Lindsay Mendez Goes Green, Potted Potter Waves Its Wand & Matthew Morrison Gets Personal in This Week's Datebook

Welcome to June! In this Memorial Day holiday week, we're taking a break from Tony madness to enjoy a few low-key stage-related events, performances and concerts. Read on to get the scoop on the most exciting happenings in theater, TV, music and films in our ultimate weekly datebook.


MONDAY, MAY 27
BROADWAY BURNS BRIGHT ON MEMORIAL MONDAY
Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, and with a day off to play, why not skip the parade and family BBQ and see a Broadway show! Most Main Stem theaters are dark on Mondays, but these shows are keeping the lights on for the holiday: Chicago, Macbeth, Mamma Mia!, Newsies, The Phantom of the Opera and Rock of Ages.


TUESDAY, MAY 28
LINDSAY MENDEZ AND DEREK KLENA GET WICKED
Wicked fans, get ready to swoon! The Broadway blockbuster welcomes fan favorite Lindsay Mendez as Elphaba and Broadway newcomer Derek Klena as Fiyero. These new Wicked sweethearts, who previously co-starred in the off-Broadway musical Dogfight, are guaranteed to make the Gershwin Theatre stage sizzle this summer.

ALSO: The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of The Comedy of Errors, starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Hamish Linklater, begins performances; The Explorers Club starts at MTC’s City Center Stage I; Venice, starring Jennifer Damiano, begins at the Public Theater; Four stage-worthy CDs celebrate their release: Lindsay Mendez’s This Time and cast recordings of Kinky Boots, Annie and Murder Ballad (available for digital download).


WEDNESDAY, MAY 29
AARON TVEIT CRASHES ON ANDY COHEN’S COUCH
We hope Andy Cohen has a fire extinguisher handy when Aaron Tveit heats up the clubhouse on Watch What Happens Live! The smoldering new star of USA Network’s summer series Graceland (a.k.a. hot people with guns) will talk about his sold-out solo show at 54 Below and, hopefully, offer candid answers to fan questions. Let’s start: boxers or briefs, Aaron?!

ALSO: Charles Ives Take Me Home begins performances at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater; Charles Busch returns to 54 Below.


THURSDAY, MAY 30
POTTED POTTER APPARATES OFF-BROADWAY
Hold your hippogriffs! We all know the story: Orphaned Harry Potter learns he’s a wizard and gets whisked away to Hogwarts, where his magical life begins. But who has time to read all the books?! Written and performed by Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, Potted Potter gives us all seven Harry Potter books and 360 characters in 70 magical minutes at the Little Shubert Theatre.

ALSO: The Caucasian Chalk Circle, starring Christopher Lloyd and Elizabeth A. Davis, opens at Classic Stage Company.


FRIDAY, MAY 31
TOM DURNIN DOES HIS TIME AT THE LAURA PELS
Roundabout Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Steven Levenson’s new play The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin at its Laura Pels Theatre. Starring David Morse, Sarah Goldberg and Mad Men's Rich Sommer, Tom Durnin is about a man who did the time for his white-collar crime and is determined to win back the respect of his family.

ALSO: Nick Blaemire and his band The Hustle rock out at 54 Below.


SATURDAY, JUNE 1
MATTHEW MORRISON IS SINGIN’ IN THE NIGHTCLUB
Who doesn’t want to get intimate with Glee star Matthew Morrison? The Tony nominee is playing 54 Below to celebrate the release of his forthcoming album, Where It All Began. Morrison’s concert show, Up Close and Personal, will feature standards like “Singin' In the Rain,” his South Pacific love song “Younger Than Springtime,”
”It Don't Mean a Thing” and more.

ALSO: Brush Up Your Shakespeare: The Bard and the Broadway Musical, featuring Max von Essen and Daniel Breaker, plays at the 92nd Street Y; Bunty Berman Presents closes at the Acorn Theater; the cast of Chicago va va vooms at 54 Below.


SUNDAY, JUNE 2
LAST CHANCE TO TAKE A STAB AT THE BIG KNIFE
Bobby Cannavale owns the stage in Roundabout’s revival of Clifford Odets' The Big Knife as Charlie Castle, a role he's been waiting 15 years to play. Don’t miss the Doug Hughes-directed drama, set against the corrupt backdrop of studio-system Hollywood, at the American Airlines Theatre. Go for Cannavale and stay for Tony nominee Richard Kind’s blistering performance as a studio boss.

ALSO: Reasons to Be Happy opens at the Lucille Lortel Theatre; A Kid Like Jake, starring Carla Gugino, begins performances at Lincoln Center's Claire Tow Theatre; Old-Fashioned Prostitutes (A True Romance) closes at the Public Theater; LaChanze sings Diana Ross at 54 Below; Far From Heaven, starring Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale, opens at Playwrights Horizons.