Bonnie's Blog: The Balcony and Beyond

MICKEY ROONEY: COMING TO FAIRFIELD TO CHAT

2012-03-08T07:00:00.002-08:00

As child stars go, Mickey Rooney may have spanned the longest career to date that Hollywood has ever fostered. Beginning at 15 months of age, when he toddled on stage accidentally to join his parents’ vaudeville act, he is still going strong after passing the nine decade mark and counting.

Seemingly born knowing how to act, sing, dance and play musical instruments, Rooney, who was born Joe Yule Jr. in Brooklyn, New York in 1920, has performed in over two hundred movies. He is perhaps best known as the likeable Andy Hardy, the son of a judge, and his wholesome misadventures in the teenage romance department. It was during the filming of this series that Rooney met his long time friend Judy Garland whom he described as his “forever love.”

Other great movies include “National Velvet,” “Boys Town,” “Babes in Arms,” and “The Black Stallion.” Originally a silent film star at age 5, he successfully transitioned to the talkies and is still going strong, having just completed a visit with “The Muppets.”

On his list of accomplishments, Mickey Rooney can name, among others, one honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, two Golden Globes, four stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and eight marriages. Of the latter, he once famously quipped, “Always get married early in the morning. That way if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t wasted a whole day.” The most well known of his wives is probably his first, Ava Gardner.

To hear his story directly from the source, attend the American Legends series at Sacred Heart University’s Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts in Fairfield on Saturday, March 24 at 7 p.m. In an “Actors Studio-style” presentation, with the center’s executive director Jerry Goehring, Mickey Rooney will reflect on his nine-decades long career as a film actor and entertainer with stage, film and television appearances that outpace any other performer.

For tickets ($25, student/faculty $20, seniors $15), call the Edgerton Center, on the campus of Sacred Heart University, 5151 Park Avenue, Fairfield (off the Merritt, exit 47) or online at www.EdgertonCenter.org.

Let Mickey Rooney offer insights into his colorful career, his friends, his hobbies, and his plans for the future.

“CELTIC NIGHTS:” A TASTE OF THE IRISH

2012-03-06T08:42:00.003-08:00

In addition to a hearty meal of corned beef and cabbage, what better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than a trip to Fairfield University’s Quick Center for a direct infusion of Irish spirit. Lilting voices combine with fancy dancing feet when “Celtic Nights – Journey of Hope” taps its way, direct from Ireland, on Friday, March 9, at 8 p.m.

With rousing music, song, dance and storytelling, drawing its tales from the history and folklore of this magical land, “Celtic Nights” will cast a spell as it weaves the words and deeds of the immigrant experience. With passion, pride and promise, it will provide a rich legacy of ballads like “Galway Bay,” “Danny Boy” and “May We Never Have to Say Goodbye” as well as unforgettable step dancing choreography.

Call the Quick Center, 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield on the campus of Fairfield University at 203-254-4010, 1-877-ARTS-396 or online at www.quickcenter.com. Tickets are $35-40-45.

Follow this journey of expectation, one filled with laughter, sadness and hope, as the glory of the Emerald Isle comes straight into your heart.

CURL UP WITH A LITTLE “SOUTHERN COMFORTS”

2012-03-05T06:51:00.003-08:00

When Amanda Cross meets Gus Klingman, there are enough sparks to ignite a tiny fire of mutual interest. Amanda, a Southern belle from Tennessee, has knocked on Gus’s door to deliver a missive from the church she attends as she visits her daughter up north in New Jersey.

The Tennessee waltz the pair sweetly dance together, as their courtship advances to matrimony, has been gracefully captured by Kathleen Clark in “Southern Comforts.” The Square One Theatre Company of Stratford will be offering this comedy on a doily- covered platter until Saturday, March 17.

Alice McMahon’s Amanda has a sparkle in her eye and a flirtatious nature to her speech that she applies full force to attract the attention of a rather taciturn and set in his ways widower named Gus, played with prickly perfection by Al Kulcsar. She is a dedicated librarian who believes books and travel widen her world while he is as set in stone as the masonry he craved for a living before he retired.

Both have been deeply affected by the war, Amanda because her first husband brought it home with him from the battlefield and was never able to escape from its haunting shadows, and Gus because it left permanent imprints on his soul. In meeting Gus, Amanda sees the promise of romance that her first marriage never gave her, while Gus feels they are too old for smooching and such stuff. She convinces him otherwise and he stops watching the baseball game on television long enough to hit a few home runs of his own.

Kathleen Clark has fashioned a gentle old-fashioned love story where second chances are possible and even applauded, where happiness and belonging are achievable, even if there have to be accommodations, adjustments and compromises all the way from the wedding chapel to the living room to the cemetery. Tom Holehan provides a loving touch to this sweetheart of a story.

For tickets ($20, seniors, students $19), call Square One Theatre, 2422 Main Street, Stratford at 203-375-8778 or online at www.squareonetheatre.com. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., with a twilight matinee Saturday, March 17 at 4 p.m. (exit 32 off I-95). The playwright Kathleen Clark will attend the Friday, March 16 performance and participate in a post-performance talkback with the cast, director and audience.

Watch how a determined Southern belle uses her charms to wear down the granite resistance of a staunch Yankee widower. Come cheer for their success.

“LES MISERABLES:” A SWEEPING EPIC MUSICAL

2012-03-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

When the great French writer Victor Hugo was thirteen years of age, he began to write prize-winning poetry. He went on to add the titles of playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman and human rights advocate to his name. Perhaps he is best known for his novel “Les Miserables” or The Poor, penned in 1862, about a man Jean Valjean who is imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and her family and his ultimate tale of redemption.

This story, that met with great success even though it was banned by the government, is said to have been inspired by a true incident in Paris. Hugo saw a poor man arrested for a minor crime, in stark contrast to a woman in a nearby carriage, wealthy, wrapped in fur, who was totally unaware of the tragedy happening at her richly clad feet.

This epic novel that generated great excitement when published, when people fought to buy one of the 48,000 copies released on day one, was set to music a century later. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, in a stirring new 25^th anniversary version, ”Les Miserables” is a sweeping, majestic epic drama, history on parade, and is gracing the stage of Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts until Sunday, March 11.

“Les Miz,” set in 19^th century France, follows Jean Valjean after nineteen years of imprisonment, his pursuit by the police inspector Javert and his new identity as Monsieur Madeleine where he becomes a wealthy factory owner and mayor. Valjean cannot escape his past as Javert doggedly pursues him. Valjean performs deeds of valor, saving lives and helping in a student revolt, proving that people can change for the good. This story, timeless in its appeal, unites with a soaring musical score, to applaud the survival of the human spirit.

For tickets ($22-100), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Performances are tonight at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Arm the battlements to fight for good over evil, for democracy over tyranny, for the triumph of love and justice, in this astonishing theatrical musical drama, “Les Miz.”

“THE WHIPPING MAN” A HAUNTING TALE OF A SEARCH FOR FREEDOM

2012-03-05T06:39:00.001-08:00

When a Confederate soldier, wounded and weary, returns from war to Virginia, he finds his family has fled and his home is in ruins. General Lee has already surrendered at Appomattox and President Lincoln is soon to be assassinated. Caleb DeLeon, barely able to stand on a leg with a bullet lodged in it and gangrene setting in, faces a bleak future as he reunites with the two slaves, now free men, who share his Jewish upbringing and the sober task of survival.

Hartford Stage will present the gripping and emotion laden drama “The Whipping Man” by Matthew Lopez for its Connecticut premiere until Sunday, March 18. In the aftermath of the Civil War, this trio of men meet in the remnants of the DeLeon mansion where each has strong and vivid memories of the past and a mountain of secrets that beg to be revealed.

Josh Landay’s Caleb is afraid his conduct in battle will be made known, so fearful that he allows his former slaves Simon, an honorable and righteous Leon Addison Brown and John, a resourceful, angry and guilt-ridden Che Ayende, to amputate his leg rather than go to a hospital. The three men share a history, one that is festering with sores that must be excised if they are going to survive.

With the advent of Passover, Simon tries to promote healing by celebrating the Seder, a ceremony echoing the slaves being freed by Pharoah, a contrast to his and John’s plight. The specter of Caleb’s father and his inglorious deeds, of sending both men to be whipped, haunt the candle-lite tradition. When Simon sings “Go Down Moses,” while breaking hardtack instead of matzoh, the bitterness of enslavement and the powerful promise of freedom are clearly defined. Hana S. Sharif directs this compelling tale that is haunting in its message, on a stage strikingly set by Andromache Chalfant and eerily illuminated by Marcus Doshi.

For tickets ($54.50-90.50), call the Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at www.hartfordstage.org. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Sunday and selected Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m.

Be emotionally seared as the raw feelings and resentments surface to swirl and catch fire in the candlelight of the Passover tradition.

THE SPIRIT AND CULTURE OF KOREA ON DISPLAY

2012-03-03T15:22:00.002-08:00

A wonderful display about Korea from a mock wedding to two films to a full Korean lunch where on display on March 3 at the Case Memorial Library in Orange. Dressed in elaborate costumes of their country, the volunteers from the Korean Spirit and Culture Promotion Project shared their pride in their homeland.

With a lunch that included beef and rice, kim chee cabbage, a shrimp and apple salad, vegetable pancakes, a rice drink and dessert, a taste of Korea was enjoyed by all. Each participant was also given a book to take home, from a cookbook to Fifty Wonders of Korea. The films illustrated how Korea has risen from the ashes of desolation after the war and transformed itself from rubble to triumph in the last fifty years.

Watch for another visit from this inspiring group to come to a library or women’s group near you. It is all free of charge and quite wonderful to behold.

GINA BARRECA WILL TALK ITALIAN FOR ART AND FUN AT FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY

2012-02-27T15:13:00.000-08:00

Gina Barreca, popular author, humorist, essayist, feminist, blogger and stand-up comedienne will be at Fairfield University’s Quick Center on Sunday evening, March 4 at 6 p.m. “Talking about Italian-American Art and Life.”

Combining lecturing with laughter, Barecca will speak on all things Italian. Her talk will be presented in conjunction with the university’s Bellarmine Museum of Art’s current exhibition “From Italy to America – Photographs of Anthony Riccio.” The show documents in image and word the experiences of Italians and Italian-Americans in Southern Italy, New Haven’s Little Italy and Boston’s North End and will be on view until March 30.

A professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut, Gina Barreca has written such classics as “They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted” and her latest “It’s Not That I’m Bitter or How I Learned to Stop Worrying about Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World.” She is known to carry on conversations with audiences on The Traumas of Trying on Bathing Suits and What Women Carry in Their Suitcase-like Pocketbooks.

With eight books translated into Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and German, she also writes a weekly column for the Hartford Courant, a monthly column for Principal Leadership, pens the “Brainstorm” section of The Chronicle of Higher Education and blogs for Psychology Today, among others, as well as appearing on such television shows as Dr. Phil, Oprah and The Today Show.

For tickets ($25), call the Quick Center, 200 Barlow Road, Fairfield at 203-254-4010, 1-877-278-7396 or online at www.quickcenter.com.

Laugh out loud with humorist Gina Barreca as she reveals why she has been called one of the funniest women writers in America today.

“ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN” IS STUFFED WITH LIFE LESSONS

2012-02-27T14:36:00.003-08:00

Robert Fulghum wrote a guide for living, one that applies equally to children and adults, about basic rules in society. He stipulated that we need to share, play fair, clean up our own messes, put things back where they belong, don’t take what isn’t ours and say we’re sorry if we hurt someone. Not fighting, taking an afternoon nap (after eating warm cookies and cold milk), enjoying the small wonders of every day life, remembering to work, play, dance, draw, sing and think, holding hands and sticking together, LOOKing and knowing that everything from goldfish to hamsters to people eventually die are further postulates.

Advice coupled under the heading “All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten” is now a delightful musical, conceived and adapted by Ernest Zulia, with music and lyrics by David Caldwell. Until Sunday, March 11, Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford will be sharing this simple yet profound guide for grown ups as vignettes and life lessons to learn.

Let Jeff Horst, Richard Dennis Johnson, Scott Scaffidi, Megan Snyder and Denise Walker take your hand and hopscotch with you along the garden path to self- knowledge. When do we forget the eagerness and enthusiasm of the young who respond to every question with “Yes! Of Course I Can!”? This talented troupe will act out a unique Cinderella play where the child who wants to play a pig, and not the prince, wins the day.

We count to ten and then engage in an invigorating game of Hide and Seek, launch a helium balloon ride with a daredevil adventurer named Larry Walters, empathize with a heart-broken actor Charles Boyer when he loses his true love and imagine how a great composer like Beethoven could create symphonies when he had lost the ability to hear. And that’s just some of Act 1.

In Act II, we learn lessons about generations of fathers and sons, appreciate small wonders, neighborliness, Alzheimer’s disease and the power of love, religion, death and letting our inner child out. Joseph Keach-Longo directs this intriguing look into childhood, as a search for nugget of wisdom. Kevin Barlowski provides the soothing musical accompaniment on piano.

For tickets ($22.50-32.50), call Playhouse on Park 244 Park Road, West Hartford at 860-523-5900, ext. 10 or online at www.PlayhouseOnPark.org. (exit 43 off I-84). Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Sunday at 2 p.m.

Enjoy the pithy and poignant passages as Robert Fulghum spins his homespun humor and wisdom on the meaningful moments of life.

“CENTENNIAL CASTING” A COMEDY OF MISTAKES AND LIES

2012-02-27T14:34:00.000-08:00

When Pinocchio told a lie, his wooden nose grew and grew and then grew a little more. It was easy to see when he prevaricated from the truth. Not so easy to part fact from fiction when Vincent Didonato wanders into the land of falsehoods in Seven Angels Theatre’s current offering of the Gino DiLorio and Nancy Bleemer comedy “Centennial Casting” playing in Waterbury until Sunday, March 11.

When you enter Vincent’s family’s sheet metal shop that makes auto parts and tools, you’d hardly expect to find a casting couch. But the ambiguity of the business’s name, Centennial Casting, allows for more than a little confusion. Eager young starlets frequently submit their photos and resumes in the mistaken conclusion that the metal shop is really a theatrical agent’s office.

Now that Vincent’s mom has gone to that great resting place in the sky, he is the boss. The sight of an actress’s photo on his cluttered desk sets off a domino effect of actions and consequences that brings an enthusiastic and naïve actress Edie Keaton to Vincent’s “theatrical” door. Edie (Elizabeth Meadows Rouse) thinks she is meeting Vincent (Lou Martini, Jr.), the producer of a new independent film about a racetrack, a fiction that Vince’s co-workers Doo Doo (Anthony Patellis) and Carmine (Nicholas Wilder) are helping him fabricate. Vincent has been in a funk and his friends feel meeting Edie will dispel his sorrows.

Edie’s best buddy Michele (Amanda Brooke Lerner), who works beside her at the Moondance Diner, encourages her to pursue her dream of being on stage instead of settling for a job as a drama teacher in Ohio. Vincent’s little white lie soon blossoms into a rainbow of fabrications.

Semina De Laurentis directs this quirky and convoluted path to romance that detours with funny twists and turns before it crosses the finish line, by a nose (the winning horse’s, not Pinocchio’s).

For tickets ($29-39), call Seven Angels Theatre, Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.sevenangelstheatre.org. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Come play Casanova and Cupid as Mr. Vincent Didonato takes on the role of big city theatrical agent by inviting aspiring actress Edie Keaton to test out the comfort of his casting couch.

“GOOD GOODS” A DRAMA POSSESSED WITH SPIRIT

2012-02-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

The term possession can refer to the ownership of a piece of property or an accumulation of things, a crime such as drug possession, self-possession as in identity of who we are or who we belong to, possession of a person as in slavery of one man to another, control of another’s emotions evinced as love and demonic possession, where a spirit controls malevolently. Possession in all its varied contexts is the subject of a world premiere drama “Good Goods” by Christina Anderson, raising the emotional roof of the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven until Saturday, February 25.

In a mythical town, shrouded in mystery, where an “invasion” occurred sometime in the past, a collection of lost souls congregate in the general store, a store named “Good Goods” for its owner, Mr. Good, Sr. The store’s proprietor Truth (Marc Damon Johnson) watches over every box of Rinso and can of peaches and has done so since he was a lad. But Truth does not own the property. That right by birth belongs to Stacey (Clifton Duncan), the owner’s son, who has been on the road for a decade in a comedy duo with Patty (De’Adre Aziza).

Now Stacey has been back exactly seven days and he is asserting his demands over how the business is run, a domain Truth has controlled and doesn’t wish to abdicate. On the eve of Wire’s(Kyle Beltran) thirtieth birthday, a date he shares with his twin Patty, the stage is set for something sinister to happen. At thirty, Wire, a messenger boy, realizes his life is quickly passing him by and what does he have to show for it. When Patty returns to town with a young bubbly girl Sunny (Angela Lewis) at her side, events are ready to explode.

The remembrance of a vision from the past, that history is about to be made, when a gift of a new drum to Wire disturbs the spirit world, the air is ripe for Waymon (Oberon K. A. Adjepong), who possesses the soul of a priestess, to come to the store and perform his magic. Tina Landau directs a truly talented cast in a theatrical adventure ride. After a slow beginning, the story becomes a hurricane of excitement, with Angela Lewis’s performance at its stirring center.

For tickets ($20-88), call the Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven (corner of York) at 203-432-1234 or online at www.yalerep.org. Performances are Tuesday-Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2 p.m.

As the tambourine rattles and the drum beats, discover that “folks need people. That’s how life is,” in this drama where everyone needs to know and learn his own heart.

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“THE STY OF THE BLIND PIG” AN EYE OPENING FAMILY COMEDY/DRAMA

2012-02-16T06:42:00.001-08:00

Krystal Lucas, Photo by Larry Nagler

Empathy and enthusiasm battle with exasperation and enmity in the complicated relationship of a mother and daughter in Philip Hayes Dean’s involving comedy/drama “The Sty of the Blind Pig.” Hartford TheaterWorks will be casting its critically accurate eyes on this 1971 play that sets itself in Chicago in the 1950’s with the Civil Rights movement knocking on the door.

Until Sunday, February 26, “The Sty of the Blind Pig” will reveal how a mother’s love can turn tyrannical and pierce and wound an unsuspectedly sensitive daughter. The matriarch Weedy, played with supreme queenly qualities of entitlement by Brenda Thomas, never misses an opportunity to alternately encourage and berate her unmarried daughter Alberta, portrayed with grace and fire by Krystal Lucas.

The two women inhabit a run-down apartment that will eventually be condemned by the city and that is the boxing ring where they figuratively take and give their verbal punches. Weedy is the righteous Christian who distains anyone who is not a faithful churchgoer, who imbibes alcohol, who indulges in the devil’s game of gambling or who leads an immoral life of sin.

She directs her preaching directly at her brother Doc, a sassy street wise Jonathan Earl Peck, who laughs off his sister’s religious ramblings and continues to pursue all the transgressions Weedy abhors. Her arrows of indignation, however, wound Alberta who has her own code of honor firmly in place.

The pair parry and thrust, advance and retreat, especially when a stranger crosses their threshold. The appearance of Blind Jordan, in the capable hands of Eden Marryshow, puts this street singer without sight directly in the love starved Alberta‘s vision. This man who was born in a brothel, named The Sty of the Blind Pig, ignites both women with startlingly different results.

Tazewell Thomas directs this memorable memory play with discerning care.

For tickets ($50-63, and student rush $17 when available), call Hartford TheaterWorks. 233 Pearl Street, Hartford at 860-527-7838 or online at www.theaterworkshartford.org. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Come early to the upstairs gallery to enjoy the artwork of Jenni Freidman.

Watch how Alberta’s innate kindness to a stranger propels the family to reexamine its basic values and turn them inside out.

“THE ADDAMS FAMILY” SNAPPING THEIR WAY INTO THE BUSHNELL

2012-02-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

As a master of the macabre and a designer of the dark, Charles Addams delighted the world of cartooning with the characters he named “The Addams Family.” The subject of over 1000 cartoons, two live-action television shows, two animated television series, several books and a trio of motion pictures, Addams drew his signature characters for five decades and one would be hard pressed not to have some acquaintance with Morticia, Uncle Fester, Lurch the butler, Gomez, Grandma, Wednesday, Pugsley and Thing who all lived in a spooky mansion on a hill.

Prepare now for the national tour of “The Addams Family” that will be flying in and haunting the happy stage of the Bushnell for the Performing Arts from Tuesday, February 21 to Sunday, February 26 when the musical comedy comes to Hartford.

With timeless universal themes, grim and gruesome and yet gleeful, Addams was a genius at helping us laugh at all things scary. By making fun of our fears, he felt we reduce them to manageable beasts.

In the musical coming from Broadway, we find little Wednesday is now a grown-up 18 year old with, yikes, a boyfriend. Not a boyfriend who is eccentric or bizarre or feels at home in graveyards, but one who is frighteningly normal. When Wednesday confesses to her father Gomez that she is in love, she makes him promise to keep it a secret, a secret not only from the world at large, but from the person closest to Gomez’s heart, his wife and Wednesday’s mother, Morticia.

How long before the jig is up and the black cat is out of the bag can be marked on the calendar: the date when Wednesday’s boyfriend and his parents, clothed in all their normality, sit down for dinner with the Addams clan.

This new musical comedy has been created by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elise, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and choreography by Sergio Trujillo, with direction/design by Phelm McDermott and Julian Crouch and production supervision by Jerry Zaks.

For tickets ($17-80), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Get those fingers snapping as the sinister is imbued with silliness and the creepy becomes cleverly comic when the Addams Family comes to Hartford.

BEN VEREEN BRINGING HIS VERSATILITY TO SACRED HEART

2012-02-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

A fortnight ago, versatile and accomplished performer Ben Vereen was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame on Broadway, one of the highest honors an artist could ever hope to achieve. With a career that spans over four decades, Ben Vereen , a song and dance and acting master, has performed worldwide.

A gifted speaker, he will be at Sacred Heart University’s Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts in Fairfield at 3 p.m., Sunday, February 19 as part of their American Legends Series. The range of topics he may discuss span his colorful career, overcoming adversity, Black history, arts in education, recovery through physical and occupational therapy, motivation, the importance of continuing education or his charitable causes like diabetes, sudden infant death syndrome and a drug free America.

In an Actors Studio conversation with Jerry Goehring, the center’s Executive Director, he will reflect on his careers on stage, film and television as well as show clips of films from his multitude of productions.

Ben Vereen is a consummate entertainer, a triple threat, singing, dancing and acting for decades. Perhaps you remember him as Judas Iscariot in ”Jesus Christ Superstar,” as the Wizard of Oz in “Wicked,” as the Leading Actor in “Pippin,” the story of the son of Charlemagne, as “Chicken George” Moore noted for his cockfighting skills in Alex Haley’s miniseries “Roots,” or even as Mayor Ben, the leopard in “Zoobilee Zoo.”

Vereen is currently working on “Tenacity,” a show he is readying for a Broadway debut in July, featuring himself and his band, of which his son is a member. The show will feature rock and reggae music and expand on how we overcome and persevere, the determination we need to survive. It will characterize how he, himself, lives his life and determines his career path, by knowing who he is. It will also pay tribute to men like Sammy Davis, Jr. and Bob Fosse who were his mentors.

Let the iconic Ben Vereen share insights into a life filled with triumphs and tragedies and how he had the ‘tenacity’ to succeed.

BUSHNELL UNVEILS EXCITING NEW SEASON

2012-02-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts unveiled its exciting new season with a launch party last night. Look for “The Addams Family” in February, “Les Miz” in March, “Fiddler on the Roof “ in April and the Frank Sinatra, Twyla Tharp special “Come Fly With Me” in May to complete the present schedule.

Hold on to your hats for 2012-2013! It starts off on a flying start with “Mary Poppins” in September, followed by “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” over Thanksgiving weekend, a gospel concert “Great Joy” in early December, a favorite TBA show followed in January with “Million Dollar Quartet” featuring Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis jammimg. Next up is “American Idiot” in February, “Sister Act” in April, “Catch Me If You Can” in May and “Billy Elliot” in June.

Now is the time to make your plans and buy your subscriptions. Call the Bushnell at 860-987-5900 or go online to www.bushnell.org. Don’t be left with your nose pressed against the bakery window looking in.

“ALMOST, MAINE” A UNIQUE WAY TO LOOK AT LOVE

2012-02-06T09:42:00.001-08:00

Ever think of celebrating Valentine’s Day in the company of some quirky but sincere Down Easters or Mainers, if you prefer. Thanks to actor and playwright John Cariani and the Music Theatre of Connecticut in Westport, you have that unique possibility weekends until Sunday, February 19.

People from Maine go about their lives in a slightly different step, to a definitely different drummer. John Cariani proves it in a series of vignettes about love, romance and courtship in all its shades of red.

A quartet of fine actors, Cynthia Hannah, Tim Reilly, Jim Schilling and Katie Sparer, take us over the speed bumps and under the railroad trestles as they attempt to find a mate and live happily ever after, or at least until the ice pond melts.

Learn how three little words, “I love you,” can stop the universe in its tracks, moose tracks or the other two legged kinds. Find out what happens when your heart is broken into a gazillion pieces, well maybe only nineteen, but you get the idea. Can it be mended?

Don a warm flannel shirt and go in search of the Northern Lights as East meets Wes(t). Discover how a misspelled tattoo can inadvertently lead to a new romance and learn whether an ironing board can be as effective as Cupid’s arrows in striking up a new attraction.

Investigate what can happen when a disillusioned sweetheart returns three large bags of love to the man who doesn’t seem to care for her anymore. Decide for yourself if Chad or Randy wins the title of having the Baddest Date Ever. Put on ice skates and go to Echo Pond with Phil and Marci and take a chance wishing on a shooting star and then tag along with Hope as she travels to give an answer to a question Daniel posed to her eons ago.

Finally, hop on a snowmobile with Rhonda and Dave as a personal painting sets their relationship in a whole new unexplored frame. Kevin Connors directs these bittersweet and funny stories of lost love, found love, new love and the magic that once was and could be again.

For tickets ($25-45, $5 off seniors and students), call MTC, 246 Post Road East, Colonial Green, lower level, Westport at 203-454-3883 or online at www.musictheatreofct.com. Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Save Saturday, March 31^st for MTC’s Silver Anniversary Gala. Dress as your favorite “Mad Men” character for an evening of cocktails, dinner, music and more! Call the theatre for all the details.

Travel to the mythical town of Almost in the picturesque state of Maine for some poignant and piquant portraits of love in all its possibilities.

“NEIL BERG’S 100 YEARS OF BROADWAY SONG AND DANCE” SPARKLES AT THE BUSHNELL

2012-02-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

Imagine seeing and hearing a century of great songs and dances from Broadway and beyond in one spectacular evening. Composer and lyricist Neil Berg has one such night of entertainment planned for you at the Bushnell’s Center for the Performing Arts. On Sunday, February 19 at 7 p.m., the parade of hits will sparkle down the runway and you don’t want to miss the razzle-dazzle fun.

With personal musical credits that range from “The Prince and the Pauper” to “Grumpy Old Men” to “The Man Who Would Be King” to “Heidi,” Neil Berg is well qualified to take on this daunting showcase project. Hop scotching across the decades of America’s finest hits, five of Broadway’s top stars will perform selections from such shows as “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Les Miserables,” “Aida,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Jersey Boys,” “Chicago,” “Jekyll and Hyde” and “Mamma Mia.”

This musical feast will be provided by Broadway veterans David Elder (Curtains, 42nd Street, Kiss Me Kate), Ted Louis Levy (Black & Blue, Bring In ‘Da Noise! Bring In ‘Da Funk!), Meredith Patterson (White Christmas, 42nd Street, The Green Bird), Natalie Toro (A Tale of Two Cities, Les Misérables) and Rob Evan (Jekyll & Hyde, Les Misérables, Little Shop of Horrors). For more information visit Neil Berg's website: www.neilberg.com.

“Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Broadway Song and Dance” is an evening you won’t want to miss, a production guaranteed to chase away the winter blahs and blues.

That day at 2 p.m. local Greater Hartford dance studios will present a special Student Showcase competing to appear in the evening performance. Dancers will be from four area studios, including Stage Left Dance, Aprille’s Danceprints, The Dancer’s Image Dance Academy and Dance 10 Studios. The winning troupe will be in the evening’s grand finale.

Tickets to the Student Showcase are $15 or only $10 with the purchase of a ticket to the 7 p.m. performance. Tickets to the Neil Berg Special are $35-45 and may be purchased by calling the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org.

Watch these five Broadway veterans strut their stunning stuff as they journey through a century of memorable song and dance routines and make them come alive all over again.

“BLITHE SPIRIT” A HOOT OF A HAUNTING IN BERLIN

2012-02-06T07:46:00.001-08:00

Seven decades ago Noel Coward penned the comedy “Blithe Spirit” in a five day writing marathon and it is still entertaining audiences to this day. Weekends until Saturday, March 10, Connecticut Cabaret Theatre in Berlin is inviting you to discover the world of the occult, believers and non-believers alike.

Author Charles Condomine (Tom Roohr) is researching his next book, a look into the psychic realm. For some authenticity or dialogue or just plain fun, he sets up a séance with the local medium, an eccentric and colorful character, in feathers and fringe, Madame Arcati (Joanne Callahan-Roohr). Charles, accompanied by his second wife Ruth (Barbara Horan) and dear friends Dr. Bradman (Paul Braccioforte) and his wife Violet (Abbie Brooks) gather for what they hope will be lively entertainment.

Madame Arcati, as promised, goes into a trance and contacts the “other side.” Who should answer the call but the ghost of Charles’ first spouse, Elvira (Rachel West-Balling), who was temperamental and demanding in her previous life and hasn’t changed much since.

This time around Elvira, who can only be seen and heard by Charles, has an agenda of her own. She wants Charles to join her in the hereafter and the only way to accomplish that is to murder him, ever so gently of course.

Elvira’s plans go slightly awry as Ruth jealously accuses Charles of spousal abuse or of going crazy, neither of which she will tolerate. The Condomine’s servant Edith (Linda Kelly) gets into the fray when Madame Arcati returns and tries spell after incantation to exorcise Elvira.

Soon there is more than one ghost running amok and sending the Condomine household into total chaos. Director Kris McMurray keeps the fun spirited (pun intended) as vases go flying and lamps crash down.

For tickets ($30), call CT Cabaret Theatre, 31-33 Webster Square Road, Berlin at 860-829-1248 or online at www.ctcabaret.com. Performances are Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7:15 p.m. Remember to bring snacks to share at your table or plan to purchase dessert and drinks on site.

Watch how easily a seven- year old ghost upsets the delicate balance of a marriage when she is invited in for a manifestation of merry mayhem.

EXTREMEMLY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE: A MOVIE WORTH SEEING

2012-02-01T10:32:00.001-08:00

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close could be described as Extremely Sad and Incredibly Wonderful. It is a poignant 9/11 story of one family and the aftermath when the father dies in the tower. How the son, Oscar, copes with his great loss is painful to watch. Young Thomas Horn is remarkable in his portrayal, with Tom Hanks as dad and Sandra Bullock as mom.

Bring Kleenex as this movie will tug on your heartstrings as Oscar searches for a sign from his dad and for a way to stand up after his tragedy.

“PASSING TIME” AN ART EXHIBITION AT WESLEYAN

2012-02-01T10:22:00.001-08:00

We all have the same allotment of time in an hour, a day, a month, a year. How we utilize those minutes and hours is vastly different for each one of us. Wesleyan University’s Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery will explore “Passing Time” in a variety of mediums in its current exhibition of fourteen artists from around the world until Sunday, March 4.

The artwork of Rineke Dijkstra, from the Netherlands, of two photographs of a young girl was especially poignant. One picture is before her induction into the Israeli army as a soldier and one is three months later. This international exhibit is unique and strange, ranging from a corner stacked with 700 pounds of licorice candies (you are invited to take one) to videos of a cello player on a cliff to a skateboarder on the rock wall edge of a beach with danger below to a wall of a death row inmate’s last thoughts and goodbyes.

The gallery is on the Wesleyan campus, 283 Washington Terrace, Middletown. Hours are Tuesday-Sunday, noon – 4 p.m. Call 860-685-3355 or go online to www.wesleyan.edu/zilkha.

DEBBIE FRIEDMAN REMEMBERED

2012-02-01T09:54:00.001-08:00

Singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman gave the world inspiration through her Jewish music. Her voice gave hope and promise of a better world. The one year anniversary of her death was celebrated on Sunday, January 29 at a concert at Woodbridge’s Jewish Community Center.

Youth groups from area schools and synagogues paid tribute to her by singing her wonderfully gifted melodies. Her death at the age of sixty was far too young. As long as her music is sung, she will live on as a legacy.

REX REED ENCHANTS CROWD AT FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY

2012-02-01T08:02:00.000-08:00

The legendary film critic and columnist for the New York Observer, Rex Reed, is also an entertaining raconteur. He proved his storytelling skills on Sunday, January 29^th, at Fairfield University’s Quick Center, as part of their Open VISIONS Forum program.

For Reed, name dropping is a talent and a necessity. Every tale he told was stuffed with famous people from Hollywood, stage and screen. His first girlfriend was Elizabeth Ashley and he’s best buds with Angela Lansbury. He’s danced with Fred Astaire and been insulted by Frank Sinatra.

He’s broken bread with Greta Garbo, Mae West and Carole Channing and scores of others. How many people can boast that they’ve sung with Judy Garland, acted with Laurence Olivier and smoked pot with Jane Fonda? If you ever meet the great man himself, ask him why Marlena Dietrich had a drawer full of pocket knives or how Reed’s life was saved by a lemon meringue pie?

Gene Shalit has advised Reed to put all these star stories in a book. If he ever does, I’ll be the first one in line at the book signing.

“MACBETH 1969” TAKES A NEW LOOK AT THE BARD’S TRAGEDY

2012-01-30T07:15:00.000-08:00

As a flawed hero, one need look no further than Macbeth, a man who learned he would be King and then moved heaven and earth to make sure that the prophesy came true. Originally penned by William Shakespeare, it is receiving a new world premiere adaptation in the hands of Long Wharf Theatre’s Associate Director Eric Ting until Sunday, February 12.

While purists may not approve, “Macbeth 1969” moves the conflict from the heaths of Scotland to the American mid-west and the Vietnam War. The Three Witches, who are also referred to as the Weird Sisters, are now nurses, Socorro Santiago, Shirine Babb and Jackie Chung, who care for Macbeth and his fellow soldier Banquo (Barret O’Brien). When they return from the conflict, having shown great courage and bravery in battle, they enter a veteran’s hospital at Christmas time. The words of prophesy by the nurses ignite an ambitious quality in Macbeth’s character and suddenly he desperately wants their words to be his destiny.

Now with the title as the Thane of Glamis, the nurses proclaim he will soon be the Thane of Cawdor, and later King. The fact that Duncan is the current King and very much alive does not impede the power hungry Macbeth. Soon he is plotting with his wife, Lady Macbeth (Shirine Babb) and “blood is shed, murders have been performed.”

No one who stands in Macbeth’s way is safe, not child or adult, and soon the landscape is littered with blood and bodies. Virtue is abandoned as the quest for greatness propels Macbeth, a masterful McKinley Belcher III, to sacrifice honor.

The atmosphere is one of storm and thunder, “sound and fury signifying nothing,” where ghostly apparitions appear at will and “all is the fear and nothing is the love.” Macbeth, once the idealized hero, has been transformed by his greed for control into a fiend and a mad tyrant. Eric Ting also directs this disturbing interpretation of one of the Bard’s most tragic tales, making it contemporary with an emphasis on the struggle of soldiers returning home from battle.

For tickets ($40-70), call Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven at 203-787-4282 or online at www.longwharf.org. Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Witness for yourself how Macbeth’s crushing need for power spells his ultimate doom.

"BOEING BOEING" A HIGH FLYING FARCE

2012-01-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

Imagine running your life on a rigid timetable, where even the slightest deviation could potentially spell disaster. We all function accordingly to the clock, keeping track of school and work schedules, doctor’s appointments and other dates on a daily basis. Can you imagine what would happen if your watch stopped, your alarm clock failed and your IPad or Blackberry crashed? Horrors!

Take a page from the precise scheduling that rules the life of Bernard, an American architect, living the good life in Paris. This ex-patriot’s existence is revealed with hilarious consequences in Marc Camoletti's farcical comedy “Boeing Boeing,” translated by Beverly Cross and Francis Evans, taking off on regular flights of funny business at Hartford Stage until Sunday, February 12.

Bernard, an engaging (pun intended) and charming Vince Nappo, is so good at keeping women happy that he has almost made a profession of it. With great care and expertise, he has managed to become engaged to Gloria (Kelly D. Felthous), his American stewardess, Gabriella (Kathleen McElfresh), his Italian flight hostess and Gretchen (Claire Brownell), his German cutie. Each flies a different airline so he feels he is safe and secure.

While Bernard has no intentions of marriage, he does enjoy the pleasures of having a trio of fiancées. His long suffering housekeeper Berte, adorably captured by Denny Dillon, is kept busy getting the apartment ready for the ever escalating series of arrivals and departures.

Bernard is quite smug about his accomplishments in the romance department and when his old friend Robert ( Ryan Farley) arrives unexpectedly, Bernard can’t help but brag about how well it all works. Robert, while marveling on the arrangements, does express a little skepticism on how a little turbulence, like a change in flight plans, could complicate the delicate deal. Director Maxwell Williams makes sure the landings and takeoffs are smooth, but you should still keep your seat belt fastened tightly.

For tickets ($69.50-85.50), call the Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at www.hartfordstage.org. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Sundays and selected Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m.

Prepare for a bumpy ride when Captain Bernard is in the cockpit trying to keep a trio of airlines flying high without a mid-air collusion.

CINEMATIC TITANIC CRASHES INTO THE BUSHNELL

2012-01-23T07:02:00.001-08:00

CINEMATIC TITANIC employs a cast from Mystery Science Theater 3000 and takes a terribly bad movie to new heights of enjoyment by “riffing” the actors, the action and everything in between. Billed as 600 laughs or riffs per movie, this satiric genius will play for two performances Thursday, February 2 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. at the Belding Theater, part of the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford.

According to founder Joel Hodgson, “the commentary by the acting troupe is at the heart of the show.” It is an outgrowth of Mystery Science Theater 3000, created twenty years ago, that performed two hundred shows to great reviews. The hit programming won the Peabody Award, received Emmy nominations and was named one of the top TV shows ever by Time Magazine.

As for CINEMATIC TITANIC, which grew out of the original, Joel Hodgson claims there is no problem finding terrible movies to riff. To date, there are fourteen labels in their arsenal. An original cast including Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl, performs a live concert focusing on the movie’s strengths and weaknesses. The evening is scripted bit by bit, by the actors working together. The 500-600 jokes are “married all together into the master script as section by section each is painted with funny lines.”

The movies chosen, for practical reasons, depend on the licensing fees the group can afford or if the movie is available in the public domain. While the producers of the selected films may complain, the actors in them like the attention, aren’t offended and welcome the royalties.

CINEMATIC TITANIC will soon celebrate their one hundredth show over four years, doing two shows a month every other weekend. Hodgson brags that he can “riff any movie” and the fans of this entertainment form find it “uncommonly funny.”

For tickets ($35), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Performances are Thursday, February 2 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

If you are into pop culture, this cult show may be just the unique theatrical experience for you.

TOM SANTOPIETRO HAS A RAINBOW BY THE TAIL

2012-01-23T06:55:00.000-08:00

Top: Tom Santopietro Lower: Tony DeSare

Tom Santopietro’s career is as colorful as a rainbow, with the appropriate pots of gold at both ends. He could have been a tennis pro or a lawyer and chose instead to take the yellow brick road directly to theater and films, his first loves.

Leaving his hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut, after graduating from the University of Connecticut School of Law, he decided to try his hand working on Broadway shows as a stage and company manager. He handled the business side of show biz full-time for fifteen years when the creative urge to write struck him.

Switching gears slightly, he decided to become a “professional substitute” stage manager, an understudy so to speak, to allow himself time to pursue writing. “Filling in a job temporarily is tricky, like jumping on board a moving train that has already left the station. You figure things out as you go along. It’s not a 9-5 job. I love going from show to show and with a little training, it will all work out.”

Having been involved with more than thirty Broadway shows, from “Jersey Boys” and “Noises Off” to “The Iceman Cometh,” he was immersed in the stories and lives of stars. While working behind the scenes, “I needed to do something more creative. I didn’t tell one person, because if I didn’t finish the book I would have felt really awful. When it was done, I showed it to my closest friend of forty years who said, incredulously, ‘this is really good.’ I was in the right place at the right time. A friend in a publishing house, Thomas Dunne, offered to read it and, even though he wasn’t a Barbra Streisand fan, he bought the book.” Santopietro’s first book was “The Importance of Being Barbra” in 2006.

Now the author of four books, Santopietro claims “they all have a common thread. All the book subjects are interesting performers, singing actors who appeal for their voices and their films. They are outsized talents and personalities and those two layers intrigue me. At their peaks, they are the biggest movie stars and recording stars and are emblematic of America.”

After Barbra Streisand, Santopietro focused his attention on Doris Day in his book “Considering Doris Day.” Ms. Day is a recluse who is rarely seen in public. He was thrilled, therefore, when a year after the book was published, Doris Day called him. Speaking on the phone for an hour, she expressed how happy she was with the publication and the fact that he took her seriously as an artist. Santopietro claims she was “warm, funny, smart and I fell in love with her all over again. Her review is the only one I need.” He also created a musical show on Day with Billy Stritch singing her songs.

In his books, he talks about the stars’ personal lives, focusing on their films, songs and works. Each has three to four decades of achievements. “They have lasting power. They are the real thing. They are all unbelievably gifted.”

The third personality he concentrated on was “ole blue eyes” himself, Frank Sinatra, and produced the 2008 release by St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books, “Sinatra in Hollywood.” Adding a new dimension to the work, Santopietro has toured the country with recording artist and pianist Tony DeSare doing a tribute to Frank, “The Best Is Yet to Come.” Ironically he had encountered DeSare more than a decade earlier when he attended a tribute show, “Our Sinatra,” and DeSare was the singer/pianist understudy that night. Santopietro was impressed that “this kid straight out of college could be so good. I tracked him down ten years later when I wanted to create my own Sinatra show. Now we are great pals.”

The weekend of February 4 and 5, Santopietro and DeSare will present the world premiere of their latest venture: “That’s Life! Stories and Songs of Tony Bennett, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra” at Waterbury’s Seven Angels Theatre, the same venue where his tribute to Frank debuted.

This newest show is an outgrowth from Santopietro’s latest release, launching this month, “The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America and Me.” In the book, he uses “The Godfather” movies which he considers, especially Part 2, some of the greatest films ever made as a springboard to examine “films I love and what it means to be Italian. A perfect outgrowth of that is to look at the three Italian singers Bennett, Martin and Sinatra.”

When he saw the second installment of the movie that covers five decades and flashes back and forth from the early twentieth century when a young Vito comes to America and sees the Statue of Liberty for the first time to Vito’s son and Mafia chief Michael Corleone, he envisioned his own grandfather coming alone to America, at the age of 13, with only 20 lira in his pocket. Santopietro, who grew up half-Italian, lived in an Anglo world, a WASPy world, essentially in two different worlds and he reflects on that in this book.

In his newest show, Santopietro will be the narrator telling stories and anecdotes about these three iconic stars and DeSare will then croon their favorite tunes, sixteen in all, from Dean’s “That’s Amore” to Tony’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” to Frank’s “Fly Me to the Moon.”

For tickets ($27.50), call Seven Angels Theatre, Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.sevenangelstheatre.org. Performances are Saturday, February 4, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, February 5 at 2 p.m.

Let Tom Santopietro share his stories, his passion and his love for this trio of Hollywood legends as Tony DeSare makes their favorite music come alive.

GORDON SKINNER: BOLD NEW ARTIST SHOW AT NEW HAVEN PUBLIC LIBRARY

2012-01-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

As a new artist, with two years yielding a paint brush, Gordon Skinner’s work is big and bold, bright with color, deep with meaning. Strongly influenced by his African-American roots, his work is currently on exhibit at the New Haven Public Library until Saturday, February 18.

His show entitled “Stolen I.D.: Fragmented, Colonized and Lost”

explores his personal search for identity, a subject he claims all artists battle with in one way or another. Skinner does art for the people, his way of developing his "own visual language." Alone, with his anger, he sees the world through honest but questioning eyes, seeking to document that he was here and what he saw.

To Skinner, everything is an experiment, but he fully credits Picasso, Pollock, Lennon, Jean Dubuffet, Joan Mitchell and Tracey Emin, with influencing his art. Working in house acrylics, with collage and spray paint, on canvas and wooden panels, he tries to dispel stereotypes and explore cultural values, poverty, HIV AIDS, drug abuse and, most of all, his own voice. Through his work, he takes risks, using primitive and vigorous strokes, often painting masks that alternately reveal and hide the soul. His works, like Tin Drum, Zulu Warrior, Wise Noble and Crack Baby , allow Skinner’s passions and questions to be examined.

Gordon Skinner is a visiting artist to the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery. Go to http://azothgallery.com/ for more information, pictures and a film by Bob Albert of his work, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNR7dt5gOp4

BRAVO! A CENTURY OF THEATRE IN FAIRFIELD COUNTY

2012-01-20T08:37:00.001-08:00

Katharine Hepburn and Alfred Drake in front of the Stratford Theatre, 1957. Courtesy, ASFTA Archives

Katharine Hepburn as Portia in Merchant of Venice American Shakespeare Festival Theatre, Stratford.

Photo Credit: Friedman-Abeles

Courtesy, ASFTA Archives

Until April 1, 2012, you are invited to the Fairfield Museum and History Center, 370 Beach Road, Fairfield to discover the rich theatrical history of the area. This unique exhibit features peeks before and behind the curtain, with special spotlights cast on the Westport Country Playhouse, Lucille Lortel and her White Barn Theatre and the American Shakespeare Theatre.

Special highlights yet to come are Lunch and Learn: Kate’s Cottage with author and filmmaker Michael Bielawa on Katherine Hepburn’s stay in Stratford in a little waterfront cabin. Kate helped bring the works of Shakespeare to life. A short film “Along the Shores of Memory: The Katherine Hepburn Cottage” will also be shown. Cost is $8, members $5 on Thursday, February 16 at noon. Bring your own lunch. Lemonade and dessert will be served.

On Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m., the spotlight will focus on “The Queen of Off- Broadway,” Lucille Lortel, who was an actress, producer and a major player in the development of theater off-Broadway, including but not limited to the White Barn Theatre. A film screening and discussion will take place at the Westport Public Library, 20 Jessup Road, Westport. The event is free but pre-register by calling the library at 203-291-4840.

The Fairfield Museum is open Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and weekends noon-4 p.m. Admission is $5 adults, $3 students and seniors, children under 5 free. Call for more information to 203-259-1598 or visit www.fairfieldhistory.org to see the complete schedule of events.

GOODSPEED FESTIVAL A WONDERFUL WEEKEND OF EVENTS

2012-01-17T13:38:00.001-08:00

The creative team of "The Great American Mousical"
Photo by Diane Sobolewski
Forget winter doldrums and wind chill factors. The weekend of January 13-15, the Goodspeed Festival of New Artists, was one hot rockin’ event. It featured three new musicals, “Harmony Kansas,” ”Not Wanted on the Voyage” and “The Dogs of Pripyat” as well as an introduction to a new musical “The Great American Mousical” coming to the Norma Terris Theatre in Chester in the fall.

Add to all those good treats two cabaret evenings stuffed with new songs about penguins and Pinocchio and everything in between, a trio of great theater talks, a concert of Noel Coward music and a tour of Goodspeed’s theater building as well as its amazing 300,000 costume collection. The weekend ended with a Writers Reception at the Gelston House, next door, when the three writing teams shared their ideas and insights.

Don’t be left out in the cold next year. The Festival dates are Friday-Sunday, January 18-20, 2013. Mark your calendars now! Musical theater is alive and well and thriving on the stage of the Goodspeed.

“THE INTERGALACTIC NEMESIS” EXPLODING ON THE BUSHNELL STAGE

2012-01-16T07:59:00.000-08:00

Imagine your favorite science fiction comic book characters coming to life on a large screen, in color and with voices and sound effects. This seemingly far-fetched idea is a reality today…if by today we mean Saturday, January 21 at 8 p.m. at the Belding Theater in Hartford, part of the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts.

Turn back your imaginary time clocks to 1933 and experience “The Intergalactic Nemesis,” billed as a science fiction period piece, stuffed with romance, horror and suspense. Travel along with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Molly Sloan, her intrepid sidekick assistant Timmy and a mysterious librarian Ben as they race to save the world. Sludge monsters from the planet Zygon are set to invade and this unlikely trio of heroes is all that is posed to stop them.

Listen and feast your eyes as the giant screen is enhanced by three live actors, a Foley artist making the sound effects resonate and a keyboardist adding appropriately spooky music. Over 1000 hand-drawn comic book images will barrel and blast you to intergalactic nirvana, LIVE.

For tickets ($28-38), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org.

Chris Gibson gets to play hero and villain and a whole lot of the characters in between and it’s “great fun.” When he moved from Orlando, Florida to Austin, Texas, he had to reestablish his acting career credentials all over again. He began by volunteering to mow the lawn at a local theater company and thus won his first audition, definitely through the tool shed door.

Gibson credits Jason Neulander, a producer and sometimes actor, with the idea for “The Intergalactic Nemesis,” and says it was fourteen years in the making. It began as a radio drama and has mushroomed into the version that will grace the Belding Theater this weekend. The drama will continue in trilogy form and the second sequel will debut in late spring or early summer.

This “live graphic theater,” says Gibson, is unlike anything else, combining the three art forms of comic book art, radio drama and music.” It is all computerized, all memorized, with gorgeous art work. For example, when the characters jump on the train, a box of macaroni and cheese is utilized to mimic the wheels hitting the tracks.

Inspired by “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” it appeals to comic book fans, science fiction lovers and followers of radio drama. As for Chris Gibson, “I’m having the time of my life.” Hopefully he doesn’t have to mow the lawn any more.

REX REED: FILM CRITIC EXTRAORDINAIRE

2012-01-09T07:23:00.000-08:00

Fairfield University’s exciting Open VISIONS Forum will welcome film critic Rex Reed down the red carpet on Sunday, January 29^th at 3 p.m. to the Quick Center to address “Hollywood Notebook: Glory or Gory?” Former co-host of the syndicated television show “At the Movies,” Reed writes a current column “On the Town with Rex Reed” for The New York Observer.

Occasionally an actor himself, Reed has performed in the movie version of Gore Vidal’s “Myra Breckinridge,” in the film “Inchon!” and in “Superman,” as himself. Back in the late 1970’s, he was a regular on the TV program “The Gong Show.” He also guest voiced himself on the animated series “The Critic” as well as served on the jury of the 1971 Berlin Film Festival. In the 2009 documentary “For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism,” he explained the role of movie critics over the past century emphasizing how important film critics were in the 1970’s.

No stranger to controversy, Reed created a firestorm with the rumor that in 1992 at the Academy Awards Jack Palance announced the wrong name as Best Supporting Actress, Marisa Tomei. Reed contended Palance was too confused or drunk to read the correct name. The Academy denied any cover up or mistake.

For tickets ($45), call the Quick Center on the campus of Fairfield University at 203-254-4010 or 1-877-ARTS-396 or online at www.quickcenter.com.

Let Rex Reed provide the inside scoop on the Hollywood movie scene as he sees it from his unique perch at the top.

“SISTER ROBERT ANN’S CABARET CLASS” COMES TO WATERBURY

2012-01-09T06:36:00.000-08:00

Sister Robert Ann never was a shy wallflower kind of nun. She always craved the spotlight. Now she has it smack dab in her face.

If you’re a long time fan of Dan Goggin’s Nuns and Nun-sense, you’ll be psyched to discover that Sister Robert Ann will occupy the spotlight the way she always wanted: solo, alone, by herself, individually, without accompaniment. “Sister Robert Ann’s Cabaret Class, a One Nun-sense Musical Event” will grace Waterbury’s Seven Angels Theatre the weekends of January 21 and 29.

Christine Mild stars as the spunky and feisty Sister who is as skilled with a wrench and pliers working on a car’s carburetor as she is with tuning her own vocal pipes. The good Sister Robert Ann has starred in other Dan Goggin musicals and belted out seventeen signature songs, giving her enough musical material for an evening all her own.

Since Christine Mild is a gold star member of the Little Sisters of Hoboken, having originated Sister Robert Ann and her Brooklyn street-wise ways in south Florida, she is a natural to take on this one- woman feast. She will deliver such memorable numbers as “What Would Elvis Do,” “Growing Up in Brooklyn,” “Twelve Days Prior to Christmas” and her theme song finally come true “I Just Want to be a Star.” In addition, she will engage the audience in a lesson on cabaret acts just in case you want to take your own show on the road.

For tickets ($30), call Seven Angels Theatre, Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.SevenAngelsTheatre.org. There is plenty of free parking on site.

Take a stroll down memory lane with Sister Robert Ann as she sentimentally renews her vows musically and spiritually for your listening pleasure.

“PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD” LAUNCHES ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON

2012-01-02T08:23:00.000-08:00

If the proof is in the pudding, then “Play With Your Food” has created the perfect recipe for luncheon delights over the past decade. Combining a good flavorful repast with a trio of savory theatrical treats, “Play With Your Food” is high on the menu of Fairfield County’s most popular noontime activities.

The fun begins at twelve noon with a buffet lunch from one of the area’s epicurean treasures like Westport’s Blue Lemon, Da Pietro’s, Matsu Sushi and Garelick and Herbs or Fairfield’s The Dressing Room, Layla’s, Tuckers and The Pantry or Greenwich’s Nicholas Roberts, Le Pain Quotidien or Garelick and Herbs.

Next up is a selection of readings by professional actors that can be comical or mysterious, but always entertaining. According to Executive Producer Nancy Diamond, “We’re excited to start our season with Agatha Christie’s short play “The Rats,” complete with adulterous lovers, a locked room, and of course a murder.”

Paired with this will be two lighter comic sketches, “Airbourne” by Gib Johnson about an airline employee who feels obligated to become involved with the travel plans and lives of passengers, with delightfully complicated results and John Bishop’s “Arizona Anniversaries,” a comic look at risk and reward and potential and possibilities.

The fact that art can imitate life is acknowledged by Artistic Director Carole Schweid. “Our plays tend to reflect, in some ways, where we are in our lives. “Arizona Anniversaries” was chosen before it dawned on us that January marks the beginning of our 10^th season of “Play With Your Food.” How interesting is that!”

The afternoon concludes by 1:30 p.m. with a lively talk back with cast members and the audience. For reservations ($43), call 203-293-8831 or online at www.jibproductions.org. January performances will be held on the 10, 11,and 12, Tuesday – Thursday, at Toquet Hall, 62 Post Road East, Westport, on Tuesday, the 17^th at Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford Street, Fairfield and on Wednesday, January 18^th at Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich.

Future performances in February, March and April will incorporate love letters and music from “1776,” light hearted comedies and excerpts from George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion.” Check the web site for specific dates and selections.

A Tenth Anniversary Gala will be held on Saturday, January 28 with cocktails, wine and hors d’oeuvres from Blue Lemon, Garelick and Herbs, Matsu Sushi and Tito’s Homemade Vodka at 6:30 p.m., followed at 8 p.m. with “Two For the Road,” theatrical offerings from “Sign of Life,” “ Pillow,” “ My Fair Lady,” “Camelot,” “Mack and Mabel” and more surprises. All the fun and fine food will take place at Dragone Classic Motorcars, 176 Post Road West, Westport. For tickets ($100), call 203-293-8831.

Start off 2012 right. Sign up to “Play With Your Food” for fanciful entertainment and culinary delights.

“MEMPHIS:” A JUMP AND JIVE JUBILATION OF JOY

2012-01-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

Tune your radio dial to a Memphis, Tennessee station circa 1950 and get caught up in the sensational sounds emanating from that small rectangular brown plastic box. The Disc Jockey of the hour is a young, naïve and white Huey Calhoun who sets out to bring a new style of music to the airwaves and unintentionally unleashes a tornado of novel sound.

This Tony Award-winning 2010 Best Musical – “Memphis”- is bringing its exuberant excitement to the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford from Tuesday, January 10 to Sunday, January 15. With music and book by David Bryan (Bon Jovi) and Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change) and choreography by Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys), we turn in to Huey’s plot to bring the underground music he’s heard in clubs, the lowdown jive of rhythm and blues and rock and roll, up into the light of day.

Defying his ultra-conservative radio station owners, this adventurous high school dropout risks it all to play music that has been termed “racial” and inadvertently starts a sensation on the air. Discovering a new black singer Felicia, he also finds love for the first time, in a relationship forbidden by society, that he must keep hidden.

Tunes like “Memphis Lives,” “Say a Prayer” and “The Music of My Soul” focus on the passion this new sound engenders in Huey and underscore the tensions and conflicts of integration at that time and that place. Hold on to your bobby sox as this musical and dance feast for the eyes, ears and feet rocks and rolls itself into your heart.

For tickets ($17-72), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Get into the groove with this “West Side Story” tale of forbidden love that tells the true tale of a DJ whose passion for a bogey beat sets a town to sizzle.

"MAMMA MIA!" WHAT A SHOW!

2012-01-02T08:04:00.000-08:00

You don’t need to understand Swedish or even know where Sweden is on a map to fall in love with the ABBA inspired rock musical “Mamma Mia!” Even if your knowledge of the music group ABBA is non-existent, the show will surely win your heart and your joy even before the overture is complete.

Dance down the aisle to the Palace Theater in Waterbury from Friday, January 20 to Sunday, January 22 to catch this lively with a capital L smash hit musical “Mamma Mia!” with music and lyrics by ABBA musicians Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and book by Catherine Johnson.

Set on a mythical Greek island, the show is about a daughter Sophie, who at 20 is about to marry. Her greatest wish is to have her father walk her down the aisle, but there’s one small problem. Her mother Donna, a determined and vivacious independent spirit, who runs the island taverna, has never spoken Sophie’s father’s name.

So the industrious and clever Sophie sends wedding invitations to the three candidates for fatherhood as determined by invading the privacy of her mom’s diary of twenty one years previously: an architect Sam, an Australian travel writer Bill and a proper British banker Harry . All three men accept the invitation they believe is from Donna and show up conveniently on the eve of Sophie’s nuptials to Sky .

Fortunately the unsuspecting Donna has the moral grounding of Tanya and Rosie, the members of her old singing group Donna and the Dynamos, who literally and figuratively support her when the sparks of mistrust and accusations start to fly. The great ABBA songs like “Dancing Queen,” “The Name of the Game,” “S.O.S.,” “Thank You for the Music,” “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do I Do,” and “The Winner Takes It All” and more than a dozen more, make this show sparkle with neon lights that spell Amazing, Bouncy, Beautiful, and Alive, in snappy and pulsating style. For tickets ($ 50-70), call the Palace, 100 East Main Street, Waterbury at 203-346-2000 or online at www.palacetheaterct.org. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m.and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The Palace is encouraging women’s groups of all sizes to choose “Mamma Mia!” as their next “Girls Night Out” destination by offering groups of 15 or more a 10-15 % discount on tickets to the show. Bridal parties, co-workers, social club leaders, and soccer moms looking to book their next group outing can contact Box Office and Special Services Coordinator, Deirdre Patterson at 203-345-2011, to plan their excursion and save on tickets.

Special events include a pre-show brunch at 11 a.m. on Sunday ($75) prepared by Emily’s Catering Group and a Gla’Mar’Ours Girls Night Out on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. with music, appetizers and a cash bar that is free with a ticket to the 6:30 p.m. show.

Once upon a time a girl prays to have her father at her side

for her wedding day. Is it a blessing or a curse when her

prayers are answered three times over? Catch the joy of

“Mamma Mia!” and discover for yourself. Wedding gifts are

optional.

GOODSPEED’S FESTIVAL GUARANTEED TO START A 2012 MUSICAL EXPLOSION

2011-12-27T06:53:00.000-08:00

Do you like to be on the cutting edge of new ideas? Does having bragging rights around the water cooler excite you? Do you have the need to namedrop? If these traits sound like your mantra, then the Seventh Annual Goodspeed Festival of New Artists is your 2012 cup of tea, eggnog, mulled cider and hot chocolate all rolled into one fragrant punch bowl.

From Friday, January 13 to Sunday, January 15, Goodspeed Musicals’ Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre will showcase a festival of brand new musical works in a series of staged readings, workshops, tours, play previews, a dinner and cabarets. For the incredible price of only $79, you can have an exciting front row seat to the newest offerings in musical theater presented at East Haddam’s historic location on the Connecticut River.

The festival opens at 7:30 p.m., Friday, with “Harmony, Kansas,” with music by Anna K. Jacobs and book and lyrics by Bill Nelson. When a young farmer, Heath, joins a newly formed gay men’s chorus, he discovers performing in public threatens to turn his world topsy turvy. At 10 p.m., a cabaret of new songs by new artists will take place next door at the Gelston House.

On Saturday, participants will meet from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at the Gelston House for a choice of workshops: Peter Filichia, theater critic and author of “Broadway Musicals MVPs” will review his selections of most valuable players of the past five decades on Broadway and sign his book; “There Is Life After the Festival!” will feature the “Harmony, Kansas” creative team discussing the past, present and future of their new work; “Noel Coward: the Man and His Music,” a discussion of his life and music by Nancy Anderson, a Goodspeed favorite and Noel Coward Cabaret Award Winner; and “Spotlight on: Tony Walton,” a discussion with the man whose costumes and scenic designs have won awards for fifty years.

From 2:30 -3:30 p.m., participants will be treated to a preview of a new musical to be featured at Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre in Chester which workshops innovative works. At 4 p.m., a Noel Coward Symposium will be featured at the Goodspeed Opera House on the “Book of Mormon, Need We Say More?,” a panel discussion led by Casey Nicholaw, the co-director of this Tony Award-winning hit. This event is free and open to the public.

A festive three-course dinner will follow at 5:30 p.m. at the Gelston House. At 7:30 p.m., “Not Wanted on the Voyage,”

with music and lyrics by Neil Bartram and book by Brian Hill, based on a novel by Timothy Findley, will take place at the Goodspeed Opera House. Imagine being the one and only family, complete with talking cat, selected to survive the Great Flood, when the world ends for the first time. Magic, mythology and hope fill this extraordinary tale. A cabaret follows at 10 p.m. at the Gelston House.

On Sunday, at 11 a.m., a tour of Goodspeed’s 250,000 piece costume collection will be held, followed at 1 p.m. with the final musical, “The Dogs of Pripyat,” with music by Aron Accurso, lyrics by Jill Abramovitz and book by Leah Napolin and Jill Abramovitz, based on a play by Leah Napolin, will be presented at Goodspeed. Based on a true story, it is the tale of the animals left behind when Chernobyl is evacuated in 1986, USSR and what happens to them as they adapt and survive.

At the Gelston House at 3:30 p.m., a Meet the Writers Reception will allow the composers to share their insights and writing process, with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. Go to www.goodspeed.org for lodging and dining accommodations. The entire Festival Package can be purchased for $79 or single events ($15, students $10) can be selected. Call 860-873-8668 for reservations today so you won’t be disappointed.

Mark your brand new 2012 calendar or IPad, IPod, IPhone or Blackberry for this exciting entertainment event.

“WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE?” A CHEERFUL ROMANTIC DELIGHT

2011-12-26T07:19:00.001-08:00

Grab a giant bag of Bugles and a six-pack of Hostess Pink Snoballs and bop over to Berlin’s Connecticut Cabaret Theatre for a musical trip back to the 1960’s. Four girlfriends are busy trying to solve the age- old questions about love, marriage and men, whether all the hoopla and fuss are worthwhile.

Roger Bean’s musical comedy “Why Do fools Fall in Love?,” playing weekends until Saturday, January 28, raises lots of questions as it queries the intentions and involvements, successful and not so much, surrounding a quartet of twenty-somethings who readily admit to being confused, anxious and overwhelmed about the dating game. They may not all be eager to play it, but if they do play, they want to win.

Come meet Millie, Sally, Florence and Dee Dee who are delightfully created by Lauren Adams, Kristin Ceneviva, Anne Collin and Emily LaRose. The gals have gathered to celebrate Millie’s fast approaching nuptials, only days away. In the course of toasting the bride-to-be with tequila shots, the scandalous news slips out that her fiancé James has been unfaithful and is among the missing. While Millie is sure she can work everything out, once she finds him, the group quickly consult their Magic 8 Ball, remember this is the 1960’s, and belt out a bevy of jukebox hits of the era: “It Hurts to Be in Love,” “He’s a Rebel,” “Baby, I’m Yours,” “Untrue, Unfaithful,” “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” “Hey There Lonely Boy” and “Goin’ Out of My Head (Over You) and many others.

Dee Dee consumes Snowballs and gets a sugar high while rhapsodizing about her Johnny, Flo tries to analyze her relationship to Bobby and Sally lists her entourage of bad boys. They all form a sisterhood of strength and support for Millie. Kris McMurray directs “this look back fun show” with spirit and verve, on a psychedelic set designed by Matthew Collin Marrero.

For tickets ($30), call CT Cabaret Theatre 31-33 Webster Square Road, Berlin at 860-829-1248 or online at www.ctcabaret.com.

Performances are Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7:15 p.m. Remember to bring snacks to nibble or buy dessert and drinks on site.

Auditions for CT Cabaret’s 15^th Anniversary Season will be held Monday, January 9 starting at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, January 10, starting at 7 p.m. Call Kris or Matthew at 860-829-1248 to schedule a 15-minute audition. Headshots and resumes can also be mailed to mcm_ctcabaret@me.com.

Put your pink paper umbrellas in your alcoholic drink of choice and discover once again why falling in love is definitely worth all the fuss and bother.

"IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE” IS, WELL, SIMPLY WONDERFUL

2011-12-19T08:00:00.001-08:00

George Bailey is the reluctant iconic hero of one of the season’s most beloved stories. Whether you have known George Bailey for decades or you are a brand new acquaintance, New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre’s production of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is filled with care and affection, thanks to playwright Joe Landry.

Until Saturday, December 31, you are invited to follow in George’s footsteps as he walks through his life in Bedford Falls, New York, an ordinary existence that he himself might describe as dull and without definition.

Created as a 1940’s radio show, on Station WBFR, for Playhouse on the Air, the story by Philip Van Doren was originally a Frank Capra movie starring Jimmy Stewart. Here a troupe of talented actors – Dan Domingues, Kate Maccluggage, Alex Moggridge, Kevyn Morrow and Ariel Woodiwiss- play multiple roles as they create George’s life, up to the moment when he decides it isn’t worth living and the world would be better off if he had never been born.

While Ebenezer Scrooge has his three ghostly visitations on Christmas Eve, George is blessed with only one: Clarence, an apprentice angel who is more than two centuries old and has yet to earn his wings. The hard working and dependable George, who saves his brother Harry from drowning, stops a pharmacist from

dispensing a prescription with poison, stands up to the town’s tyrant, helps a community live in homes rather than shacks and marries a fine woman and raises three children, learns that he is not a failure in life and that he has friends who bless him. Associate director Eric Ting creates a wonderful atmosphere on stage, where the terrific sound effects by Foley Artist Nathan Roberts are like another character.

For tickets ($52.75-72), call Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven at 203-787-4282 or online at www.longwharf.org. Performances are Christmas week Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m. and Christmas Eve at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and for New Year’s Eve week Monday at 7 p.m., Tuesday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.

In honor of the holiday season, Long Wharf is partnering with the Connecticut Food Bank and patrons are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to donate. Most desired items are tuna, peanut butter, soups, stews, pasta, beans, rice and canned fruits and vegetables.

Let your imagination soar as you listen to this tale of redemption and what it means to live a life of purpose.

HOLIDAY MAGIC ABOUNDS ACROSS THE STATE

2011-12-19T06:58:00.001-08:00

A SCENE FROM "MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS" AT PLAYHOUSE ON PARK

Are you feeling like the Grinch or Scrooge? Not in the holiday spirit yet? Never fear, opportunities abound for an infusion of fun to destress the holidays and celebrate the magic of the season.

First up is “Cirque Dreams Holidaze,” a creation by Neil Goldberg, at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford until Saturday, December 24. Your stocking will be stuffed with special spectacles, from spinning penguins, flipping gingerbread men, marching toy soldiers, balancing snowmen, dancing puppets and soaring reindeer on high. Imagine Santa’s toyshop come to sparkling life and you’ll get the idea. Holiday songs and original music make this a winter wonderland of fantasy fun.

For tickets ($30-65), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Performances are tonight at 6:30 p.m., Friday at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. Come and be dazzled!

The Katherine Hepburn Theater in Old Saybrook, affectionately known as The Kate, has two back-to-back treats to enjoy. On Friday, December 30 at 8 p.m. fly high with “Blaze of Glory Bon Jovi Tribute Band” ($25) and then come the next night for New Year’s Eve at 9 p.m. with Steve D’Agostino ($35). Call The Kate, 600 Main Street, Old Saybrook at 877-503-1286 or go online to www.thekate.org.

Want to laugh your way into 2012? The Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury has a roster of funny people all set to entertain in “Stand Up and Count Down New Year’s Eve Comedy Night” with two shows, 6:30 p.m. ($50) and 9:30 p.m. ($60). The second show includes appetizers and a champagne toast at midnight.

On tap are the fast talking comedienne, author, motivational speaker, TV show host and adventurer all rolled into one, Fran Capo, the international jokester Mike Dugan who has appeared on both The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, New York born and bred Tom McTiernan who uses his multi-cultural background to flavor and color his humor and the naturally funny man Dan Wilson, long a favorite headliner at comedy clubs on land and the Royal Caribbean Cruise line at sea.

For tickets, call Seven Angels Theatre, Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.SevenAngelsTheatre.org.

If intrigue is more your style, then plan to set sail on West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park’s New Year’s Eve’s imaginative “Murder on the High Seas.” Dress as your favorite character for this fun, interactive, who-dun-it evening that includes bountiful appetizers, wine, beer, champagne, desserts and an evening of secrets, scandals and spirited spoofs.

Call the Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford at 860-523-5900, ext 10 for tickets ($55). The fun starts at 8 p.m. and lasts until 1 a.m.

Whatever your pleasure, select an entertainment gift for yourself to end 2011 and jump start 2012 with enjoyment and laughter.

“STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S COMPANY” HAS AN INVITATION JUST FOR YOU

2011-12-12T12:09:00.001-08:00

Stephen Sondheim has won more Tony Awards than any other composer, including a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, not to mention an Academy Award, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award. As a youth, he was mentored by none other than Oscar Hammerstein II and on his eightieth birthday in 2010 a Broadway theatre was named in his honor.

More than four decades ago he penned a musical, with book by George Furth and choreography by Harold Prince, about relationships, the challenges of dating and the joys and trials of marriage. West Hartford’s gem of a non-profit theater, Playhouse on Park, will be shining a spotlight on this delightfully revised production until Sunday, December 18.

The story centers around Bobby, a charming albeit confused bachelor in the capable hands of Ryan Speakman, who is barely acknowledging his thirty-fifth birthday, a milestone his friends are determined he will not forget. Afraid of being alone and uncommitted, Bobby is still alternately enthusiastic and ambivalent about wedded bliss.

Surrounding him are five couples in varying stages of matrimony, starting with the cynical and brassy Joanne (Amanda Bruton) married to the easy going, accommodating Larry ( Ben Beckley). The cigarette smoking, alcohol consuming Joanne belts out a powerful “The Ladies Who Lunch.”

Joanne isn’t the only one with a drinking problem. Harry (Erik Agle) has had difficulties with the law over his alcohol consumption while wifey Sarah (Meredith Swanson) envies people who eat dessert and she might use karate to get your cookies.

For David (Scott Caron) and Jenny (Hillary Ekwall), if the answer isn’t marijuana, then it might be divorce. In the case of Peter (Kevin Barlowski) and Susan (Victoria Thornsbury), their stance is that a person is not complete until they’re married, while Paul (Brian Detiefs) has quite the reluctant bride- to- be in Amy (Jennifer Lauren Brown). Amy’s fear of the altar translates into the adorable tune “Getting Married Today” which exposes her lack of certainty.

On the list of Bobby’s female companions, we find April (Lea Nardi) Marta (Keisha Gilles) and Kathy (Alexandra Cutler), each of whom fails to make the cut. The staging of such numbers as “Side by Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You,” complete with a parade of kazoos, is simply wonderful. “Company” is creatively directed and choreographed by Leslie Unger.

For tickets ($22.50-32.50), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford (exit 43, off I-84) at 860-523-5900, ext. 10, or online at www.playhouseonpark.org. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Get your calendars ready for Playhouse on Park has a plethora of great events on tap, starting with Saturday, December 31, New Year’s Eve, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Prepare to go on the high seas to discover a killer. If you want, you can even dress in character for this interactive party that includes bounteous appetizers, desserts, champagne and other libations. Tickets are only $55.

Intrigue continues in the ingenious comedy “The Mystery of Irma Vep” when a pair of actors plays multiple roles in a fascinating farce set on the English moors, January 11-20.

Also on the entertainment agenda are stop/time dance theater, children’s shows, comedy nights and improv jams and special events like The Amanda Carr Quintet presents Songs from the Heart of the American Songbook, Saturday, February 11 at 8 p.m., just in time for Valentine’s Day ($25).

Help Bobby discover the joys of “Company,” where “Being Alive” means not being alone.

“HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS” A PERFECT CHRISTMAS TREAT

2011-12-12T11:58:00.001-08:00

As sweet as a peppermint candy cane and as sentimental as a wet kiss from a warm puppy, Ivoryton Playhouse’s newly minted Christmas offering “Home for the Holidays” is perfect seasonal fare for the whole family. Conceived and directed by Artistic Director Jacqueline Hubbard, it will provide a wonderful way to welcome the holiday spirit into your heart.

Until Sunday, December 18, you will once again be caught up in a winter blizzard as a dozen and a half men, women and children find themselves stranded at the playhouse on Christmas Eve. Just think of the recent hurricane and sudden early snowstorm, and the attendant black outs and power outages to put yourself in the mood.

Despite the hardships, this valiant group rallies to the occasion and becomes a makeshift family in its adversity. The birthday-celebrating Holly (Liz Pester) performs Christmas miracles, a lovesick Joe (Brandon Clark) reveals his affections for the actress Christina (Alanna Burke), John (John Sebastian DeNicola) keeps everyone’s spirits up with his lively piano tunes while Norm (Norm Rutty) accompanies him on the guitar.

Traditional Christmas songs are stuffed into the Christmas stockings, like Rob’s (Michael McDermott) moving rendition of “Bring Him Home,” Helen’s (Beverley J. Taylor) memorable “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Rob and Sarah’s (Michael McDermott and Carolina Read) bouncy version of “Mr. Fezziwig’s Annual Christmas Ball,” Jennifer’s (Gayle LaBrec) cute “Twelve Days of Cheapness,” and Christina’s (Alanna Burke) saucy contribution of “Santa Baby,” complete with red boa.

The children, Addison Marchese (Sammie), Carson Waldron (Tucker), Kaitlyn Vitelli (Emily) and Kearney Capuano (Cassie), are a delight with “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” while grandmotherly Jane (Maggie McGlone Jennings) offers her precious silver thimble for a hiding game to entertain them.

Jason Naylor as Steve, Celeste Cummings as Celeste and Erica LuBonta as Cat add their lively voices to make this holiday a memorable one for all concerned, while Will Schneider’s David makes Helen’s Christmas wish come true.

For tickets ($30, $20 students, $15 children), call Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street, Ivoryton at 860-767-7318 or online at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Be sure to see Ivoryton’s 100,000 holiday lights all aglow every evening.

Jump into the holiday mood with both feet as this dedicated troupe goes all out to make the day special.

PULITZER PRIZE WINNING JOURNALIST BARBARA WALSH VISITS NEW HAVEN

2011-12-09T08:28:00.001-08:00

To journalist Barbara Walsh, everything in her life is a great story idea and she’s proven it with two new books about her family.

The first, a children’s book, “Sammy in the Sky,” tells the touching tale (tail) of the family’s hound dog who was especially loved by her daughters Nora and Emma. Found by dad at the pound, Sammy proved to be lovable, protective and fun, chasing soap bubbles and being a “patient” patient when being treated for imaginary medical woes.

When Sammy really gets sick, the book follows his spiritual journey in a touching and sympathetic way. Released in August 2011, the book went through its initial printing of 10,000 in two weeks. “Sammy in the Sky” is illustrated beautifully by Jamie Wyeth (Yes, of that famous Wyeth ilk).

“August Gale A Father and Daughter’s Journey into the Storm” tells a saga of Walsh’s family who were fisherman in Newfoundland and centers on a fierce storm while the men were at sea. She discovered her family’s history when her father in 2002 revealed facts previously hidden that led her to a remote village and relatives she never knew existed.

Her fascination with a 1935 event, a hurricane at sea, led her to pen “August Gale,” a true story that has brought the disparate members of her Irish clan closer in a multitude of unique ways.

There’s already movie buzz that has Barbara Walsh thinking of Ron Howard as director and Russell Crowe as her great uncle Paddy, the captain of the schooner, but she is open to suggestions.

Barbara Walsh and family appeared on December 8, 2011 at the New Haven Public Library for a small but enthusiastic crowd.

“I’M CONNECTICUT” PAYS HOMAGE TO LOVE AND TO OUR STATE

2011-12-05T07:47:00.001-08:00

As exciting, romantic or sexy states go, Connecticut wouldn’t rank at the top of the continental 48 and especially not if you add in Alaska and Hawaii. Connecticut is known as the Insurance Capitol of the World, thanks to Hartford, and also the Land of Steady Habits, The Constitution State and The Nutmeg State. Connecticut doesn’t enjoy the glamour of its neighbor to the south and west, New York, or the mystic of its northern bordering Massachusetts with its rich political history.

Yet do not give up hope. Connecticut born playwright Mike Reiss is coming to your rescue with a prideful play, a world premiere comedy, “I’m Connecticut,” enjoying its first ever light of day at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre at Jorgensen Auditorium on the campus of the University of Connecticut until Saturday, December 10.

“I’m Connecticut” tells the charming tale of a nice guy named Marc, played with spirit and sincerity by Harris Doran, who while born in Simsbury, has transplanted himself to the Big Apple. His lack of success with women he blames on geography: he comes from a boring state.

With clever dialogue and amazing visual effects, we follow Marc’s quest for love, much as we would Don Quixote’s search for the Impossible Dream. After an unsuccessful, substitute disastrous, speed dating event, Marc meets Diane (Maggie Sulka), a Georgia peach who has come north for adventure.

A secondary love story blooms when Diane’s mom Polly, a delightful Joyce DeWitt of “Three’s Company” fame, meets Marc’s grandfather, a spry Jerry Adler, best known for “The Sopranos” and “Rescue Me.” The speed dating manager (Darrell Hollens) and Marc’s work buddy Kyle (Michael John Improta) run interference in this lively game of love mating directed by Paul Mullins as head football coach.

Mike Reiss, the Aetna 2011 Writing Fellow at UCONN, wrote this comedy only one year ago. He is no stranger to the world of humor, having written scripts for “The Simpsons”

for twenty years, co-wrote “The Simpsons Movie,” “Horton Hears a Who!,” “ Ice Age,” and “Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” the screenplay for “My Life in Ruins,” fourteen children’s books, as well as writing for “It’s Gerry Shandling’s Show,” “ALF” and “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”

A native of Connecticut, Reiss is uniquely suited to pen a romantic tale about our state and infuse it, just like he does his hero Marc, with pride, enthusiasm and patriotic spirit.

For tickets ($6-29), call the CT Rep at 860-486-4226 or online at www.crt.uconn.edu. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Root for your home team, in this case Marc and the entire Nutmeg state, as we cheer him on to find boasting rights and true love, all in seventy-five fun-filled minutes.

“KRAPP’S LAST TAPE:” A BRIAN DENNEHY MEMORY TALK

2011-12-05T06:42:00.001-08:00

How many of us use our birthdays to evaluate the past, contemplate the present and anticipate the future? Now at the advancing age of 69, Krapp, a disheveled loner with failing eyesight and faded dreams, sits down for his annual ritual of recording a tape analyzing and cataloguing his past year and you’re invited to the ceremony.

Long Wharf Theatre’s Stage II will be the platform, until Sunday, December 18, for Samuel Beckett’s monologue masquerading as a play, “Krapp’s Last Tape.” The incomparable Brian Dennehy stars as the man caught in the shadows, between darkness and light, trying to find his way.

Krapp’s pleasures are small: savoring a ripe banana, taking a fortifying alcoholic drink for courage, looking up an unknown entity in Mr. Webster’s dictionary, verbally caressing the sensual word “spool.”

On this occasion, as he sits under a single bulbed light, at a desk with decorative metal tins filled with tapes of his past, he delays the inevitable, the moment when he must speak aloud and face his fears. As a delaying tactic, he uses his banana peels as a means for a prat fall and dusts off his journal that records each session. Eventually he can procrastinate no longer and must face the post mortem that details his life.

Selecting a previous year, three decades ago, specifically box three, spool five, he relives the death of his mother and the end of an affair, a love relationship that might have brought him happiness if he had allowed it. A writer who has known very little success, he criticizes and denigrates his ambitions and the public who rejected him.

He admits to himself that thirty years ago he had everything and he let it all go. What future does a man have who allowed disappointments to replace dreams? Jennifer Tarver directs this hour long exploration of one man’s fractured soul.

For tickets ($70), call Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven at 203-787-4282 or online at www.longwharf.org, Performances are Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

A second installment of Associate Artistic Director Eric Ting’s enthusiastic audience participation program “Spark” will center on Long Wharf’s upcoming production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” set in 1969. Soldiers returning home from war and the nurses who tend them will be the focus, according to Ting, “reimagining classics in an effort to inject new perspective into dramas that have a long history of production.”

The four 90 minute events will include: First Rehearsal, Monday, December 19 at 7 p.m., The Body and Text: Interpreting Shakespeare for the Stage, Monday, January 9 at 7 p.m., Technical Rehearsal, Saturday, January 14, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Adapting to the Moment, Monday, January 30, 7 p.m. about the challenges of the production. For tickets ($50) to the series, call 203-787-4282 or go online to www.longwharf.org. “Macbeth 1969” will be presented January 18-February 12 on the Mainstage. The fee will support the theater’s efforts to create new plays and support emerging playwrights.

Watch Brian Dennehy, who says of this play “It’s probably the greatest play I’ve ever been involved with and I’ve done a lot of great plays” and discover for yourself if you agree.

“A DOCTOR IN SPITE OF HIMSELF” OFFERS THE PRESCRIPTION OF LAUGHTER

2011-12-05T06:25:00.001-08:00

In the spirit of The Three Stooges, with a nodding praise to the puppeteers of Punch and Judy fame, giving a salute to slapstick and a validity to vaudeville, Moliere’s “A Doctor in Spite of Himself” escalates physical comedy and silliness to new heights of humor.

New Haven’s Yale Repertory Theatre will be paying tribute to this unique comedic genre until Saturday, December 17 in this new adaptation by Christopher Bayes, who also serves as director, and Steven Epp, who stars as the witless woodcutter Sganarelle.

A domestic squabble between Sganarelle and his nagging wife Martine (Justine Williams) results in her exacting a form of revenge on her hapless mate. When two men (Liam Craig and Jacob Ming Trent) happen by in search of a doctor of some renown to cure their master’s daughter who has gone mute, Martine delights in steering them to her husband who is chopping wood in the forest.

Before you can say “take two pills and call me in the morning,” Sganarelle has donned a white coat and stethoscope and is ready to perform miraculous deeds. With appropriate credit to Hippocrates, Aristotle, Abba, Julie Andrews and Jeannies in a bottle, he manages to satirize the medical profession while decidedly being a curative power for the speechless Lucinde (Renata Friedman), who refuses to speak as long as her doting papa (Allen Gilmore) wants to control who she marries.

The independent minded Lucinde has her heart set on the chivalrous Leandre (Chivas Michael) and Sganarelle, in his bumbling ways, inadvertently guarantees the young lovers their goal of wedlock. The servant Jacqueline (Julie Briskman) summarizes the situation with compellingly succinct four letter words. The band of two, Greg C. Powers and Robertson Witmer, utilize a variety of instruments, trombone, tuba, ukulele, accordion, clarinet and drums, to perform sound effects and the original music composed by Aaron Halva.

For tickets ($20-88), call the Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven at the corner of York at 203-432-1234 or online at www.yalerep.org. Performances are Tuesday to Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday at 2 p.m.

If a good doctor can put you in stitches, than a bad doctor can put you in stitches too, of laughter, and he doesn’t necessarily need a rubber chicken to do so.

“A CHRISTMAS CAROL” FLIES ON GHOSTLY WINGS INTO HARTFORD STAGE

2011-11-28T07:15:00.001-08:00

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the turkey and stuffing and marshmallow sweet potato soufflé just delicious memories, it’s time to turn your attention to the next big holiday on the calendar: December 25. To help you get in the festive mood, there is no better incentive than Hartford Stage’s annual Yuletide tradition: Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol A Ghost Story of Christmas” until Friday, December 30.

Lightning, thunder, fog and a gaggle of ghosts welcome you to this haunting tale of one Ebenezer Scrooge, a man who clearly was born without a holly twig of Christmas spirit. Scrooge, delightfully portrayed by a twinkle eyed Bill Raymond. is the original Bah Humbug curmudgeon who finds nothing of favor about this red, green and mistletoe wrapped day.

This Christmas Eve marks seven years since Scrooge’s business partner Jacob Marley (Noble Shropshire) has died. Marley’s ghost has appeared to warn Scrooge that there is still time to avoid his fate, to redeem himself and choose to enjoy life and mankind. To that end, Marley is sending Scrooge three apparitions at 1 a.m., 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. The Spirit of Christmas Past (Johanna Morrison) reveals his childhood and shows him all he once had and all he lost. Next the Spirit of Christmas Present (Alan Rust) shows Scrooge all that is within his grasp to enjoy while the Spirit of Christmas Future (Michael Preston) uncovers what will happen if Scrooge does not change his miserly ways.

As the hands of time spin, Scrooge realizes he can change the shadows, give his clerk Bob Cratchit (Robert Hanson Davis) and his crippled son Tiny Tim (Lorenzo Dalton/Ethan Pancoast) a future, reconcile with his nephew Fred (Michael Bakkensen) and reward his housekeeper Mrs. Dilber (Noble Shropshire/Robert Hanson Davis) for her years of loyal service. Maxwell Williams directs this huge cast of talented actors in this marvelous Christmas tale, with lighting effects by Robert Wierzel, costumes by Zack Brown and the role of Scrooge also being played by Gustave Johnson at school morning performances.

For tickets ($24-69), call Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at www.hartfordstage.org. Performances are Wednesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday. Additional holiday matinees at 2 p.m. are Friday, December 23, Monday, December 26, Tuesday, December 27, Wednesday. December 28 (no evening show) and Friday, December 30. Special events like Santa Saturdays (December 10 and 17), Character Brunches (Sunday, December 11) Family fun Night (Thursday, December 15) and Behind the Magic (Sunday, December 18) are also planned.

Watch this Currier and Ives Christmas card come to life as snowflakes fall and one man’s hard heart melts.

DOWNTOWN CABARET THEATRE STAGES A PAIR OF POPULAR TRIBUTE PERFORMANCES

2011-11-28T07:06:00.000-08:00

The Downtown Cabaret Theatre of Bridgeport has gone out of its way to stage a fantastic holiday celebration for your enjoyment and pleasure: tributes to both Simon and Garfunkel and Neil Diamond. How special is that?

The singer-songwriting duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel began way back in elementary school when the pair appeared on stage in “Alice in Wonderland” with Simon as the White Rabbit and Garfunkel as the Chehire Cat. They grew up a few blocks from each other in Forest Hills, Queens, New York and began their career together as “Tom and Jerry” in 1957. They went on to have many big hits in the 1960’s but experienced their own personal “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” in 1970 when they broke up for the first time. Since then they have reunited once a decade to perform such hits as “I Am a Rock,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Homeward Bound,” “The Sound of Silence,” “Feeling Groovy,” “Cecilia” and “Scarborough Fair.”

A chance meeting in 1991 at a club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania brought A. J. Sweringen and Jonathan Beedle together and they have been blending their unique sound ever since in this “Simon and Garfunkel Retrospective,” a return engagement, Friday, December 2 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, December 3 at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, December 4 at 5 p.m. Tickets are $33.50 and may be obtained by calling The Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport at 203-576-1636 or online at dtcab.org. Remember to bring snacks and drinks to share at your table. A guarded parking lot is just around the corner.

Neil Diamond, hailing from Brooklyn, New York, started out as a fencer who wanted to find a cure for cancer. He detoured along the way and sold 115 million records worldwide. As a legendary singer-songwriter, he has penned such hits as “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” “Cracklin’ Rose.” “I’m a Believer,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Desiree,””Love on the Rocks,” “Yesterday’s Songs” and “Heartlight.” In last week’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, he appeared on a float of Mt. Rushmore singing “America” and “Sweet Caroline.”

Don’t worry if you missed him because Tom Sadge, a remarkable vocal impressionist and disc jockey, has perfected his Neil Diamond over the last fourteen years and will present him in a tribute concert on Saturday, December 17 at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. in a 75 minute show with no intermission. Tickets are $37-47 and may be obtained by calling 203-576-1636 or online at dtcab.org.

Tom Sadge did his first impression of Neil Diamond at the age of ten, singing “Solitary Man” and he hasn’t looked back since. Watch how A.J., Jonathan and Tom have perfected their impressions of these musical legends. Be there or be square…or diamond shaped.

“SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ” IS A MUST SEE VISIT THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

2011-11-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

You may not recognize the names Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, prolific songwriters, but you will surely know their tunes. Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury wants to reacquaint you with their musical magic until Sunday, December 18 when it delivers for your listening pleasure “Smokey Joe’s Café,” a wonderful catalogue of rock and roll, rhythm and blues and pop standards.

Called the inventors of rock and roll, Leiber and Stoller are the musical parents of the baby-boomer generation and they are credited with such tunes as “Neighborhood,” “Dance with Me,” “Kansas City,” “Fools Fall in Love,” “On Broadway” and “Stand by Me.”

The talented cast of nine includes Paul Aguirre, Christopher Brasfield, Bobby Gouse, Monica Heuser, Sarah Ledtke, John Lynes, A’Lisa D. Miles, Housso Semon and Nicholas Ward and they belt out the melodies while executing a delightful series of coordinated dance steps arranged by choreographer Janine Molinari.

Comical numbers like “Searchin’ ,” “Poison Ivy,” “Don Juan,” “D. W. Washburn,” “Yakety Yak,” and “Charlie Brown” are done with tongue-in-cheek humor and verve. Elvis is clearly in the house for tunes like “Hound Dog,” “Loving You” and “Jailhouse Rock.”

Romance is in the air with songs like “Treat Me Nice,” “Love Potion #9,” “There Goes My Baby” and “Spanish Harlem,” while tunes like “Teach Me How to Shimmy,” “Little Egypt,” and “I’m a Woman” capitalize on feminine strengths and skills.

The music team who wrote together for more than 50 years created hits for The Coasters, The Drifters, Ben E. King as well as for “the King” and many girl groups. They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Let director Semina De Laurentis conduct this personal tour of Leiber and Stoller’s greatest hits.

For tickets ($25-42), call the Seven Angels Theatre, One Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.sevenangelstheatre.org. Performances are Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

No plans yet for New Year’s Eve? Laugh in 2012 with Seven Angels when they bring in four New York comedians for two shows Saturday, December 31 at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.. The second show includes appetizers and champagne. Call the box office for ticket information. Lower prices are available before December 1.

For the kids, think pink with “Pinkalicious,” a story about a little girl who learns a lesson about indulging in too much of a good thing. Shows are Thursday and Friday, December 1 and 2 at 10 a.m. Tickets are $8 for students and teachers and $10 for adults.

Be prepared to dance up and down the aisles of Seven Angels as this heavenly music takes wing.

CATHY RIGBY AS PETER PAN IS STILL FLYING HIGH

2011-11-21T07:06:00.000-08:00

Cathy Rigby is proud to say she’ll never grow up. At almost sixty years of age, she is still like the trim athletic gymnast who participated in and won high scores in the U. S. Olympics from 1968 until her retirement in 1972. As the fearless flying, ever youthful Peter Pan, she has spent two decades soaring over the crowds, crowing with pride and sprinkling fairy dust freely.

Capture the magical adventure once again as Cathy Rigby flies into Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in “Peter Pan the Musical” until Sunday, November 27, with music by Mark Charlap, Jules Styne and Carolyn Leigh. This classic tale by J. M. Barrie is stuffed with memorable moments: front and center is a mischievous lad who refuses to leave childhood, who shepherds his crew of Lost Boys on a remote island called Neverland, a space populated by pirates, Indians, fairies and even the occasional mermaid and crocodile.

To Neverland, Peter entices Wendy Darling and her brothers John and Michael to join him on his flying adventures, for he wants Wendy to be “mother” to his tribe of orphans. Peter has a protective fairy named Tinker Bell who looks out for his well being, in addition to a fierce and frightening enemy named Captain Hook, who in turn has a sniveling sidekick Smee.

Once Peter spirits Wendy and her siblings out of the window of their London home, away from the guardianship of their faithful dog Nana, they are caught up in a series of special encounters that test their mettle and provide chills and thrills.

For tickets ($17-68), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Performances are tonight at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Let the energetic and effervescent Ms. Rigby add sizzle to your Thanksgiving holiday with this wonderful family treat, one where you don’t have to worry about counting the calories.

“CITY OF ANGELS” A CLEVER AND COLORFUL STORY IN A STORY

2011-11-14T06:34:00.001-08:00

Clever and creative color and lighting characterize the current Goodspeed Musicals’ production of “City of Angels” shining brilliantly on stage until Sunday, November 27. As a contrast of film noir, in black and white and grey, with blazing Technicolor, it is a unique story within a story, featuring music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel and book by Larry Gelbart.

1940’s Hollywood never looked so glamorous, sultry and smoky as when D. B. Bonds’ fiction writing Stine starts pounding his typewriter keys to create his alter ego, the gumshoe, shamas, detective solving man of darkness and danger, Stone, a chisel-jawed Burke Moses. The worlds of these two men, one real and one fictional, collide amazingly as captured by director Darko Tresnjak.

As Stine writes and rewrites the screenplay adaptation of his best selling hero private dick, both worlds occupy the stage in a dizzying contrast made memorable by John Lasiter’s special lighting techniques. David P. Gordon’s opening and closing louver blinds bookcase the action effectively.

In Stine’s realm, he deals with his demanding, overbearing producer Buddy Fidler (Jay Russell), his somewhat supportive wife Gabby (Laurie Wells) and Buddy’s girl Friday Donna (Nancy Anderson).

For Stone, he has his new client Alaura Kingsley (Liz Pearce) who hires him to find her missing stepdaughter Mallory (Kathleen Rooney) and protect her from her sinister stepson Peter (Allen E. Read). Stone also has to be careful of the thugs who are out to hurt him (Jerry Gallagher and Spencer Rowe) and a cop (Danny Bolero) who has a serious grudge against him.

The actors crossover between the two plots, supporting each story’s mystery and mayhem, romance and rousing ramifications. As the writing progresses, hits roadblocks, is detoured by the manipulative Fidler, the film winds up in fits and starts and turns toward its inevitable conclusion. The action is fast paced, a blend of murder, muggings, marriages gone awry and marvelous music. Songs like “The Tennis Song,” “You’re Nothing Without Me,” “You Can Always Count on Me” and “Double Talk” help propel the action.

For tickets ($28-72), call Goodspeed Musicals, on the Connecticut River, East Haddam at 860-873-8668 or online at www.goodspeed.org. Performances are Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., with select shows at 2 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., with select shows at 6:30 p.m. Note the special Thanksgiving schedule: Monday, November 21 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Friday, November 25 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Saturday, November 26 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 27 at

2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Don a black raincoat and fedora and enter the plot of this intriguing musical whodunit where a pair of great guys, Stone and Stine, have wonderful yarns to spin entirely for your enjoyment.

“CABARET:” A PERFECTLY MARVELOUS PRODUCTION AT MTC

2011-11-11T07:35:00.001-08:00

Parties are occasions for gala celebrations, for feasting and festivities that mark birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and baby births. They highlight and overshadow the ordinary days and make us forget our troubles, if only for mere hours in time. What if all one did was party, dancing as fast as one could, to avoid the realities right outside pounding on the door?

Welcome to the seemingly beautiful world of pre-World War II Berlin where the patrons of the Kit Kat Klub, led by the flamboyant Master of Ceremonies, are partying as if their lives depend on it. Music Theatre of Connecticut in Westport has a seat for you, front and center at their intimate black box stage, to witness the frantic, frenzy of fun that is forced as the carousel spins faster and more feverishly out of control.

Weekends until Sunday, November 20, MTC will present a fascinating peek behind the frivolity of the smash musical hit “Cabaret,” based on the book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb.

Eric Scott Kincaid is the sinister and persuasive Emcee, dedicated to seeing you have a good time, cautioning you to leave your worries behind. For your entertainment, he has the delightful Sally Bowles, a sparkling Melissa Carlile-Price, to sing such songs as “Don’t Tell Mama” and “ Cabaret.” The opportunistic Sally has latched on to the newly arrived to Berlin American writer Cliff Bradshaw, played engagingly by Ryan Reilly, who hopes to gain inspiration for his novel. With Sally as his muse, Cliff settles in to Fraulein Schneider’s (Dorothy Stanley) rooming house and mingles with the other residents, Fraulein Kost (Marty Bongfeldt) who entertains in a more intimate way sailors like Johnny Orenberg and Herr Schultz (Stuart Zagnit) who runs a fruit store and doesn’t realize the dangers that his Jewish faith will pose.

Cliff is quickly befriended by Ernst Ludwig, a devious Daniel Robert Sullivan, who wants him to carry out personal projects for him, to earn money, and help Ernst’s cause. When Cliff realizes Ernst is a Nazi, he is appalled. While Sally has her eyes closed to the truth, Cliff sees all too clearly how the world is slipping off its axis. Kevin Connors directs a splendid cast in a “perfectly marvelous” way.

For tickets ($25-45), call MTC, 246 Post Road East, Colonial Green, Westport (lower level) at 203-454-3883 or online at www.musictheatreofct.com. Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Let the occupants of Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub entice you to relax with a drink, a dance and a song as they prepare a new script for Germany’s tomorrows.

“AIN’T MISBEHAVIN:” THE JOINT IS JUMPIN’

2011-11-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

Fats Waller, who described himself as 285 pounds of “jam, jive and everything,” was a master of the stride piano, a jazzman who began to show his signs of talent and musical genius at the age of six. While he lived less than four decades, he crammed a ton of tunes into his career knapsack, leaving a legacy of jazz favorites, enough to be packed into one lively and energized package known as “Ain’t Misbehavin.’ ”

Conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Murray Horwitz, “Ain’t Misbehavin’ “ will be strutting its sensational stuff at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre until Sunday, November 20. With a set reminiscent of the Savoy Ballroom or the Cotton Club, thanks to John Lee Beatty, you’ll think you’ve been transported to Harlem, circa 1925, for a fantastic voyage masquerading as a simple musical revue.

Your tour guides on this merry trip are splendid: Eugene Barry-Hill, Doug Eskew, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Cynthia Thomas and Debra Walton. Each a star in their own right, they bring Fats Waller’s tunes to brilliant light, showcasing almost three dozen songs, like “Honeysuckle Rose,” “T Ain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do,” “Lounging at the Waldorf,” “Squeeze Me” and “Black and Blue.” Humorous numbers like “Your Feet’s Too Big” and “Fat and Greasy” are over the top while “The Jitterbug Waltz” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” are sentimental favorites.

On opening night, with director Richard Maltby, Jr. in the house with his co-conceiver Murray Horwitz, the joint was truly jumpin.’ Wes Yarbor, an Alvin Ailey dancer from New York, who now works at a Hamden dance studio, who saw the original show on Broadway, thought the Long Wharf version was “phenomenal. For a small theater, Long Wharf is giving the show a full production, complete with a sliding piano across the stage. The great voices use tricks to make people laugh. The five performers are all stars. New Haven has bought itself a winner.”

The cast certainly knows how to “spread rhythm around;” they are hep cats with attitude and flair, who respond to Phillip Hall’s inspired piano playing and Arthur Faria’s delightful musical staging and choreography. This is a show not to be missed. Gail Baldoni’s glorious costumes are worth the trip all by themselves.

For tickets ($40-70), call Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven, at 203-787-4282 or online at www.longwharf.org. Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m, Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

An Open House for the whole family will be held Saturday, November 19 from 9 a.m. to noon. This Discovery Day for your little superheroes has a suggested donation of $5 a family or $2 a person and snacks will be available.

The story goes that Fats Waller was once kidnapped by gangsters and “invited” to play at Al Capone’s birthday party…for three days. Come hear the magic and the melody for yourself, the music of Fats Waller, a man who was said to be able to make a piano sing.

JACQUES LAMARRE: A MAN AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

2011-11-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

If one person could literally and figuratively be on top of the world, then Jacques Lamarre has a great likelihood of being at the apex of the mountain holding the flag. He has a job he loves as the Manager of Communications and Special Projects at the trendy and topical Mark Twain House and Museum that just celebrated “Mark My Words,” at New Haven’s Woolsey Hall at Yale University. The conversation with bestselling authors David Baldacci, John Grisham and Jodi Picoult raised $125,000 for the house and museum.

Two Saturdays ago, he wed Arthur Galinat, an international student adviser at the University of Connecticut in charge of immigration compliance. They met six years ago online through Yahoo personals and their Halloween themed wedding took place at the Mark Twain House and Museum, attended by all the theater folks he met at his past careers as publicity representative for the Hartford Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, Yale School of Drama and TheaterWorks of Hartford.

While involved in the “crazy, exhausting environment of theater,” Lamarre met Jeffery Roberson, who performs as an international drag cabaret chanteuse. Roberson was at the Hartford Stage in 2003 as Varla Jean Merman in “The Mystery of Irma Vep” and the two men connected comically. Roberson asked him to help him write shows for Varla jean and they have just completed number eight as well as a full length film “Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads,” about her sagging cabaret career that she tries to invigorate by doing a television show for children. Filmed in New Orleans, the movie should be released next year.

Working with Roberson on the first show “The Girl with the Pearl Necklace” all the way to their latest venture “The Book of Merman,” has been “exciting and wonderful.” The shows have been staged at Joe’s Pub in New York City, in Provincetown on Cape Cod, in major cities across the United States, all the way to the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

Prior to this, Lamarre referred to himself as “The Accidental Playwright” and “The Incidental Playwright,” not making a living at it but enjoying it and experiencing a lot of luck. He wrote a mystery play in sixth grade he was really proud of and wrote some scripts while working as a teenager at a summer theater in Milford, New Hampshire, the most successful of which was “Rapunzel.”

Even when Lamarre was studying to be a priest at a Catholic seminary in Rome, he found time to write skits for his classmates, a pastime that was not always appreciated. He was accused of “going too far and being irreverent.” Back in Hartford, he began his career in p.r. and didn’t write again until he penned a script for Michael Wilson and Joanne Woodward to use for a Connecticut Critics Circle awards ceremony.

Since then the writing bug has bitten fiercely and continues with Lamarre sending off scripts and short stories to contests and festivals with some amazing results. On Friday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m., his play “The Rub,” about parents confronting their adult son about his secret obsession, will be presented at the Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main Street, Middletown. This is a once a year showcase of plays by a group of playwrights, the Floating Theater of Middletown, who meet throughout the year for support and literary feedback.

Two days later, on Sunday, November 13 at 3 p.m., Hartford Opera Theater will present “New in November” at Billings Forge, Broad Street, Hartford, featuring six new short operas. “The Family Plan” by Philip Martin is based on a play by Lamarre, written for the New Mexico Fusion Theater’s annual contest. With a theme of tangled webs, his play, one of 21 semi-finalists in a field of several hundred, concerns a young Italian-American couple planning a wedding reception seating chart to hilarious results. For tickets ($10), go online to www.hartfordoperatheater.com.

As if that weren’t enough to brag about, from Friday, November 18 to Saturday, December 10, weekends, the Hole in the Wall Theater, 116 Main Street, New Britain will offer four world premiere one-act comedies by the man of the hour, “Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far.” The company which has been producing works for four decades is community theater at “the cutting edge, doing really funky stuff,” according to the playwright. The quartet of plays look at life in America today as a social and comic commentary on our inability to interact politely, everywhere from a dog park to Disneyland. For tickets ($20, students and seniors $12), call 860-229-3049 or online at www.hitw.org. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays, November 27 and December 4 at 2 p. m.

With pen in hand, and inspiration on his shoulder thanks to his proximity to Mark Twain’s ghost, Jacques Lamarre is securely at the top of his literary world, sure to look down and toss his witty observations on unsuspecting audiences to their amusement and delight.

DANA CARVEY COMES TO HARTFORD’S BUSHNELL

2011-11-07T07:14:00.000-08:00

You know him as The Church Lady who says “Well, isn’t that special,” as Hans of the Hans and Franz bodybuilding duo, as Garth, the co-host of Wayne’s World and the Grumpy Old Man of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Updates.

In the political arena, he can easily be the former president George Bush, Jerry Brown, Bob Dole or H. Ross Perot as well as both Bill and Hillary Clinton. In the world of show business, he’s a snap at Johnny Carson, George Burns, Regis Philbin, Robin Williams and Charlie Sheen.

If you’d like a comment from Suze Orman or Ted Koppel, he’s your guy. Clearly there’s only one man for this multitude of personas and that’s the clever impersonator and stand-up comic Dana Carvey.

A staple of Saturday Night Live for years, he will soon be gracing the stage of the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts. On Friday, November 11 at 8 p.m., Carvey will appear as himself and so many others, a plethora of personalities, in Lite 100.5 WRCH’s Nite of Life and Laughter.

Tickets start at $37.50 - $70.00, with special tickets for a pre-show reception at $102.50 to benefit the Helen and Harry Grey Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital. Call 860-987-5900 or go online at www.bushnell.org for tickets to laugh and celebrate life.

Look for Dana Carvey as the Crazy Puppeteer in Adam Sandler’s new comedy “Jack and Jill,” where Sandler plays both twins at the holidays, opening November 11. Well, isn’t that special!

“ANCESTRAL VOICES:” A FAMILY LIFE IN TRANSITION

2011-11-07T06:21:00.001-08:00

Growing up in Buffalo, New York in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s wasn’t all that bad for ten-year-old Eddie. He learns the skills of how to fish and hunt and build a fire from his grandfather, while his grandmother shares her favorite motion pictures with him and gives him his first lesson in love. From his parents he learns to respect his elders and how to control his insatiable curiosity.

To meet Eddie and his extended family. Let A. R. Gurney be your travel guide as you hear his “Ancestral Voices” weekends until Saturday, November 19, courtesy of Square One Theatre Company in Stratford.

Eddie, the narrator, played delightfully by Steve Scarpa, reminisces about his siblings, parents and grandparents, letting the majority of their secrets mischievously out of the closet.

Just as their beloved city of Buffalo is at a crossroads, poised for change, so is the family undergoing its own metamorphosis. The sacred institutions of marriage and fidelity are being rocked from their solid foundations when Grandmother (Davina Poster) announces she is leaving her mate (Pat Leo) for another man. Now Eddie has to call this interloper “Uncle Roger” and adjust to changes that he and his parents, and especially Grandfather, are loath to acknowledge.

Family celebrations are now awkward and often have to be given double attention. Cocktail hours are now more than mere social occasions and alcohol is being used as a means to cope and forget. This prosperous Protestant clan is cracking along its seams and Eddie is chief witness and recording secretary. He sees all too clearly how his parents (Janet Rathert and David Victor) are trying to keep the family in balance and not allow it to splinter. This is a fine cast doing a splendid job with this staged reading, as directed with a skilled hand by Tom Holehan.

For tickets ($20, seniors and students $19), call Square One Theatre, 2422 Main Street, Stratford at 203-375-8778 or go online to www.squareonetheatre.com. Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., with a special twilight show Saturday, November 19 at 4 p.m.

Let A. R. Gurney and his young pal Eddie give you a guided tour of Buffalo and of one WASP family as it copes with changing times, the country’s and their own personal ones.

“BELLEVILLE” AN EMOTIONAL VACATION IN PARIS

2011-10-31T13:31:00.001-07:00

The Mattel Toy Company created a fictional life for its best selling fashion doll Barbie more than five decades ago, giving her a collection of friends like Kelly, Krissy and Christie, a convertible car and a boyfriend named Ken. Real life does not conform to these unrealistic images and happily-ever-afters didn’t work for anyone but Cinderella and Snow White.

Imagine for a moment if you really believed you lived a fairy tale life, married to your special love who is a courageous doctor searching for a cure for pediatric AIDS, residing in a loft in Paris, enjoying all the sweetness of life. Enter the idyllic world of Abby and Zack as fashioned by Amy Herzog in “Belleville,” being produced by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven until Saturday, November 12 as a world premiere.

The bohemian, artsy section of Paris known as Belleville could be a wonderful neighborhood for theater lovers, with outdoor cafes and galleries within strolling distance. For Maria Dizzia’s Abby, it is a dream come true, on the surface at least.

If you probe a little deeper, remove a few protective layers, you realize all-too-quickly that Abby’s world is not so rosy. She needs pills to keep herself mentally balanced and it doesn’t take anything major to tip her emotional scales out of kilter.

Abby and husband Zack (Greg Keller) are children playing grown-up. To keep themselves together, she takes baths and booze and he relies on drugs and deception. Ken and Barbie are due for a serious reality check and it starts when Abby unexpectedly comes home early one afternoon to find Zack is not at work where he is supposed to be. With the entrance of their landlord Alioune (Gilbert Owuor) and his wife Amina (Pascale Armand) into their apartment, more unpleasant revelations become glaringly obvious. Anne Kauffman directs this confusing confrontation surrounding the web of lies that is masquerading as a marriage.

For tickets ($20-88), call the Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven at York Street at 203-432-1234 or online at www.yalerep.org. Performances are Tuesday-Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday at 2 p.m.

Be careful as you enter the Parisian loft of Abby and Zack as it is littered with emotional land mines set to explode.

GEORGIA STITT: A WOMAN WITH MUSIC IN HER HEART

2011-10-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

Georgia Stitt knew when she went to a music camp in junior high school and took an elective in music composition that she had discovered her life’s passion. She found herself writing music for the marching band and for friends who were singers. By the time she was in college at Vanderbilt University working with Professor John Morris Russell writing musicals for summer stock theater, her career path was set.

Her dad even has a recording of her very first composition, “Summer Daydreams,” which he loves but which Georgia confesses “honestly was not very good, but it was a marker of a time in my life.” Since then, she has been busy conducting orchestras, writing an arrangement for the Boston Pops, working in recording studios, being asked by a playwright to write music for a scene, being a record producer and penning musicals like “Mosaic” with Cheri Steinkellner, “Big Red Sky” with John Jiler, “The Water” with Jeff Hylton and Tim Werenko and “Sing Me a Happy Song” with Jamie Pachino.

“As long as there is music in my life,” Georgia is one happy camper and she “likes how varied my days are.” For the last two years, she has been writing with Cheri Steinkellner, this time around on a “new-fashioned musical,” using the Great American Songbook. The show “Hello! My Baby” features Tin-Pan Alley era songs and revolves around a bunch of kids in the early days of sheet-music publishing.

The idea for the show came about when the Emmy Award winning Steinkellner was working in a high school directing students and discovered the kids were amazed by the old standards they were singing in “Anything Goes.” Their questions, “why don’t we know these songs?,” led her to want to develop “old songs in young voices,” to uncover the old classics and make them fresh again.

Any songs written before January 1, 1923 are part of the public domain and no royalties need to be paid There were a treasure trove of tunes that fit the category and Steinkellner wondered, “what if I can create an original story about the song industry and make the songs fresh to us?” At the time, she was working on “Sister Act” with Alan Mencken and he suggested a meeting with Georgia Stitt. The “marriage” was arranged and happily “Hello! My Baby” is the resulting bouncing musical product.

“Hello! My Baby” will be given a full workshop at the Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, called the “Little Goodspeed,” from Wednesday, November 2 to Sunday, November 27. For tickets ($ ), call 860-873-8668 or go online to www.goodspeed.org. Performances are Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., with select shows at 2 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., with select shows at 6:30 p.m.

The Norma Terris experience is a “wonderful round-the-clock four week process, writing music all day and typing notes all night.” It involves problem solving, the “what if stage of development,” made more exciting by the addition of Kelly Barclay’s dance routines. After many workshops, readings and arrangements for piano and voice, it’s now time to make sure the script is as good as it can be, to get the show up on stage and, once it’s up, to edit the process and have it polished for the audience…to “freeze the show” and know it is finally finished.

As an added bonus, “Hello! My Baby” was part of the Goodspeed’s New Festival of Musicals last January and was a clear crowd pleaser. With its run at the Norma Terris, the pair have had four weeks to make it even better. This is “our time here to see it really dance, with eighteen actors, new orchestrations and all instruments, not just piano…and eventually we have to stop tinkering.”

Georgia Stitt hopes the Norma Terris audiences will recognize the songs like “You Made Me Love You” and sing along as well as appreciate the new verses she composed to add to the truthful story they are telling. She wants the audience to root for the young songwriting cast.

Stitt, meanwhile, is busy with a capital B. With Susan Egan, the original Belle from “Beauty and the Beast,” she is writing a blog called “Glamour and Goop,” about the glamorous world of Hollywood juxtaposed with the daily chores of laundry and motherhood. Both women have two daughters under the age of six.

Georgia’s husband Jason Robert Brown is also a composer and lyricist but they don’t collaborate. She “trusts his musical taste and he is often the first person to hear my music when it is ready to share.” They do conduct orchestras for each other and write orchestrations for each other, but “it’s too tense to work together. I’d rather have him love me than think me right. Keeping separate careers preserve our relationship.”

With daughters two and six, Georgia already sees musical potential but, as parents, she and Jason will be supportive but not pushy. When their younger daughter turned two, her older sibling played ”Happy Birthday” to her on the piano. They will be exposed to music but if they choose a basketball hoop, that’s fine too. For Halloween, since the girls are in Chester with her, the costumes were Winnie the Pooh for the two year old and a go-go booted 60’s girl for the older. For right now, the “vagabond life” and its adventures are working well for the family.

Start reading “Glamour and Goop” online to see how the creative Georgia Stitt keeps her family life and career in happy and harmonious balance.

“TWELFTH NIGHT” A ROMP IN THE BARD’S BACKYARD

2011-10-25T07:00:00.001-07:00

Merry spirits are being imbibed if Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek are any indication, to create a feeling of holiday joviality and frivolity. Such is the mood engendered by the current production being offered on a silver platter by Westport Country Playhouse until Saturday, November 5, of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night, or What You Will.”

Double trouble, toil and muddle, there has been a storm at sea and twins Viola and Sebastian are shipwrecked on the land of Illyria, each believing the other has died. To protect herself, Viola (Mahira Kakkac) takes on the disguise of a male servant Cesario and is soon in the service of Duke Orsino (Lucas Hall).

The Duke instructs his new page to be his messenger: conveying words of love to the fair Olivia (Susan Kelechi Watson). Olivia, barely recovering from the deaths of her father and brother, wants nothing to do with suitors, who number the Duke and Sir Andrew.

In keeping with the festivities of the Twelfth Night holiday, when everything is turned upside down and inside out, Sir Toby (David Schramm) and Sir Andrew (Jordan Coughtry), both well inebriated, conspire with Olivia’s maid Maria (Donnetta Lavina Grays) to present a third suitor to the fray, Olivia’s dour servant Malvolio (David Adkins).

Finding a love letter he believes sent to him by his mistress, Malvolio alters his appearance, forsaking black for yellow cross-gartering and pasting on a huge smile like a jack-o-lantern. Olivia thinks him mad and commits him to prison to the co-conspirator’s delight.

The merriment continues when Olivia believes herself to be in love with Cesario, while Cesario finds herself well smitten by the Duke. Even Sir Toby succumbs to the wiles of the clever Maria. Meanwhile Olivia’s fool Feste (Darius De Haas) presides over the party with mirth and song.

By the time Sebastian (Rachid Sabitri) wanders on to the stage with his rescuer Antonio (Paul Anthony Stewart), the confusion has reached fever pitch and is ready for the Bard’s

smooth resolution. Mark Lamos direct this balance of mayhem and melancholy with an even hand, aided by Andrew Boyce’s seashore and chandelier set and Tilly Grimes’ whimsical costuming.

For tickets ($40-60), call Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off route 1, Westport (exit 42, off Merritt) at 203-227-4177 or 888-927-7529 or online at www.westportplayhouse.org. Performances are Tuesday-Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Wednesday at 2 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m. (no performance on Wednesday, November 2).

Watch how a tragedy at sea, misplaced affections, seemingly lost love letters, vaudeville routines, mismatched duels, too much drink and a sense of frivolity can provide so much entertainment once the perplexity is dispelled, or maybe because of its presence.

“JERSEY BOYS” BRINGING THEIR SENSATIONAL SHOW TO THE BUSHNELL

2011-10-24T11:16:00.001-07:00

Rocky Road can refer to an ice cream flavor with a base of chocolate or vanilla, studded with nuts and marshmallows, or it can allude to a difficult time getting from here to there. For four young kids from the Garden State who flirt with crime before devoting their time to being crooners, both definitions apply. They definitely knew how to capture a sweet sound, a harmonious taste, and their career clearly was a bumpy journey.

Until Sunday, November 6, the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts will be offering the golden tones of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in the blockbuster tribute Broadway hit show “Jersey Boys,” with book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe.

Through trial and error in experimentation as to who fit the membership best, as well as criminal trials for misdemeanors, this quartet of singers struggled to make a name for themselves, to even find a name they liked for their group. Once Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi recruited Frankie Valli and later Bob Gaudio, the troupe was set to explode on the Billboard charts. Soon Gaudio was churning out hits and songs like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Oh, What a Night,” “My Eyes Adore You,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and “Working My Way Back To You” were giving them entrée into the big time.

Success is not without its price and “Jersey Boys” tells its tale straight up, warts and all. All the time on the road plays havoc with the families left behind and on the guys the fans adore as well as the struggles for power take their toll. Tommy DeVito’s gambling addiction almost destroys the group until Frankie Valli steps forward and honorably takes on the burden of his debt to the mob.

The guys are great in their roles, making their story real, their struggles believable, their success sweet and undeniable. Come hear Bob Gaudio (Preston Truman Boyd), Frankie Valli (Joseph Leo Bwarie and on alternate dates John Michael Dias and Courter Simmons), Tommy DeVito (John Gardiner) and Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) bring this quartet of blue collar boys to life strikingly and harmoniously. Des McAnuff directs this great musical stuffed with memorable tunes that will have you wanting to dance up the theater aisles.

For tickets ($25 and up), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.

Let four guys from Jersey adore you with their eyes and their voices as they work their way into your heart.

"THE MOTHERF------R WITH THE HAT” TIPS ITS BRIM IN HARTFORD

2011-10-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

No white picket fences, no refrigerators with crushed ice makers in the door and no happily –ever-afters for playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis’ characters. He doesn’t create wimps or princes. Rather his heroes are macho and right out there in your face. His title says it all: “The Motherf-----r With the Hat.”

A hit last season on Broadway, TheaterWorks of Hartford is launching this edgy, outspoken comedy through Sunday, December 4^th for its American Regional Theater premiere and they dare you to utter your own four letter words.

The play is all about relationships, but it is not advised to use it for your personal partnerships, unless you want them to explode. Jackie (Ben Cole) is newly released from prison, has joyously renewed his long standing hitch-up with Veronica (Clea Alsip), a gal he’s known and loved since eighth grade.

Now Jackie is at her doorstep, at the pad they share, with flowers, a teddy bear and sweet gifts and the huge news that he has landed a job. Employment will enable the couple to move up the ladder of affection at least three rungs. All is lovey-dovey until Jackie spies a hat, a man’s hat, not his own hat, on the dresser.

The grey fedora sets off a series of events that involve Jackie’s AA

sponsor Ralph (Royce Johnson), a buff, smooth talking, I’m in your corner African-American who claims to have all the answers to Jackie’s problems, even if it turns out Ralph is causing the vast majority of them himself. Ralph’s wife, the realistic, eyes open, don’t b.s. me Victoria (Vanessa Wasche) knows the man she married and acknowledges all she lost in the process.

Completing Jackie’s circle of influence is Cousin Julio (Varin Ayala) who genuinely cares for him and has his back, even if it means crossing the morality line. Tazewell Thompson directs this well-acted verbal and physical comic confrontation with dramatic results. Sensitive ears may need earmuffs.

For tickets ($50-63), call TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl Street, Hartford at 860-527-7838 or online at www.theaterworkshartford.org. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Come early to the upstairs lobby to view the art of Chet Kempczynski and Mark Zunino.

Watch how easily addictions to everything from drinking and

drugs to sex and fruit smoothies present choices that dictate life’s directions and detours.

“OVER THE TAVERN” IS AN INTIMATE FUN FAMILY VISIT

2011-10-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Whoever said “my family put the fun in dysfunctional,” it might well have been a precocious twelve year old lad named Rudy Pazinski of his growing up adventures in Buffalo, New York in the 1950’s Eisenhower era. Tom Dudzick’s delightfully perceptive comedy about family life, growing up Roman Catholic, is “Over the Tavern” and it will be entertaining people of all ages until Sunday, October 30 at Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury.

Carey Cannata’s Rudy is a little too smart for his own good, especially if you’re taking a poll among his earnest Catechism teacher, Sister Clarissa (Noel Desiasto) who says Rudy could well be the death of her and she may be right, or his siblings. Older brother Eddie (Ben Scanlon) is trying to distance himself from the household, now that he’s in high school and he looks on Rudy as pesky. His sister Annie (Mandy Thompson) is a teenager waking up sexually and she is confused by what she is feeling and doing The youngest sibling Georgie (Tony Harkin) is mentally challenged and Rudy is supposed to guard him and keep him from harm, in word and deeds.

His parents Ellen and Chet (Sarah Knapp and Michael Sacco) have their hands full, not only with remembering to put spaghetti and meatballs on the dinner table but with helping grandpa stop drinking and keeping the tavern profitable. If it isn’t worrying about Rudy never taking his confirmation or Annie teasing her hair into a beehive where spiders can nest, it’s monitoring the uncensored words coming out of Georgie’s mouth and needing a GPS monitoring system to keep tabs on Eddie’s whereabouts.

Rudy, who is adorable in the hands of Carey Cannata, tries to get his dad to take him to play miniature golf and get God to be more like Ed Sullivan where life is a “really big show.” Inbetween all the angst, there are sweet moments when mom and dad do an impromptu polka and Eddie beats up his friend who is spreading rumors about Annie. Whether you believe sinners should be astonished or admonished, “Over the Tavern, as directed by Semina De Laurentis has much to offer on the innerworkings of a family who learn in a thousand simple ways how to have fun and bond together.

For tickets ($29-39.50), call Seven Angels Theatre, Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.sevenanglestheatre.org. Performances are Thursday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Let Rudy, as his favorite man Ed Sullivan, guide you into his world, where he questions authority all the way to the big man in charge as he seeks a little bit and a large bite of heaven on earth.

LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: A MAN CLEARLY HEADING FOR THE HEIGHTS

2011-10-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

As a young thirty-something, Lin-Manuel Miranda has a lot of accomplishments and job entries that add up to an impressive resume. You could say his standing is “in the heights.”

As a Puerto Rican- American composer, rapper, lyricist and actor, Miranda wrote and starred in “In the Heights,” a joyous musical celebrating life in the Washington Heights section of New York City that embraces community and diversity. It has been accurately described as “Our Town” with a heaping side order of spicy salsa. He wants audiences to “walk away dancing…after being transported into a state of mind. The work is a welcome to the neighborhood, with a feeling like ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘West Side Story.’ Here you spend three days with these people getting to know them.”

Miranda wrote the earliest draft of the musical in 1999 while a sophomore at Wesleyan University in Middletown. He had already co-founded a hip-hop comedy troupe on campus, Freestyle Love Supreme. His eighty- minute show was accepted at the student theater company, the Second Stage, “when I only had a working title and two songs written.” Suddenly he had to produce a finished piece. Being advised to write about what he knew, he fashioned a piece about growing up Latino, where he spoke English in school and Spanish at home, where he spent summers at a slushy machine helping his aunt, where there were bodegas on every corner.

At Wesleyan, even though there was only one Spanish-American grocery story in the neighborhood, he felt he had permission to write about his culture. Finding a Latino cast was difficult to organize on campus so he cast a “wide net” and the happy effect was that “everyone had a friend in the show.” Not only was it a huge success, two seniors Thomas Kail and John Buffalo Mailer, son of author Norman Mailer, approached him about expanding the play for Broadway and were instrumental in making it happen.

By 2002, Miranda had written five drafts while working as an English teacher. The show went first to off-Broadway and by 2005 to Broadway. With “serendipity, hard work and luck,” Miranda’s goal was to make the “best show possible.” Usnavi, who was originally a funny side character, became the narrator and when they had trouble casting him, a Latino who could do rap and learn lots of text, Miranda, who was an actor, took the part. He performed it for years, as if it were “a snowball falling down the hill.” Reprising the role as Usnavi again from Christmas 2010 to January 9, 2011 when the play closed, he called it a “great perfect memory” and he has no plans of doing it again…unless there is a movie version.

“In the Heights” was the first Equity tour to ever go to Puerto Rico where it received a “tremendous response.” When Lin-Manuel Miranda was on stage accepting one of several Tonys for his musical he waved a Puerto-Rican flag.

Now the national tour is on its way to Waterbury, to the Palace Theater, 100 East Main Street, for three performances the weekend of November 4 and 5. For tickets ($48-68), call the Palace at 203-346-2000 or go online at www.palacetheaterct.org. Performances are Friday, November 4 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, November 5 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Miranda has dabbled in many other pots, like appearing on “The Sopranos,” helping on “The Electric Company” and “Sesame Street,” producing a hip-hop show on Alexander Hamilton, working on “High School Musical 2,” writing a column and being a restaurant reviewer for the Manhattan Times, composing music for commercials, being invited by Stephen Schwartz to write two songs for the musical “Working” and by Stephen Sondheim to write the new Spanish language dialogue for the revival of “West Side Story.”

In between he also found the time to produce the film “Clayton’s Friends,” to perform at the White House for an Evening of Poetry, Music and Spoken Word, to be the guest of honor this past weekend at Harlem’s Morris-Jamal Mansion, receive an honorary degree from Yeshiva University that resides in Washington Heights and be one of three finalists for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

At the moment, he is flying to Los Angeles to continue working on a new musical “Bring It On” that will open in November. With a cast that is young and amazing, that he “is in awe of,” it’s a story of a girl who is captain of a cheerleading squad and is redistricted to another school. The plot is slightly different from the movie but features “extraordinary dancing.”

If you haven’t realized it by now, Miranda doesn’t do anything half way. When he married Vanessa Nadal, he presented her with a musical version of the song “To Life, L’Chaim” from “Fiddler on the Roof,” a version he had worked on with his father-in-law and the whole wedding party for a month in secret. Google “To Life Vanessa’s Wedding Surprise” to see this “awesome” video that earned him “major husband points” and overwhelmed his new bride.

Miranda’s philosophy is “follow your gut and you’ll be okay. Keep moving.” As for “In the Heights,” it’s been an “incredible journey to which I owe Wesleyan a debt of gratitude. The school said yes and encouraged my ambitions and made them possible.” Miranda is looking forward to his tenth year reunion coming soon. Hopefully the serendipity, hard work and luck will continue with lots of spicy salsa for decades in the future.

THE KINGSTON TRIO: PERFORMING LIVE IN BRIDGEPORT THIS WEEKEND

2011-10-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

The colorful shirts, Hawaiian style, may have mellowed. There might be a little less hair on top. The members might be different but the musical history marches on. With three Grammys, entrance in the Grammy Hall of Fame and a 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award, at one point they had four albums on the Billboard Top 10, a record no group. not even the Beatles, has ever matched.

Proudly influencing such entities as the Ramones, the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, this musical institution prepared the world of folk music for the arrival of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary. As a cultural phenomenon, The Kingston Trio set off a rock and roll revolution.

You can get on this groovy bandwagon to hear the legendary Kingston Trio for three performances only Saturday, October 15 at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, October 16 at 5 p.m. at the Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport.

The trio began as college crooners, in the mid-1950’s who thought of themselves as calypso singers rather than a folk music group. They played at fraternity houses, coffee shops and nightclubs in the San Francisco Bay area, planning to stay together for only a year. Their plans changed when a little ditty named “Tom Dooley” took off like a meteor and the rest is folk music history to the tune of 6 million in sales.

The original group of Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds and David Guard have been replaced over the five decades but the integrity of the group’s original magical sound of harmony has remained the same. Today’s Kingston Trio consists of George Grove, Rick Dougherty and Bill Zorn, with acoustic guitars, banjos and bass, and their customary humorous banter that accompanies their tunes.

This weekend you are sure to hear a healthy sampling of the group’s hit parade such as “A Worried Man,” “M.T.A.,” ”Scotch and Soda,” “They Call the Wind Maria,” “Everglades,” “Greenback Dollar,” “Road to Freedom,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” “Seasons in the Sun” and, of course, “Tom Dooley.”

George Grove, who has logged thirty-five years with the group arranges and scores orchestral music, produces albums for other artists and does session work as a vocalist and musician. Reached in California where he is currently touring, Grove reflected on his history stating, “It is still exciting to pump out the music with integrity and joy. A career in arts and athletics can last two or three years and our group has been going strong since 1957.”

As to performing 22-30 weeks a year, which he joked can seem like “420 weeks a year,” he calls it “dynamic and ever changing. Our moods individually and collectively change day to day, depending on our hormone levels and the response of the audience. People continue to love folk music. We are a canvas on which we paint our musical picture, continually changing the colors.”

As for their humor on stage, a lot of the show is planned. They “inject it, starting it as a conversation on stage, a stream of consciousness. When it works and has merit, we leave it in.” They strive to be topical and current but not political, to “twist the knife” a little.

All ages seem to enjoy The Kingston Trio sound, and “99.9% come to be entertained, to forget the front page news and just share the music.” George reflected that the “graying of our audience matches how we are aging on stage,” Overwhelmingly their fans have kids and grandkids who “are going to record bins and rediscovering the vinyl. Lots of new fans with a wide range of ages are being made this way.”

The Kingston Trio are “no flash in the pan,” with their lasting contribution, according to Grove being, “encouragement of other people to become musicians…originally they may have wanted to pick up a guitar to impress the girl down the street and it led to something bigger. With Bob Dylan, it was opening a door for him and allowing his talent to bubble to the top and let him succeed.”

If George Grove ever writes a book about his thirty-five years with the group. he might tell about the time back in 1983 or 84 when the governor of North Carolina James Hunt Jr. came backstage, with his two huge state troopers as body guards and informed Bob Shane, the original group’s leader, that there were three things he always wanted to do: be governor which he was, conduct a symphony playing Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” which he was going to do that night and sing a song on stage with The Kingston Trio. Shane, sitting and smoking, didn’t blink and replied, “Two out of three ain’t bad.”

He might devote another chapter to the time the then Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney invited the group to Boston to introduce a new way to pay for the trolley. The metal token size nickels were being phased out in favor of a credit card that could be swiped. A city-wide contest had resulted in the new card being called a Charlie Card in honor of the famous Kingston song “M.T.A.” where Charlie never returns. The governor sang with them on stage, something the governor of North Carolina would envy, and “not only was he tall and good looking, he had a good voice.”

The other members of the current group are also known for their singing prowess: Bill Zorn has “a terrific voice and is a great entertainer, and has family in Connecticut while Rick Dougherty is a beautiful tenor.” Paul Gabrielson is wonderful on bass.

For tickets ($29.50-49.50), call the Downtown Cabaret Theatre of Bridgeport at 203-576-1636 or online at

www.downtowncabaret.org. Performances are this Saturday at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. Remember to bring a picnic meal to share at your table.

George Grove, who could easily change his name to “Groove” or “Groovy,” started playing piano by ear at age four and by seven he knew he was going to be a professional musician. Even when he was in the army, he played in the band. He feels blessed to be making music with the iconic Kingston Trio, a group he calls “the Ever Ready Bunny,” always memorable, crisp and eager to entertain, a cultural extravaganza that sounded an alarm clock for folk music’s wake-up and revival.

SINTHEA STARR WOWS CROWD AT LYRIC HALL

2011-10-01T11:30:00.001-07:00

Sinthea Starr could be Dame Edna’s kissing cousin, minus the Australian accent of course. She comes in a large package of engaging charm and she confides Hollywood gossip and inside information like she is chatting with you, her best friend. Ms. Starr, a self-proclaimed legend, appeared recently on an intimate stage, the Lyric Hall in the center of New Haven’s Westville section, in a space that has been lovingly restored by John Cavaliere. Lyric Hall was long ago an entertainment space in vaudeville and silent film days and it is now spotlighting talent once again as well as showcasing antiques.

With a show dedicated to her old friend, the late Academy Award winning actress Patricia Neal, Ms. Starr was awash in turquoise silk and adorned with feather boas. A collection of salty and sexy songs pepper her performance, along with funny anecdotes about her life on and off the stage, saluting her decades as a star. In a show written, directed and created by Joel Vig, with musical direction by Chris Muller on the piano, Sinthea Starr serenades seductively as she surrenders her heart and soul to her audience. Watch for notices announcing her next one- woman show “An Evening with Sinthea Starr” at a theater or nightclub near you.