Every day is opening night.

Ladies and gents,

Broadway has a new generation of thesps, and they’re taking center stage in John Proctor is the Villain, the fiery new play that dares to ask if literature’s heroes are really heroes at all. The youngest cast on Broadway? Check. A playwright making her Main Stem debut? You bet. And a powerhouse director returning in a blaze of glory? Absolutely.

Let’s start with star Sadie Sink. We first met her when she was just a curly-headed whippersnapper belting out “Tomorrow” as Little Orphan Annie on Broadway. Now, she’s back on the boards, all grown up and leading the charge in Kimberly Belflower’s buzzy new play.

And speaking of Belflower—this Southern scribe gave a first rehearsal speech to end all first rehearsal speeches, opening with, “This play takes place in a one-stoplight town in Appalachian Georgia. I grew up in a two-stoplight town in Appalachian Georgia.” She went onto say, “When I was growing up there, it felt like art and culture happened somewhere else, and that all the stories worth telling were about people who were nothing like me or my family or my friends.” This play, she explained, was inspired by the #MeToo movement, after which she started to wonder what it would be like to grow up in my hometown at that moment in time. Access to the internet and social media simultaneously erases and emphasizes the isolation of rural America, but also — what would it be like to be a teenager equipped with this new vocabulary while you’re still figuring out the person you want to be, in a place that’s steeped in tradition and Puritan-adjacent values, in a culture that does everything it can to make teenage girls feel as powerless as possible? How might those young women re-define their lives in real time? The books they read? The heroes they worship?”

Set in a Georgia high school where students are dissecting The Crucible (and their own messy realities), John Proctor is the Villain is all about young people reclaiming their narratives, rewriting the past, and marching boldly toward a future they refuse to let anyone else define. Helming it all is the incomparable Danya Taymor, fresh off her Tony win.

Meanwhile, I’m dispatching this message from sun-drenched Glendale, Arizona, where my beloved Los Angeles Dodgers are gearing up for another triumphant season. I’m rubbing elbows with none other than Billie Jean King and Magic Johnson. I even managed to slide up to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to ask him to apply his winning strategy to the career of an ink stained wretch in the digital media age. Roberts quipped, “Just aim for the fences, don’t swing at every pitch, and always be on the lookout for a curveball.”

Tidbits from around town…

Spotted Rep, Laura Friedman chatting with director Anne Kauffman after a recent performance of Sarah Silverman’s The Bedwetter at DC’s Arena Stage.

Overheard Isabella Rossellini at the LaGuardia Delta Lounge raving about the “supportive community” making her Awards Season a blast.

Caught Fabulous Invalid partners Jamie DuMont and Rob Russo at Sunset Blvd. for the “umpteenth time.”

As always, a toast of something sparkling to you and yours!

Kisses,