"SHUCKED" A FARM FABLE MUSICAL AT THE BUSHNELL TILL MARCH 1

Two of the most glorious summer treats are eating a fresh ear of sweet corn, slurping with salt and butter, followed by an ice-cold wedge of watermelon. They both speak summer delight and they are the epitome of pleasure. Even though it is far from this favorite season, it wouldn’t hurt to relish in the memories that summer provides. Luckily the Bushnell Performing Arts Center has just the silky solution with the novel musical “Shucked” from Tuesday, February 24 until Sunday, March 1 in Hartford.

This tall grass produces sugary kernels that can be eaten cooked or raw, straight from the cob or removed, as a vegetable, in salads, as a side dish, even in ice cream. It can grow as high as three floors tall, each ear has 800 kernels in even rows, and its leaves were once chewed as gum by Native Americans. It first appeared in Brazil about 1000 years ago and, if you're betting, yellow corn is sweeter than white corn.

This “corny” Tony Award winning musical comedy has book by Robert Horn, score by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, and is directed by Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien. This farm to fable country tale centers on Cobb County where Maizy and Beau try to save a failing corn crop, work on securing their true love and keep the community safe. The Wall Street Journal called it “flat out hilarious” so put on your overalls, stick an ear of corn in trusty holders, and plan to come at 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to learn to line dance on the third floor of the Belding lobby Tuesday to Friday night. This may be the only musical where calling it “seedy” is a compliment.

For tickets ($ 48.50-191. ), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at bushnell.org. Performances are Tuesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Celebrate summer a few months early with a sweet corn festival that honors the season and the best food as well as love and community. Ah, shucks it’s special!

WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS "MOTHERS KNOW BEST"

If your memory is good, assuming you were already alive way back when, you can conjure up a radio show from 1949 that found a new home on television in 1954. It starred Robert Young as Jim Anderson and Jane Wyatt as his wife Margaret, and became a classic American sitcom about their three children Betty, Bud and Kathy (or Kitten to you), their daily challenges, in a middle class family living happy under one roof in a fictional Midwestern town Springfield.

As the series “Father Knows Best,” the show portrayed family life, the dynamics between parents and children, was highly-rated, ranked in the top ten Neilsen ratings, won several Emmy Awards and achieved high marks in telling character driven stories. Now move over “Father Knows Best,” and make room for a new team in town: Laura and Linda Benanti.

Westport Country Playhouse is offering up “Mothers Know Best” for your entertainment pleasure on Saturday, February 28 at 8 p.m. as a charming cabaret show from this mother/daughter duo. Laura, the daughter of Linda Wonneberger, a vocal coach and former actress and Martin Vidrovici, a Broadway actor and singer, is a Tony Award-winning actress and singer of Irish, German, and Serbian origin. Her credits include playing Maria von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” and Louise in "Gypsy” for which she won a Tony for Best Featured Actress. In addition, she was Tony-nominated for her roles in "Swing,” “Into the Woods,” “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” and “She Loves Me.”

Laura has also had appearances on series and sitcoms like “Go On,” “Nashville,” “Laura,” “Supergirl,” “The Detour,” “Gossip Girl” and “The Gilded Age.” You may remember seeing her, since 2016, on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert as First Lady Melania Trump. Laura Benanti has played everyone from Eliza Doolittle to Cinderella to Tallulah Bankhead. She is a big fan of Stephen Sondheim, has written a comedic board book for mothers M is for Mama (and also Merlot): A Modern Mom’s ABCs and toured around the world performing concerts. She is currently filming the Sony Pictures comedy NO HARD FEELINGS opposite Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Lawrence as well as The SHADE based on the award-winning short of the same name. Her performance in all forms of media have been called “a revelation,” “almost steals the show,” "one of our finest stage actresses,” a bold and energetic impression,” "stylish, witty and sneaklily funny,” and “show-stealing performance.”

Billy Stritch provides musical direction when Laura joins her mom Linda focusing on mother-daughter relationships in a sweet and touchingly humorous way. Mom has been seen in such shows as “The Odyssey,” “The Fantastics,” “Camelot,” “The Music Man,” “A Little Night Music,” “No, No, Nanette,” and “Guys and Dolls,” and many more. Now she has a vocal studio in New Jersey where she teaches local students to Broadway stars.

Linda is happily postponing retirement to go across country with Laura in a new entertainment endeavor with prior stops at 54 Below and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For tickets ($95, 85, and 75), call Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport at 203-227-4177 or online at box-office@westportplayhouse.org.

Come hear these two special ladies share meaningful parenting stories and styles, Linda's love of Judy Garland, sing duets like “Children Will Listen,” Laura sing a medley of songs from “My Fair Lady,” and originals songs she wrote herself and gift the audience with a rare present of their true affection as mother/ daughter, proving over again that “Mothers Know Best.” Sorry, Robert Young, you’ve been replaced.

NEED A LAUGH? YALE REP OFFERING "HA, HA, HA, HA, HA,HA, HA"

Imagine you are in a large auditorium, with a diversity of other people, and a complete stranger looks you right in the face and asks you if you have a Problem what might you say? If your name is Julia Masli, a clown from Estonia, you might not allow the stranger to be mute and not reply, You’d better come up with a “problem”pronto. Hopefully it’s a difficulty that can be solved in seventy interesting moments at that, especially if you are at the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven and the evening is entitled “Ha, Ha, Ha,Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha” until February 7.

Julia appears as a Geisha personality, a soft spoken clown clad in a royal blue gown with an abundance of arms and legs, part psychologist , part entertainer, part conversationalist. When she walks, bells ring. She cares about people and what makes them tick and ticks them off. If she can solve their problems, all the better. If a member of the audience is cold, Julia will seek to warm them up by encouraging neighboring patrons to share their coats, scarves and sweaters. If she takes your chair, she promptly breaks it into pieces and then challenges you to put it back together.

If you are feeling sorry for yourself and missing your mother Mindy in Chicago, she will conveniently find a phone and treat you to a friendly phone call. It is even funnier when mom isn’t home and has to call you back. At least one graduate student in theater is plagued with money trouble, while another is hungry. A large pizza magically falls from the sky to feed the masses. Two sisters switch identities while a whole family tries to solve disagreements in a peaceful manner. A young man who experiences writer’s block is encouraged to sit at a desk on stage and contemplate a change of study. He needs to research a topic more intriguing than statistics.

While the man hammering his chair back together is annoyingly noisy, a debate rages on about colonialism and capitalism and how best to rebuild a broken world by giving things away. One tired girl is tucked into a toasty bed and told to take a restful nap while an evil man is sent to the showers to cleanse his soul. He is a symbol of the bad things we are to let go of tonight along with our stress and our worries. If you can spare one sock, Julia would like you to donate it to her cause and she proceeds to burn it. The engineer then reviews all the “problems” of the evening to show how successful Julia is with her tasks, in solving all she tackled. Clearly the world is not without its needs and if we work together so much can be accomplished. Kim Noble directs this unusual form of entertainment presented by A Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Touring Production.

For tickets ($15-65 limited availability), call the Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven at 203-432-1234 or online at yalerep.org. Friday 8 p.m. and Saturday 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. are virtually sold out.

Let Julia Masli invite you to enter her world of improvisation and examine your personal problems with the hope of making your individual world a better place to live and to play.

UPSTAGED!: “THE PLAY’S THE THING” BY STUART BROWN SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2026, PALACE THEATER

WATERBURY, CT – On Saturday, March 7 at 2:00 p.m., West Hartford theater critic and playwright Stuart Brown will share his ideas on how to structure a 10-minute play for the stage and how inspiration plays a key role in the writing process. Following Brown’s presentation, actors Cheyenne Walent and Dan Willey will perform two of his works. There will be a talkback afterward to help audience members better understand the creative process and the craft of writing for the stage. “Stuart Brown has a remarkable ability to distill human experience into powerful, compact storytelling,” said Sheree Marcucci, Palace Theater’s Director of Special Projects & Curated Programs. “His work exemplifies what the Upstaged! series is all about—intimate, thoughtful theater that sparks conversation and invites audiences inside the creative journey.” Brown’s 10-minute plays have been praised for their emotional clarity, sharp observation, and understated humor. Audiences and critics alike have noted his skill in creating fully realized narratives within a compressed format, often highlighting his ability to balance warmth and wit while exploring deeply personal moments. His work has been described as accessible yet resonant, offering insight without excess and leaving a lasting impression well beyond its brief runtime. Tickets are $15 and available on a first-come, first-served basis due to limited seating. For tickets and information, visit palacetheaterct.org or call 203-346-2000. This performance is made possible through the generous support of Mary Ellen & Tim Rourke and Thomaston Savings Bank. About Stuart Brown Stuart Brown, who retired after 32 years as Director of Student Services at UConn Waterbury, began writing 10-minute plays in 2023. His works are rooted in personal experience and observation, often infused with humor. Each 10-minute play features a fully realized arc with a beginning, middle, and end—mirroring the structure of a full-length play. Brown has also written three one-act plays. His play Lady Jigsaw was presented at the Chestnut Street Playhouse New Playwrights Festival in September 2025. He is an active member of the CT Critics Circle and is a member of the Outer Critics Circle. Brown also produces the online radio program ”Sounds of Broadway (SoundsofBroadway.com). About the Upstaged! series Part of the Palace Theater’s Spotlight Series, Upstaged! is an eclectic collection of theatrical experiences presented in an intimate setting. Each performance centers on the art of storytelling, inviting audiences to engage, connect, and explore. About the Palace Theater Located in Downtown Waterbury, Connecticut, the Palace Theater is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit performing arts center with a mission “to preserve and operate the historic Palace Theater as a performing arts center and community gathering place that provides a focal point of cultural activity and educational outreach for diverse audiences.” The Palace Theater gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support for the Spotlight Series by the Connecticut Community Foundation, Mary Ellen & Tim Rourke, The United Way of Greater Waterbury, Thomaston Savings Bank, The Village at East Farms, and Bluebird Counseling. For more information, visit: www.palacetheaterct.org. # # #

OPEN THE SACRED SCRIPT TO "GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL!” LAUGH and LEARN

Are you familiar with that inventive man from Germany Johannes Gutenberg who long ago created the printing press and produced the first copy of the Bible. This all happened way, way back in 1454 and, according to records, only 180 copies were engraved and stamped, with color added by the purchasers. Just 49 remain of this first large-format typographic book printed in Mainz, Germany, with just 42 lines on a page. Moveable type in Korea accounts for the first printed book nearly a century before.

If you are naturally curious and want to know more about Johannes, then Playhouse on Park in West Hartford has just the answer for you. Before Sunday, February 8, plan to visit "Gutenberg! The Musical” created by Anthony King and Scott Brown for a history lesson courtesy of two energetic and enthusiastic men Jeremiah Michael Ginn and John Wascavage as Bud Davenport and Doug Simon with Miles Messier on piano as Charles and Jimmy Donohue as swing.

You are comically invited to the mostly imaginative journey to the world of Johannes Gutenberg, without benefit of Wikipedia or Google or any historical documents. “Gutenberg! The Musical!” originally written in 2005, centers on Bud and Doug who deliberately and determinately want to create a play about this guy named Gutenberg who is the only one in his depressing German town named Schlimmer who can read. One night this inventive lad decides to turn his wine press into a printing press and Bud and Doug find themselves off and running making stuff up, from A to Z, to create a highly fictional version that may or may not have a page or fact of truth.

Bud and Doug want to become producers on Broadway and set about “selling” their concept to any one with money enough to fund it. They stretch their talent and their truth, overlooking the facts as minor in significance. With a limited amount of talent, the pair are forced to play all the cast, using a series of hats with their characters’ names on them and switch the caps like Dr. Seuss’s story about Bartholomew’s 500 hats.

Aiding Gutenberg is his less than brainy but beautiful assistant Helvetica (note the pun on a printing type) and Monk, the villain of the piece, who is determined to foil Johannes in his quest by distorting the Bible verses and destroying the printing press. In this musical spoof, they sing all the songs and enthusiastically play all the parts. Their hope and dream is to persuade the producers to fund their crazy project straight to stardom.

For tickets ($ 55 adults, $52 students and seniors,$25 10:30 a.m.), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park, West Hartford at 860-523-5900 ext. 10 or online at http://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 pm., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. followed by a talkback.

Show your ticket for a 10% discount at Gather 55, a theater dining partner.

A hearty Bravo and Hats Off to Bud and Doug for their exciting new adventure, and hope they break a leg or three along the way to Broadway.

A ROMP WITH ROMANCE OR INCIDENTS WITH INFIDELITY; YOUR CHOICE

For playwright Sandy Rustin, a beautiful 1920’s English cottage is the perfect setting to plant tulips, daisies and secrets. She is focusing her sense of humor on affairs, extra marital relationships and infidelity and manages to create a charming and hysterical comic farce. Husbands, wives and lovers run amok as partners exchange keys, reveal and confess intimacies, and question their choices in marriage and in cheating. Get your scorecard ready or dance card if you prefer as Hartford Stage, until Sunday, February 8, lets Cupid’s arrows fly hither and yon, striking wherever and whomever they may in “The Cottage.”

Sylvia (Mary Cavett) and Beau (Jordan Sobel), her husband's brother, have been rendezvousing once a year, for seven years, and now she has determined all by herself that they really should have married each other long ago. To that end she has determined to make that happen, without discussing it with Beau, by sending her husband Clarke (Craig Wesley Divino) and Beau’s wife Marjorie (Kate MacCluggage) telegrams confessing that divorces are in their future. Needless to say, the spouses in question, one nine months pregnant arrive at the cottage door.

Not to worry, the second couple are carrying on an affair of their own and Clarke is the father of Marjorie's baby, in case you’re worried. Next in the door is Dierdre (Jetta Juriansz), there to surprise Beau but is the unknown prize package to Sylvia. Last to arrive is Sylvia’s long lost, supposedly dead, teen lover Richard (Matthew J. Harris) who is currently married to Dierdre and has a reputation for murdering all of her illicit suiters. With the twists and turns of the plot, you will have fun matching all the partners as they hop on and off the merry-go-round of beds.

Enjoy playing the games, hide and seek, it, spin the bottle, charades, here comes the bride, dueling with feather dusters as Hunter Kaczorowski’s elegant costumes flit and flounce up and down the stairs of Tim Mackabee’s countryside romantic retreat, with the fine timing of Zoe Golub-Sass’s direction.

For tickets ($20-115), call Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at HartfordStage.org. Performance areTuesday to Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.

No guilt required as you laugh at the antics of these deliciously decadent participants in indecent peccadillos where these entangled sexual games are hysterically afoot.

STUPENDOUS AND SPIRITED "SUFFS" AT THE BUSHNELL

For women, the right to vote was a sacred privilege, one that was fought for and significant to win. The 19th Amendment was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, hard battled after decades of struggle for suffragettes. Not all women, particularly Black and native American. won this fight immediately. This milestone was achieved after generations of protest during which women wrote, lectured, marched and even practiced civil disobedience to achieve a permanent change in the Constitution. Their victory, that began in the 1800’s, took decades to achieve. Women worked tirelessly to pass specific legislation state by state, went to court to challenge men over voting laws, picketed, held silent vigils, suffered hunger strikes, and even went to jail to show their resistance.

When President Wilson finally changed his position in 1918 to support this amendment, the political balance shifted its support. It was not until long into the 20th century, in 1965 , that minority groups finally gained the right to equal voting rights. Come patriotically join the parade of fearless women at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts when “Suffs”, with book, music and lyrics by Shaina Taub, unfolds its dramatic story from now until Sunday, February 1. Follow this powerful story as women from all walks of life risked their personal well being to gain the right to vote, even it meant the sacrifice of their lives.

A musical with a heartfelt message that mobilized females to fight for a captivating cause will excite and entertain and revolutionize. In the United States, these women followed the lead of their sisters in Britain, New Zealand and Australia to unite. With a motto "deeds, not words” they battled politicians and police, were attacked and sexually assaulted, smashed windows, and some, like 14 year old Emmeline Pankhurst began their dedicated campaign when only 14 years of age.

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With triumphant tunes like “Let Mother Vote,” “Wait My Turn,” “Show Them Who You Are,” “I Was Here,” “Finish the Fight,” and "Keep Fighting,” we meet heroines like Alice Paul (Maya Keleher), Inez Milholland (Monica Tulia Ramirez), Ida B. Wells (Danyel Fulton) and Carrie Chapman Catt (Marya Grandy) in this glorious all female cast, in this dedicated love letter to daughters, mothers, sisters and wives of history.

For tickets ($48.50-167.50), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at bushnell.org. Performances are at Wednesday to 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. Visit the tables in the lobby dedicated to women and girls and voting.

Join the sisterhood and proudly carry the flag and march passionately for democracy, admiring and applauding the devoted women who dedicated their lives making the women’s right to vote a reality.