COME LEARN THE LESSONS OF HOPE, HEART AND HUMANITY OF "COME FROM AWAY" AT IVORYTON PLAYHOUSE

The world changed forever on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Today 25 years later the effects of that tragic day are still echoing in our history. it is our duty and responsibility to remember that day and learn the lessons it taught us. The Ivoryton Playhouse is giving us that unique opportunity and I urge you to take advantage of this gift by attending a performance of "Come From Away."

This incredible musical focuses its attention on five days of our past and some of the worst events in our country’s history, the destruction of towering buildings in New York City and government structures in Washington, D. C. on 9/11/2001. Ten years later husband and wife David Hein and Irene Sankoff traveled to Gander, Newfoundland to record the amazing story of a humanitarian miracle. Without warning on that fateful day, 38 planes from all over the world were diverted to Gander, once a major stop for refueling for international flights, but long since abandoned as planes no longer needed to stop for more gas.

The almost 6700 passengers on the planes, the pilots and the people of Gander had no idea what was happening. Without warning or preparation, the good citizens of the small town rushed to open their homes and hearts to those strangers, providing baby formula, dog food, pillows and blankets, casseroles, a place to sleep and comfort before the tragedy was even revealed.

Run to the Ivoryton Playhouse for a marvelous musical that captures the generosity of this small community of Canadians until Sunday, September 6 as “Come From Away” soars on magical wings into Connecticut.

The planes were originally diverted for fear some were also part of the terrorist plot, like the plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania forest. The 11,000 citizens of Gander didn’t stop to ask questions. The striking bus drivers immediately returned to work to ferry the passengers around town. Twelve incredible actors-Mimi Bessette, Patrick Steven Bovo, Dana Costello, Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, Joseph Dellger, Stacia Fernandez, Miles Hanna, Logan Marks, Jason Ivan Rodriguez, Autumn Eliza Sheffy, Billy Clark Taylor and Vicki Wepler- and eight inspired musicians-Angie Benson, Mark Gehret, Israel Corona, Austin Tewksbury, Dakota Singerline, Tara McGurk, Em Squatrito and Sam Moffet- will take you on the journey of generosity, playing the passengers, pilots and people of Gander to musically illustrate the way good folks can respond with hope in the midst of devastating tragedy.

Come visit the dog catcher, the mayor, the chief of police, the first female pilot to command a major airline jumbo jet, a woman who fears her fireman son has been lost in the downing of the World Trade Center, a gay couple searching for acceptance, two strangers who find each other and romance and so much more.

This is a musical happening, brimming with spirit and patriotism, a tribute to faith and resilience, a gift of compassion in the face of tremendous loss. I was fortunate enough to see the birth of “Come From Away” for the first time at the Goodspeed’s Festival of New Musicals when the initial staged reading took place and also attend the Broadway production the day Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brought 500 of his people to see the show in New York on Canada’s 150th birthday.

Stirring songs like “WELCOME TO THE ROCK,” “ON THE EDGE,” “ME AND THE SKY,” and “38 PLANES” embrace the action. Todd L. Underwood beautifully directs and choreographs this amazing true tale. For tickets ($65, seniors $60, students $25), call the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street, Ivoryton at 860-767-7318 or online at ivorytonplayhouse.org.

This is not a show to be missed. If nothing else, it will restore your faith in the innate goodness of neighbors to reach out and hug you with friendship and love.

ENTER THE SOUTHERN CHARM OF "OLD OAK RIDGE" WITH SOUND AND STAGE THEATER COMPANY

For a quartet of years, The Sound and Stage Theater Company, a non-profit enterprise, has taken a unique turn in their entertainment offerings: they have written their shows in house in a totally original style. Dawn Taubl takes full credit for the innovative writing and direction not to mention choreography while Carol Taubl is responsible for the inspired music and lyrics and what a team they make. Put on your dancing shoes because tonight Sunday, August 9 at 7 p.m., at Congregation B’Nai Jacob in Woodbridge, their large cast of teens and adults is prepared to razzle dazzle you with a musical comedy “Old Oak Ridge.” that will delight you in a delicious bittersweet way.

Prepare yourself for a visit to Old Oak Ridge, a Southern community about to celebrate two major events for their town: the 350th Birthday of the town and the 500th Anniversary of a sacred and beloved angel oak tree. At the heart this is a play about the importance of family, the roots you plant in your home town and why the environment needs to be protected. Its the 1950’s in a fictional South Carolina locale where everybody knows your name and your business and secrets have a hard time surviving among the gossip grapevine.

Sunny and sweet voiced Jessica Coppola’s Daisy Dawson takes a few days off from the College of Charleston to attend the festival with her mother Ginny (Kim Adzigian) and her grandpa Hank (Mark Hall). While mom is supportive of the big doings and enthusiastically involved in the poodle skirts being sewed for the sock hop and preparing the food fixings, grandpa seems to want to sleep until the party is over.

Recording all the excitement is a news team led by Sam Taubl’s Chuck Sterling and his crew Scout (Nicole Scout) and Jackson (Adam Hall). Scout has her own agenda for being in town: to find her birth mother and establish her own history. Other townsfolk’s involved actively in the tale are the Sheriff (Hannah Bellows). the mayor (Jamin Mucherino). the environmentalist Evie (CC Hayden) the researcher and helper Babs (Tina Marie Manus), the Pastor (Joanna Bair) and Bobby (Jeremiah Taubl).

Others in the energetic cast include Jenna LaBranche, Tommy Francese, Eli Blatchley, Elizabeth Wilkinson, Hannah Lorenzo, Rosemary Wilkinson, Ivy Somma, Grace McAnnally-Linz, Juliana Vaiuso, Kathryn Mucherino, Alexa Charney, Thomas Sicignano, Melissa Lewis and Laura Regan.

Before the queens of the sock hop are crowned, there are sneaky plots, plans to take the town’s history, efforts to be environmentally conscious, a collection of acorns with letters on them, a line of young men who want to date Daisy, the search for Scout’s birth mother, a lot of gossip that may or may not be true, community secrets just aching to be revealed, and a storm the night before the festival that almost cancels everything.

Songs like “Where They Know My Name,” “Oak Ridge Grapevine,” “Sunset Shimmy,” “Roots Deeper than the River,” “Gunnin’ for the Truth,” and “Seedlings Left to Grow” keep the plot moving rhythmically along. Tickets for tonight are $30 at the door. The theater is also supporting “Tree Angels for Haiti” by planting 256,000+ trees on the island of Haiti as well as donating 15,200+ supplies to help the environment.

Travel down South for a sweet, funny and emotional visit with the Dawson family and all their many friends, to help them preserve their roots, their branches, their wings and their legacy.

ENTER DANGEROUS TERRITORY WITH "THE CANNIBALS OF MCGOWER COUNTY"

Scavengers swoop in quickly to abandoned and neglected buildings to find unique objects to either enhance their own homes or discover items they can sell for a profit. They time their hunts to arrive and depart with great haste, in and out in different locations, discovering trays of salt and pepper shakers and pink wall piggy hangers with great delight.

To enter the unusual ghost town world of two long time scavengers, take your courage and your big garbage bags to TheaterWorks Hartford’s world premiere of Drew Larimore’s “The Cannibals of McGower County” until Sunday, August 30. Prepare for a bizarre encounter with Annalee Jefferies’s Lindalyn and Constance Shulman’s Viola that will keep you unsettled and puzzled as the drama twists and turns with explosions and surprises.

Lindalyn and Viola are having a wonderful time exploring and hunting for treasures when they alarmingly realize, to their dismay, that they are no longer alone at the west Texas barbecue restaurant. A young couple Edward Hoke’s Blaze and Gus Birney’s Sarah Nell, clearly in the early stages of love, appear. He has just bought the ghost town, including the long closed restaurant and he is exuberant about his new love for Sarah Nell and the prospect of a promise filled future together. He even has a diamond engagement ring to prove his good intentions.

What could happen when these two diverse sets of competitors collide? Will they respect their differences or mightily clash in disastrous ways? Jen Wineman directs this wild and wooly encounter that not everybody survives. For tickets ($43-78), call TheaterWorks Hartford, 233 Pearl Street, Hartford at 860-527-7838 or online at twhartford.org. Performances are Tuesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., with additional shows Saturday, August 22 at noon and 4 p.m. and Thursday, August 27 at 1 p.m.

Take a volatile adventure with unexpected consequences that may just shock your sensibilities. Secrets long buried are sure to be revealed in this macabre tradition of Southern Gothic.

MUSIC THEATRE OF CT OFFERS EXCITING READINGS AND A ONE WOMAN SHOW

Music Theatre of CT is opening its doors to offer exciting readings by local CT playwrights, performed by Broadway and regional actors. So far Stuart Brown has offered an involving mystery, “Conduct Unbecoming.” directed by Jim Schilling about five college faculty members and their new leader on a retreat on a remote island when one participant mysteriously dies. The second reading was by Jack Rushen, “Taming the Lion,” directed by Kevin Connors, a true story about the explosive and controlling relationship between the first openly gay actor, William Haines, in the late 1930’s and M.G M. mogul Louis B. Mayer.

The third installment, coming Tuesday, August 11 at 7:30 p.m. is “36.” the debut novel by Kate Katcher, now a play directed by Deb Levy that tells the story of the Weiss family, orchestrated by the matriarch Maxine to the best of her ability. Her daughter Shellie has an unusual relationship with mom that is both challenging and intense. Shellie is back in Brooklyn with news that she is reluctant to tell, afraid to hear her mother’s reaction and rightly so.

It is from her Bubby, the grandmother of the Weiss family that we learn the origin of the play’s title: the 36 people, the Lamed Vav, the Jewish people who in times of crisis can be consulted for aid or simply for conversation. Bubby sincerely believes her husband Sheppie was one of the blessed 36. It was his job not to offer advice but to “justify the existence of mankind in the eyes of God.” These 36 suffer in silence for the rest of the world. Bubby also believes her daughter Maxine is continuing her husband’s responsibilities to be the heart of the world and absorb its misery.

Bubby’s husband as a boy fled his war torn homeland and was eventually smuggled to America and used his artistry as a baker to make a living. He died before Shellie’s younger sister Shira who was named for him was born. Shira is intellectually challenged but has an immense capacity for caring and empathy. This family struggles to handle the joys and troubles that come to their door, all the ups and downs that ultimately bring them closer together, all while questioning their resilience and faith.

Kate Katcher creates a family you will want to embrace and, perhaps, make your own. Jewish customs are woven into the intimate tapestry of the Weiss household as they determine who will be the next Lamed Vav to save the world. Let her welcome you into her intimate realm as if you are one of the many who call Maxine on the telephone to help them cope with a troubling question in their lives. Enjoy the sensitive and sassy, heartfelt and humorous journey with the interesting Weiss family created by the wonderfully colorful and imaginative mind of Kate Katcher. Tickets are $28.

Next up is a personal one woman show by Randye Kaye about her life journey on Saturday, August 15 at 8 p.m., “Cracks and All: A Perfectly Imperfect Life” as part of the Hot Summer Nights series. Ms. Kaye write plays, does radio work, teaches workshops on mental health, voiceover actor, humorist, improv and stage actor, podcast host, writer, motivational speaker, author, drama teacher, and director. Her books include Happier Made Simple: Choose Your Words Change Your Life, and Ben Behind the Voices: One Family’s Journey From the Chaos of Schizophrenia to Hope. She is also the host of WSHU’s All Things Considered and does a podcast Good at Heart. Because of her family history she is instrumental in leading a free eight week course on mental health and family issues with emphasis on education support and connection. Part of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the free course relies on “Search,” support, education, acceptance, respect, communication skills and hope and humor. For more information, email www.nami.org.

Clearly Randye does not want any person to feel alone in their journey. She is also one of 3 Moms in the Trenches, who each have a child with schizophrenia and have each written a book about the experience. Her show will touch on her 43 year old son who has battled mental illness since his teens and how with the right outlook ordinary things can appear as miracles. Her mission is to change pain to purpose and refusing to bow to despair. For tickets ($45 plus fees), call MTC, 509 Westport Avenue, Norwalk at 203- 454-3883 or online at admin@musictheatreofct.com.

Let Kate Katcher and Randye Kaye provide stimulating evenings of revealing family entertainment. You will be a more knowledgable person for entering their remarkable worlds.

CENTER STAGE THEATRE TAKES YOU UNDER THE SEA WITH SPONGEBOB

A unique musical adventure awaits you if you are daring enough to travel under the sea to the fictional town of Bikini Bottom and make the acquaintance of one character known as SpongeBob SquarePants, delightfully created with courage by Harry Rosenay. Do not be dismayed that he resembles a square kitchen sponge as that’s just part of his charm. He lives in a pineapple house, in a coral reef, with nearby best friends Patrick Star,(Jack Schafler), his neighbor Squidward Tentacles (Isaac Motes) and Sandy Cheeks (Taylor Tunstall).

Conceived and directed by Tina Landau, with book by Kyle Jarrow, orchestrations by Tom Kitt, choreography by Christopher Gattelli and songs by a number of composers, “SpongeBob SquarePants The Broadway Musical” will be making its spectacular stop at Shelton’s Center Stage Theatre by theYouth CONNection, with students from ages 14 to 23, until Sunday, August 2 and the whole family is invited.

Originally a highly successful animated series on Nickelodeon, it has now garnered 12 Tony Award nominations. Filled with sponges, squid, starfish, snails and sardines, it quickly plunges the residents of Bikini Bottom into panic mode. A nearby volcano at Mount Humongous will soon erupt and the town will be destroyed.

The evil doers in town, the married couple Sheldon Plankton (Ian Rosenay) and Karen the Computer (Anna Edwards) have a plan to talk the citizens into entering their escape pod, but it’s really a plot to hypnotize the unsuspected to like the chum they serve at their restaurant the Chum Bucket. Their rival restaurant the Krusty Krab would be devastated. A fundraising concert is planned to help the cause.

While being only a sponge, the inventive SpongeBob has a plan of his own to save the town, calling on his friendship with Patrick and Sandy to help. Difficulties ensue and the townspeople are soon conflicted about whom to believe and to follow. Loyalties are tested and disaster seems inevitable. Come discover for yourself if Bikini Bottom is doomed to disappear forever. A giant cast of enthusiastic kids keeps the high energy jumping all the way to the top of the menacing volcano. Kudos to co-director Rob Esposito working with co-director Katie Sedlock who also works overtime as choreographer and costumer.

For tickets ($22-42), call the Center Stage Theatre, 54 Grove Street, Shelton at 203-225-6079- or online at centerstageshelton.org or boxoffice@centerstageshelton.org. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Can a lowly simple sponge find the courage to save his home and his friends and prove his bravery? Grab a crab, an octopus or a snail and help to save the day, turning the tide from “No Control” to “Hero Is My Middle Name” to “Best Day Ever.”

WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE SALUTES AGATHA CHRISTIE

Playing the game of Clue with Professor Plum in the dining room with a candlestick will in no way prepare you for a visit to the Westport Country Playhouse for the hundredth anniversary of Agatha Christie’s “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.” Until Saturday, August 1, the story called her masterpiece will be filled with likely murder suspects, each hiding secrets and concealing motives. Since 1926, her crime novel has enjoyed being named in fifth place by the Crime Writers Association in Britain in a list of The Top Crime Novels of All Time, and has also been the first sound film in 1931, a radio play in 1939, an even longer radio play in 1987, a television play in 2000, and a graphic novel in Japan in 2018. Now sit back and thoroughly enjoy Artistic Director Mark Shanahan’s new adaptation of the original where you are challenged to find the killer. Evaluating clues and debating the possibilities is half the fun of the game.

The story’s narrator Dr. James Sheppard, a genial and helpful John Rapson, introduces the first victim, a Mrs. Ferrars, who committed suicide over her guilt at killing her abusive husband a year earlier. She is a rich widow in the English country village of King’s Abbot and engaged to marry Roger Ackroyd, Mark Silence, and this is all according to the milkman who shared all the gossip with Dr. Sheppard’s unmarried sister, a caring Erin Noel Grennan’s Caroline. Also quickly revealed is that someone has had knowledge of her crime and has been blackmailing her.

The good doctor is soon summoned to the mansion of his friend Roger Ackroyd, a wealthy widower and owner of a nearby estate. Roger urgently wants to speak to him, but before he can, Roger is found with an antique dagger in his neck. When the local constable arrive, Allen Gilmore’s Inspector Raglan, a number of suspects have gathered to exclaim over the latest crime. They include Major Blunt, Richard R. Henry, Roger's niece Flora, Shereen Ahmed, Flora’s fiancee Ralph Paton, Joe Delafield, Flora’s mother Gertrude, Karen Ziemba, Roger’s secretary Helen, Nicole Shalhoub, Roger’s maid Ursula, Katy Tang, and, of course, the Butler, Parker, Tom Hewitt. Summoned to help solve the crime is also the famed, newly retired Anthony Cochrane’s Hercule Poirot. There are no end of suspects fully capable of being both blackmailer and murderer, all with assorted motives and numerous secrets they each are in no hurry to reveal.

Splashes of humor lighten the interrogations that ensue, as an inquest is promised, other villagers are questioned as to their whereabouts, and some red herrings are scattered. At intermission, it is a lot of fun to speculate on who the responsible party might be or if there could be a pair of murderers at work. The audience is encouraged to use their “little grey cells” in determining who had opportunity and who had a need for money, a desire for lust, or a seeking for revenge. Mark Shanahan directs this involving drama on a stylishly designed set by Charlie Corcoran.

For tickets ($60-90), call the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport at 203-227-4177 or online at westportplayhouse.org. Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Come test your detective skills on what Mark Shanahan calls his adaptation, “a labor of love,” one that stays mostly faithful to the original and be sure not to give away the name of the perpetrator when you laud his literary efforts.

MAGICAL MUSICAL "MATILDA" COMES TO NEW CANAAN THANKS TO STONC

The Summer Theatre of New Canaan has a special treat for children of all ages that is filled with music and mystery, magic and meanies, that will keep you on the edge of your seat at the air conditioned New Canaan High School on 11 Farm Road until Sunday, July 26 in New Canaan.

Imagine how Harry Potter must have felt being brought up by family members who were muggles and not understanding or compatible with his magical tendencies. Now think of a clever little girl, known for her creative and brilliant ways, who is being raised by less than intelligent caregivers. Her dad is a car salesman with all the attendant challenges in the honesty department while her mother is an amateur ballroom dancer who wants to be valued for her looks and dancing skills rather than her mind.

Come meet Matilda, a precocious and precious Charlotte Surak and the enterprising star of “Matilda the Musical,” created from a story by Roald Dahl and being brought to prominent life by Tim Minchin, music and lyrics, book by Dennis Kelly, and additional lyrics by Chris Nightingale, three weeks only.

At the age of five, Matilda has her hands full at home dealing with her parents, Harry and Zinnia Wormwood, (Christopher Hudson Myers and Rachel MacIsaac Myers), who are less than encouraging. They feel that their daughter is “batty” and do little to feed her intellect. At school, at Crunchem Hall, Matilda continues to fight the establishment as Agatha Trunchbull (Meghan Louise Taylor) is the headmistress from H-E- Double Hockey Sticks and gives tyrants and bullies a bad name.

Fortunately, Matilda finds allies who appreciate her in her meek but supportive kindergarten teacher, Miss Honey, (Mary McNulty) and Mrs. Phelps, (Keisha T. Fraser) the helpful librarian, who provides reading challenges and loves Matilda’s incredible stories. Here is a little girl who cut her imagination on Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling and is enamored by Will Shakespeare.

To help herself get along, Matilda is not adverse to using a little trickery to get the results she desires, like waking up her parents to their neglect of her needs. She also imagines an elaborate story of two famed acrobatics (Hannah Risner and Miguel-Andres Garcia) who can’t have children and the tragedy they experience. Matilda mischievously puts glue on her father’s hat so it won’t come off, gets blamed for eating a chocolate cake desired by the headmistress even though it was devoured by a fellow student Bruce (Jack Ranieri) and helps all the revolting students like Lavender (Valentina Miller) when a bug appears mysteriously in Miss Trunchbull’s water glass.

Her greatest triumph, however, is her defeat of the headmistress, who dismisses her students as “shriveled losers.” Come see how Matilda puts her properly in her place, because even the nicest child sometimes has to be “a little bit naughty.” Songs like “When I Grow Up,” “Naughty” and “Revolting Children” underscore Matilda’s path to happiness.

For tickets ($29-$94), call Simmer theatre of New Canaan at 203-966-4634 or online at stoncl.org. Performances are Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Allegra Libonati directs this exciting tale with skill and sensitivity.

Take a seat at your school desk with your plaid book bag, make some paper airplanes and spitballs and prepare to learn some important lessons about life, taught by a special child with telekinetic powers and her slightly revolting but enthusiastic friends.