"DISNEY'S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" WALTZS INTO THE BUSHNELL

Come witness the first North American touring production of the beloved musical "Disney's Beauty and the Beast" in over a quarter of a century. If you are 6 or 86, you’re invited to enter the magical world of Belle, the book loving adventurous maiden, a luminous and lovely lass who would enjoy reading her precious books from dawn to dusk, as long as she doesn’t have to fend off the affections of the vain and egotistical Gaston, a tower of vanity, who imagines himself to be a desirable gift to womankind. Please open the fairy tale book that features a sweet maiden and the monster who frightens the little village where she lives. As fairy tales go, “Beauty and the Beast” is one of the enchanted best.

Meanwhile in a castle in the forest, an enchantress, for displeasing her, has cast a handsome prince into a hideous beast. Only a love that is pure and true can release him from his spell, and only before the last petal falls from a bewitched rose. Time is running out and he and his household are in danger of being cursed for all eternity. The Beast is cloaked in the persona of a challenged and unhappy soul.

Enter the fascinating musical and magical world of "Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” waltzing into the Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts for eight performances, April 7-12, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Follow the brave heroine Belle hoping to rescue her father Maurice who, after getting lost in the woods, sought shelter at the castle of the Beast and becomes his prisoner. The angry Beast, who guards his privacy, locks her father, an inventor, in a dungeon.

Belle discovers the castle and a troop of unlikely helpers in Lumiere the candelabra, Mrs. Potts the teapot, her son Chip the teacup and Cogsworth the clock. To free her father, Belle offers to stay in the castle with the Beast if he will just let her father go home. In a wild adventure, Belle and her father escape, Gaston and the villagers attack the castle, the Beast is grievously wounded and Belle learns the meaning of true love.

For tickets ($50.50 and up), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Come early and attend the “Roses of Love” tribute by writing the name of a loved one on a rose. The rose will be displayed at the theater and for each rose Max Cares Foundation will donate a $1 to My Sister’s Place, a Homeless Shelter, Thrift Store and Donation Center, up to $2500.

With spectacular new sets and glamorous costumes, this timeless tale will enchant and amaze. With classic tunes like “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast,” this new production will feature members of the original Tony Award-winning artistic team including composer Alan Menken, lyricist Tim Rice, book creator Linda Woolverton, with choreography and direction by Oliver Award nominee Matt West, scenic designer Stanley A. Meyer, costume designer Ann Hould-Ward and lighting designer Natasha Katz.

Discover for yourself how the magic spell is broken, how the enchanted objects become human again and how “happily ever after” is the way all fairy tales are supposed to end.

WELCOME TO IVORYTON'S CHARMING TRIBUTE TO "I'M CONNECTICUT"

Connecticut is like Mississippi in being a challenge to spell correctly. Its uniqueness may begin and end there. Luckily it’s bigger than Rhode Island and can boast great basketball teams from the University of Connecticut for both men and women teams. Go Huskies!

But 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 special comedy, “I’m Connecticut,” enjoying its new light of day at the Ivoryton Playhouse until Sunday, April 19 in Ivoryton.

“I’m Connecticut” tells the charming tale of a nice guy named Marc, played with spirit and sincerity by Quinn Corcoran, 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 and beige state.

With clever dialogue and amazing visual effects by John Horzen on a colorful set by Starlet Jacobs, 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 (Deanna Ott), a Georgia peach who has come north for adventure.

A secondary love story blooms when Diane’s mom Polly, a delightful Bonnie Black, meets Marc’s grandfather, a spry R. Bruce Connelly. The speed dating manager (Kenneth Robert Marlo) and Marc’s work buddy Kyle (Michael Barra) run interference in this lively game of love mating directed by Artistic Director Jacqueline Hubbard. Others in the cast include Nathan Szymanski, Alexis Trice and Stephanie Wasser andJohn C. Baker as Mark Twain and Canada.

Mike Reiss, the Aetna 2011 Writing Fellow at UCONN, wrote this comedy only a few years ago. He is no stranger to the world of humor, having written scripts for “The Simpsons” for more than 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. Unfortunately he also makes Marc a liar, a trait that derails him from his true path to passion.

For tickets ($60 adults, $55 seniors, $25 students, and discounts on Thursday), call the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street, Ivoryton at 860-767-7318 or online at Ivorytonplayhouse.org. Performances are Wednesday at 2 p.m., Thursday at 2 p.m. and 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.

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.

THE PALACE IN WATERBURY INVITES YOU TO LISTEN TO "STEREOPHONIC"

Can you ever imagine living life on the cusp? The cusp is where you balance precariously on the edge, of either victory and defeat, success or failure, triumph or disaster? It is not a comfortable place to be, but oh, how exciting and nerve wracking. To experience the agony and the ecstasy of this dangerously exciting predicament, settle back with a young up and coming band on the verge of superstardom or utter oblivion in “Stereophonic” coming to Waterbury’s Palace Theater for one night, Wednesday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Put yourself in a music studio. It’s 1976. Imagine you are a member of a rock and roll band recording your second album and anything and everything is ecstastically possible. Will you soar to greatness? Will you crash and burn, miss the spotlight and fade into obscurity to never be heard from again?

For three hours and ten minutes your fate and future hang in the balance. Will creativity consume you and lead you heavenward or will it abandon you and force you to desert all your hopes and dreams? Written by David Adjmi with original music by Will Butler of Arcade Fire, “Stereophonic” follows a ficticious 1970’s band recording a rock and roll album in Sausalito, California. Praised for its energy and realistic depiction of the creative process, with all its messy and emotional aspects, the play exposes the interpersonal conflicts, and the ambitions and anxieties of the band members, as they seal their own fate. What is at stake is highlighted, balanced against the pressure of success, the sexual tensions and the detrimental effects of drug abuse, like cocaine and alcohol. This, the most Tony-nominated play of all time, is directed by Daniel Aukin.

For tickets($49-89), call the Palace Theater, 100 East Main Street, Waterbury at 203-346-2000 or online at palacetheaterct.org.

Engage yourself emotionally and intimately with an exciting new musical group that could easily reach stardom or just as easily explode into nothingness, trapped as it is in a creative process of its own making.

THE BUSHNELL INVITES YOU TO DON SOME "KINKY BOOTS"

Family businesses rarely survive to the second generation, especially when the son does not want what his father created. Just ask Charlie Price who inherited his dad’s shoe factory as it was three shoelaces away from bankruptcy. Luckily for the audience “Kinky Boots”gets a first rate resurrection, thanks to a powerhouse book by Harvey Fierstein and sensational music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and the great National Touring Cast bringing it to the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts until Sunday, March 22.

Think quirky, exotic, bizarre, slightly deviant, provocative and definitely unconventional. Hold on to your shoe horns because “Kinky Boots” is strutting into town with all its high heeled splendor and The Bushnell in Hartford will be decked out in red sequined glamor and open for business, kinky business that is.

With on fire direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell, this winner of 6 Tony Awards including Best Musical is based on the motion picture of the same name written by Geoff Deane and Tom Firth. Come meet Charlie who is less than thrilled by the inheritance he receives when his father dies: a shoe factory on the verge of bankruptcy. He had thought he was successful running off to London for a new career with his girlfriend Nicola (Emma Dean) when he is pulled back to Northampton and Price and Son.

As conscientious Noah Verman’s Charlie walks on wobbly feet trying to rescue the family business, he quickly realizes that the old standby oxfords and loafers are now passe. Gentlemen’s shoes are the footwear of the past and Charlie needs an infusion of new life if he is to succeed. Based on a true story, “Kinky Boots” follows the miraculous transformation that happens when Charlie meets a truly creative one-of-a-kind Omari Collins ‘Scarlett D. Von’Du” Lola. Lola, a cross dressing performer of spectacular height and talents, can’t find a pair of sturdy and stylish stilettos to dance in for her/his act.

Lola’s problems are solved when the two conceive of a unique plan: retool Price & Sons to make a line of high heels for the mature male performer parading in boas, bustiers and beads. Tucked into every tall and tapered red patent leather boot is a tale of friendship, of stamping down hard on stereotypes and giving a firm kick to prejudices. This eye-opening, pop-up celebration of life, through extraordinary music and dance, is uplifting and super energized and packed with the spirit of joy. Put on your mile thigh high boots and practice moving to the magnetizing beat.

For tickets ($36-132), 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 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Watch how Charlie, with a lot of help from his new best bud Lola, reinvents his business and sends it into the stratosphere of shoe heaven, with an angel of a girlfriend Sophia Gunther’s Lauren in the process.

A GRAND IRISH MUSICAL AT MUSIC THEATRE OF CT UNTIL MARCH 22

Without packing a suitcase or buying a ticket to the Emerald Isle, you can bring Ireland right to your doorstep. That magical land of leprechauns and pots of gold can all be yours without kissing the Blarney Stone even once. Forget counting sheep or hunting for a four leaf clover. After all isn’t this the best time of year to put an O’ in front of your name and pretend to hail from that glorious greenery?

What better time than St. Patrick’s Day to enjoy a hearty corned beef and cabbage dinner, a riotous parade of frivolity all dressed in green and a merry musical about the Emerald Isle. Thankfully Music Theatre of Connecticut is providing a charming version of Frank McCourt’s love letter to his homeland in “The Irish and How They Got That Way” until Sunday, March 22 for your enjoyment and edification.

Author and playwright Frank McCourt has woven the history, traditions and music of his people through letters, paintings, journals, folk songs and memories to create a charming and ironic portrait of 150 years of the Irish struggle to succeed in America. Come enjoy songs like “Danny Boy,” "Finnegan’s Wake, “Galway Bay,” “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye,” “Mother Machree," “No Irish Need Apply,” “Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder” and “Give My Regards To Broadway” to mention a few.

With laughter and emotion and sentiment, three men and two women, Zachary Anderson, Hillary Ekwall, Jeff Raab, Joseph Torello and Erin Margaret Williams take you on a journey thanks to Frank McCourt’s memories in both story and songs showing both his wit and his pride. Called "a fiting tribute to everything Irish,” you will note the blarney, the magic of leprechauns, the toll of the Potato Famine, the pride of everyone from James Cagney and George M. Cohan to John F. Kennedy, even if you can’t taste the flavor of a pint of Guinness.

The Irish migrant story is captured with reverence revealing the injustices suffered both in the homeland and in their adopted country, all with honesty and humor, knowing in your heart that being Irish is not an easy fate. Each of the actors is skilled at a slew of instruments from guitars to tambourines, violins to piano, spoons to washboards, complete with Irish jigs, in great thanks to the Irish director Kevin Connors.

For tickets ($ 50-60), with a special Guinness and such available at the bar, call MTC, 509 Westport Avenue, Route 1, Norwalk at 203-454-3883 or online at admin@musictheatreofct.com.

Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Even if your name isn’t Danny, Paddy,Timothy or Shawn, everyone is Irish, thanks to Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Angela’s Ashes” Frank McCourt and the “honey lips” of these enthusiastic and energetic performers who wish a Top o’ the Morning to you.

"RHINOCEROS" ON THE LOOSE AT YALE REP

You’ve probably heard of the dangers of a bull in a china shop and the chaos it can cause but have you ever witnessed what damage a rhinoceros in a cafe can deliver. Just ask Reg Rogers’s Berenger as he meets for a drink with his good friend Phillip Taratula’s Gene. The pair tease and ridicule each other as only old friends can, with Gene accusing Berenger of having a hangover before noon. Their squabbling is rudely interrupted by the appearance of a dangerous rhinoceros running pell mell through the cafe, scaring the waiters and patrons who quickly run for cover. Is it a dream, an animal from the circus or the zoo who escaped or an inhabitant from a nearby swamp? Gene and Berenger are perplexed and flabbergasted. How can this happen in their great town on a Sunday morning of all times?

Enter the Theater of the Absurd created by Eugene Ionesco when he wrote his tragicomic “Rhinoceros” in 1959,about a small French town, where this wild animal crushes everything in its path. Yale Repertory Theatre at 1120 Chapel Street in New Haven will entertain you until Saturday, March 28 in this intriguing play directed by Liz Diamond, with text translated by Derek Prouse, adapted by Frank Galati and choreography by Emily Coates, According to Liz Diamond who has been at the theater for thirty four years and directed twenty productions, this play is “insanely funny and terrifying.”

To Berenger’s dismay, soon friends and neighbors and even his co-workers are quickly sprouting hides and horns. He must determine where his own fate lies: should he join the rampage or stand up, indepentently, to fight the invaders? In Ionesco’s mind, he must resist the urge to follow the crowd. In this cautionary tale, Berenger becomes disoriented and the comedy turns stark and dark. Even his good friend Eugene gets caught in the transformation. The dangers of power loom large. How easily the townspeople accept these new political ideologies, like Nazism and Communism and all except Berenger, who remains human in the face of great odds. How can one man, one who drinks too much and secretly loves his co-worker Elizabeth Stahlmann’s Daisy, warn the villagers and safely survive?

For tickets ($15-65), call the Yale Rep at 203-432-1234 or online at yalerep.org. Performances are Tuesday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Come make the acquaintance of this endangered species, native to Asia and Africa, whose name means horn on the nose. They are valued on the black market for their horns in China and Vietnam for use in traditional Chinese medicine. One of the largest living land animals, they average 1700 pounds and are mainly vegetarians. Witness how Berenger courageously stares down his giant foe and refuses to give up being human.

SEVEN ANGELS THEATRE WELCOMES ST. PATRICK'S DAY WITH A MOVING IRISH PLAY

What better time of year than St. Patrick’s Day to conjure up the flavor of Ireland and the Emerald Isle than a new play by Joseph Bravaco, in its New England premiere. Waterbury’s Seven Angels Theatre is proudly presenting “The One Good Thing or “Are Ya Patrick Swayze?” until Sunday, March 22. Have a hearty corned beef and cabbage dinner with a side of Irish soda bread, and wash it down with a pint of cold Guiness and come enjoy this tale of two brothers, set in rural Enniskillen.Ireland in the present day.

Tommy, a conflicted John R. Howley, and Jamie, a revealing Nick Roesler, enjoy a nice companionable relationship as they live together, that is until the morning Jami declares he is a ghost. This is a clear reference to Patrick Swayze’s acting tour in “Ghost.” They have both just endured and barely recovered from their mother’s death, a loss Tommy feels he didn’t deal with well which Jamie helped more successfully and handled much better.

Tommy’s guilt is troubling him and he prays for Jamie to forgive him. He should have helped more with their ma. He also feels that he will not be a good father to the baby he and his wife Josie are expecting. They have already lost one child before it was even born, so Tommy is allowing his grief and guilt to overwhelm him.

This is a play about life and death, compassion and forgiveness, the memories we hold on to and the love that connects us. Once the baby arrives, a little girl they name Jamie, Tony finds his heat fills with love and he works to rescue himself from sadness. Meanwhile Jamie is comforted by his relationship with his lover Gabriel and their eventual reuniting in heaven.

Their father is a hard man to love wut his new wife Margaret is wonderful with the baby and although Tommy finds the little one’s crying makes it hard for him to complete his painting of portraits, the way he makes his living, he is so glad she is in his life. The cycle of life and death continues. In the end, Jamie hugs Tommy and all is forgiven. The play is sensitively directed by Sasha Bratt.

For tickets($ 30-45), call Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Road, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at boxoffice@sevenangelstheatre.org. Performances areFriday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Check for specialty nights.

Here is a play of tenderness and compassion and love, that melds the memories of the dead with the joys os new life, how we need kindness to each other to survive, and how our existence is a blessing of pain and pleasure, grief and gratefulness, and how we need to acknowledge that life is a measure of both with family and friends who support us.