ENTER THE CIRCLE OF FATE AND JUSTICE

THE JUDGE (STEVEN SKYBELL) AND GRUSKA (SHAUNETTE RENEE WILSON)
                    PHOTO BY CAROL ROSEGG

When the peasants revolt, the rulers often lose their heads.  In the fictional land of Grusinia, the Governor Abashvili (Max Gordon Moore) and his wife Natella (Brenda Meaney) are swept up in the revolution and in the ensuing fire and confusion their infant Michael is abandoned and lost to them.  Thanks to the quick thinking and compassion of a palace kitchen maid Grusha (Shaunette Renee Wilson) who values life, rather than Natella who puts her wardrobe above her son's well being, Michael is rescued and is taken on a journey of danger and risk.

Bertolt Brecht has penned this epic folk tale and courtesy of the Yale Repertory Theatre, you can be swept away in its all encompassing drama, in "The Caucasian Chalk Circle," until Saturday, April 11 at the University Theatre, 222 York Street, New Haven.

The political regime in Grusinia is being toppled and the Governor loses everything, up to and including his head.   With appreciation to the ever present and singing narrator/storyteller Azdak (Steven Skybell), we are privy to all the action, the disputes, the adventures, the conflicts, the battle of good versus evil and the struggle for justice.  This parable is long in the telling, but filled with amazing scenic designs and unique special effects, courtesy of Chika Shimizu, that make the odyssey more enjoyable, like melting icicles and a perilous trek across a foot bridge.

One moment Grusha is being wooed by the friendly soldier Simon (Jonathan Majors) and the next she is putting her own life at risk as she flees with the infant Michael in tow, trying to find a safe place for them to hide.  The blood thirsty Ironshirt soldiers are in swift pursuit.  All the turmoil has been set in motion by the Fat Prince, the Governor's brother, (Jesse J. Perez) who causes the coup.

After Grusha protects her "little burden," engaging in actions to unselfishly shield him, like marrying a man Yussep (Aubre Merrylees) on his death bed to give the baby a legitimate name, she finds herself in a court of law. Natella has returned to claim her son and the vast estates that are now his.  A large chalk circle is drawn to establish his true parentage and a crafty judge has the powers to sway the court's verdict.

Liz Diamond directs this well crafted tale with hints of humor sprinkled through the life threatening action, with original music by David Lang, musical direction by Daniel Schlosberg, in this work translated by James and Tania Stern and W. H. Auden.

For tickets ($20-99), call the Yale /Repertory Theatre at 203-432-1234 or online at www.yalerep.org.  Performances are Tuesday to Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and occasional Wednesdays at 2 p.m.

Come witness the drama of young Michael (Kourtney Savage and Fred Thornley IV) being placed in the center of the chalk circle in a true King Solomon moment in time.

THE ROLE OF THE ASSASSIN IS BEING QUESTIONED

Can you imagine life changing in one incredible moment in time, a moment that will haunt for decades to come, coloring the future in black clouds of guilt?  For NFL Oakland Raider football star Frank Baker that fateful minute came during an exhibition game against the New England Patriots.  Baker's tackle of Lyle Turner, while perfectly legal, left both men's lives shattered.  Baker, then at the top of his game, never recovered his fame and position and Turner was left in a wheelchair for life.

Let playwright David Robson place you firmly in the grips of this powerful drama as years after the tragic event Frank Baker is called upon to stand up and be a man and confront and apologize for his actions on the football field in "Playing the Assassin."  TheaterWorks of Hartford will be squaring off in the intense drama until Sunday, April 26.

Based on a true incident that occurred in 1978 when Oakland Raider star Jack Tatum tackled New England Patriot wide receiver Daryl Stingley with such force, Stingley never walked again.  Here the action picks up two and a half decades later when Frank Baker is given a golden opportunity:  CBS wants him for a pre-Super Bowl interview where, for the first time, he will confront Lyle Turner on air.

An eager-to-please young interviewer, Lewis, a calculating Garrett Lee Henricks, has a script in his head for this revelatory confrontation,  His agenda is personal and prophetic and he has no room for variations or changes when he encounters Baker, an imposing and impassioned Ezra Knight. Baker has an agenda of his own:  he wants a stadium full of money and a chance to gain his self respect and professional esteem back.  His brutal attack on the turf had earned him the name "The Assassin" and he has been haunted by that encounter with Turner for seemingly forever,  Now he believes his life is finally changing for the better.

Trapped in a hotel room, working out negotiations and contracts, these two strangers discover the parallels of their lives as secrets explode and revelations reverberate,  Like  a prize fighting match, the two circle and weave, strike out and retreat, knowing only one can be declared winner.  Director Joe Brancato keeps the action and tension taut and the violence brewing just below the surface.

For tickets ($50-65, senior Saturday matinee $35, student rush $15), call 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. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. Come early to view the dramatic photos of sports legends, players who changed the game, in the art gallery upstairs, courtesy of The Hartford.

Get swept into the devastating verbal and physical encounter between two men determined to put the past at rest by whatever means at their disposal.

COME MANGIA IN THE KITCHEN WITH GIULIA

MARIA BARATTA AS GIULIA       PHOTO BY PAUL ROTH

 

How hard is it to find the right recipe for romance?  Just ask Giulia Melucci who has tried, unsuccessfully, for years to lure the right man from her culinary delights in her kitchen to the altogether different pleasures of the bedroom.  Her meals are delicious and savory, often culled from her mother's Italian-American cookbook but while they satisfy gastronomically, they fail to seal the deal that culminates in a wedding ring.

The charming and versatile Giulia is being brought to delectable life in the hands and hospitality of Maria Baratta  as she cooks up a fabulous feast right before your eyes in "I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti," a memoir by Giulia that has been cleverly adapted by Jacques Lamarre.  Seven Angels Theater in Waterbury will be cooking up a storm, with fresh pasta created from scratch, complete with antipasto, salad, bread and wine, for a lucky select few, right on stage, until  Sunday, April  26.

Don't come to the show hungry, unless you have a reservation at the nearest Italian restaurant close by right after the curtain falls.  All the action takes place in the kitchen while Giulia chats, easily and hysterically, about the men in her life, as she is preparing a complete meal.  We meet the
gentlemen who one by one broke bread with her and then proceeded to break her heart.  From the young Irish bloke Steve whom she met in college to the smarter and more sophisticated Kit who wrote for the Atlantic Monthly to the older and wiser Marcus, a cartoonist for the New Yorker, with his Vespa scooter and Charles Nelson Reilly voice to Ethan, a musician, writer and TV producer who loved food a lot but not Giulia as much.  She even gave her heart temporarily to a Scotsman who had problems with commitment. 

As Giulia, Baratta voices each of her potential soul mates with astute accuracy and charm, all the while chatting with her mother by telephone, who wants to help and offer advice. Using her culinary delights, her plan is to find true love over lasagna or risotto. For every bad dates she endures and wrong turn she makes, you will root for her to find her one and only.  As she cooks, she tosses a little salt over her shoulder, but, so far, it hasn't brought her luck and rose petals.

Semina De Laurentis directs this delightful show with characteristic sweetness while Daniel Husvar's kitchen set is the perfect setting for all the steamy action.

For tickets ($37.50-52.50), call Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury  at 203-757-4676 or online at www.sevenangelstheatre.org.  Performances are Thursday at 2 p.m. and 8p.m., Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., with Sunday at 2 p.m.

Twirl a forkful of flavorful and perfectly seasoned pasta as you contemplate the perils and pleasures of the New York City dating scene, where you can starve or feast surrounded by a banquet of male offerings.

DIG THOSE DANCING DIGITS

           PHOTOS OF DIGITS ...DIG IT! BY RICH WAGNER

By day, these dedicated troupers are teachers of third grade, special education, Spanish, math and reading, full time students, IT specialists and managers, physical therapists, parents, a dentist and one professional dancer.  Under the direction and encouragement of Darlene Zoller, they all become professional dancers and the proof is in the pudding stirred to perfect confection in "DIGITS Dig It!," a new show by the stop/time Dance Theater, the resident dance company of West Hartford's Playhouse on Park.

Until Sunday, March 29, this truly talented troupe will explode with energy and enthusiasm and Cheshire Cat grins as they perform this show conceived, directed and choreographed by Ms. Zoller.  These dancers with a passion for movement have willingly entered "Darleneland" and boy, do they have a lot of rhapsody and rhythm to show for it.

With a theme of digits as fingers, Zoller originally collaborated with composer and pianist Sean Pallatroni, bouncing musical ideas as "a series of musical puns" surrounding the number of things you can do with your hands.  Exploring the concept of one digit, two digits, three digits (well, you get the idea), the pair worked out songs and numbers that fit the concept.  As Sean so quaintly put it, "God, I hope this works."

Fortunately and fortuitously, work it does.  Beginning with one as the "loneliest number that there ever was," we meet a solitary dancer, Spencer Pond, who initially delights in having studio time all to himself.  He resents the intrusion of other hoofers who disturb his privacy and he sends his jazzy invaders scurrying away.

The two dozen ensuing numbers include an original words and music by Sean Pallatroni that serenades the Great White Way, with Rick Fountain crooning "King of Manhattan."  Victoria Mooney strikes an apologetic pose in Cole Porter's deliciously irreverent "Miss Otis Regrets" about a woman who can't come to lunch because she has shot her lover and has been punished, permanently.

Standards like "Too Darn Hot" and "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" sizzle and snap, flutter and fly, while numbers like "Queen Bee" rhythmically explore the insect world.  "Cinema Italiano" sparkles with sleekness and shine. The dance company also includes the creative moves of Michael Barker, Jennifer Bunger, Lisa Caffyn, Lynsey Chartier, Beckie Correale, Amelia Flater, Constance Gobeille, Laurie Misenti, Erica O'Keefe, Sheri Righi, Melissa B. Shannon, Alicia Voukides and Courtney Woods. DeMara Cabrera's primary color set resembles a flattened Rubix's Cube in the style of "Laugh In" while Lisa Steier's costumes light up each dramatic staging with dazzling effects.

For tickets ($25-35), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford 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. (with a talk back with the cast).

So whether your "life is just a bowl of cherries," way "cool," or packed with "uptown funk," let the stop/time Dance Theater show off their spectacular moves and grooves, jazz hands and tap feet and all.

A PLETHORA OF CHOICES AT ELIM PARK'S NELSON HALL

BRYAN ANTHONY WITH THE NELSON RIDDLE ORCHESTRA


Whether you raised a pint of green beer in tribute or donned a green shirt or tie, everyone is Irish on ST. Paddy's Day and Elim Park in Cheshire planted shamrocks and four leaf clovers in honor of the holiday.  With the rousing music and foot stomping tunes of The Kerry Boys, the rafters of Nelson Hall were raised a significant foot or two on Friday, March 13 when these balladeers and troubadours got the crowd singing and clapping about ramblers and gamblers, whiskey and rye, celebrating wakes and gals like sweet Molly Malone.  A wee bit of Scotland crept in with sentimental songs like Danny Boy while tunes like Wild Rover practically had the audience levitating with joy.

If you missed this rousing tribute to St. Patrick, never fear, there's lots more entertainment coming down the road, the high road and the low road, and coming to Nelson Hall at Elim Park, 150 Cook Hill Road, Cheshire for your listening pleasure.  Baby Boomers, it's your time for a musical salute when Squire and Louise come to call.  On Saturday, March 28 at 2 p.m., the joint will be jumping with all the music, comedy and inspiration of the Boomer generation. Relive those grand old days with two folks who know all the buttons to push and tunes to sing and jokes to tell to make these years come alive once more.

Get your entertainment calendar ready to mark the dates for Saturday, April 11 at 2 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. when the Grand Ole Opry comes a knocking.  The Truck Stop Troubadours will open the country western song book and let out all the timeless hits of that unique part of the globe.  A live band will jiggle and jive so fast that you'll literally jump out of your seat as the rhythm gets your blood pumping and your hands clapping and your feet kicking.

A change of pace will welcome Will and Anthony Nunziata, known affectionately as the singing brothers of Broadway, as they carry the audience From Broadway to Italy with a medley of hits that will stimulate your memories and have you crooning along with these two talented guys. They combine comedy and conversation with tunes like "O Sole Mio" and "Somewhere," bridging the musical gap from Broadway to the land of their ancestors.  On Saturday, April 25 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., you'll find yourself sailing across the pond in a bevy of brilliant musical magic and mirth that will transport you to heaven and back.

Ready to dance on your toes?  Let the Connecticut Ballet sweep you away on a glorious journey with Will Shakespeare as the famed dance troupe presents A Midsummer Night's Dream in all its color and splendor on Saturday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m. The Bard's classic comedy of lovers sprinkled with fairy dust by a mischievous Puck and all the misadventures that ensue is sure to delight audience members of all ages. This is the ninth full length ballet produced by the company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brett Raphael. An added bonus, you can meet the dancers in the lobby after the show.

Hold on to your felt hats because there's more as the essence of Ol' Blue Eyes comes to town with Bryan Anthony's smooth and elegant tribute to the man himself in Celebrating Sinatra: His Life in Music. On Saturday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m. and again on Sunday, May 9 at 2 p.m., you will be entertained by this super performer who will delight you, with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra accompanying him. He will croon the tunes of Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Irving Berlin and Sammy Cahn, to name drop a few.  The Great American Songbook will be ablaze with memorable hits from "I've Got You Under My Skin" to "Night and Day" to "All the Way."

For tickets, call Nelson Hall at Elim Park at 203-699-5495 for prices and more information.

Enjoy the variety of choices for a gala spring as Nelson Hall at Elim Park fills your dance and entertainment card.

TAMMY WYNETTE STANDS BY HER MAN

BEN HOPE AS GEORGE JONES AND KATIE BARTON AS TAMMY WYNETTE

This Mississippi gal taught herself a passel of musical instruments, was an all-star basketball player, a waitress, a receptionist, a barmaid, worked in a shoe factory and kept her hairdresser license renewed every year in case she ever needed it as a profession. Fortunately Tammy Wynette transformed herself into "The First Lady of Country Music" and never looked back.

To get up close and personal with Miss Wynette, born Virginia Wynette Pugh in 1942, mosey on over to the Ivoryton Playhouse for a tasty morsel of music history with "Stand By Your Man The Tammy Wynette Story" playing until Sunday, April 5.

Tammy started singing early on at a Mississippi radio show, raised by her mother, MeeMaw, a feisty Marcy McGuigan, and marrying the first of her five husbands before she graduated high school.  As a country western singer and songwriter, she never knew about instant stardom, but advanced up the charts with such winning tunes as "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad," "D.I.V.O.R.C.E," "Stand By Your Man," "I Saw the Light," "We Go Together," "Did You Ever" and "I Still Believe in Fairytales." She continued to record with her third husband George Jones, a smooth crooning Ben Hope, long after their stormy divorce.

They were known as the King and Queen of Country Music and they made beautiful music together until they didn't.  His predilection for alcohol and her addiction to pain pills, due to her multiple surgeries, took a toll on their marriage. Katie Barton's Tammy captures the spirit of this intrepid singer who fought to achieve stardom and to keep her daughters protected.

Mark St. Germain's insightful musical provides glimpses into her complex, hard scrabble life, one that follows step by step her circuitous route to the top of the marquee.  There were a number of salty tears and no happily ever afters for this soulful star who struggles for every rung up on the success ladder. Her life is chronicled from her early beginnings with a perky young Tammy played by Lilly Tobin, and her relationships with the many men in her life performed by Morgan  Morse, Louis Tucci, Guy "Fooch" Fischetti, Jonathan Brown, Eric Scott Anthony and Sam Sherwood. All the men also comprise one jive  jumping band, under the musical direction of David M. Lutken, that make each tune terrific. This musical biography of Miss Wynette is directed with spice by Sherry Lutken.

For tickets ($42, senior $37, student $20, children $15), call the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street, Ivortyon at 860-767-7318 or online at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Come watch how the "Love Bugs," Tammy and George Jones, are brought to glorious life by real life wife and husband Katie Barton and Ben Hope.  They'd love you to come by and say "Howdy" and sit and listen a spell.

"MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS" A COMIC LOOK AT HOW MOVIES ARE MADE

What do peanut shells and banana peels have to do with the movie "Gone With The Wind"?  Those meager pickings are all producer David O. Selznick would allow his "kidnapped" writer and director to eat, peanuts and bananas, while they solved a great conundrum:  how to create a script of the Margaret Mitchell book that was less than seven hours long.

The turbulence of the Civil War, an epic saga penned by  Mitchell, her one and only masterpiece, became "Gone with the Wind."  Translating its 1037 pages of romance and drama in the old South into a four hour film by David O. Selznick, producer, ended up being ranked number 4 on the 100 Best American Films of All Time list of 1998. But how it came to pass, against great odds, is a unique story all on its own.

To be privy to the inside scoop of how the movie came to be written and splashed across the silver screen, ultimately to win ten Academy Awards and be one of the highest grossing films of its time, head over to the Connecticut Playmakers to see the frantic slapstick comedy "Moonlight and Magnolias" by Ron Hutchinson Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28 at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 108 Sound Beach Avenue, Old Greenwich.

Producer David O. Selznick's career and reputation and future and fortune are all on the line.  Every day it is costing him $50,000 to make a film that has no viable script.  Fraught with obstacles, the project to make "Gone with the Wind" is in tremendous trouble.  He finally has a cast, Vivien Leigh as his daunting and determined heroine Scarlett O'Hara and Clark Gable as the dashing and enigmatic Rhett Butler, but without a workable screenplay he has nothing.

Every script to date is flawed, too long or not practical.  Atlanta has to burn, the Confederacy has to be defeated and Scarlett has to face surmounting problems.  Selznick (Adam Auslander) implores his good friend the journalist Ben Hecht (David Pollard) to come to his rescue.  Hecht, who has never even read the book, reluctantly agrees to try.  Locked in a room for five days, with Selznick and his brand new director Victor Fleming (Tim Cronin) acting out the plot, Hecht is forced to live on peanuts and bananas and produce a masterpiece.  How the trio survive with the aid of the producer's faithful secretary Ms. Poppenghul (Tina D'Amato) is a comic circus, under the deft direction of Dan Friedman.

For tickets ($25), call  the Connecticut Playmakers at 203-249-5419 or online at www.ctplaymakers.org.  Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. This is a cabaret setting, so bring goodies to share at your table. Come witness this plucky Connecticut community theatre group that has produced 225 Broadway hits over its 67 year history in the Greenwich area.

Make your plans now to have "Dinner with Disney" that will take you on a musical journey of Disney songs for the last 75 years.  Come hear tunes from such hits as "The Lion King," "Aladdin," "Snow White," "The Jungle Book," "Frozen," "Tarzan" and "Cinderella," to name a few.  Bring your kids and your dinner on Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9, 15 and 16 and 22 and 23 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 17 and 24 at 2 p.m.

You'll surely want to rent a DVD of this classic film once you witness the behind-the-scenes shenanigans that unbelievably led Ben Hecht, "the Shakespeare of Hollywood," to succeed where so many others before him had failed. All David O. Selznick wants is one great movie before he dies and without becoming a monkey's uncle he manages to pull off the trick of the century.