Real Estate: come what may ... "Moulin Rouge! The Musical" will begin performances on Broadway in June at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (current home of Critic's Pick! "Kinky Boots")
Good News: Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is awarding $225,000 in grants to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, Los Angeles County Animal Care Foundation, and The Actors Fund to help those affected by the devastating wildfires spreading in California; the League of Professional Theatre Women's new report “Women Count: Women Hired Off-Broadway” finds gender parity is improving for the employment of women in 13 professional roles Off-Broadway; and Critic's Pick! "The Ferryman" (read my review) has extended an additional 20 weeks (get tickets . . . now)
Bad News: at a performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" in Baltimore last week, a man drunkenly shouted "Heil Hitler, Heil Trump" from the balcony during intermission
Casting: LaChanze will lead the cast of Duncan Sheik's "The Secret Life of Bees" musical at the Atlantic Theatre Company; Norbert Leo Butz, Laura Osnes, and Ethan Slater have joined the case of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Steven Levenson, and Thomas Kail's forthcoming FX series about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon
Heads Up: Steven Levenson's play "If I Forget" will be telecast on PBS on December 3rd; tickets are now on sale for Lincoln Center's 2019 "American Songbook" series lineup; Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's 2004 musical (masterpiece!) "Caroline, or Change" will receive a New York revival at the Astoria Performing Arts Center, running May 2–25 at the Broccoli Drama Theater
RIP: Prolific Broadway Producer Jerry Frankel ("August: Osage County", "Spring Awakening") is dead at 88, and William Goldman, celebrated screenwriter and author of "The Season" (about the 1967-68 Broadway season), is dead at 87
