PAULA VOGEL

Free speech groups are condemning the abrupt cancellation by Florida administrators of a high school student production of Paula Vogel’s play “Indecent,” which explores a flashpoint in Jewish and queer theatrical history.

PEN America and two other free speech groups are calling for school officials in Florida to reinstate a high school production of Paula Vogel's Indecent, a play that is itself about censorship.

If it was show time at any of the city’s myriad off-Broadway theaters, audience members could likely expect to see a theatrical giant in their midst — playwright Terrence McNally.

The theater community is banding together for a special podcast to combat censorship featuring performances from plays and musicals under threat and appearances by Bryan Cranston, Raúl Esparza, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Richard Kind.

“A Strange Loop,” an irreverent, sexually frank work about Blackness and queerness took home the best new musical crown at the Tony Awards on Sunday, as voters celebrated Broadway’s most racially diverse season by choosing an envelope-pushing Black voice.

“A Strange Loop,” Michael R.

Mary-Louise Parker attends the Broadway opening of "After Midnight" on Nov. 3, 2013 in New York, left, and Meryl Streep arrives at the premiere of the film 'The Laundromat' at the 76th edition of the Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, on Sept. 1, 2019. Parker and Streep have signed on to perform in a new virtual play series this spring while Broadway is closed. (AP Photo)NEW YORK – Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker, Audra McDonald, Kevin Klein, Carla Gugino and Keanu Reeves have signed on to perform in a new virtual play series this spring while Broadway is closed. The series kicks off Thursday with “The Thanksgiving Play” by Larissa FastHorse, directed by Leigh Silverman starring Reeves, Bobby Cannavale, Heidi Schreck and Alia Shawkat. The next show — on April 8 — will feature “Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous” by Pearl Cleage directed by Camille A.