COME SEE “WHAT THE BUTLER SAW”

ROBERT STANTON, JULIAN GAMBLE AND CHRIS GHAFFARI
PHOTO BY CAROL ROSEGG

The summer season, with its excesses of heat and humidity, lends itself to a shedding of clothing for comfort and convenience.  The Westport Country Playhouse surely subscribes to that prescription for coolness in its entertaining farce of an offering in “What the Butler Saw” by Joe Orton until Saturday, September 10.  Being scantily clad, with even a streak of nudity, is clearly the order of the day.

When you go for a job interview, you expect to be questioned on your qualifications for the position, your prior work experience, a few references for validation, the standard inquisition.  Geraldine Barclay, an innocent Sarah Manton, discovers early on that Dr. Prentice, an inventive Robert Stanton, has a far different method of determining her suitability for the job as his secretary.  He asks her to undress for his personal, hands on, inspection.  Thus starts the comic chaos that is let loose in this psychiatrist’s clinic.

Before he can properly “handle” the situation, the good doctor’s wife, a sex seeking Patricia Kalember, unexpectedly arrives…with her own set of sexual problems.  She has been attacked by a bellhop at a hotel meeting and now said bellhop, Chris Ghaffari’s Nicholas Beckett, has incriminating photos just properly developed for blackmail.  Tired of carrying luggage, Nick wants to be Dr. Prentice’s new secretary.

Add  to the confusion an unannounced inspection by the government in the form of one Dr Rance by that superb actor of farces Paxton Whitehead who delights in all the myriad of phobias and symptoms of insanity that are flying from desk top to patient couch.  Clothing and the lack of it, cross dressing and disguises, scandalous behavior, accusations of impropriety and general lunacy are the hallmarks of the day.  By the time the police arrive, in the form of Sergeant Match, an easily confused Julian Gamble, all bets and outfits are off and lunacy reigns supreme.  

Bizarre behavior, nervous breakdowns, strait jackets and missing parts of Winston Churchill are all inmates in the madhouse Orton has created, in his last play before his early and untimely death at 34. John Tillinger, who has directed more than a dozen farces at WCP to great acclaim, has done it again with “What the Butler Saw.”

For tickets ($30 and up), call the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport at 203-227-4177 or 888-927-7529 or online at www.westportplayhouse.org.  Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Come laugh at the confusion that erupts as men dress as women and women dress as men and some don’t dress at all in this British take on morals and mores.

HOPSCOTCHING THROUGH SUMMER ON THE STAGE

                                       "ANASTASIA" AT THE HARTFORD STAGE

The summer season is quickly waning and coming to a close, a good time to stop and reflect on the best theater we’ve just experienced.  Surely the high point of June (if not the year) was the spectacular epic production of “Anastasia” that blazed gloriously at the Hartford Stage and is on its magical journey straight to Broadway.  The fairy tale of a lost Russian princess who finds her way to love and happiness was a definite crowd pleaser.

If you sat under the stars, often by a lovely body of water or under trees lit by a million fireflies, you saw an honorable Hamlet avenge his father’s death with Shakespeare on the Sound in Rowayton, learned how Petruchio curbed the cursed tongued Kate in CT Free Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” at Stratford’s American Shakespeare Theatre or followed the comic antics of crazed lovers under a spell in Elm Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at New Haven’s Edgerton Park (still available until September 4, except Mondays, at 8 p.m.).

Perhaps you shopped in Barbra Streisand’s Malibu mall in her basement in “Buyer and Cellar” at Westport Country Playhouse as Michael Urie performed a one man show about the diva and her unique ways or journeyed to The Kate for another tour de force as Jonathan Brooke told stories and sang about her unusual mom in “My Mother Has 4 Noses.”  Hopefully you were in step to follow the dreams of the wannabe stars of West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park’s energetic offering of “A Chorus Line” or took a leap up the corporate ladder to catch CT Repertory’s musical tribute in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” at UCONN.

A smooth sail on a raft on the Mississippi would have carried you along with Huck Finn and his slave pal Jim in “Big River” at the Sharon Playhouse in Sharon while an awesome “West Side Story” was barely contained in the big white tent erected by Summer Theater of New Canaan.  For a healthy dose of “all that jazz” you had to travel to Ivoryton Playhouse to catch “Chicago" while Goodspeed Musicals scored big time with its heavenly revival of “Bye Bye Birdie.”

Waterford’s Eugene O’Neill Theater Center offered non-stop pleasure, with puppets, plays, musicals and cabarets all summer long.  Don’t admit you missed all they had to give. Hartford TheaterWorks set its sights on Scotland with a jaunt, slightly illegal, between a pair of cohorts in “Midsummer” while Opera Theater of CT soared with the melodramatic tale of “Carmen” in Clinton. 

Hopefully you caught the musical about choices that danced its way into the Bushnell in Hartford as “If/Then” or that perennial favorite “The Fantasticks” at Berlin’s CT Cabaret (still playing weekends  until September 24, not Labor Day).  Just this week local teenage phenom Braiden Sunshine shone brightly at The Kate as the headliner.

Whatever your pleasure, there was surely a perfect offering somewhere in the state.  We are blessed with great theater in Connecticut.  Take advantage of all the gifts.

COME CELEBRATE BEAUTY AND BUTTERFLIES

As a child, Jamie Hulley was fascinated by butterflies, the whole notion of metamorphosis, of evolving into something bigger and more beautiful than a caterpillar and cocoon. She especially  loved the Monarch and frequently incorporated it into her own drawings and art work.  How appropriate it is, therefore, that the butterfly is the symbol of the foundation created to honor and pay tribute to her memory.

Talented artistically, as a writer, actor, comedian, singer, dancer, songwriter, artist and photographer, Jamie was a junior at Wesleyan University, just home from a spring semester in Italy, when she died two weeks before her 21st birthday from an aggressive form of lymphoma.  To keep her memory and spirit alive, a Jamie A. Hulley Arts Foundation was established fourteen years ago by family, neighbors and friends who wanted to do something.

 As her mother Judy Primavera, president of the Foundation and a professor of psychology and head of the department at Fairfield University, explains it, “We knew a road race was not Jamie’s thing.  Contributing to the arts that Jamie loved was our answer.”

The first fundraiser featured a local band with 200 people attending and it has grown like Topsie to 700 by last year’s count.  This year the Quick Center at Fairfield University will be opening its doors again, doing the honors on Saturday, September 10 at 6 p.m., with light food and drink, a silent and live auction of 150 items and a 7 p.m. performances by "FOUR by FOUR-A Tribute to the Legendary Music of the Beach Boys, Beatles, Bee Gees and Motown.” These headliners are coming straight from Las Vegas with the iconic musical stylings from the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s.  For tickets ($45 in advance, $50 at the door), call the Quick Center box office at 203-254-4010 or 1-877-ARTS-396.  For information call 203-891-8869 or online to www.jamieart@snet.net.

Since its creation, the Jamie A. Hulley Foundation has raised $700,000 to provide opportunities for young artists to pursue their dreams and develop their talents, in the community as well as in elementary, middle and high schools.  As Jamie herself often said, “What would I want with small dreams?”

To that end, the non-profit organization endows scholarships, supports educational programs and provides assistance to the arts all over the state but especially in the greater New Haven and Fairfield counties.  Jamie lived in Orange with her mom Judy, her dad Fred Hulley and her younger sister Kari.

Among its dozens of programs are fourteen children who are attending the same summer theater camp Jamie went to, nine who are receiving partial college scholarships for art, ones that will increase over their four years, year-round voice lessons for students who would otherwise not be able to afford them and support for a whole year of full-scale theater productions-one a month.

Jamie was a “relationship person,” one who knew now to make everyone feel special, a girl with a laugh that could be heard all the way down a school hall.  How appropriate is it that the foundation named for her supports community groups like the Square Foot Theatre in Wallingford, with its directors Jared Brown and Patrick Laffin, with Brown serving as the evening’s Master of Ceremonies on September 10.

Another innovative partner that has blossomed under the Foundation’s wing is the Amity Creative Theatre and its directors Andrea and Rob Kennedy who will serve as co-hosts and auctioneers.  Also intimately involved in the evening will be Connor Deane and J. Scott Handley from Fairfield’s Broadway Method Academy who will provide a bevy of young aspiring stars to perform as will the Square Foot Theatre and the Amity Creative Theatre.

Whether it’s encouraging a young filmmaker, putting ballet shoes on a budding diva, funding a class project with a published author to help students write their own books, providing a social studies class with lessons in Latin American ballroom dancing or opening a Magic Storybook for second graders to develop their own storytelling skills, all the dollars raised at events like the one at the Quick Center at Fairfield University are immediately plowed back into deserving projects, investing in young people, planting seeds so the arts will grow and flourish. 

Come help this finely tuned organization harvest even more “artistic crops.”  Come on Saturday, September 10 at 6 p.m. for “An Evening for the Arts," to honor the memory of a girl who believed in beauty and butterflies and making the world a better place.  Enjoy light hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer, bid on auction items like tickets to a Broadway show, the Boston Red Sox or a taping of Jimmy Fallon and be nostalgically entertained by the legendary group FOUR by FOUR.  Who could ask for anything more?

COME TO THE SHARON PLAYHOUSE TO BE PART OF “QUARTET”

If you have known the glamor and excitement of performing arias in front of thousands, being relegated to a rocking chair may be a fate worse than permanent laryngitis.  Retirement may be the goal and envy of many, but for four aging opera singers it is like an appointment to perform for an audience of one, Dr. Kevorkian.

ELIZABETH FRANZ   PHOTO BY RANDY O'ROURKE

The Sharon Playhouse has your Adirondack chair ready on the porch for you to relax in, to enjoy “”Quartet” by Ronald Harwood until Sunday, August 28.  There’s no need to prepare a performance piece from “Carmen” for this talented troupe whose applause has echoed into obscurity.  Now they call The Retirement Home for Artists their final stage and it is as welcome as a balloon without helium, a garden without roses and a refrigerator without caviar.

Come meet the “inmates,” Cissy (Patricia McAneny), Reggie (Joseph Hindy) and Wilfred (Greg Mullavey) as they wile away the hours, fussing about a lack of marmalade with their breakfast toast and listening to great music from their past successes on headphones.  They come to life when they learn a new arrival is at the door: Jean Horton (Elizabeth Franz).

How will Jean’s unexpected presence change the dynamics of the trio?  Will Wilfred still employ sexual antics for Cissy’s benefit?  Will Reggie confess he was once briefly married to Jean?  A crisis of anticipation emerges when the “quartet” is invited to sing the finale of “Rigoletto” at the October 10 birthday celebration of Giuseppe Verdi.  Why does Jean refuse to take part?  Can the others persuade her of the wonder of this honor?  John Simpkins directs this gentle foray into the aging process and the price it costs.

For tickets ($20-47), call the Sharon Playhouse, 49 Amenia road, Sharon at 860-364-7469 or online at www.sharonplayhouse.org.  Performances are Tuesday to Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Can these four, who knew the glory of fame on stage, back in the day, momentarily fling off the ravages of age and triumph once again?

CT CABARET OFFERS "THE FANTASTICKS" IN BERLIN

LUISA (JILLIAN CAILLOUETTE), MATT (JORDAN DUVALL) AND EL GALLO (JON ESCOBAR)

Jack Benny was proud to be perpetually 39 years of age.  The oldest running musical off-Broadway, “The Fantasticks,” is also proud to be 39 but it is counting on surpassing that number in short order.  To date, since 1960, over 21,000 performances of this Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt show have toured all over the world and now you can have a front row seat to see what all the hoopla is about or revisit a show you have loved in the past.  Either way, the Connecticut Cabaret Theatre in Berlin has your table waiting, weekends until September 24 (no performances Labor Day weekend).

The plot of the musical is simple.  Two well meaning fathers are in cahoots to encourage their children, Luisa and Matt, to fall in love.  To that end, they forbid them to speak or meet and even go so far as to build a wall between them.  Of course, these tactics do what they had hoped for and push the pair into a romantic tizzy.  Their scheming, however, has unexpected consequences of day dreaming morphing into nightmares and young innocence becoming cruel awakenings.  The fairy tale does not easily become happily ever after.

Come meet the interfering fathers Hucklebee (George Lombardo) and Bellomy (Russell Fish) who are so protective of their offspring, Matt (Jordan DuVall) and Luisa (Jillian Caillouette), that they try to manipulate their feelings and end up in trouble for it.  Perhaps they should have stuck to raising vegetables because as they sing so philosophically, when you plant a carrot you get a carrot, but with children who knows.

The gallant El Gallo (Jon Escobar) narrates the tale and is hired by the dads to fake an abduction of Luisa so Matt can heroically save her.  The plot is aided by the comic actors Mortimer (James J. Moran) who specializes in dying and Henry (Dave Wall) who has forgotten more lines of Shakespeare than most of us even know. Sue Emond is effective and silent as the wall that has been erected to separate the young lovers, with her chest of tricks and props to aid and abet the action.

The road to true love is full of bumps as both Matt and Luisa discover when they let the real world enter their naive surroundings.  Memorable songs like “Try to Remember,” “Soon It’s Gonna Rain,” “Plant a Radish” and “Round and Round” advance the story.  The shielding masks of childhood are soon torn away as romantic dreams are shattered. Kris McMurray does a splendid job directing a fine cast in this enduring classic of love and loss.

For tickets ($30), call the CT Cabaret Theatre, 31 Webster Square Road, Berlin at 860-829-1248 or online at www.ctcabaret.com.  Performances are Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7:15 p.m.  Bring goodies to share at your table or plan to buy dessert and drinks on site.

Join two parents in their age old quest to do the best for their offspring by scheming and plotting and manipulating and causing results that threaten to destroy all they had hoped to create.

CT FREE SHAKESPEARE PRESENTS COMEDY IN STRATFORD

KATRINA FOY, CRAIG ANTHONY BANNISTER AND IAN EATON

Is there enough money, gold, jewels or treasure in the world to persuade you to marry a person of shrewish disposition, a fiend with a cursed tongue and a sour temperament?  A wasp who stings with words and battles with physical arms?  Would this be your prize package?  But if you look long and hard enough like Hortensio and old Gremio do, you might just find a likely candidate in the supremely confident Petruchio (Ian Eaton) who has conveniently come from Padua with his man servant Grumio (Mark Friedlander) for the sole purpose of matrimony.

You are invited to settle back on blanket or beach chair, with or without picnic basket, on the lovely shores along Stratford’s American Shakespeare Festival Theatre grounds, outdoors at sunset, for a delightful production of “The Taming of the Shrew” until Sunday, August 21, evenings at 8 p.m. by CT Free Shakespeare Company, enjoying its 17th season of fine family entertainment.

Hortensio (Ryan Halsaver) and old Gremio (Andrew Bryce) have a selfish reason for inveigling Petruchio’s help. They want him to marry the obstinent Katherina (Katrina Foy), the elder daughter of Baptista (Craig Anthony Bannister), for it is only when Kate is wed that his pretty agreeable younger daughter Bianca (Marca Leigh) will then be free to select a mate.  Both Hortensio and old Gremio are vying for that honor.

All this confused merriment is a play or a ploy to entertain a drunken man named Christopher Sly (Myles Tripp) who has wandered on stage to make him believe he is a nobleman.  Soon another complication enters town when Lucentio (Joel Oramas) arrives in Padua with his servant Tranio (Uma Incrocci) and his court jester Biondello (Alejandro Lopez) for the purpose of study at university, only to instantly fall in love with Bianca too and enter the race to woo and win her.

In a matter of minutes Petruchio has offered for the hand of a evil devil Kate and everyone else has donned disguises to be in Bianca’s company to tutor her in music, Latin or poetry.  With a ton of reverse psychology, Petruchio has Kate believing the sun is the moon, that no clothing or food is good enough for her and that all her mean words are mellow and sweet.  Petruchio has truly tamed his shrew.

Ellen Lieberman does a noble job creating this deliciously rich tale, introducing clever sound effects and modern music to add to the tale’s joy.

Run to the park with friends and family in tow to catch this comedy by the Bard before it doth vanisheth.

COME CAPTURE DREAMS WITH ELM SHAKESPEARE

Pack a picnic, take the kiddies, grab a blanket or a chair, and head off to the Arden Woods.  In this case, those woods  are disguised as Edgerton Park on the New Haven/Hamden border and the Elm Shakespeare Company is eagerly awaiting your arrival.  The company has been preparing a simply delightful rendition of one of the Bard’s favorite offerings, perfect for the family and the season, “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,”  evenings at 8 p.m. August 23-28, and August 30-September 4, every night but Mondays.

The woods are mysterious and deep, inviting and menacing, intriguing and forbidding, all at the same time.  Whereas Shakespeare often dealt with one set of star-crossed lovers, this time around he has multiplied the fun by dealing with pairs.  Mathematically, the odds are not really in their favor. The fair Hermia (Anna Paratore) is pining for the noble Lysander (Steven Godoy) but her father (Gracy Brown Kierstead)  strenuously objects and wants her to marry his choice of mate, Demetrius (Anthony Peeples).  The Duke (Dave Demke) who rules Athens has been involved and is threatening Hermia to obey or else she will be sent to a nunnery, banished or face death.  The Duke himself is on the verge of marriage to Hippolyta (Tai Verley) and is planning his own nuptials, engaging a group of actors to perform for him.

The actors led by Peter Quince (Caley Miliken) include a verbose Bottom (Raphael Massie) who feels he should play all the parts and leave none for his fellow thespians Flute (Jeremy Funke), Snug (Jordan Simpson), Snout (Nathan Tracy) and Starveling (Elisa Albert).  Bottom gets to play a major role in an intrigue not of his own making when Oberon, King of the Fairies (Frederick Secrease) decides to play a trick on his Queen, Titania (Kristin Wold) when she angers him by denying him access to a changing boy he wants. Oberon sends his servant Puck( Evan Gambardella) to make mischief by dropping a sleeping potion of flowers into the eyes of unsuspecting people in the woods, causing them to awaken and fall in love with whomever they see first.  That’s how Titania becomes smitten with Bottom in his guise as a donkey, much to Oberon’s delight. 

Also caught up in Puck’s fun as Cupid is Helena, a good friend of Hermia’s, who is in love with Demetrius ( the one who loves Hermia) and she invites him to follow Hermia and Lysander who enter the forest to run off to marry. Soon the enchanted woods are filled with all the lovers from Athens as well as all the whimsical creatures who accompany Titania and everyone is experiencing problems of a romantic nature, thanks to Puck. The trees look like they are lit by a million fireflies to add to  the magic.  This is Elm Shakespeare’s nineteenth season and now with their alliance with Southern Connecticut State University as the theater in residence the partnership opens new possibilities for additional greatness, thanks to Producing Director Rebecca Goodhearted and this production’s innovative director Tina Packer.

Plan now to attend Magic in the Woods, a Gala & Auction on Thursday, September 1 from 5 p.m. on at Edgerton Park, Cliff Street entrance with food, drink and exciting auction items. This fundraiser supports the year round educational pursuits of the organization.  Tickets start at $75 and are available at ElmShakespeare.org or 203-392-8882.  Come support this wonderful enterprise with your attendance and donations.

If you were caught in the tangled web of an arranged marriage, you too might take flight into the forest and like Lysander bemoan the fact that “the course of true love never did run smooth."

THE KATE WILL BE FILLED WITH “SUNSHINE" ON AUGUST 24

                                           BRAIDEN SUNSHINE

Braiden Sunshine is a musical phenomenon.  Think Harry Potter with a guitar.  He may not be a household name at the moment, but watch out.  As a singer/songwriter, he is showing great signs of performance perfection…and he is only sixteen.  As a baby, he would hum along when his dad sang him lullabies, mostly Billy Joel.  By age five, he was singing in his Lyme, Connecticut church choir.

When Braiden was nine, he was invited to join the band Silver Hammer, playing gigs with old timers who were pushing their teens.  As a boy soprano, he had an even higher voice range than his sister Sierra who was thirteen.  The band dissolved when the members started packing their bags for college.  The same thing happened with his next band, Stone Creek.

By then, Braiden had picked up the guitar and started writing his own songs, about love and being heartbroken, even at his tender age.  Doing a school project on police forensics, a song about a “Wanted Man” running from the cops popped into his head and he captured it acoustically.  Basically he likes to tell stories.

You have the golden chance to hear those stories and the songs that accompany them when Braiden Sunshine performs at the Katherine Hepburn Center for the Performing Arts, 300 Main Street, in Old Saybrook on Wednesday, August 24 at 7:30 p.m. For tickets ($23-35), call The Kate at 860-510-0453 or go online to www.thekate.org. And he’ll have quite a journey of tales to share.  He freely admits he has been blessed with opportunities on the way to making music his life. 

Braiden will undoubtedly tell of how his mom wanted him to audition for NBC’s The Voice, an idea he nixed as being both a waste of time and a waste of gas money.  The next day when she offered to drive him to “a really cool car show in New Jersey” (as cars are a second love), he discovered himself at an open audition for The Voice instead. While his mom always had faith in his abilities as a musician, he needed a little “trickery and magic” to believe in himself that he could make it.

Even though he was technically too young for the show, the casting crew allowed him to appear on Season 9 and he went all the way to the semi-finals.  To Braiden, “That was wow, one heck of a dream that really happened.”  As a member of Team Gwen, he found himself with “an amazingly sweet Gwen Stefani who was like a second mom to me.”

In addition to his success on The Voice, Braiden may dish about opening for Huey Lewis and his favorite band of all time, at least since his age 6, The Blues Traveler, who advised him “to go write music.”  He has listened to that admonition and will be recording a new album by the end of 2016, in addition to the singles he has already released this year. Stories about his five summers as a Cabaret Junior intern at the Eugene O’Neill Cabaret Conference in Waterford, CT where he sang Beach Boys songs this month may get a mention or three.

The fact that he treated himself to a classic car, a 1959 Plymouth Belvedere, a bonus from appearing on The Voice, could be worth a story.  When he has a free moment, he is restoring it, making it a beautiful dark red that sparkles, with the goal of driving it in the 2017 Memorial Day Parade in his hometown.  The fact that Braiden Sunshine has appeared 400 times on stage, either individually or in a band, in his six year career will surely be worth sharing. Come to the Kate to hear “my journey as a musician so far” with lots of sweet songs, perhaps “Feeling Good” and “Best There Ever Was," mixed in with the swell stories.

To become a Sunshine fan, go to:

 

Website: braidensunshine.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/braidensunshin
Twitter: https://twitter.com/braidensunshine
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braiden_sunshine/

TIME TO PAY THE BILL FOR “RENT” WITH LOVE AT IVORYTON

ENERGETIC CAST OF "RENT" AT IVORYTON PLAYHOUSE

Christmas Eve should be a time for celebration, reflection and admiration, unless you are hungry, cold, virtually homeless and without prospects for the future.  Squatters in an abandoned New York City tenement dealing with life and death issues like AIDS hardly seem the stuff of musical magic but Jonathan Larson’s “Rent” has achieved cult status and Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, a winning effort by a young man who tragically died the night before the play’s off-Broadway opening.

Larson was the composer and lyricist of this rock opera and his untimely death is a tragic footnote to the story he spent seven years creating.  Using the tale of Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” as a framework, he made the 1840’s characters into 1990’s artists, struggling to meet the next rent bill as they strive for creative validation in their chosen fields.

Until Sunday, August 28, the Ivoryton Playhouse is welcoming a troupe of perpetual motion youth, high energy and talented, who will fill the rafters with an electrifying wattage of enthusiasm.  These ragtag bohemians create a community that morphs into a family as they struggle daily to earn their crust of bread.

Instead of the tuberculosis that Puccini’s heroine Mimi contracts, this time the ominous specters are drugs and AIDS that claim young lives in their prime. One of Larson’s goals was to portray these accomplished artists and to show how tragedy strikes in their ranks. Mark, a visual recorder Tim Russell, is the narrator and cinematographer who chronicles all the activities in the loft.  He is alone as he copes with the reality that his ex-girlfriend Maureen, a vibrant Stephanie Genito, has a new relationship with Joanne, an understanding Maritza Bostic.  Meanwhile his roommate Roger, a frustrated Johnny Newcomb, is trying desperately  to compose one “glory” song before AIDS takes him.  His chance meeting with another AIDS patient Mimi, a seeking for love Alyssa V. Gomez, may be just the impetus he needs and the candle of inspiration he is searching to find.

The holiday boasts no holly and no heat, no mistletoe and no money, but this motley clan have gathered to celebrate with the natural exuberance that the young cling with hope to so promisingly.  Songs like “Seasons of Love” with its 525,600 minutes in a year, the soulful “Without You,”  the dance of protest in “Tango: Maureen” and the “Over the Moon” by Maureen that is, well, over the moon wonderful are just four of the over forty tunes that light their fires.  Jacqueline Hubbard directs this energy fest, with her supportive team of Michael Morris as Music Director, Todd Underwood as Choreographer, and Martin Scott Marchitto as Scenic Designer.

For tickets ($50, senior $45, students $22, child $17), 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., with 2 p.m. matinees August 20 and 27 and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Are you willing to share your last crumbs of bread?  Yes, if it is with a coterie of friends who are really family.

YOUR TABLE’S WAITING AT THE “CABARET”

THE EMCEE EMILIO GUZMAN IN "CABARET"

 The ostrich was known for sticking its head in the sand and ignoring the world around it.  The same could be argued for the citizens of Berlin in 1930 when they kept themselves busy partying and dancing and drinking, faster and faster, so they were oblivious to the dangers swirling around them outside the night club doors.  In this case it is the Kit Kat Klub and you are invited inside to witness the insidious changes that the party goers are blind to seeing and acknowledging.  

The Chestnut Street Playhouse in Norwich has your table waiting until  Sunday, August 28, as  it recreates the frantic and frenetic times created so masterfully by Joe Masteroff’s book, John Kander’s music and Fred Ebb’s lyrics in “Cabaret,” based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood.

The welcome mat is securely laid out by the seductive and most accommodating Emcee Emilio Guzman who urges you to leave all your troubles outside and have a good time, especially with his bevy of Kit Kat Girls to entertain you, Sarah Mock, Heather Spiegel Auden, Emily Elsemore, Debra Slezak, Amanda Nelson and Kristen Rizzi. Headlining the show is the sparkling singer from Mayfair, England, Miss Sally Bowles, a stars in her eyes Jennifer McPherson, who is busy breezing through life seemingly without a care. She dangles men like so much jewelry, using them to accommodate her needs, like the club owner Max (Michael Vernon Davis) and the newcomer to Berlin, the American writer Cliff Bradshaw, the naive but trusting Jason Sedgwick.

On the train into town, Cliff meets the dangerously single minded Ernst Ludwig, a focused for the cause Andrew Goehring, who helps Cliff secure a room at the boarding house of Fraulein Schneider, a hard working and sincere Angela Dias.  She is busy keeping track of her tenants like the overly friendly to sailors Fraulein Kost, a convincing Barbara Schreier, and the greengrocer Herr Schultz, Justin Carroll, who wants to make her his wife.  The fact that he is Jewish becomes an obstacle of elephantine proportions.

Light hearted fun in songs like “Don’t Tell Mama” segue in alarming ways to the themes of “Tomorrow BelongsTo Me,” as it echoes the Nazi message, and the hidden in plain sight discrimination of “If You Could See Her,” as the Emcee dances with his monkey friend.  Meanwhile dark clouds obscure the sun, foreshadowing the storm to come, as David Fenn directs this musical with hidden fangs in a decidedly wicked and “wunderbar” way.

For tickets ($25), call the Chestnut Street Playhouse, 24 Chestnut Street, Norwich at 860- 886-2378 or online at www.chestnutstreetplayhouse.org.

Performances are Thursday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Scrap off the glitter on the surface of the Kit Kat Klub and discover that all is not beautiful, no matter how hard the Emcee tries to make you believe it is so.

COME FEATHER YOUR NEST WITH “BYE BYE BIRDIE”

CONRAD BIRDIE (RHETT GUTER) AND HIS FANS   PHOTO BY DIANE SOBOLEWSKI

Think James Dean Meets Elvis Presley.  Think bad boy merges with heartthrob.  Think wild teenage girls mooning and moaning over singing sensation with swivel hips and sassy lips aplenty.  Come meet Conrad Birdie, the star of the smash musical “Bye Bye Birdie” flying high at Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam until Thursday, September 8.

Sweet Apple, Ohio and its residents will never be the same again after it is announced that Conrad Birdie will go there to plant a big kiss on Kim MacLee, the president of one of his biggest fan clubs, as a farewell gesture before he goes into the army.  This prominent press publicity stunt is the brainchild of Conrad’s manager’s secretary Rosie and getting it televised on the Ed Sullivan Show nationwide is a five-star bonus.

With a book by Michael Stewart, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, “Bye Bye Birdie” is a “happy face” happening from the first party-line telephone hello to the last railroad station goodbye.  Rhett Guter is a standout as the man of the hour, about to enter the military, trying to be brave and obedient as he follows the letter of the law set down by his manager Albert, an overwhelmed mama’s boy well portrayed by George Merrick.

Albert only wants the best for the boy, but he is being pulled in different directions by his domineering mother, a tenacious pit bull captured by Kristine Zbornik, one who is dedicated to her son’s well-being and to her plastic rain bonnet.  On the other side of the rope pull is Rosie, the faithful and loving Janet Dacal, who wants Albert to abandon show biz, marry her and become the English teacher he was meant to be.

Beyond the orange blossom bouquet is sweetheart Tristen Buettel’s Kim, thrilled to be the lucky girl chosen to receive Conrad’s kiss but conflicted because she has just been pinned by boyfriend Hugo, a not-so-willing-to-share Alex Walton.  Kim’s parents, a fantastic Warren Kelley as a perplexed dad, a supportive Donna English as a helpful mom and a great little kid brother Randolph, an adorable Ben Stone-Zelman,all add to the comic chaos.

Grand songs keep popping up, keeping the action merry and dizzying at the same time, as everyone tries to get their heart’s desire.  You can’t help but smile and cheer them all along thanks to the inspired direction of Jenn Thompson and her wonderful team.

For tickets ($29 and up ), call Goodspeed Musicals, on the Connecticut River in East Haddam at 860-873-8668 or online at www.goodspeed.org. Performances are Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m,, Thursday at 7:30 p.m.(select 2 p.m.), Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. (select 6:30 p.m.).

It’s the 1960’s and young girls are going crazy for Conrad Birdie who is well worthy of their admiration and adoration.  Watch out and you’ll find yourself in his fan club in no time at all.

CELEBRATE THE “MIDSUMMER” HOLIDAY

M. SCOTT MCLEAN AND REBECCA HART IN "MIDSUMMER"  PHOTOS BY LANNY NAGLER

Do you fancy an evening of sweetness, silliness, secrets and songs with a specifically Scottish favor?  It’s officially midsummer, so how appropriate that “Midsummer (a play with songs)” by David Greig and Gordon McIntyre will be offered by TheaterWorks of Hartford until Sunday, August 21.

Even though the heroine of “Midsummer” is named Helena and there are running romps through the “forests” of Edinburgh, there is little resemblance  to the Bard’s work with a longer, similar title.  This Helena is guarding a secret, a truth she refuses to acknowledge even to herself. As a successful divorce lawyer, she has, nonetheless, taken the unrealistic path of an affair with a married man.

Now ensconced in a wine bar, nursing her wounds, she makes the impetuous decision to approach a lone man and suggest he share her bottle of vino.  Robert, Bobby, Bob, a small time hoodlum, quickly agrees and this quirky, unlikely relationship is born.  Rebecca Hart’s Helena and M. Scott McLean’s Bob are perfection together, as each uses guitars and banjo and a score of original tunes to establish a journey of bizarre adventures that may or may not lead them to romance.

For one long weekend, this pair become cohorts in and out of bed, telling stories, running away from angry brides and even angrier bosses, getting drunk, accumulating a cadre of accomplices and spending the fruits of Bob’s illegal activities.

The occasion of Bob’s thirty-fifth birthday sets off a jaunt that includes Elmo, a pair of dancing lobsters, tambourines, a pink convertible, a missed wedding, a closed bank, IKEA, morning sickness and meatballs, and more.  Director Tracy Brigden keeps the action frothy and fun and fast-paced, laced with charm and crazy comedy.

For tickets ($40-65), call TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl Street, Hartford at 860-527-7838 or online at www.theaterworkshartford.org.  Performances are Tuesday to Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Open your heart to the joy of abandon as cares and anguish are extinguished in this unusual poetic tribute to romance and redemption and realizing life’s dreams.

     M. SCOTT MCLEAN AND REBECCA HART

ENTER THE INTRIGUING WORLD OF CHOICES THAT IS “IF/THEN"

                                                      PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS

The poet Robert Frost knew all about crossroads and the paths less taken.  As mere humans we often have trouble with decision making, especially when it involves choices that may have lasting repercussions for the future.  Come meet Elizabeth who faces such dilemmas and the uncertainty they entail. She will be on the cusp of many choices and changes until Sunday, August 7 as the Bushnell Center for the performing Arts presents “If/THEN.” With music by Tom Kitt and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, this new musical will introduce Elizabeth who morphs into Liz and Beth so she can exercise double her possibilities about life.  If you have trouble deciding which ice cream flavors to choose, you will understand how Elizabeth can be paralyzed by which road to travel.

Her marriage of a dozen years in Phoenix has ended and now she has returned to New York City to pick up the pieces of her life.  Will she be cautious or impetuous, a free spirit or a conservative pragmatist?  Will her chance meeting with a new friend Kate help her on her journey?  How will her new next door neighbor Lucas influence her choices?  Will reestablishing a relationship with her old activist friend Josh, a soldier she meets in the park or will her new city planner Steve make the biggest changes happen

The premise is you never know what will happen to you, if you turn right at the corner instead of left, if you take one job or another.  The fact that life is never a straight line causes Elizabeth's dual personas to engage in twists and turns that complicate and color her worlds.  Which job should she accept?  Which man will she love?  She confesses, "I get lost in what might be."

This beautiful and powerful play soars to glorious heights with such songs, verging on operatic, like "It's a Sign," "You Never Know," " Here I Go," "Man Up," "Surprise," "What If" and "What Would You Do?.”  This compelling journey is stuffed with  sensitivity and skill on a set design of mirrored ceiling that reflects wonder and charm.

For tickets ($25.50 - 88.50), call The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue , Hartford  at 860- 987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org.  Performances are 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 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Whether you believe in fate or life's grand design, you'll enjoy traveling Robert Frost's less known paths as the parallel lives cross and intersect.

COME TO CLINTON TO BE SEDUCED BY “CARMEN”

                                            ZHIGUANG HONG AS ESCAMILLO
                                            KELLY HILL AS CARMEN

With the exotic setting of Seville, a swirl of flamenco skirts, a splash of Spanish flavor, the introduction of one of the stage’s most tempting seductresses and the downfall of the soldier who is the object of her womanly wiles, no wonder the opera “Carmen” by Georges Bizet is such a wildly popular success.

Performed in Paris in 1875, it shocked its initial audiences and Bizet died shortly thereafter, never knowing of its grand international achievement, one it accomplished in the next decade.  Written in the style of opera comique, it has been credited with being the bridge that crossed the existing  tradition into the new level of realism or verismo that occurred late in the 19th century of Italian opera.

You have the opportunity to be personally seduced by the gypsy herself as Opera Theater of Connecticut inaugurates its fourth decade of enchanting entertainment with “Carmen” at Andrews Memorial Theater, 54 East Main Street, Clinton for your air-conditioned pleasure.  Performance dates are

Tuesday, August 9, Thursday, August 11, and Saturday, August 13 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, August 14 at 6 p.m.  The skills and talents of General Director Kate Ford, Production Director Alan Mann and Music Director Kyle Swann and their fine ensemble of operatic performers will be evident in every glorious moment of this four act masterpiece.

Come hear Kelly Hill capture the spirit of Carmen who flashes her charms to entice the affections of her jailer, the corporal Don Jose, the fiery Daniel Juarez.  When Carmen loses interest in him, and shifts her affections and attentions to the romantic toreador Escamillo, portrayed by Zhiguang Hong, the action is complicated by Carmen’s boredom with Don Jose and her refusal to join the smugglers Duncaire and Rememdado, sung by Dean Murphy and Lucas van Lierop, who urge her to help them.

Meanwhile Don Jose forgets his sweetheart Micaela, played by Rochelle Bard, making her debut with the company, who witnesses her marriage plans dissolve.  Carmen continues to toy with Don Jose’s obsession, getting him in trouble with the officer Zuniga, portrayed by Luke Scott, much to the amusement of Carmen’s friends at the cigarette factory Frasquita and Mercedes, played by Jenna Siladie and Amy Maude Helfer.  Incensed by Carmen’s rejection, in favor of the heroic matador and the superior officer Zuniga, Don Jose stabs and kills the woman he professes to love.

For tickets ($50, seniors $45, under 18 $35), call Opera Theater of CT at 860-669-8999 or go to www.operatheaterofct.org to download an order form to fax or mail to the office using a credit card or PayPal.  Boxed suppers from Chips' Pub III can be reserved for $15 in advance and enjoyed on the theater lawn, while Artistic Director Alan Mann presents an Opera Talk for $5, a half hour before curtain to further your appreciation of the performance.

Let the  gypsy Carmen entice you with her charms as she dances the seductive seguidilla and has soldiers, Don Jose and Zuniga, and the bullfighter Escamillo all competing for her affections.

SEND UP A CHEER FOR “BRING IT ON” AT THE BIJOU

The pressure of having to be practically perfect plagues everyone at one time or another, athletically, academically, artistically, in school, on the playing field or in the corporate world.  The need to be alive, alert, awake and enthusiastic is nowhere more evident than in the highly competitive arena of high school cheerleading competition.  Just ask Campbell Davis,  as a senior at Truman High School, she is about to realize her life- long dream, of seventeen years, to be elected captain of the cheer squad.

To meet Campbell up close and personal, head over to Bridgeport’s Bijou Theatre, with or without pom poms by Sunday, August 7, to experience the joy and heartache, jealousy and revenge, forgiveness and friendship of “Bring It On The Musical.”  With music by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, libretto by Jeff Whitty and lyrics by Amanda Green and Lin-Manuel Miranda, all the angst, anxiety and exhilaration of teenage years are revealed.

Shaylen Harger is a sparkling firecracker as the girl who has all her dreams within reach, only to have them snatched from her capable hands when a school redistricting change moves her to Jackson High School, a poor multicultural area that does not even boast a cheerleading squad.  How can she win Nationals now?  A devastated Campbell tries to put on a brave face but she finds little solace in the cold greeting she gets at her new scholastic home.  The presence of Bridget, an amicable Caitlin Brown, also caught in the redistricting laws, does little to help Campbell’s disappointment.

Soon, however, Campbell realizes several truths:  her move to Jackson was manipulated by a conniving rival Eva (Alissa Grey), her old boyfriend Steve (James Canal) is less than faithful, she really wants to trounce Truman and especially Skylar (Liza Kottler) and Kyler (Mackenzie Wenzel) and Eva on her old squad and she needs help from the new people in her life like Randall (Ryan Shea).  After a rocky start, she is able to enlist the jive and jumping help of a trio of hip hop dancers, the movin’ and groovin’ Malia West, Rajane Katurah and Ainsley Andrade.  With more than forty bouncy tunes, we watch these energetic and eager youngsters give it their all, in spirit and joy.  Kirby and Beverly Ward keep the pulse rocking loud and strong as lessons are learned and real values emerge.

For tickets ($15-23), call the Bijou Theatre, 275 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport (exit 2 off route 8) at 203-332-3228 or online at www.thebijoutheatre.com.  Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.  Come early for cocktails, dinner, concessions, coffee and/ or dessert.

Revisit your high school days for a musical injection of what those teenage years were like way back when.