WATERBURY’S PALACE THEATER HAS A NEW CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR THE FAMILY

 

Move over, Grinch.  Dash on, Rudolph.  Time to go, Buddy the Elf.  No time to wait for the Polar Express.  There’s a new Christmas story in town and she’s a rag doll named Eleanor, named after that wonderful lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a remarkable First Lady to FDR.

 

Just in time for the whole family for the holidays, you’re invited to stream “Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish-The Musical” written by Denise McGowan Tracy from November 27 to December 24 from Waterbury’s Palace Theater. Even though Eleanor lives at the North Pole, surrounded by people who love her, like Santa and his wife Cookie, Sprinkle and Sparkle, Clara, Shimmer and Glimmer, she has a secret wish. She feels as a rag doll she needs a best friend of her own.

 

Every year she helps make toys for all the good little boys and girls on Santa’s nice list, but she desperately wants one special friend and home that is hers alone. Every year she watches Santa fill his sleigh with presents, but she is never chosen.  It’s fun to bake cookies with Cookie Claus all year, but Eleanor gets sad and sadder when no little girl asks for her as a special present for Christmas.

 

With cheery tunes like ”The North Pole is a Magical Place,” “Wrap It Up” and “Make Your Wish,” these beautifully costumed characters will sing and dance their way into your heart.  When Eleanor determines she will write a letter to Santa specifically telling him her wish, she hopes her dream will come true.  Is there a little girl out there who is wishing for a rag doll of her very own? 

 

This world premiere musical from 2019 in Chicago can be streamed to your home by calling the Palace Theater at 203-346-2000 or online at eleanorswish.com. Tickets are $20 for a household using code PALWAT20.  In addition there are two Merry Christmas Party Presents with special gifts from Eleanor available to order for $45 and $60, plus shipping and handling.The Shubert Theatre in New Haven and the Palace Theater in Waterbury have again partnered to offer  their respective audiences the opportunity to enjoy a holiday offering for the whole family sponsored by  the Bank of America Holiday Series. Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish – the Musical is available to stream for the Shubert Theatre audiences this holiday season  or for the Palace Theater Waterbury audiences.  To purchase tickets go to : www.shuberttheatre.org  or www.palacetheaterct.org .

 

Learn how a wish is just the start of a dream.  May all your Christmas wishes and dreams come true.

FASCINATING IMMIGRANT STORY STREAMING AT THEATERWORKS HARTFORD TILL NOVEMBER 28

 

If you and your family have spent months exploring and possibly disagreeing on political issues, you will find it interesting meeting another family, immigrants, who are attempting to bridge the gap between the country they left, Pakistan, and the new land they’ve adopted, America. Old ways and traditions may clash with modernity and establishing a secure footing may be difficult to accomplish.

 

Real theater is here in this fascinating production by TheaterWorks Hartford available for streaming until November 28 in “The Who and The What” by Ayad Akhtar, dramatically directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar.  You are quickly swept into the lives of this Muslim family, a father Afzal, played poignantly by Rajesh Bose, who cares deeply for his two daughters Zarina, captured sensitively by Jessica Jain, and her younger sibling Mahwash, an accommodating Sanam Laila Hashemi.

 

Afzel is concerned that Zarina is consumed by her goal of writing a novel about Muslim women and neglecting her own love life so he plays matchmaker to find her a soul mate. Enter Eli, a new convert to Islam, a sincere Stephen Elrod, who  has to work hard to win over the ever questioning Zarina.  Her preoccupation with shining a spotlight on the truth of  how women are viewed by her religion  threatens to destroy the family’s value system as her book looks at the prophet Muhammad in a decidedly different and disturbing way. 

 

When her father finds the manuscript that she spent four years penning, he explodes with anger and the family is in danger of never reconciling,  Much like Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,” the father fears his daughter has gone too far and he himself cannot bend enough to accept what she has done.  Is Zarina now dead to him and to his faith? Their story is at once tender and funny, serious and disruptive. Each member is sincere in their feelings and unable to accept where the other stands. This eighty five minute production will keep you absorbed as honor and family are put to a gripping test they may not survive intact.

For membership information, call 860-527-7838 or go online to twhartford.org or email boxoffice@twhartford.org. A single ticket stream is $25 (24 hour streaming), a monthly membership (video on demand plus perks) is $20.21 a month with a one-time $5 startup fee or annual membership of $195 that includes 12 plays VOD.

Revel in the tenderness and tension that alternately consume this absorbing tale of family caught between reconciling the old world with the new, with love and devotion trapped in the middle.

CT. REPERTORY THEATRE PRESENTS AUTHENTIC RADIO SHOW FOR THE HOLIDAYS

 

What would the holiday season be without a visit to  Bedford Falls, New York to spend Christmas Eve with George Bailey, his daughter Zuzu and Clarence, the angel who desperately wants to earn his wings.  Thanks to the CT Repertory Theatre at the University of Connecticut, your wish can come true if you act quickly.  Until Saturday, November 21, you are invited to use your imagination as if it is 1941 and you and your family are gathered around the big brown Philco radio. 

 

A staple of Christmas is “It’s a Wonderful Life” by Philip Grecian, memorably made into a Frank Capra movie starring Jimmy Stewart.  Now fourteen actors, including two Actors Equity performers  Thom Sesma and Lisa Wolp, will play 60 roles in this radio drama about George Bailey’s life and the trauma that leads him on Christmas Eve to wish he had never been born.  His dilemma is so severe that an angel Clarence is sent to earth to help him realize how different his hometown would be without his presence in it.

 

Hard working George craves adventure and wants to travel before going to college to become an architect.  The sudden death of his father forces George to change his plans and become head of the family Building and Loan. As he helps his neighbors finance their homes, he faces the greed of Mr. Potter who wants to destroy George’s legacy and change Bedford Falls to Potterville.

We follow George as he meets Mary who will become his wife, a woman for whom he would lasso the moon, his brother Harry whose life he saves in a skating accident and Mr. Gower, the pharmacist, who mistakenly fills a prescription that could cost a patient her life.  When George’s Uncle Billy almost causes financial ruin to the Building and Loan business, George questions if his life had any meaning.

 

With wonderful emotion and special audio effects, the cast takes us along on George’s journey, helping him see what would have happened had he not been born. To stream this heartwarming tale, call the box office at 860-486-2113 or go online to crt.uconn.edu.  Streaming tickets are $10 for students, $14 seniors and $16 for the general public. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. (ASL) and 8 p.m.

 

Come learn the lessons of helping each other in a community through difficult times, not unlike the reality of COVID today, in this classic Christmas tale of  redemption where one eager second class angel, after hundreds of years of trying, finally gets his wings.

 

ELECT MAMA D AS FIRST LADY OF YOUR POLITICAL PARTY

 

At this time of political uncertainty where choices and decisions are being made, your best option is a visit with Mama D and her band for a guaranteed and generous helping of her Post-Election Hangover Party! West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park wants you to vote for an afternoon of dance, music and laughter, and Lord knows we need some of both.  

 

This Saturday, November 7 at 2:30 p.m.,you are invited to set up your virtual tent on the grounds of the lovely and peaceful Auerfarm in Bloomfield with your hostess Darlene Zoller as the incomparable Mama D. Darlene Zoller wears many hats at Playhouse on Park, as theater founder, co-artistic director and choreographer of stop/time dance theater. 

 

If you are over the age of eighteen, you are welcome to make a reservation for $25 in advance, wear a mask, be socially distant and bring food and libations.  Order tickets by calling Playhouse on Park at 860-523-5900, ext. 10, come in person to 244 Park Road, West Hartford from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., or go online to www.playhouseonpark.org.  Auerfarm is located at 158 Auer Farm Road, Bloomfield.

 

What better way to leave your troubles at home and come be entertained by the notorious and vivacious Mama D for an afternoon you will long treasure and remember.