NASHVILLE IS COMING TO NEW CANAAN

Are you ready for some serious toe tapping, especially if you’re wearing cowboy boots? Do you like to hear flying fiddles racing to the finish line? Might you enjoy a visit to Nashville where country music permanently resides? If the answers are a booming yes, then Summer Theatre of New Canaan has quite the entertainment for you until Sunday, August 1. For a heavenly show, two step or sashay over to Waveny Park in New Canaan, to a new tent at 677 South Avenue, for a hearty dose of “Honky Tonk Angels,” written and directed by Ted Swindley, the creator of “Always…Patsy Cline.” Featuring songs from country music heroines like Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn, a trio of powerful singing gals grace us with tunes like “Stand By Your Man,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “9 to 5,” “These Boots Are Made For Walking,” “I Will Always Love You," “Delta Dawn,” Amazing Grace,” “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” and many more. Come meet Rebecca Mason Wygal as Angela, Allie Selbold as Sue Ellen and Cat Greenfield as Darlene, three gals who are unhappy with life as it is and desperately want to run away to pursue their dreams. They find themselves on a Greyhound bus bound for Nashville and soon bond over baloney sandwiches and pork rinds. After a successful six week run at a club appropriately called Honky Tonk Heaven with a boisterous band including Lexi Bodick on bass, Elena Bonoma on drums, Beth Called on banjo/guitar, Nyssa Grant on violin, Ellie Kahn on md,.keys, bandleader and Ann Klein on steel/lap guitar, the new singing group is ready to go their separate ways. Angela is off to rejoin Bubba and her six kids in her double wide trailer and Sue Ellen is going back to Los Angeles and her office job while Darlene is determined to make it in Nashville. Unlike most folks, they took a giant risk to make their dreams come true. For tickets (VIP $65, Reserved Seats $50 and General Admission $30), call 203-966-4634 or go online to boxoffice@stonc.org. Shows are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m. STONC has two shows for kids until Sunday, August 1. “StoopKIds Live!” with book, music and lyrics by Melissa Victor features stories told through the lens of seven young and amazing Black children characters who learn about self confidence and friendship. Shows are 10 a.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday. Come see “You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown” with Snoopy and the gang on Saturday at noon and Sunday at 10 a.m. Tickets are VIP $25, Reserved Seats $20 and General Admission $15. Bring your own chairs for general admission. Fill your summer with music, dance and theater courtesy of STONC and have a lot of fun in the process. Y’All come down for a spell.

MERRY MURDER AND MAYHEM AT IVORYTON PLAYHOUSE

You may be well acquainted with Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard and an assortment of weapons from lead pipes to candlesticks but that may or may not prepare you for the high jinxes and antics of the murderous spoof by Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian playing at the Ivoryton Playhouse until Sunday, August 1st. "Murder for Two” features one piano, one wannabe detective, one murder (until it’s two), two gifted actors and a lucky baker’s dozen of suspects. Ian Lowe is currently merely an officer, Marcus Moscowicz, but that doesn’t stop him from dreaming big. Joe Kinosian plays everybody else, from the victim, the popular mystery author Arthur Whitney who is about to be doubly surprised, first by a birthday party and second by a gun shot to the forehead. Joe is extremely busy portraying all the guests who could have done the dastardly deed, from Arthur’s wife Dahlia, his ballerina dancing mistress, the members of a boy’s chorus and the psychiatrist Dr. Griff who knows everybody’s secrets and likes to share. And if that weren’t enough, there is a stash of ice cream that has gone missing. Director and choreographer Wendy Seyb was happy to relate, “It’s a joy and a pleasure to always return to this show. After working on it in various locations for eight years, it is still fresh and new.” This 90 minute farce and romp is non-stop, especially if you are a fan of physical humor of the ilk of Abbott and Costello and The Three Stooges. Complete with sound effects, great songs like "Protocol Says" and "The Friendship Song,” it spins merrily along as witnesses are questioned and clues are examined. For tickets,($55 adults, $50 seniors, $25 students), call the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street, Ivoryton, at 860-767-7318. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Wednesday and Sunday at 2 p.m. If you are ready to escape from home, run over to the Ivoryton Playhouse for clever melodrama and malarky with a little murder and mint chocolate chip tossed in for fun.

BUTTERFLIES FLY FREE

Exotic and exquisite, delicate and delightful, graceful and gallant, butterflies have been blessed with extraordinary names. They have been called Peacock Pansy, Piano Key, Jezebel, Emerald Swallowtail, Painted Lady, Grecian Shoemaker, Lacewing, Mosaic, Red Cracker, Archduke, Indian Leaf and Glassy Blue Tiger, to name but a few. Butterflies have nothing to do with butter or the belief that they hover above pails of milk like witches in disguise, prepared to steal the cream. They are thought to be bringers of dreams, symbols of long life and beauty. Despite their short life span, sometimes a mere fourteen days, butterflies have been around for millions of years. Once numbering in the billions, they often migrate long distances. Classified as insects, they have been on earth as long as flowers have existed. After the long, long months of the pandemic, many people feel like they have been in a cocoon or chrysalis stage, a silken casing that was impenetrable. We were in hibernation, in a waiting mode, anxious to emerge but powerless to break free. Ironically some butterflies can stay in this stage for up to two years as caterpillars. Finally it is safe for us to wake up, to burst open and crawl out, ready to take flight. We are now vaccinated and experiencing the miracle of metamorphosis, to stretch our long dormant wings and open to the joys of freedom. Gratefully we embrace new names like Painted Ladies, Lacewing, Archduke and Glassy Blue Tiger as we resume our lives again happily, anxiously, wondrously. Dazzle on!