THEY ARE MAKING A MUSICAL ABOUT X/?%&?/!?

If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that composers are fully capable of crafting a musical about ANYTHING, from green skinned ogres called Shrek to people who have tried and succeeded in assassinating the president (or presidential hopefuls) to stories about ships that hit icebergs and sink. No topic seems to be out of bounds or totally unmentionable. To prove that point the Westport Country Playhouse is offering up a behind the curtain look at how and why these musicals have hit the spotlights. In “They Made It a Musical!” you are invited to unwrap the origins and inspirations for a number of surprising stories and the songs they birthed from July 18-20, in a quartet of performances that are sure to amaze and delight you.

According to the Playhouse’s Artistic Director Mark Shanahan, with a concept he developed with Broadway historian Laurence Maslon, all lovers of musical theater will be delighted to enter the genius minds of a variety of composers to glean where these unique and different ideas sprang. To Shanahan, the evening will offer “a treasure trove of surprising tales…a perfect, fun-filled, moving night of summer entertainment at the Playhouse!”

Imagine learning the backstory to such wonders as “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Annie,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Hamilton.” You already know that the tragic tale of “Romeo and Juliet” has already given rise to “West Side Story” and many other stories of star-crossed lovers, while George Bernard Shaw’s little flower girl of “Pygmalion has grown up to become “My Fair Lady.” But how many intriguing stories like these exist waiting to expose their roots and wings.

Maslon confidently boasted “Great Broadway shows began as puzzles until our most esteemed writers, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, to name just a few, unlocked their secrets and beautiful shows sprang out to enchant us all.” The performers waiting eagerly to reveal these secrets in stories and song are Broadway stars Christian DeMarais, Guy Lockard, Kristen Hahn, Maria Bilbao, John Rapson and Sophia Tzougros.

For tickets ($45-65), call Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, route One, Westport at 203-227-4177 or 1-888-927-7529 or online at westportplayhouse.org. Performances are Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Musical theater lovers unite and learn together about the histories and legends surrounding some of your favorite Broadway shows and how they came to be. Fascinating!

"MARY POPPINS" MAGICALLY FLIES IN THANKS TO SUMMER THEATRE OF NEW CANAAN

When she was a kindergartener, P. L. Travers picked a giant sunflower from a neighbor’s garden thinking the great golden face was the face of God. She would go on later in life to delight the world in a series of books with a fanciful figure named “Mary Poppins.”

Summer Theatre of New Canaan will open its roof and rafters to welcome our favorite nanny “Mary Poppins The Broadway Musical” as she majestically flies in until Sunday, July 28 and you’re invited to hold on to her umbrella for a bucket of fun.

To get in the proper spirit, STONC is offering photographs with a penguin or three as you enter the venue.

As nannys go, Mary Poppins, a clever and smart and delightful Emily Grace Tucker, is one of the magical best. Hailing from England, she unexpectedly arrives at number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane when the Banks family is in desperate need of her services. A strong wind delivers her, carpetbag in hand, to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Banks, Sean Hannon and Jazmin Gorsline, and their children Jane and Michael brought to life by Avery Jackson and Cate Panagrossi as Jane and Camilo Velasquez Escamilla and Carlos Velasquez Escamilla as Michael. Flying in with an umbrella is only one of Mary's fanciful feats.

Jane and Michael Banks are thoroughly terrible and have chased their current nanny right out the door. Mere minutes after the children pen their advertisement for a new one, sung delightfully as “The Perfect Nanny,” who should arrive but Mary Poppins, on a lovely set that changes with the mood of the wind.

Here is a woman who can make statues come to life, whose best friend is a chimney sweep named Bert, a dynamic Stephen Petrovich, who can befriend unusual people like Janet Dickinson's Bird Woman and Janelle A. Robinson who runs a magical sweet shop and who can even encourage toys to dance. The musical and dance numbers thanks to choreographer Douglas Shankman are supercalifragilisticexpialidocious special, like “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” “Step in Time,” “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Jolly Holiday,” and so many more. This wonderful Walt Disney musical is brought beautifully to magical life by director Melody Meitrott Libonati for your whole family’s immense pleasure.

While trying to teach the children life lessons, Mary P. inadvertently puts their father’s job at the bank in jeopardy. But, never fear, all will come out right in the end, especially with the practically perfect Mary Poppins in charge, and P.L. Travers’ endearing stories, Walt Disney and Cameron Mackintosh at the helm.

For tickets ($29-93), call STONC at 203-966-4634 or online at boxoffice@stonc.org. Performances are at 11 Farm Road, New Canaan in air conditional comfort Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. On Friday, July 26 at 3:30 p.m. come see “Mary Poppins JR, with tickets at $17-27. For a rousing escapade join two actors as they, with hockey sticks and basketballs, present “The Adventures of Robin Hood” on Saturday, August 3 at 2 p.m., tickets $28-38.

Travel with Jane and Michael as they learn that “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way,” when a most amazing Mary Poppins has the spoon and the magic firmly in her capable hands.

"WOODY SEZ" HAS A LOT OF MUSICAL COMMENTARY AT THEATERWORKS HARTFORD UNTIL JULY 28

Ready for a good old fashioned hootenanny? Grab a musical instrument and mosey on over to TheaterWorks Hartford to strum and strut your stuff with some of the best fiddlers in the hollow Sundays July 21 and 28 after the fun rip roaring matinee production of “Woody Sez,” the intimate music and story of Woody Guthrie.

Being named after a President might be daunting for a baby boy, but if your moniker is Woodrow Wilson Guthrie you are able to strive for perfection and then some. Your life has to be meaningful and special, even if it means walking from one end of the country to the other. When he boasted about making a joyful noise unto the Lord, Woody did so with his treasure trove of 3000 songs, novels, short stories, poems, oil paintings, political cartoons, children’s books and sketches of everyday life. He is considered one of America’s greatest songwriters and cultural icons and you have the privilege of making his unique acquaintance at the TheaterWorks Hartford until Sunday, July 28 in “Woody Sez,” a musical portrait devised by David M. Lutken and Nick Corley, with Darcie Deaville, Helen J. Russell, and Andy Teirstein.

Woody Guthrie wrote folk tunes about his growing up years in Oklahoma's Dust Bowl, through the Great Depression, political, children's, songs of wanderlust and traveling, songs of peace and against war, social justice and even songs with a Jewish flavor. None of his verses is more well known than "This Land Is Your Land," that he penned in 1940, considered one of folk music's most famous tunes. Even that was a protest against the sentiment he heard in Irving Berlin's "God Bless America."

Sam Sherwood stars as the prosaic philosophizing guitar playing guy who was compelled to ramble across the country and write about all he saw and all the people he met along the way. Nick Corley sets his hand to directing this impassioned yet humble tale, of a man and the music he had to make.

Guthrie was a social commentator, a radical with an advocacy for truth, who believed “all you can write is all you can see.” He has been described as “a three chord picker with a poet’s brain” and his tale has been brought to dozens of cities, thanks to Sam Sherwood and his comrades on fiddle, bass, guitar, banjo, harmonica and more, Nyssa Grant, Helen J. Russell and David Finch.

Think of Woody Guthrie as an amalgam of Will Rogers and Pete Seeger, a man filled with words and sentiments which he put into poems, plays, letters, a newspaper column called "Woody Sez," song lyrics as well as novels and artwork. He suffered many tragic losses in his life as well as great happiness. They translated into his writings. As Woody says himself, "There's a feeling in music and it carries you back down the road you have traveled and makes you travel it again. Sometimes when I hear music I think back over my days - and a feeling that is fifty-fifty joy and pain swells like clouds taking all kinds of shapes in my mind.”

Some highlights include "This Train Is Bound for Glory,” “Jack Hammer Blues,” "Sinking of the Reuben James," "The Ballad of Tom Joad," "Riding In My Car," and, of course, "This Land Is Your Land."

For tickets ($35-50), call TheaterWorks Hartford, 233 Pearl Street, Hartford at 860-527-7838 or online at twhartford.org. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m.and Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The Sunday hootenanny follow.

Guthrie died at a young age, 55, from Huntington’s Disease, the same ailment that took his mother. On opening night, David Lutken introduced the volunteer head of the Huntington's Disease Society of America Susan B. McCann MSW whose husband is actively fighting the disease. Go to Connecticut.hdsa.com or call their helpline at 800-345-HDSA (4372) for support. A new Center of Excellence at UCONN Health Center for Huntington’s patients has recently been opened. This year is the 50th anniversary of its founder Woody’s wife Marjorie. It is a brain disease, transmitted from generation to generation that, due to a small error in one gene, called huntingtin, can lead to physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. It currently has no cure. A portion of the sale of David Lutken’s recordings is donated to this worthy cause.

Come meet this home spun, down home country boy named after our 28th president, with his guitar and his friends in this special and moving tribute to the Oklahoma Troubadour. They are all bound for glory.

"RENT" WITH SEASONS OF LOVE COURTESY OF SHELTON'S CENTER STAGE

Composer and playwright Jonathan Larson accumulated a veritable treasure chest of awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical, Book and Lyrics, all for his seminal work “Rent.” Unfortunately, tragically, Larson died the day before the first preview of “Rent” Off-Broadway at the age of 35 in New York City.

A musical adaptation of Puccini’s opera “La Boheme,” “Rent” shadowed much of Larson’s life as he too lived in a rundown New York apartment with many roommates, including having a love affair on and off with a female dancer. He used an illegal wood- burning stove to combat the building’s lack of heat, with everyone a struggling artist trying to create a bohemian life style. One of Broadway’s longest running shows, you now have the unique opportunity to experience Jonathan Larson’s opus “Rent” at the Center Stage of Shelton until Sunday, July 28.

In 1989, when Larson was only 29, he began working on the musical “amid poverty, homelessness, spunky gay life, drag queens and punk.” The title “rent” stands for lives “torn apart.” Puccini’s work more than 100 years earlier centers on young wannabe artists and the devastation of tuberculosis while Larson introduced HIV/AIDS, Puccini’s Paris became New York’s East Village, and many of the characters’s names stayed close to the same.

For example, Mimi the seamstress sick with TB is now Mimi (Grace Lupoli/Megan Loaicano) the exotic dancer with HIV. The poet Rodolfo is now Roger (Isabel Sonnabend/Harry Rosenay), a song writer/musician who is HIV positive and Mimi’s boyfriend. Roger’s roommate is Mark (Ian Rosenay/Jacob Marcus), a filmmaker, adapted from Marcello, a painter. The singer Musetta becomes Maureen, (Ashley Carpp/Macie Cox) a bisexual performance artist who loves Joanne, (Lauren Wienenmann/Alyssa Grosso) a lesbian lawyer, while the musician Schaunard is now the drag queen Angel. Angel (Ryan Romero/Jacob Ebert) is dating Tom Collins,(Carlos Perez/Nolan Young) the earnest philosopher Colline who teaches his theories of life at college.The landlord Benoit is now Benny. (Spenser Fiske/Nick Gugliotti).

Larson wrote “Rent” in part to celebrate the achievements of the artists stolen by illness so young and to show how the community copes with a tragedy within its ranks.

In “Rent,” we meet Mark the narrator cinematographer who is chronicling the activities of his friends as he adjusts to his ex- girlfriend Maureen’s new relationship with Joanne . Meanwhile his roommate Roger is trying desperately to compose one “glory” song before AIDS takes him. His chance meeting with another AIDS patient Mimi may be just the impetus and candle of inspiration he needs.

The time is Christmas eve and there is no holly and no heat, no mistletoe and no money, but the motley group have gathered to celebrate with the natural exuberance and hope that the youth cling to so promisingly. Sexual gender blurs as this questioning generation musically explores the seasons of love contained in the 525,600 minutes that make up a year, contemplate the death of the soul in “Without You” and do a dance of protest in “Tango: Maureen.”

For tickets ($18-36), call the Center Stage, 54 Grove Street, Shelton at 203-225-6079 or online at www.centerstageshelton.org. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Explore this spirited and high decibel Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning musical, wonderfully staged by Liz Muller, with talented principles, understudies, red and blue casts that explodes to the rafters with a hunger for love, life and art.

PLAYHOUSE ON PARK INVITES YOU TO DANCE AT "THE PROM" UNTIL AUGUST 18

In your high school years, you may remember being grateful you survived your turbulent freshman year with your bobby sox intact as well as the glory day you received a diploma when you finally graduated. In between those two monumental events, you might rank the end of the year dance as a significant milestone stuffed with special moments. West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park is rolling back the calendar by inviting you to grab your dance card for "The Prom,” a great musical with book and lyrics by Chad Beguelin, book by Bob Martin and music by Matthew Sklar, based on an original concept by Jack Viertel, bopping in until Sunday, August 18.

Be prepared to buy a dance ticket, order a limo and corsage, purchase a lovely dress or rent a tuxedo and plan every delicious detail. But what if your date was forbidden to attend and you were not allowed to be there. Enter the medieval town of midwestern Edgewater, Indiana where one girl wanting to date another girl is out of the question.

Come meet Emma, a sweet and sincere Lucy D’Addario, who only wants to be able to go with her new love Alyssa, a shy and secretive Kendyl Grace Davis, who is not ready to declare who she is to the unwelcoming world. The school board and parents would rather cancel the prom than let Emma and her date attend, which makes Emma ostracized from her classmates and community.

Meanwhile far way in New York City a troupe of thespians is putting on a play about their heroine Eleanor Roosevelt and, on opening night, discover to their dismay, that despite their incredible acting credits they are a dismal flop. What to do to restore their celebrity status? The answer: find a good cause to champion and put their narcissistic leanings aside for a moment in time. So before you can say LGBTQ+ three times, the troupe of thespians set off to Indiana to save a lesbian…and the fun and frantic times begin.

The actors, headed by Susan Haefner’s Dee Dee Allen and Benjamin Howes’ Barry Glickman, aided by Zachary Kropp’s Trent Oliver, Carolyn Burke’s Angie Dickinson and Jordan Bunshaft’s p.r. man Sheldon, put aside their egos for a moment toenter the fray and defend Emma’s rights, win her acceptance and fight against the town’s intolerance. With songs like “Changing Lives,” “The Acceptance Song,” “Love Thy Neighbor,” “Zazz,” and “Unruly Heart,” they sing and dance energetically, thanks to Robert Mintz’s great direction and choreography and Kevin Barlowski’s spirited musical direction, hoping to change minds and prejudices. Aiding them is the school principal Cole Campbell while their opponents feature Leeanna Rubin, Julia Solecki, Riley Means, Katie Kallay, Connor Macchi and Mitchell Maguire.

Will Alyssa find the courage to stand up for her rights? Will the actors be able to actually do any good in their fight? Will a prom actually take place? Come root for the good guys to win a victory in this bittersweet battle for basic human rights.

For tickets ($45-57.50, student $15 available 15 minutes before curtain), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford at 860-523-5900. ext. 10 or online at www.PlayhouseonPark.org. Performances are Tuesday at 2 p.m., Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. with talk back after.

Come see if the disco ball will magically appear to light the night.

GET A DELICIOUS SLICE OF THE PIE FROM IVORYTON PLAYHOUSE'S "MYSTIC PIZZA"

The passage from awkward and uncertain adolescence to the independence and certainty of adulthood can be a rocky road, especially for a trio of young waitresses trying to forge a future for themselves at a pizza parlor in Mystic, Connecticut. We all remember Julia Roberts as adorable Daisy in the 1988 MGM movie, written about our state by Amy Holden Jones while she was summering here and frequented the small hometown pizzeria of the same name.The book was written by Sandy Rustin and is now a musical stuffed with all your favorite tunes of the 1980’s and 1990’s, like “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Mad About You,” “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” “True Colors,” and “Take My Breath Away,” and a dozen others.

Kudos to the Ivoryton Playhouse for offering up this sizzling and spicy treat until Sunday, July 28 for our summertime fun and musical pleasure as we become acquainted with Alyssa Giannetti’s Jojo who may or may not be ready to commit herself to marrying her boyfriend Will Clark’s Bill Montijo, even when it’s her actual wedding day, Carina Hernandez’s Kat Arujo who is willing and able to work a multitude of jobs so she can earn her way to college but hits a major roadblock when she is intrigued by the married architect Michael Ferraro’s Tim Travers and lastly Ariella Kvashny’s Daisy who falls under the spell of the sophisticated and well-to-do Isaac Kueber ’s Charles Gordon Windsor, Jr. an artist who has already flunked out of law school.

No one promised young love was a bouquet of orange blossoms and each girl discovers the promise and the heartbreak coming her way. The pizzeria’s owner Leenya Rideout’s Leona Silvia has her own set of decisions to make but is the caring mother hen to her tender chicks. The sisters Daisy and Kat and their best friend Jojo all want something more from life and are willing to sacrifice and work hard to achieve it. Brian J. Freehan orchestrates the choreography and direction with a spirited hand of this fine and talented cast.

For tickets ($60, seniors $55, students $25), call the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street, Ivoryton at 860-767-7318 or online at www.ivorytonplayhouse.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 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Now is the time to make reservations for Ivoryton's fundraiser “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere! Party on Saturday, September 14 at 5 p.m. with beach cocktails, a Cancion Tequila tasting, Surfridge Brewing Company's array of delicious food and beer, auctions, raffles, and live music and dancing…all a Jimmy Buffett style of living. For tickets, visit www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.

Show all your true colors as the power of love takes all your breath away as nothing is gonna stop us now. Come experience a delicious slice of heaven.

THE SAYBROOK STAGE COMPANY INVITES YOU TO THE KATE'S "LOST LODGE"

Terri Corigliano is one busy lady. Take a big breathe and meditate on her career. From kindergarten on, theater has been a central focus of her life. In high school she met Cosmo, her husband, and raised three children and entered the legal profession. Her love of the law led her to teach at Sacred Heart’s Legal Assistant Program where she discovered another love: teaching. A new future goal became her desire to get public speaking into the curriculum of every high school and college in the country. Most recently, until COVID interfered, was at Quinnipiac University teaching Public Speaking and Media Law. Along the way, she and her husband Cosmo moved to Old Saybrook and became involved in a project honoring Katharine Hepburn’s hometown with a theater and museum in her name.

Terri’s dedication to the arts led her, and Cosmo as a non-acting business partner, to create the Saybrook Stage Company. To date, their troupe has performed 25 shows at the Kate in 14 seasons, starting with “Our Town” in 2011. She expresses her gratitude to Executive Director of the Kate Brett Elliott for all his support and guidance over the years. Now Terri Corigiiano is excited to add “playwright” to her list of accomplishments with “Lost Lodge” premiering at the Kate the weekend of July 18-21.

A long time fan of the work of A.R. Gurney and his skill in creating vignettes for the stage, she has penned more than a baker’s dozen of stories about family, friends, lovers and strangers who find themselves as guests at a deep in the woods house in a fictional town in the northern parts of New England. In her new literary world, one must write a letter to the owner of Lost Lodge and convince its owner that you need to stay there. The only thing that is soon apparent is that that stay will change your life forever. Ready to make your own reservation?

Maybe you are a wife who has been struggling for years to throw a surprise party for your husband and never succeeded. What might happen if all your friends worked together to find a fool-proof plan to finally make it happen? Get ready to jump out from behind the couch and yell “SURPRISE.” In addition to this fast paced farce, there are stories about a family that is searching for more meaningful ways to celebrate the Christmas holiday, a son and daughter trying to plan a family reunion, a pizza delivery man who has more to deliver than a pepperoni pie, and a grandmother and granddaughter trying to bridge a generation gap as large as the Grand Canyon of missed communication, and many more. The casting includes actors from New York and Massachusetts, including their daughter Mary who has been involved in the company for years, as well as wonderful local talent.

Two of Terri’s goals for the piece are to create a play everyone can relate to, with happiness and a few tears who will be “touched by the script no matter their age,” as well as theater that could be performed by a high school or college or by older actors as each performer has 5-6 roles to play. This is a long way from the Saybrook Stage Company’s first production “Our Town” where all they had were two ladders and two kitchen tables as their total props on stage.

Call the Kate for tickets ($19-29 ), 300 Main Street, Old Saybrook at 860- 510-0453 or online at thekate.org/event/lost-lodge-2/ Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Surely the mysterious owner of Lost Lodge, the playwright A. R. Gurney and the actress Katharine Hepburn would be equally proud.