"BLACK TIE" A FORMAL INVITATION TO LAUGH

With one foot in New York and the other in Connecticut, playwright A.R. Gurney, affectionately known as Pete, is a prolific writer of plays, dozens in fact, that center on a group of privileged people he knows well:  White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or WASPS.  The morals and manners of WASPS has occupied him for decades, and he usually explores their behavior, peculiarities and customs, with a background of liquid libations or cocktails readily to hand.

Square One Theatre in Stratford is cordially and formally inviting you to weekend performances, until Saturday June 1, of one of Gurney's latest offerings, the quietly comic and charming "Black Tie."

Curtis and Mim are preparing to host the rehearsal dinner tonight and the wedding tomorrow of their son Teddy.  The site is not exactly their choice, but the prospective bride and groom's, a remote and slightly shabby hotel in the Adirondack Mountains, where they first met.  How to maintain the appropriate level of decorum that Curtis feels the occasion warrants is quickly in question.

Curtis, a dapper and conservative David Victor, is a victim of his father's upbringing.  He knows "proper" when it knocks on his door.  He has chosen to honor his father's memory by wearing the older gentleman's prized evening attire, a tuxedo that  has seen many a formal gathering.

Mim, a supportive wife in the soothing hands of Janet Rathert, will dress accordingly, even though she questions how casual all the other guests may be.  Will it set the wrong tone to look too stylish?

While Curtis is busy "dressing to the nines," with everything from pearl studs to suspenders to cummerbund, the ghost of his father, a debonair and  arbiter of propriety John Bachelder, appears to Curtis to check on the proceedings.  He deems the hotel tacky but does approve of Curtis' attire, a "dinner jacket," rather than a tuxedo, if you please.

As grandfather of the groom, he feels he needs to assure that Curtis' toast at the dinner is up to snuff and freely offers his advice, point by point.  When he learns that Teddy is swimming in the hotel pool, without clothes and with both sexes, and that his bride, Maya, is not only not of their class and status, not a  WASP, but culturally diverse, part African-American, Vietnamese and Peruvian, he manages to keep his cool.

Periodically their daughter Elsie, a pert and practical Alisson Wood, arrives to deliver up-to-the-minute details on the current crisis and finally Teddy , an assertive but confused Jim Buffone, bursts in to drop his own bombshell.

The delightful interplay between the generations makes for an enjoyable ninety minutes of conversation and confrontation.  Artistic director Tom Holehan is a master at keeping the pace smooth, despite all the ripples of contention that threaten Curtis ever giving his congratulatory toast.

For tickets ($20, seniors $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. and Sunday at 2 p.m.,with a special twilight matinee at  4 p.m. on Saturday, June 1.

On Saturday, June 8 at 4 p.m., Square One Theatre will present a true silent movie from 1927, "Wings," starring Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Gary Cooper at the theatre as a fundraiser for the William A. Barry Scholarship Fund.  A live piano will accompany the action. Tickets are $20, or $15 for Square One subscribers.  Make checks payable to Friends of Square One and mail to Hinda Wolf, 397A Ottawa Lane, Stratford, CT 06614 or call 203-385-3855.

Will Curtis be mistaken for a waiter if he wears his"dinner jacket" as Elise cautions him or will Teddy and Maya even reach the altar?  Let A. R.Gurney play flower girl and surprise you with the bouquet.

"IN A YEAR WITH 13 MOONS" A STRANGE ODYSSEY

If being born under a black cloud or a tall ladder are indications of bad luck, what is the significance of being brought into this world in a year of thirteen moons?  For Erwin, a product of an upbringing in an orphanage, the consequences are tragic.

To enter Erwin's bizarre world of troubles and despairs, cautiously proceed to the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven to become immerced in the world premiere adaptation of "In a Year with 13 Moons," based on a German movie and screenplay by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, adapted for the stage by Bill Camp, who stars in it, and Robert Woodruff, who directs it.  It will run until Saturday, May 18.

When the object of his affection casually comments to Erwin, "too bad you're not a girl," it sets him on an odyssey with profound consequences.  A trip to Casablanca results in Erwin becoming Elvira in a blind effort to love and be loved.

Bill Camp's confusing journey as Erwin/Elvira includes killing animals in a slaughterhouse, being brutally attacked for his/her sexuality, almost choking to death, fathering a child, watching a stranger commit suicide and confronting the man, one Anton Saitz (Christopher Innvar) who started him on his futile quest and much, much more.

The play spirals out of control as Elvira experiences the last five days of her life, revisiting that major guideposts that led her to her current state of loneliness, despair and agony. 

For tickets ($20-96), call the Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven at  203-432-1234 or online at www.yalerep.org.

This densely layered drama that gives new meaning to avant-garde theatre is suited for the brave of heart willing to challenge the unknown.

"THE DINING ROOM" WELCOMES YOUR VISIT

    A birthday party in the dining room.


A whole lot of living can take place in the dining room, especially if it is decorated by the imagination of playwright A. R. Gurney.  From good conversation to gourmet meals to congenial company, the dining room can be the gathering place for families to unite and celebrate life.

Pull up a chair and adjust your napkin and silverware, fill your water glass and gaze with affection at the fellow guests seated in Gurney's "The Dining Room" at Westport County Playhouse.  Reservations will be accepted until Saturday, May 18.

Michael Yeargan's robin's egg blue set invites three decades of diverse family members to enter and leave this sacred family assembling point.  Gurney focuses on a succession of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, WASPS, who breakfast and dine, squabble and savor, reveal secrets and protest indiscretions, enjoy poached eggs and welcome the cocktail hour, plan funerals and reveal divorce proceedings, hold birthday parties and toast business successes, strategise game plans and draw up architectural blueprints, all in the name of civility, conviviality and gentility.

Six talented actors, three male and three female, Chris Henry Coffey, Jake Robards, Charles Socarides, Heidi Armbruster, Keira Naughton and Jennifer Van Dyck, play everyone from silly teenagers to crusty old grandfathers, overworked and under-appreciated maids to adulterous matrons, eager to please architects to unenthusiastic and awkward dance partners, apology-seeking defenders of justice to a photographer desiring to be a recorder of a dying breed.  These vignettes comprise a kaleidoscope of a changing horizon of life, all witnessed by one room, the dining room.  Mark Lamos directs this evolving picture of society and the changes in mores, morality and manners it reveals.
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For tickets ($30 and up), call the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off route 1, Westport at 203-227-4177 or 1-888-927-7529 or online at www.westportplayhouse.org.  Performances are Tuesday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

The snowy white linen tablecloth is laid, the tall tapers are lit, the chilled cocktails are poured, and all that is missing is you.

"THE FABULOUS LIPITONES" EMBRACE THE ART OF BARBERSHOP QUARTET

Cast and Writers of "The Fabulous Lipitones"   Photos by Diane Sobolewski

The history of barbershop quartets dates back to a time when African-American males waiting for a shave and a haircut would spontaneoulsy burst into song, spirituals, folk and popular tunes, as they waited for their turn in the barber's chair.  Sung a cappella, without musical accompaniment, the barbershop quartet can be fondly remembered in the movie and musical "The Music Man," as four men harmonized, the lead singing melody, harmonizing with the tenor, the bass singing the lowest notes and the baritone completing the chord.

Donning straw hats and vertical striped vests, the barbershop quartet reached its peak of popularity at the turn of the twentieth century.  In 1938 a tax attorney Owen C. Cash teamed up with an investment banker Rupert L. Hall, both from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to make sure this American art form didn't disappear.  Their efforts produced the S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A., the Society for Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America.

Today, seventy-five years later, two new gentlemen are taking up the banner that Misters Cash and Hall waved so enthusiastically.  Playwrights John Markus and Mark St. Germain are busy giving the barbershop quartet phenomenon an exciting infusion of attention and encouragement.  Last week they launched their new musical "The Fabulous Lipitones" that features a traditional barbershop quartet with a not so customary twist.

Markus and St. Germain met for the first time in the mid-1980's when they both worked on "The Cosby Show," where Markus was head writer, a position he held for 67 episodes over six years.  In time they collaborated again, on projects like "Sons of Liberty," about a fraternal lodge in the mid-west, that is being revisited today after a lengthy hiatus. The pair stayed in touch and when St. Germain had "a vision" ten years ago for a storyline involving a barbershop quartet that he couldn't get off the ground, he brought it to Markus who found the right "note" to get it percolating.

"The Fabulous Lipitones" opens when the 50-something guys have just achieved a great triumph, winning the regional competitions (yes, Virginia, there are contests for best quartets) and simultaneously suffering their greatest loss.  After 32 years of harmonizing together, one of their members, Andy, has died, literally and figuratively after warbling his last note.

While mourning his loss, they are also panicking about filling his empty slot so they can compete in the Nationals less than two weeks away.  Wally (Wally Dunn) is championing the competition, Phil (Danny Rutigliano) is all for disbanding the group and Howard (D. C. Anderson), the deciding vote,  is easily persuaded to agree both ways.

When the men chance to hear about a singing mechanic, they schedule him for an audition, only to discover he is visibly different culturally.  How Baba (Bob) Matidas (Rohan Kymal) inserts himself into their lives is at the heart of this musical.  Markus and St. Germain want the audience to appreciate how differences, in this case, "the other," can make us think outside the box.  Bob as a member of the Sikh culture, can open our minds and illuminate something in the world we didn't understand or know existed.

Set in London, Ohio, a town with two traffic lights, that Markus originally called home, he also used men in his new address, the New York taxi drivers, 90% of whom are Sikhs, as the foundation for the storyline to prove our beliefs and prejudices about people who wear a turban.  Markus also noted they are generous, compassionate and elegant in their jobs.

When the play was first workshopped in Atlanta, where Goodspeed personnel Donna Lynn Cooper Hilton and Bob Alwine first saw it, members of the three major Sikh temples provided accurate and encouraging feedback for the work and thanked the writers for explaining who they are to an unknowing world. 

"The Fabulous Lipitones" will debut at Goodspeed's Norma Terris Theatre, 33 North Main Street in Chester, playing until Sunday, June 2.  For tickets ($44), call 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., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

The men call the Goodspeed experience "terrific," with wonderful actors and a great reputation, allowing them to keep working on the piece and make changes, without having to worry about critic's reviews. The show is directed by Gordon Greenberg, choreographed by Connor Gallagher, with vocal and musical direction by Dan Pardo, on a set designed by Brian Prather.

While the number one and two barbershop quartets in the world are from Sweden and New Zealand, the Lipitones are fabulous in their own right and John Markus and Mark St. Germain are voting for them to be your personal favorites.  Come early and hear a local barbershop quartet crooning in the Norma Terris lobby before the show.  Songs like "Hello, My Baby," "Shine On, Harvest Moon," "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Sweet Adeline" have never sounded so good.

"POTTED POTTER:" PERFECT FOR ALL OF HARRY'S FRIENDS

Muggles beware! Hogwarts rebel! Wizards rejoice!  If you've long called Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger friends, then you are the perfect candidates to make up the audience when "Potted Potter-The Unauthorized Harry Experience-A Parody by Dan and Jeff" comes to town.

The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford is inviting you to take your cloak of invisibility and your magic wand the weekends of May 17-19 and May 24-26 to enjoy all things Harry Potter.

Hop aboard your Nimbus 2000 and polish your Golden Snitch and prepare for the ride of your life as a two man parody team, Gary Trainor of Ireland and Delme Thomas of Wales travel across the pond to bring you seventy minutes of non-stop fun and joy.

Trainor is the plucky lad Harry who discovers at age 11 that he has magical powers and has been stuck living in a world peopled by non-magical folks called Muggles.  Thomas plays everyone else in Harry's world, from pals to principals at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to that dastardly enemy, Lord Voldemart, whose goal is to conquer the world and who is also responsible for making Harry an orphan.

With affection, wit and tongue firmly in cheek, the pair use hats, wigs, puppets and props to condense 4000 pages of fantasy by J. K.Rowling into a show that is "75% scripted and 25% improv" according to Gary Trainor who has been playing the dedicated hero for a year and a half.  While he's read the books several times, he had never seen the original show starring the writers Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner before auditioning himself.  Clarkson and Turner are busy preparing the show, which has been a hit from London's West End to Australia and New Zealand, Hong Kong to the Phillipines, to open May 30 to September 1 off -Broadway at the Little Shubert Theatre.  You can see it here first!

The concept began as a five minute skit six years ago, with the aim to complete 5 books in 5 minutes, to entertain the long lines of crowds waiting to see one of the now 8 Harry Potter movies.  The sketch was so well received, it has been expanded to the version coming to the Bushnell.  To Trainor,"it's 70 minutes of hilarity where the audience is invited to be the third character and we break down the fourth wall." A smashing game of Quidditch is also on the agenda.

The show appeals to a wide range of ages, and because of the accessible books and movies, there is something for everyone  There's even a rumor that J. K. Rowling tried to buy a ticket to the show in Edinburgh, Scotland, a 60-seat venue, and was turned away because it was sold out and she wasn't recognized in time.

For tickets ($49.75 and up), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org.  Performances are Friday at 7, Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Be prepared to hang on to Harry's coattails as this talented Celtic tour-de-force flies into town.

"HEAR WHAT'S IN THE HEART" FULL OF VALUABLE LIFE LESSONS

Steven Scionti is one sentimental guy, otherwise he wouldn't have devoted so many years of his five decades on this planet paying tribute to his grandfather, Angelo Morello. If you have a long time association with Middletown, Connecticut, you may remember Angelo's Shoe Repair on Main Street, a place where Steve spent many long happy hours learning about life.

Using family vignettes and tales from the mouths of his vocal family members, his father Sebastiano, his mother Rosetta, his brother Antonio, his uncles Amadeo and Manny, the local pizza maker Jerry, his favorite teacher at Xavier High School Brother Connelly and, of course, his grandfather Angelo, Steve takes his audiences on a journey from his childhood to adulthood.  All along the way, it was Angelo who inspired him, encouraged him, made him his first pair of dancing shoes and paid for his first lessons in tap.

Angelo Morello came to Middletown in 1955 at the age of forty, from Sicily, where he had to abandon his dream of being a musical conductor and help support his family and start earning a trade from early on.  Steve would spend Saturday afternoons with him, dreaming of becoming Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire, and Angelo wanted to guarantee that aspiration became a reality.  His philosophy was simple:  "You take the good;  no matter how bad, everybody has a good.  Let's go eat." You may find yourself with a consuming desire for Italian food by play's end.

A simple man who loved to sing opera, by Rossini and Verdi, he was "incredibly proud" of his grandson.  When Steve was ribbed for choosing dancing over the baseball and basketball he was so good at playing, Angelo stood by his decision and supported it.  His greatest joy was seeing Steve perform twice in college, at the Boston Conservatory Music, Dance and Theater, occasions that called for celebrations with homemade sausage and wine.

This loving tribute to his ancestor, "Hear What's in the Heart- A Shoemaker's Tale" will be playing at Middletown's Oddfellows Playhouse, Thursdays starting tonight to June 20 at 7:30 p.m. For tickets ($20), call the Oddfellows Playhouse, 128 Washington Avenue at 860-347-6143 or online at info@oddfellows.org.  Matt Pugliese, Executive Director of the Oddfellows has been wonderfully supportive, "a blessing," as have the Chamber of Commerce, merchants on Main Street, and political leaders, in bringing this hometown boy home to tell his story.  A special fundraiser to benefit Steve's alma mater Xavier High School is planned for Thursday, May 23.

Steve has been surrounded by "musicality" his whole life.  In addition to a grandfather who would conduct Verdi in front of his shoe making machines, his father was a bass player with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, his mother had dreams of becoming a ballerina and his brother Tony played the piano.  They have all been there for him "every step of the way."

This homage opens at his grandfather's wake and was a story that almost didn't get told. The original version written by Steve and James Shanta had literally been abandoned until Steve's old acting friend, the "incredibly talented, honored and dear friend," according to Steve, Antony Crivello, came on the scene.  Now the show's director, Anthony infused new life into the project.  He had been involved early on while it was in the classroom stage of development, knew it was "really great," and offered suggestions and directions over the course of a decade.  A random phone call to Steve when he was in South Carolina ready to give up on his dream of performing, launched him to resurrect it and move it forward - to off-Broadway and the New York Fringe Festival.

Since then, the two have "taken the script, torn it apart and put it back together, with a new beginning, middle and end."  Now it begins with a dance in his grandfather's shoe shop, his tale is told through his family and friends, and the piece goes full circle, finishing with a dance at the end.  The magic of lighting and sound help build the world Steve, as actor and as our tour guide, takes us along on his journey .

A production at the Highlands Playhouse in North Carolina and a workshop in Las Vegas helped to create this new reincarnation, one where the language has been sanitized to be family-friendly and enjoy broader horizons.  A visit to The Kate in Old Saybrook and at Wesleyan University have also helped to refocus the piece.  With its new summer home at the Oddfellows Playhouse, it also allows the Playhouse to expand its vistas as a home for children's productions and venture into adult and family performances.

Audiences from 9-90 are invited to come to Middletown where the show was "born," to witness the incredible voyage of a native son, Steven Scionti, to learn about connections,  love of family and pride in who you are, so at the end of the journey you'll hear a choir of angels singing "Ave Maria" as they escort you to heaven's doors.

"SHIPWRECKED:" A TALL TALE OF ADVENTURE

If you remember the tale of the owl and the pussycat who "set out to sea in a pea green boat" searching for love and adventure, you might understand the fascination and attraction that captures a Victorian gentleman's imagination and sets him on a watery course of his own.  Maybe you've heard of him, one Louis de Rougement, an amicable fellow who might be the slightest bit prone to exaggeration and hyperbole.

His rainbow hued story, which some might term as tall tale. will be spun purely for the sake of entertainment by the innovative and inventive New Haven Theater Company, just three years young, at the Whitney Arts Center, 591 Whitney Avenue, New Haven on Sunday, May 12 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. "Shipwrecked! An Entertainment.  The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as told by himself)" is a product of the New Haven Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies.

If you've ever been confined to a sick bed for any length of time, you will empathize with a youthful Louis who declares his independence at sixteen, throwing off his fretful fevered brow and wrinkled bed covers for excitement with a capital E.  He trades in his overly protective mother for a man of daring and danger, a sea captain named Jenkins, as he dashes off to encounter LIFE.

Will he be defeated by an octopus, find despair on a deserted island, drown in a giant whirlpool or rather take a fanciful ride on a sea turtle, marry an Australian aborigine and meet the Queen of England?  To discover the truths to the tale, if there are any, follow Louis and his faithful dog Bruno literally to the ends of the earth.  Louis will be played by Christian Shaboo, while Eric Greene will be his trusty pooch and the Queen of England,  Margaret Mann will play his overly protective mother and an Australian prospector, Hilary Brown will appear as his bride Yamba and a newspaper boy while Hallie Martenson will portray the ship captain and an aborigine Bobo. To Peter Chenot, the inventive director, " 'Shipwrecked" is a wonderful play because it lets the audience imagine the story along with the actors on stage.  We try to create a jumping off point for the story telling."

For tickets ($15, children under 13 $10), go online to www.newhaventheatercompany to ticketleap.com.

Hang on to the coattails of Louis de Rougement as he sets off from France on what will be a thirty year intrigue in the late 1880's,one that takes him to Australia and a "dangerous and marvelous world."  His childhood sickroom books of "Robinson Crusoe" and "Arabian Nights" are sure to pale by comparison.