the nerve to entertain. Don’t do anything risky or foolish, of course. Avoid acting like you’re entitled to grab rewards you have not yet earned. But don’t be self-consciously cautious or timid, either. Proceed as if help and resources will arrive through the magic of your audacity. Assume you will be able to summon more confidence than usual.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): All of us, including me, have aspects of our lives that are stale or unkempt, even decaying. What would you say is the most worn-out thing about you? Are there parts of your psyche or environment that would benefit from a surge of clean-up and revival? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to attend to these matters. You are likely to attract extra help and inspiration as you make your world brighter and livelier. The first rule of the purgation and rejuvenation process: Have fun!
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): On those rare occasions when I buy furniture from online stores, I try hard to find sources that will send me the stuff already assembled. I hate spending the time to put together jumbles of wood and metal. More importantly, I am inept at doing so. In alignment with astrological omens, I recommend you take my approach in regard to every situation in your life during the coming weeks. Your operative metaphor should be this: Whatever you want or need, get it already fully assembled.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): When Adragon De Mello was born under the sign of Libra in 1976, his father had big plans for him. Dad wanted him to get a PhD in physics by age 12, garner a Nobel Prize by 16, get elected President of the United States by 26, and then become head of a world government by 30. I’d love for you to fantasize about big, unruly dreams like that in the coming weeks — although with less egotism and more amusement and adventurousness. Give yourself a license to play with amazing scenarios that inspire you to enlarge your understanding of your own destiny. Provide your future with a dose of healing wildness.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Your horoscopes are too complicated,” a reader named Estelle wrote to me recently. “You give us too many ideas. Your language is too fancy. I just want simple advice in plain words.” I wrote back to tell her that if I did what she asked, I wouldn’t be myself. “Plenty of other astrologers out there can meet your needs,” I concluded. As for you, dear Scorpio, I think you will especially benefit from influences like me in the coming weeks — people who appreciate nuance and subtlety, who love the poetry of life, who eschew clichés and conventional wisdom, who can nurture your rich, spicy, complicated soul.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The coming weeks will be prime time for you to re-imagine the history of your destiny. How might you do that? In your imagination, revisit important events from the past and reinterpret them using the new wisdom you’ve gained since they happened. If possible, perform any atonement, adjustment, or intervention that will transform the meaning of what happened once upon a time. Give the story of your life a fresh title. Rename the chapters. Look at old photos and videos and describe to yourself what you know now about those people and situations that you didn’t know back then. Are there key events from the old days that you have repressed or ignored? Raise them up into the light of consciousness.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In 1972, before the internet existed, Capricorn actor Anthony Hopkins spent a day visiting London bookstores in search of a certain tome: The Girl from Petrovka. Unable to locate a copy, he decided to head home. On the way, he sat on a random bench, where he found the original manuscript of The Girl of Petrovka. It had been stolen from the book’s author George Feifer and abandoned there by the thief. I predict an almost equally unlikely or roundabout discovery or revelation for you in the coming days. Prediction: You may not unearth what you’re looking for in an obvious place, but you will ultimately unearth it.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarius-born Desmond Doss (1919–2006) joined the American army at the beginning of World War II. But because of his religious beliefs, he refused to use weapons. He became a medic who accompanied troops to Guam and the Philippines. During the next few years, he won three medals of honor, which are usually given solely to armed combatants. His bravest act came in 1944, when he saved the lives of 70 wounded soldiers during a battle. I propose we make him your inspirational role model for the coming weeks, Aquarius. In his spirit, I invite you to blend valor and peace-making. Synergize compassion and fierce courage. Mix a knack for poise and healing with a quest for adventure.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): What types of people are you most attracted to, Pisces? Not just those you find most romantically and sexually appealing, but also those with whom a vibrant alliance is most gracefully created. And those you’re inclined to seek out for collaborative work and play. This knowledge is valuable information to have; it helps you gravitate toward relationships that are healthy for you. Now and then, though, it’s wise to experiment with connections and influences that aren’t obviously natural — to move outside your usual set of expectations and engage with characters you can’t immediately categorize. I suspect the coming weeks will be one of those times.
Homework: Who is the most important person or animal in your life? I invite you to give them a surprising gift.
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — The curtain has opened for the 15th annual National High School Musical Theatre Awards, better known as the Jimmy Awards.
The ceremony is a coast-to-coast celebration of outstanding student achievement – recognizing talent in vocal, dance and acting performance.
This year’s show is hosted by Emmy, Tony and Grammy-nominated singer and actor Josh Groban, and features performances by 102 student participants at the Minskoff Theatre.
Entertainment reporter Joelle Garguilo takes you behind the scenes at the Jimmy Awards
2024 Inspiring Teacher Award recipients
The Jimmy Awards congratulated the recipients of the 2024 Inspiring Teacher Award, which is given to teachers nominated by their students and chosen by a committee in recognition for their roles in guiding their students who excelled during the previous year’s ceremony. This year’s recipients were Jacqueline McLean of Le Roy Jr. Sr. High School in Rochester, New York, and Paul Fillingim of Ronald Reagan High School in San Antonio, Texas.
Jimmy Awards student reporters
The Jimmy Awards welcomes two student reporters to New York City: Nicole Scimeca from Broadway In Chicago Illinois High School Musical Theatre Awards in Chicago, and Richard “Ricky” Ragazzo from the Tommy Tune Awards in Houston, Texas. The two are aspiring journalists who were selected following a nationwide submissions process and are covering The Jimmy Awards on social media.
The Jimmy Awards has been the catalyst for more than $6,000,000 in educational scholarships.
The show will be streamed live on the Jimmy Awards website beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, June 24.
The Intermission Show hosted by Eyewitness News entertainment reporter Joelle Garguilo will be streamed on ABC 7 New York.
WABC-TV is the official media partner of the Jimmy Awards.
ALSO WATCH | Roger Rees Award winners to compete in 15th annual Jimmy Awards
Joelle Garguilo has details on the 15th annual Jimmy Awards high school theater competition taking place in NYC tonight.
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
Daniel Radcliffe with some of his Merrily costars. Andy Henderson
Lincoln Center was abuzz with celebrity star-studded parties after the 77th Annual Tony Awards Sunday night and Observer was there to witness all the excitement. Across the street from the David H. Koch Theater where the award show was held for the first time, Best Play winner Stereophonic held its party at PJ Clarke’s. When the telecast ended after 11 p.m., guests from inside the 2,500-seat theater quickly filled the restaurant. The crowd cheered as newly minted Tony Award-winning director Daniel Aukin walked in. Sliced steak, salmon and Caesar salad were served along with cocktails with clever names like the mezcal-infused “Mud F*ck”—a nod to the play. Aukin made his way downstairs where he sat down at a round table in a corner with friends and family to eat dinner. Next door at Rosa Mexicano, The Outsiders celebrated its Tony Award win for Best Musical, where producer Angelina Jolie also made an appearance.
A few blocks south at Shops at Columbus Circle, Water for Elephants held its party on the fifth floor at Jazz on Lincoln Center, and Merrily We Roll Along, which won Best Revival of a Musical, celebrated in the Ascent Lounge. Guests were treated to the “Our Thyme” cocktail made with Grey Goose Vodka infused with thyme, elderflower liqueur and watermelon juice as a DJ kicked off the evening with “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire. The young children in the cast were allowed to stay up well past their bedtimes and were dancing up a storm. In a separate roped-off area, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe snapped photos with his new trophy.
The cast of Water For Elephants celebrating. The cast of Water For Elephants
For the third year in a row, some of the biggest stars of the night attended Late Night at Pebble Bar, the annual Tony afterparty at the 132-year-old institution in Rockefeller Center. Best Actress nominee Kelli O’Hara and Arian Moayed, nominated last year, hosted the festivities with cocktails by Pernod Ricard—the “Moon Unit Zappa” was a spicy pineapple margarita with Código 1530 Blanco Tequila.
Billy Porter and Mary Martha Ford. Rupert Ramsay/BFA.com
Billy Porter was one of the first people on the fourth floor to start dancing, then we spotted him later talking to O’Hara, dressed in a stunning hot pink peplum gown. Porter’s found phone was a notable addition to the scene—he’d mentioned on TV earlier in the evening during his acceptance speech for the prestigious Isabelle Stevenson Award that he couldn’t find it.
Sarah Paulson at the Carlyle. Little Fang
All eyes in the room turned round as winner Sarah Paulson holding her Tony and her Appropriate co-stars Corey Stoll, Ella Fanning and Ella Beatty walked in and went straight to the bar. Paulson, who changed for the parties into a black slinky ensemble with silver swirl embellishments, took numerous photos with the group before they all noshed on Brooklyn-based Fini pizza topped with Petrossian Caviar. On the other side of the room was Stoll’s West Side Story co-star Brian D’Arcy James chatting it up with Leslie Odom Jr., while his wife Nicolette Robinson sparkled in her strapless glimmery gold A-Line gown among the sundry guests. At around 2 a.m., Elle Fanning headed for the elevator—this was her first Tony Awards ceremony. “I just wanted Sarah Paulson to win,” she was overheard saying on her way out. She said she had to catch an early flight to Norway for work the next morning.
After the individual parties wrap, everyone who’s anyone winds up at the legendary Rick Miramontez DKC/O&M and John Gore after-afterparty at the Carlyle Hotel.
Shaina Taub with her Tonys at the Carlyle. Little Fang
Host Ariana DeBose, wearing the same dress she ended the telecast in, was spotted sitting along a long velour couch gabbing with Julianne Hough, who co-hosted the 6:30 p.m. show on Pluto. Two-time winner for Suffs, Shaina Taub, held a Tony in each hand, leaving her no way to carry a purse or phone. Stereophonic star Sarah Pigeon held her heels in her hand as she strolled through the hotel lobby and into Bemelmans Bar. That’s where Daniel Radcliffe, still holding his Tony, and his Merrily co-star Jonathan Groff were, too, and they were spotted taking in their victories together. Groff, who won Best Actor in a Musical, surprised the crowd and sang “Old Friends” from the show with Billy Stritch on piano. Shrimp cocktail, sliders and mini quiche were among the passed hors d’oeuvres.
On the second floor, a chef was making fresh omelets. In the next room, Ashley Park danced with her former Mean Girls co-star Jonalyn Saxer to Destiny’s Child “Bills, Bills, Bills,” then walked over to the bar for a soda before grabbing a group and heading downstairs.
Alicia Keys and Roy Nachum, co-founder and creative director of Mercer Labs, at the Hells Kitchen afterparty. Mercer
While the Hell’s Kitchen’s party was held all the way in the financial district at Mercer Labs, many in the cast made a point to still show face on the Upper East Side, including winner Kecia Lewis and her nominated co-star Shoshana Bean. Kara Young, who won a Tony Award after being nominated three years in a row, arrived around 2:30 a.m. and changed into a sequin copper mini dress so as not to ruin her long, flowy, green award show gown (someone might have stepped on it). Billy Eichner mosied around the party, too.
At 3:45 a.m., Groff made his way outside with a group of friends posing for photos outside the hotel as other guests waited for their Ubers, and most of us called it a night.
Eddie Redmayne
Eddie Redmayne. Little Fang
Grant Gustin and LA Thoma Gustin
Grant Gustin and LA Thoma Gustin. Marcus Middleton
Sue Wagner
Sue Wagner. Valerie Terranova Photography
Sarah Pidgeon
Sarah Pidgeon. Valerie Terranova Photography
Elle Fanning and Natalie Gold
Elle Fanning and Natalie Gold. Rupert Ramsay/BFA.com
Kelli O’Hara and Leslie Odom Jr.
Kelli O’Hara and Leslie Odom Jr. Rupert Ramsay/BFA.com
Lindsay Mendez
Lindsay Mendez. Andy Henderson
Will Brill
Will Brill. Little Fang
Eli Gelb and Sarah Pidgeon
Eli Gelb and Sarah Pidgeon. Valerie Terranova Photography
Observer correspondent Leigh Scheps with her husband
Observer correspondent Leigh Scheps with her husband. Rupert Ramsay/BFA.com
LONDON — Actor Ian McKellen is expected to make a full recovery after he toppled off a London stage during a fight scene and was hospitalized, producers said.
McKellen, 85, was in “good spirits” after doctors said a scan showed he was expected to fully recover from the fall on Monday night, a spokesperson for the production at the Noel Coward Theatre said.
Tuesday’s performance was canceled but McKellen was expected to be back onstage Wednesday, producers said.
The stage and screen veteran, who played Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” films, cried out in pain after the fall, according to a BBC journalist at the theater.
McKellen was playing the roguish John Falstaff in “Player Kings,” an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s two “Henry IV” history plays, directed by Robert Icke.
Theatergoers were startled when McKellen lost his footing and fell off the stage in a scene with Toheeb Jimoh’s Prince Hal and Henry Percy, played by Samuel Edward-Cook.
“Sir Ian seemed to trip as he moved downstage to take a more active part in the scene,” audience member Paul Critchley told the PA news agency, saying it was a shock. “He picked up momentum as he moved downstage which resulted in him falling off the stage directly in front of the audience.”
Staff and two doctors in the audience helped the actor, the theater said in a statement.
The theater was evacuated and the performance was canceled.
McKellen played Magneto in the “X-Men” films and is one of Britain’s most acclaimed Shakespearean actors, with roles including Richard III, Macbeth and King Lear.
He has won a Tony Award — for “Amadeus” — several Olivier Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards, five Emmys and several BAFTA awards.
Finding the right adult dating site can be a bit overwhelming. That’s why we’ve worked hard to bring you the best adult dating sites to connect with the perfect match.
Our top pick is Adult Friend Finder, known for its vast user base and various dating options. We’ll also feature other great dating sites to suit different needs and preferences. Let’s get started!
Adult Friend Finder was launched in 1996 and is among the oldest and most popular online dating sites. It caters to individuals seeking casual encounters, hookups, and open-minded connections. With over 80 million members worldwide, it offers a diverse and active community for great connections.
Top Features
Live Chat: Real-time interaction with potential matches.
Video Profiles: Add a personal touch to your profile.
Groups and Blogs: Join communities and engage in discussions.
Advanced Search: Find matches based on specific criteria.
Mobile App: Stay connected on the go.
Why Adult Friend Finder Stands Out
Adult Friend Finder stands out for its long-standing reputation and excellent features. It offers a comprehensive platform for those seeking no-strings-attached fun.
Users appreciate the site’s variety of communication tools and active community. However, some users note there are several spam profiles and limited free features.
Ashley Madison was launched in 2001 and is renowned for facilitating discreet relationships. The site is popular, especially among married individuals, and has over 50+ million active members. It provides a secure platform for those seeking extramarital connections without fear of exposure.
Top Features
Discreet Browsing: Advanced privacy options to keep your activities confidential.
Large User Base: Over 50+ million active members globally.
Priority Messaging: Stand out in someone’s inbox with priority messages.
Travelling Man Feature: Connect with potential matches in different locations.
Virtual Gifts: Enhance your profile and interactions with virtual gifts.
Why Ashley Madison Stands Out
Ashley Madison stands out for its unique niche in facilitating discreet, extramarital affairs. Its extensive privacy features and large user base make it a trusted choice.
Pricing
Free for women
Basic (100 Credits): $49 ($0.49 per credit)
Classic (500 Credits): $149 ($0.30 per credit)
Elite (1,000 Credits): $249 ($0.25 per credit)
User Reviews and Ratings
Users appreciate the site’s privacy features and large, active community. However, some express concerns about its controversial reputation.
Seeking is a premium dating site that launched in 2006. It connects attractive individuals with successful people looking for luxurious engagements
Top Features
Profile Verification: Ensures authenticity and safety.
Advanced Search: Helps find matches based on detailed criteria.
Exclusive Events: Invitations to private parties and events.
Messaging System: Secure and private communication.
Income and Net Worth Display: Transparency in profiles.
Why Seeking Stands Out
Seeking stands out for its focus on high-end, mutually beneficial relationships. The site’s emphasis on transparency and quality ensures members’ needs are met.
Users highlight the quality of profiles and the site’s focus on transparency. Some concerns include the cost of premium membership and occasional fake profiles.
Eharmony was launched in 2000 and is one of the most trusted dating sites for serious relationships. It uses a detailed personality test and compatibility matching system to connect users. You can easily find a compatible partner for a long-term relationship.
Top Features
Compatibility Quiz: In-depth personality test to find the best matches.
Secure Messaging: Safe communication within the platform.
Video Date: Virtual dates for better connections.
Profile Insights: Detailed analysis of compatibility.
Daily Matches: Curated list of potential partners.
Why Eharmony Stands Out
Eharmony stands out for its rigorous matching algorithm and focuses on serious relationships. The detailed profiles and high success rate make it a preferred choice for those looking for lasting love.
Pricing
Basic: Free
Premium Light (6 Months): $65.90/month or $395.40 total
Premium Plus (12 Months): $45.90/month or $550.80 total
Premium Extra (24 Months): $35.90/month or $861.60 total
*Prices may vary based on location
User Reviews and Ratings
Users praise the site for its effective matching system and focus on serious relationships. However, some find the signup process lengthy and the cost relatively high.
Elite Singles, launched in 2013, caters to professionals seeking meaningful relationships. It has over 12.5+ million active members worldwide. The site offers high-quality matches and verified profiles for serious connections.
Top Features
Professional Dating: Connects professionals with like-minded individuals.
High-Quality Matches: Focuses on serious, meaningful relationships.
Verified Profiles: Ensures all profiles are authentic.
Detailed Profiles: Comprehensive profiles for better matching.
Secure Platform: Protects user data and privacy.
Why Elite Singles Stands Out
Elite Singles stands out for its focus on professional dating and high-quality matches. The verified and detailed profiles enhance the matching process for serious connections.
Pricing
Premium Classic (1 Month): $59.95/month.
Premium Light (3 Months): $57.95/month or $173.85 total.
Premium Comfort (6 Months): $44.95/month or $269.70 total.
User Reviews and Ratings
Users commend the site for its focus on professional dating and high-quality matches. They also praise their verified profiles and secure platform.
Zoosk is a popular dating platform known for its fun and versatile approach to online dating. It was launched in 2007 and uses behavioral matchmaking technology to suggest compatible matches. This makes it easier for users to find potential partners based on their preferences and activity.
Top Features
Behavioral Matchmaking: Uses user activity to suggest compatible matches.
SmartPick: Daily curated matches based on compatibility.
Carrousel: Quickly browse through potential matches.
Messaging System: Multiple communication tools to interact with matches.
Verification System: Ensures the authenticity of profiles.
Why Zoosk Stands Out
Zoosk stands out for its innovative behavioral matchmaking technology and large user base. It offers a variety of features that cater to different dating preferences.
Free Membership: Limited access to features.
Premium Membership (1 Month): $29.95/month.
Premium Membership (3 Months): $19.98/month or $59.95 total.
Premium Membership (6 Months): $12.49/month or $74.95 total.
12-Month Plan: $10.00/month or $120 total
User Reviews and Ratings
Users appreciate the site’s user-friendly interface and effective matchmaking technology. However, some users note the limited access to free members and the cost of premium features. The site also does not conduct criminal background checks, but users love its security.
Hinge was launched in 2012 and focuses on fostering genuine relationships rather than casual hookups. It uses detailed profiles and prompts to encourage meaningful conversations and connections.
Top Features
Detailed Profiles: Encourages users to share more about themselves.
Prompt Questions: Ice-breaker questions to start conversations.
Hinge stands out for its focus on creating meaningful connections and innovative dating approaches. The detailed profiles and prompt questions help users to get to know each other better.
Pricing
Free Version: Up to 8 profile likes per day
Hinge+: $30/month
HingeX: $50/month or $600/year
User Reviews and Ratings
Users praise Hinge for its focus on authentic relationships and detailed profiles. Some users, however, mention the high cost of premium features and fewer matches in certain areas.
Bumble – Best for Empowering and Interactive Dating
Pros
Women make the first move
Multiple modes (dating, BFF, Bizz)
Emphasis on respect and safety
User-friendly interface
Free version available
Cons
Limited features for free users
Some matches expire quickly
Bumble was launched in 2014 to empower women to make the first move. It offers an interactive platform for romantic relationships, friendships, and professional networking. Bumble’s unique approach encourages equality and safety in online interactions.
Top Features
Women First: Women initiate conversations.
BFF Mode: Find new friends.
Bizz Mode: Professional networking.
Video Chat: Virtual dates and meetings.
SuperSwipe: Show extra interest in potential matches.
Why Bumble Stands Out
Bumble stands out for its women-first approach and emphasis on respect and safety. The app’s multiple modes allow users to use it for various purposes.
Pricing
1 Week: $8.99/week 1 Month:$16.99/month 3 Months: $33.99 for three months paid upfront 6 Months:$54.99 for six months paid upfront
1 Week:$19.99/week 1 Month:$39.99/month 3 Months:$76.99 for three months paid upfront Lifetime: $229.99
User Reviews and Ratings
Users appreciate Bumble’s empowering approach and multiple modes. However, some users find the monthly subscription cost costly and the match expiration times restrictive.
OK Cupid, launched in 2004, is known for its inclusive and diverse community. It uses a unique questionnaire and compatibility scores to match users with potential partners. This ensures you find someone who shares your interests and values.
Top Features
Compatibility Questions: Detailed questionnaire for better matches.
Double Take: Browse potential matches with detailed profiles.
Messaging: Various ways to communicate with matches.
Profile Prompts: Encourage users to share more about themselves.
Open Messaging: Anyone can message, but prioritized for mutual likes.
Why OK Cupid Stands Out
OK Cupid stands out for its inclusivity and detailed matching system. The compatibility questions help users find like-minded partners. The site also offers various communication options, making interactions easier.
Pricing
Free Membership: Basic features with ads.
A-List Basic (1 Month): $19.95/month.
A-List Basic (3 Months): $14.95/month or $44.85 total.
A-List Basic (6 Months): $9.95/month or $59.70 total.
A-List Premium (1 Month): $34.90/month.
A-List Premium (3 Months): $29.90/month or $89.70 total.
A-List Premium (6 Months): $24.90/month or $149.40 total.
User Reviews and Ratings
Users love the site’s inclusivity and detailed profiles. However, some users note the presence of inactive profiles and ads in the free version.
The League was launched in 2015 and is an exclusive dating app designed for elite professionals. It ensures a high standard of members through a rigorous selection process.
Top Features
Profile Verification: Ensures high-quality, professional members.
Selective Matching: Curated matches to ensure quality.
Video Dating: Virtual dates with potential matches.
Networking Events: Invitations to exclusive events and mixers.
LinkedIn Integration: Connects with professional profiles for authenticity.
Why The League Stands Out
The League stands out for its exclusivity and focus on elite professionals. The selective matching process ensures high-quality matches for singles.
Pricing
Free Membership: Limited access with few matches.
Member (1 Month): $99/month.
Member (6 Months): $67/month or $399 total.
Member (12 Months): $33/month or $399 total.
Owner (1 Month): $199/month.
Owner (6 Months): $83/month or $499 total.
Owner (12 Months): $42/month or $499 total.
User Reviews and Ratings
Users appreciate the high-quality matches and networking opportunities. However, some find the cost of premium membership high and the number of matches for free users limited.
Happn is a unique dating app that connects users with people they’ve met in real life. It was launched in 2014 and uses real-time location data to show potential matches.
Top Features
Real-Time Matches: Connect with people you’ve crossed paths with.
Detailed Profiles: Allows users to share more about themselves.
Hello Feature: Express interest in potential matches.
In-App Messaging: Communicate with matches within the app.
Instagram Integration: Connects with social media profiles for more information.
Why Happn Stands Out
Happn stands out for its unique approach to dating, which focuses on real-life connections. The real-time matching feature creates opportunities for spontaneous encounters.
Pricing
Free Membership: Basic features and limited likes.
Premium Membership (1 Month): $24.99/month.
Premium Membership (6 Months): $15/month or $89.99 total.
Premium Membership (12 Months): $10/month or $119.99 total.
User Reviews and Ratings
Users love the unique concept and the opportunity to connect with people they’ve crossed paths with. However, some note the limited matches in less populated areas and the cost of premium features.
Her was launched in 2013 and is specifically designed for LGBTQ+ women and non-binary individuals. It offers a safe and inclusive space for dating, making friends, and engaging with the community.
Top Features
Community Feed: Share updates and engage with other users.
Events: Invitations to LGBTQ+ events and meetups.
In-App Messaging: Communicate with matches within the app.
Photo Sharing: Share photos and moments with the community.
Profile Verification: Ensures authenticity of profiles.
Why Her Stands Out
Her stands out for creating a safe space for LGBTQ+ women and non-binary individuals. The community features, and event invitations make it more than just a dating app.
Pricing
1-Month Premium Membership: $14.99/month
6-Month Premium Membership: $59.99 total
12-Month Premium Membership: $89.99 total
User Reviews and Ratings
Users appreciate the inclusive community and social features. However, some users mention the limited features for free members and fewer matches in certain areas.
Silver Singles – Best for Focused and Mature Relationships
Pros
Targeted at mature singles
Detailed profiles
Comprehensive personality test
Secure platform
User-friendly interface
Cons
Premium membership required for full features
Limited matches for free users
Brief Site Overview
Silver Singles was launched in 2002 to cater to singles over 50 looking for meaningful relationships. It uses a detailed personality test to match users with compatible partners.
Top Features
Personality Test: In-depth test for accurate matching.
Profile Verification: Ensures authenticity and security.
Daily Matches: Curated list of potential partners.
Secure Messaging: Safe communication within the platform.
Mobile App: Stay connected on the go.
Why Silver Singles Stands Out
Silver Singles stands out for its focus on mature singles and detailed personality matching. The secure platform and user-friendly interface make it a trusted choice.
Pricing
Basic Membership: Free
Premium Light: $44.95/month for three months
Premium Classic: $34.95/month for six months
Premium Comfort: $24.95/month for 12 months
User Reviews and Ratings
Users commend the site for its focus on mature singles and effective matching systems. Some users, however, find the premium membership necessary for full access.
Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating app launched in 2012; it focuses on quality over quantity. It sends users limited curated matches daily to encourage thoughtful and meaningful interactions.
Top Features
Daily Matches: Curated list of potential partners each day.
Detailed Profiles: Allows users to share more about themselves.
Photo Sharing: Share photos with matches.
In-App Messaging: Communicate within the app.
Beans: In-app currency to unlock features and boost profiles.
Why Coffee Meets Bagel Stands Out
Coffee Meets Bagel stands out for its focus on quality matches and thoughtful connections. The limited daily matches encourage users to take their time and get to know each other better.
Pricing
Free Membership: Basic features with daily matches.
Premium Membership (1 Month): $34.99/month.
Premium Membership (3 Months): $25/month or $74.99 total.
Premium Membership (6 Months): $20/month or $119.99 total.
Beans: In-app currency starting at $1.99.
User Reviews and Ratings
Users appreciate the thoughtful matching process and quality connections. Some users, however, find the limited daily matches restrictive and the cost of premium features high.
Plenty of Fish (POF) was launched in 2003 and is one of the largest free dating sites. It offers many options for singles looking for casual dates, relationships, or even friendships. With its large user base and detailed profiles, POF provides ample opportunities to meet new people.
Top Features
Free Messaging: Communicate with other members for free.
Detailed Profiles: Comprehensive profiles for better matches.
Advanced Search: Find matches based on specific criteria.
Chemistry Test: Personality test for better compatibility.
Meet Me: Feature to browse potential matches quickly.
Why Plenty of Fish Stands Out
Plenty of Fish stands out for its large user base and free messaging. The variety of communication tools and advanced search options make connecting with matches easy.
Pricing
Free Account: Send messages to potential matches and add photos to your profile
3-Month Premium Membership: $20.94/month or $62.82 total
6-Month Premium Membership: $15.70/month or $94.23 total
12-Month Premium Membership: $10.47/month or $125.64 total
1 Token: $3.99
5 Tokens: $14.95
10 Tokens: $19.90
User Reviews and Ratings
Users love the site’s free messaging and large user base. However, some users note the presence of ads and inactive profiles.
Match was launched in 1995 and is one of the oldest and most trusted dating sites. It focuses on serious relationships and has a high success rate for long-term connections. Match offers detailed profiles and advanced search options.
Top Features
Detailed Profiles: Allows users to share extensive information about themselves.
Advanced Search: Find matches based on specific criteria.
Daily Matches: Curated list of potential partners.
Events and Activities: Invitations to local events and meetups.
MatchPhone: Safe and secure phone calls with matches.
Why Match Stands Out
Match stands out for its long-standing reputation and focus on serious relationships. The detailed profiles and advanced search options make it easy to find long-term partners.
Pricing
Standard Membership:
3 Months: $34.45/month
6 Months: $24.48/month
12 Months: $21.84/month
Premium Membership:
3 Months: $40.41/month
6 Months: $26.51/month
12 Months: $23.11/month
User Reviews and Ratings
Users commend the site for its detailed profiles and high success rate. Users note that a premium membership is needed for full access and that inactive profiles are present.
Tinder was launched in 2012 and is one of the most popular dating apps for quick and casual hookups. It uses a simple swipe mechanism to match users based on mutual interest. With its large user base and geolocation feature, Tinder makes it easy to find potential matches nearby.
Top Features
Swipe Right/Left: Quick matching based on mutual interest.
Super Like: Show extra interest in a potential match.
Passport: Connect with users from different locations.
Boost: Increase profile visibility for a limited time.
Tinder U: Exclusive feature for college students.
Why Tinder Stands Out
Tinder stands out for its simplicity and large user base. The quick matching system and geolocation feature make it ideal for users looking for instant connections and casual hookups.
Pricing
Free Membership: Basic features with ads.
Tinder Plus (1 Month): $9.99/month.
Tinder Plus (6 Months): $5.99/month or $35.94 total.
Tinder Plus (12 Months): $4.58/month or $54.96 total.
Tinder Gold (1 Month): $14.99/month.
Tinder Gold (6 Months): $8.83/month or $52.98 total.
Tinder Gold (12 Months): $6.92/month or $82.98 total.
User Reviews and Ratings
Users enjoy Tinder’s fast and easy-to-use interface. However, some users note the high competition and presence of fake profiles.
Dating sites are online platforms that help singles connect with potential partners. These websites and apps offer various tools and features to help you meet people based on your preferences. They also help you build relationships, whether you’re into casual dating or serious relationships.
How Do Dating Sites Work?
Most dating apps and websites require you to create a profile with personal info and preferences. They use algorithms to match you with others based on compatibility, interests, and location. Features like messaging, video calls, and virtual gifts make interacting with potential matches easier.
Paid vs. Free Dating Sites
Here are the significant differences between Paid vs. Free dating apps and sites.
Paid dating sites:
Offer advanced matchmaking algorithms.
Provide more features like personality tests and compatibility assessments.
Often, they have better security measures to protect user data.
May offer better customer support.
Usually attracts users seeking serious relationships.
Require a subscription fee or payment for premium features.
Generally, they have a smaller but more engaged user base.
Free dating sites:
Have a more extensive user base due to accessibility.
Can be full of inactive or fake profiles.
Rely on advertisements for revenue.
May lack advanced matchmaking algorithms.
Often used for casual dating or hookups.
Provide basic features without requiring payment.
Tend to have fewer privacy controls.
Might offer limited customer support options.
How to Avoid Fake Dating Profiles and Scams
Online dating can be exciting, but it’s essential to stay vigilant. Here are some key tips to protect yourself from fake profiles and scams.
Use Secure Payment Methods
Always use secure payment methods for subscriptions or in-app purchases. Avoid using direct bank transfers or other non-traceable methods. This will help you protect your financial information.
Watch Out for Red Flags
Be cautious of profiles with limited information, overly flattering messages, or requests for money. Always trust your instincts and proceed with caution if something feels off.
Verify Profiles
Look for verified profiles or use platforms offering profile verification features. Verified profiles usually have a badge indicating their authenticity.
Report Suspicious Activity
Most dating platforms have features to report suspicious profiles or activities. By reporting, you help maintain the safety and integrity of the dating community.
Choose Reputable Dating Platforms
Stick to well-known and reputable dating sites with good user reviews and security measures. These platforms invest in safety features to protect their users.
Use Reverse Image Search
Use reverse image search to check if a profile picture is used elsewhere on the internet. This can help you identify potential catfishers.
Avoid Sharing Personal Information
Never share personal information like your address, financial details, or other sensitive data. Protect your privacy until you feel confident in your connection.
What to Consider When Choosing the Best Dating Sites
Choosing the right dating site can significantly impact your online dating experience. Here are some key factors to remember when selecting the best dating apps for you.
Privacy and Safety Features
Ensure the platform values your privacy and has robust safety features like profile verification. This ensures your personal information stays secure.
Cost and Payment Options
Consider your budget and the payment options available. While some of the best dating apps require a subscription, free dating apps can also offer limited features.
Features and Functionality of the Site
Look for user-friendly interfaces, efficient matchmaking algorithms, and efficient features. These can make your dating experience more enjoyable and effective.
Matching Algorithms
Effective matching algorithms can significantly enhance your online dating experience. They help suggest compatible matches based on your preferences and behavior. The better the algorithm, the higher your chances of finding a good match.
Success Stories and Reputation
Research the platform’s reputation and read success stories from other users. Positive testimonials can give you confidence in the site’s ability to help you find a meaningful connection.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
We now address some of the most frequently asked questions about dating sites:
Which Dating Site Is the Most Effective?
The most effective dating site depends on what you’re looking for. Adult Friend Finder is excellent for casual encounters and has a vast user base. Ashley Madison is ideal for discreet affairs, while Seeking is perfect for luxurious arrangements.
What Is the Number 1 Dating App Right Now?
While personal preference varies, Adult Friend Finder is the top choice for casual dating. It has extensive features and an active community of diverse members.
What Dating Site Is Totally Free?
None of these sites are totally free, but they offer free trials or basic memberships. For example, Adult Friend Finder and Ashley Madison provide free account setups with limited features. This allows you to explore before committing to a paid plan.
Which Dating Site Leads to the Most Marriages?
While these sites are primarily for casual encounters and discreet relationships, many have found lasting connections. However, for traditional marriages, other platforms might be more suitable.
Are Paid Dating Sites Worth It?
Yes, paid dating sites often offer enhanced features, better security, and higher success rates. Dating sites like Adult Friend Finder, Ashley Madison, or Seeking can provide a more tailored dating experience.
Can I Find a Serious Relationship on a Dating Site?
While these sites focus more on casual and discreet relationships, many have found serious connections. If you’re open to different types of relationships, these platforms can still be effective.
What’s the Best Dating Site for You?
The best dating site for you depends on your needs:
Adult Friend Finder is best for casual encounters and adventurous connections.
Ashley Madison is ideal for those seeking discreet affairs.
Seeking is perfect for luxurious arrangements.
Final Note
Choosing the right adult dating site can make all the difference in your online dating experience. Our top pick is Adult Friend Finder, which stands out for its vast user base and various dating options. It is an excellent choice for casual encounters and adventurous connections.
Remember, online dating is about having fun and meeting new people. Take your time and enjoy the process. And if nothing else, think of it as a great way to improve your profile writing skills!
Happy dating!
Disclaimer This content was commissioned by UP Venture Media in a partnership with the Metro Times. A few of the links on this page may be affiliate links. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase within a specific time period, said party may earn a commission. Affiliate compensation does not influence our rankings or evaluations.
Sandra Oh (center) and the company of The Welkin.Ahron R. Foster
It’s unscientific and unverifiable, but I have a theory that a lot of shabby British playwriting is smoothed over by dazzling British acting. No, I’m not pushing the snobby lie that English actors are just, y’know, better. Their training does generally make them text-forward and apt for verbally dense, rhetorically twisty material. Take Peter Morgan’s Patriots, now on Broadway starring a hard-working Michael Stuhlbarg. I saw it last summer in London, where the magnificent Tom Hollander chewed the scenery with ravenous aplomb. Too bad that said verbal scenery was provided by the schematic and trope-drunk hack behind The Crown.
This preamble is not to imply that Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin is shabby. She’s a courageous writer digging into pre-modern feminism and the moral rot of misogyny in visceral, startling ways. And I’m in no way suggesting the mostly American cast of the New York premiere is inferior; they’re a head-turning group of sixteen pros. There’s simply a lag between the very specific English setting (1759, East Anglia) and the non-accented vocal approach that director Sarah Benson has—no doubt carefully—taken. Except for an Australian twang here (Nadia Malouf) and a Scots brogue there (original UK cast member Tilly Botsford), the actors speak sans affectation regardless of class. (Exception: Mary McCann plays a posh dame with a hidden past.) There is an admirable goal of transparency behind this choice. Kirkwood herself encourages diversity wherever the work’s presented, and a scrupulous recreation of rural Georgian England might muddy the political topicality of The Welkin: the sequestering of women from agency, from knowledge of their bodies, from justice.
Dale Soules, Emily Cass McDonnell, Sandra Oh, Jennifer Nikki Kidwell, Tilly Botsford, Susannah Perkins (kneeling), Haley Wong, Paige Gilbert, Simone Recasner and Nadine Malouf (from left) in The Welkin.Ahron R. Foster
Even so, the cadences of Kirkwood’s densely populated and overplotted drama seem off in this Atlantic Theater Company production. The author sprinkles her dialogue with antique regional idioms—mardle for gossip; bunter, slamkin, drag, all variations on a vulgar, low woman—which are colorful if distracting. (Could use a glossary in the program.) Our putative hero, proto-feminist midwife, Lizzy Lake (Sandra Oh), is prone to vehement, eloquent speeches that call to mind George Bernard Shaw stumping for suffragettes. Between the olde English slang and the soapbox diatribes, you imagine the text sprouting more fully in its native soil. Despite it all, once your ear adjusts to the anachronistic filter, it is possible to settle into the admittedly juicy plot.
A horrible crime has occurred in a village. Ann Wax, the young daughter of a well-to-do family, was murdered and dismembered. Alleged perpetrators are quickly apprehended: a Scottish vagabond named Thomas McKay—summarily hanged—and his accomplice, 21-year-old Sally Poppy (Haley Wong), who appears to her husband (Danny Wolohan) crazed, covered in blood and burning a lock of Ann Wax’s hair in the candle. The action of the play proper begins when Lizzy and 11 other women are called to the court for a special duty: to determine is Sally is, as she claims, pregnant. The accused killer has “pled the belly,” and if found pregnant will be transported to America rather than executed.
Haley Wong, Dale Soules and Susannah Perkins (from left) in The Welkin.Ahron R. Foster
Ten minutes or so of back story gets us to the meat of The Welkin: a dozen women locked in a stifling room with the viciously angry, unrepentant Sally, the silent bailiff Coombes (Glenn Fitzgerald), and townspeople outside the window baying for blood. The “jury of matrons” must vote unanimously yea or nay. Whether or not the girl is with child, Lizzy wants her freed. As she tells Coombes (her lover):
I know she has been tried in a cold room by cold men on the word of a cold husband, with no-one to speak for her and a mob outside the window. Even if she is lying I do not blame her, I would lie too. When a woman is being buried alive, she will reach for even the grubbiest tool to dig herself out again.
Act I is concerned with finding evidence that “she be quick with child,” even if most of the ladies think Sally’s shamming and want her hanged so they can get back to their daily drudgery. The grim and unspeaking Sarah Hollis (Hannah Cabell) palpates Sally’s breasts for milk, while others banter about their own pregnancies and share tips on sex and menstruation, when not mocking the buffoonish Coombes to his face.
Among the genres boldly blended in The Welkin (which naturally evokes Twelve Angry Men and the recent movie Women Talking) it’s a murder mystery that flips into a birth mystery. Is Sally preggers, and is her origin obscurely linked to Lizzy? It’s also a shockingly detailed survey of female life in 18th century England, which obviously (and nauseatingly) resonates today. Their humanity is subsumed in domestic slavery and incessant breeding, their access to healthcare and reproductive services rigidly controlled by men and theology. That we’re still debating these gender inequities and hateful laws is an index of social barbarity. Kirkwood also dips into the folk-horror well when Cabell (spellbinding, as always) breaks years of muteness to tell a story about the Devil and childbirth. The title is an ancient word for the sky—across which Halley’s Comet passes that March day, a spectacular reminder that cosmic and social cycles remain fixed.
In terms of subtleness of structure, The Welkin has its problems. That comet does a lot of heavy metaphorical lifting, and Kirkwood spoon-feeds the audience theme toward the end. She introduces Act II plot twists that border on ridiculous. Even so, Benson’s sturdy, propulsive staging supports a stage full of obscenely gifted performers. The heartbreaking Emily Cass McDonnell’s depressed, childless Helen turns bitterly on her sisters. Susannah Perkins, an intense, elvish redhead, seems to vibrate between genders as a tomboyish (yet pregnant) farmer wife. Frisky and wry Paige Gilbert lights up her bits with saucy irreverence. Wong’s wolfish, self-annihilating Sally delivers a harrowing vision and confession. And Oh blazes equally hot in Lizzy’s witty, indignant speechifying and the depths of maternal horror into which she finally plunges. Kirkwood takes big, violent, not fully satisfying swings, but one must bow before her women. Even though this ensemble can’t “save” the play, I was grateful to witness both. Will it take another 75 years for such a cluster of talent to burn across the heavens? Keep looking up.
The Welkin | 2hrs 30mins. One intermission. | Atlantic Theater Company | 330 West 20th Street | 646-328-9579 | Buy Tickets Here
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning “Hamilton” is returning to Denver this fall, but you’ll have to wait until next month to buy tickets.
At least, that is, if you aren’t a subscriber to Denver Center for the Performing Arts. If you are, a members-only sale will run June 11-17, based on availability. After that, public tickets go on at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 9. Call 303-893-4100 or visit hamilton.denvercenter.org to buy.
The touring Broadway show runs Oct. 16-Nov. 24 at the Buell Theatre. Here’s what else you need to know, according to DCPA officials:
There is a maximum purchase limit of 9 tickets per account for the engagement.
When tickets go on sale on July 9, prices will range from $49 to $199, with a select number of premium seats available from $229 for all performances.
There will be a lottery for 40 $10 seats for all performances, and those details will be announced closer to the engagement.
Visit denvercenter.org/hamilton — which is different than the ticket-sales site linked above — for more details as they become available
The show is considered an “added attraction” for the regularly scheduled, 2024-25 DCPA season. Visit dpo.st/3VwdmqU for the full season’s schedule and more information.
We’re officially into June, and the month of June – if you didn’t know – is National Outdoors Month. There’s been very little reason to want to be outdoors so far this month, so rest assured that most of this week’s best bets will keep you in a nice, air-conditioned, rain-free building. Keep reading for our picks, which include jazzy films, glow-in-the-dark art, and a “scandal” at the Symphony.
Did you know that Vaseline and ripe bananas glow blue under a black light? A black light emits ultraviolet light and those things that glow under it are called phosphors, and phosphors will be all over Hardy & Nance Studios on Friday, June 7, at 7 p.m. when Insomnia Gallery presents Near Dark: A Black Light Art Show. The all-ages-welcome, free show is returning for the fifth time, so get ready to enjoy work – all fluorescent – from local artists. Get in on the fun and deck yourself out in neon colors or be ready to glow yourself up with highlighters that will be provided on-site. Food trucks will also be present, and Eureka Heights Brewing Company, Bad Astronaut Brewing Co., Equal Parts Brewing and City Orchard will be pouring the (free) drinks.
Kaiser Wilhelm II famously lamented Richard Strauss’s “scandalous” Salome, an opera based on Oscar Wilde’s equally “scandalous” play, fearing it would do Strauss “a lot of damage.” Instead, “Salome played to sold out opera houses around the world,” and on Friday, June 7, at 8 p.m. the Houston Symphony will produce the opera with costumes, projections, lighting and more during the Strauss Festival: Salome in Concert at Jones Hall. Soprano Jennifer Holloway will sing the title role in the opera, which includes the (in)famous “Dance of the Seven Veils,” which Salome performs in exchange for anything she wants – and what she wants is the head of John the Baptist. Salome will be performed a second time on Sunday, June 9, at 7 p.m. Tickets for either can be purchased here for $34 to $125.
Get a taste of Caribbean and Latin American culture, including the music of Argentina’s most iconic dance and Venezuela’s most traditional (and national) dance, without blowing your savings on a roundtrip plane ticket at Miller Outdoor Theatre on Saturday, June 8, at 8:30 p.m. during Tango, Joropo, Danzas y Mas! produced by Aperio, Music of the Americas. Conductor Marlon Chen of the Manila Symphony Orchestra will lead Aperio’s ensemble, which will be joined by clarinetist Ernesto Vega, Venezuelan violinist Eddy Marcano and tango pianist Pablo Estigarribia. As with all shows at Miller, the program is free, and you can reserve tickets here starting at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 7, or you can take a seat on the no-ticket-required Hill.
Experience the summer of 1969 and the days leading up to the moon landing through the eyes of a Houston fourth grader named Stan in Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood, an animated coming-of-age film that will screen on the lawn outside The Menil Collection’s main building on Saturday, June 8, at 8:30 p.m. The film, co-presented with Friends of River Oaks Theatre, is “a lively and charming stroll down memory lane,” one loosely based on Linklater’s own childhood with a “meticulous sense of detail” and “tolerant, easygoing spirit.” The event is free, and before the film at 8:30 p.m., you can enjoy music by DJ Vincent Priceless at 7:30 p.m. and remarks by the film’s co-producer, Craig Staggs, at 8:15 p.m. (and don’t forget to bring a picnic blanket).
TOPSHAM, Maine — A lobster-themed monster truck performing for spectators in Maine clipped an aerial power line, toppling several utility poles and sending two people to hospitals, police said. Others suffered minor injuries.
The Topsham Fairgrounds was hosting the monster truck event on Saturday when a vehicle dubbed the Crushstation bounced up a ramp, went airborne and hit the power line. Video showed people scrambling as the snagged line triggered a cascade of events with several utility poles and a transformer falling near the grandstands, with live wires on the ground.
Two people were transported to hospitals and others suffered minor injuries, Topsham police reported. The driver of the truck was not injured.
“I’m still a little bit shaken up,” said Mike Hersom, who was watching with his 3-year-old son and narrowly avoided the falling transformer.
He said he watched in disbelief for a moment before jumping to action to move away; he saw just how close the transformer came to him and his son when he watched a video. “When I watched the video, it was like, ‘Holy smokes. That’s crazy,’” he said Sunday.
The promoter of the event didn’t return an email.
The Maine-based monster truck was shaped to look like a lobster and named the Crushstation, a play on the word crustacean. Its owners didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment on Sunday.
Director Jessica Stone at the opening night of Water for Elephants at the Imperial Theatre on March 21, 2024 in New York City. Jenny Anderson Photo/Courtesy of Polk & Co
Jessica Stone—who directed last year’s Tony-winning Best Musical, Kimberly Akimbo, and may just have directed this year’s Tony-winning Best Musical, Water for Elephants—first met her husband, actor Christopher Fitzgerald, onstage. This was back in 1999, when there were still babes in arms and rehearsing, appropriately enough, a New York City Center Encores! production of Babes in Arms, the Rodgers and Hart perennial. Specifically, it was while rehearsing a fast-paced, roughhouse rendition of R&H’s “I Wish I Were in Love Again.”
“It was a very physical number,” Stone tells Observer. “The first day we met, we were kicking each other and beating each other up.” But the result was gang-busters. “When you work hard at something and people appreciate it, you feel pretty great.”
Four years later, they returned to the stage of that triumph, Fitzgerald having lured her there, using the ruse that Encores! musical director, Rob Fisher, wanted to see them. When it became clear Fisher was a no-show, Fitzgerald dropped to one knee and popped the question. She said yes. They now have two sons, 17 and 15, but they travel on quite different showbiz planes.
Not long after Babes in Arms, Stone traded in her dancing shoes and for a director’s megaphone. Fitzgerald remains a clown prince of Broadway—he handled three roles in the recent revival of Spamalot—while Stone toils behind the scenes.
Stone sees her switch from dancing to directing as a natural progression. “I always had a desire to collaborate with other kinds of storytellers, to think about the story in a larger way than just the character that I was playing,” she says.
Nevertheless, she tiptoed into this new profession. Whenever she had free time between gigs, she’d sign up to assist friends who were already directors—Joe Mantello, Christopher Ashley, David Warren—and acquaint herself with varied works from Shakespeare to Shaw to Simon.
Paul Alexander Nolan and the cast of Water For Elephants.Matthew Murphy
One of her director-friends, the late Nicholas Martin, started her off on solo-directing in 2010 when he provided her with the mainstage at Williamstown and she filled it with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Just to make it characteristically complicated, she used an all-male ensemble and had everybody double-cast. “I loved the puzzle of it,” she admits. “It’s so silly, and that score is just so elegant. It elevates the entire evening. I just love that show.
“Even then, I didn’t know that I was pivoting away from acting. I thought, ‘Oh, that was kind of a lark,’ but, when serious job offers to direct started coming in, I realized I was more interested in those than in the acting offers. I’d lost my desire for that a while ago, and I felt much happier, more fulfilled and excited. Also, I had much more energy for directing than I had for acting.”
Stone guided Kimberly Akimbo—about a teenage girl suffering from a form of progeria, which causes her to age four-and-a-half times faster than normal—to no less than five Tony wins out of seven nominations. The elaborately staged Water for Elephants—which uses horse and elephant puppets to help tell the story of a run-down, one-ring circus traveling through the Depression —has seven Tony noms itself.
Both shows seem, on paper, difficult if not impossible to musicalize. “I gravitate toward stories that intertwine pain and hope and joy in any given second,” Stone says. “When I was presented with the opportunity to think about Water for Elephants, it was less about ‘Ooooh, this sounds hard—I want to do it’ and more about ‘How’d I do that—and still have the train and a stampede and puppetry? What might it look like?’”
She knows who to thank for getting her somewhat unwieldy epic vision on stage. “I had the luck to work with an incredible producing team—Jennifer Costello and Peter Schneider—who allowed a lot of room for research and development and a lot of time to sit down with Rick Elice and the writers to crack the code,” she insists. Then, there’s that surprisingly tuneful and sprightly score from an aggregate of seven known collectively as PigPen Theatre Co.
Strengthening her stage vision are the idyllic memories of her own circuses from childhood. “ I loved the circus as a kid, and I still love it, as an adult,” she says. “There’s such skill and such fragility in the entire experience, such trust among the company members because they hold each other and carry each other.”
But circus love wasn’t exactly what drew her to the project. “The attraction was the fact that the main character loses everything, and it changes the entire trajectory of his life,” she opines. “He faces again his life, and what he chooses to do with what’s left of it—how he uses that previous chapter of his life to teach himself to think about what he might want to do next.”
This would be Jacob Jankowaki, a veterinarian who loses his parents in a car crash. Transitioning from an Ivy League school to anywhere, he hops a cross-country train shared by the Benzini Brothers Circus, and his life is upended. Grant Gustin, in his Broadway debut, has this lead role. He was recommended by friends to Stone, who “knew he was the guy as soon as we met.”
Young Jacob, too, develops a circus love—specifically for the beautiful horseback-rider (Isabelle McCalla), who unfortunately is married to the ringmaster (Paul Alexander Nolan). I say “young Jacob” because there’s an old Jacob (Gregg Edelman), who muses over the life that he survived.
Grant Gustin, Paul Alexander Nolan, Isabelle McCalla and the company of Water For Elephants.Matthew Murphy
Thus running around loose in Water for Elephants is a circus story, a love story, a triangle and a memory play. That’s a lot for a director to crack her whip over. Stone had help from choreographers Shana Carroll and Jesse Robb, scenic designer Takeshi Kata and costume designer David Israel Reynoso, each of them Tony nominated themselves.
She also had time. Water for Elephants unfurled its tent for the first time last year for a world premiere at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. “I think it’s important to give new musicals a chance to breathe,” Stone contends. “People say, ‘Oh, it takes seven years to make a musical,’ and, in a funny way, it really does. It’s not just the time it takes to write and revise and design. You need room to look at it and then to step away from it. We had so much support at the Alliance. It gave us the opportunity to see it on its feet first and then make changes where we still wanted to that the story. We were able to tinker and make a few changes, actually, upon leaving Atlanta.”
Stone said goodbye to a performing career some time ago and doesn’t miss the acclaim that went with it, but she relishes the kudos she’s getting for directing Water for Elephants. “I love that people really enjoy the show, that they scream at the end of Act I, that they leap to their feet at the end of Act II and tell me it takes their breath away. That’s the thing that moves me. I’m proud of the show we’ve all created. I love the team that I worked with and the company of actors. And I feel really, really proud that this show is getting the kind of praise it’s getting.
“When you get a nomination for Best Musical, it belongs to everybody. You don’t make a musical without everybody. That’s the thing I’m most pleased about, what nobody told me when I was an actor. When you’re a director, you work so closely with every single person on a project. This one has a lot of people attached to it, and there’s not a bad apple in the bunch. It’s an incredible group of storytellers—on stage and off—and Water for Elephants is truly the thing that makes me happy to hang my hat on because it’s a show that belongs to all of us.”
