"INDECENT" AT PLAYHOUSE ON PARK" A TRUE LITTLE PLAY THAT CHANGED THEATER

In 1907 Sholem Asch wrote a play in Yiddish, "God of Vengeance," that changed his life and the world of theater. Ignoring the advice to burn the play and forget it, he sees his personal project performed across Europe to great acclaim. Only when the drama crosses the pond to America does it incite controversy from Jews and others who view it as anti-Semitic. Good theater is supposed to inspire conversation and maybe even a little controversy. Playwrights like audiences to leave their seats with questions and comments, hopefully eager to discuss the play’s finer points or disturbing elements. Sometimes one leaves humming a title song or buzzing with excitement. One never knows and that’s half the fun of venturing into the theatrical unknown. For Paula Vogel’s play within a play “Indecent,” we are invited into the lives of Sholem Asch and his wife Matl, snugly ensconced at the Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, until Sunday, February 26. While a violinist, folk dance, song and a father who is questioning his faith all figure prominently and the old world flavor and charm of the shtetl are clearly evident, this is not your grandfather’s “Fiddler on the Roof.” “Indecent” lets us be privy to that journey and those complications as an intrepid troupe of performers dedicates itself to bringing this controversial tale to the public. While it was cheered in places like Berlin, Rome and ST. Petersburg, this “daring play” confronting “contemporary moral values” led to the entire cast being arrested on obscenity charges when it premiered on Broadway in 1923. “The God of Vengeance” deals with a devoted Jew who loves the Torah but also runs a brothel in the basement of his home. His virginal daughter Rifkele falls in love with a female prostitute Manke, a forbidden relationship that causes Papa to denounce both her and his religion. Kelly O’Donnell directs this production with skill, with Alexander Sovronsky providing lively musical direction and Katie Stevinson-Nollet adding lyrical choreography. A talented troupe of eleven actors and musicians -Dan Zimberg as Lemml the stage manager, Noa Graham, Bart Shatto, Kirsten Peacock, Helen Laser, Dan Krackhardt, Alexander Sovronsky, Michelle Lemon, Jack Theiling, Ben McLaughlin and Sydney Weiser - bring this involving story to fervent life with words, movement, playing violin, accordion and clarinet in an almost two hour production without intermission. For tickets ($42.50-55), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford at 860-523-5900, ext.10 or online at https://www.playhouseonpark.org. Performances are Tuesday at 2 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., followed by a talkback. It is interesting to note that January 27 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day to honor the memory of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis in World War II. In 2023 a Florida high school was forced to cancel its production of “Indecent” due to sexual content, where two actresses kiss on stage. Today on Broadway audiences are flocking to see “Leopoldstadt” by Tom Stoppard about a Jewish family striving to survive in times of peril over a span of fifty years, called the Best Theater of 2022. Immerse yourself in this extraordinary theatrical production that wrestles with sin and with God, that bears witness to souls rising out of the ashes until they are returned dust to dust, and celebrates a pure love, in the rain, of one young woman for another. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, this play is transfused with light and joy.

HARTFORD STAGE OPENS NEW BI-LINGUAL VISTAS UNTIL FEBRUARY 5

The Hartford Stage is opening challenging vistas in innovation and cultural diversity with a new play “Espejos: Clean” that speaks in two voices, both English and Spanish. Using pictorial projections and Supertitles, we clearly hear the stories of two women, one from Vancouver, Canada and the other from Chetumal, Mexico. The experience is theatrically dramatic. Until Sunday February 5, playwright Christine Quintana, with Spanish translation by Paula Zelaya Cervantes, will take the audience into the heart and soul of these two different women, with quite different stories, whose lives collide at a Mexican resort and are forever altered. Emma Ramos’s Adriana grows up in a household where her father rules. All she wants to do is escape his control and she does so when a male friend Nicholas drives her six hours away to a Mexican resort to start a new life. Adriana never looks back and starts as a maid, working her way after eight years of hard work to become the Head Housekeeper, supervising thirty women. The sudden knowledge that her father has died shakes her world at its foundation. Kate Abbruzzese’s Sarah is reluctantly the maid of honor at her younger sister’s destination wedding. She uses alcohol as her medication to endure the festivities, slowly acting out of control. Both women are the victims of trauma and need to discover how to heal. As magic and storms and ever present water influence their actions, they meet and their stories merge in their shared secrets. Family tensions erupt and each women must face a past that has shaped their present and future. An event occurs that forces each to reevaluate their choices, thrusting them together to find solutions, to face the consequences of their actions, to remove the masks they have been hiding behind. Melissa Crespo directs this intriguing play of complicating situations, a co-production with Syracuse Stage, that forces both females to see the world as it actually is. For tickets ($30 and up), call the Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at HartfordStage.org. Performances are Tuesday to Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with Saturday, Sunday and select Wednesday matinees at 2 p.m. It is not necessary to know a word of Spanish to get completely absorbed in this tale that honors women in its conception and telling.

“SPELLING BEE” SCORES AN A+=EXCELLENT AT SEVEN ANGELS IN WATERBURY

Did you like to compete in brainy and nerdy activities in grade school, ones that promoted school spirit? Is spelling one of the skills you retained from your early learning days? Do you like to read the dictionary just for fun? Is Daniel Webster one of your heroes? If you answered yes, then have I got a theatrical experience for you! Conceived by Rebecca Feldman, with book by Rachel Sheinkin, music and lyrics by William Finn and additional material by Jay Reiss, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” oozes with charm as a half dozen middle school kids who are the nerds and the geeks of the area classes compete for the coveted trophy and savings bond that go to the winner. You might even find yourself on stage with them...if you are brave and confident and ready for a challenge. But never worry, you have to volunteer to find yourself in the spotlight on stage. Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury, until Sunday, February 5, is anxious and able to provide just the perfect setting for the fun and angst that goes with the competition. Come meet Marcy Park (Holly LoRusso) as the dedicated parochial school entry who speaks five or six or seven languages and determines for herself whether she will win or lose. She rejects being perfect, with the help of a heavenly creature. Chip Tolentino (Michael Newman) is the perpetual Boy Scout and a great ball player but he develops a physical problem related to puberty that erupts on stage and ultimately determines his fate. With a sinus condition, an allergy to nuts, a handkerchief and a magic foot, William Barfee (James Donohue) dances his way into spelling stardom. He resents his name being continually mispronounced but manages to show a softer side. Also hot into the competition is Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre (Katie Brunetto) with two papas and a whole lot of pressure and the need to stand up for equality for all genders and sexualities. In Olive Ostrovsky (Rosalie Corry Pena), we find a bouncing bundle of enthusiasm who only wishes at least one of her parents were there for encouragement. Her dad is busy at work and her mom has elected to go to an ashram in India for nine months. Sporting a bike helmet and wearing his self-designed clothes, Leaf Coneybear (Jonathan Zalaski) is the home schooled speller. His siblings have tried to convince him he is dumb, but he knows better. Four lucky volunteers (local “celebrities”) from the audience are also invited on stage to prove their spelling prowess...or not. In addition, Miss Peretti (Alyssa Fontana Bunel), Vice Principal Mr. Panch (Johnny Ozerhoski) and a felon doing community service named Mitch (Moses Jacob) deliver the words, the rules, the definitions, the pronunciations, language of origin, use in a sentence and the comfort hugs when they lose. Marissa Follo Perry and Jimmy Donohue co-direct, with choreography by Foster Evans Reese and musical direction by Holly McCann, and this Tony award-winning musical comedy has a heart bigger than the entire gymnasium. The songs are heartfelt and sweet and express how each kid is feeling and what their world is really about in words and dance. For tickets ($25), call Seven Angels Theatre, One Plank Road, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.sevenangelstheatre.org. Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Grab your dictionary and be prepared to join the p-a-n-d-e-m-o-n-i-u-m when “Spelling Bee” rings your bell. Brushing up on words that name South American rodents isn't a bad idea either.

"MY FAIR LADY" DELIGHTS IN WATERBURY AT THE PALACE

When you seek theatrical perfection, look no further than the romantic musical classic “My Fair Lady.” For more than six decades, the story of a poor, dirty faced and uneducated Cockney flower girl, eking out a living selling bunches of violets for a tuppence in Covent Gardens, has charmed the world. This particular girl, one Eliza Doolittle, is ready to spread her magic once again when the Waterbury’s gilded Palace Theater brings the wonderful musical "My Fair Lady" to the stage for three days only, Tuesday to Thursday, January 24-26, at 7:30 p.m.. This is the acclaimed production from Lincoln Center Theater’s production of Lerner & Loewe’s “My Fair Lady" and is the winner of 5 Outer Critics Circle Awards including Best Revival of a Musical and was nominated for 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival, 5 Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical Revival and 3 Drama League Awards including Best Musical Revival. The production premiered in the spring of 2018 at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. Come make the acquaintance of as delightful a Eliza Doolittle as you could hope to meet, with just the right amount of skepticism and wonder as you might expect when, suddenly, she is plucked from the gutter by an arrogant and aggressive Professor Henry Higgins and informed that he has the powers to make her a princess, or duchess, or any number of a member of royalty as he so chooses. The professor in question, a master of languages and at the top of his field, has been challenged by his good friend and colleague Colonel Pickering to take this "squashed cabbage leaf," this "guttersnipe," and pass her off as a sophisticated lady of privilege. As the masterful professor, Higgins is clearly up to the daunting task. How Henry accomplishes this feat, which he takes full credit for, discounting all the work and effort by one Miss Doolittle herself, is a pure pleasure to watch. When Eliza's old dad comes by to save her soul, or at least get paid for her loss of reputation, the goose feathers fly. The wonderful Lerner and Loewe tunes are stuffed in that fat pillow and soar through the air, like "I Could Have Danced All Night," "Get Me to the Church on Time," "On the Street Where You Live" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." For all her efforts, Eliza only has the support of two females, the professor's mother who knows all too well what a bully her son is and the professor's housekeeper, Mrs. Pierce who sees his impervious ways on a daily basis. Eliza also earns the adoration of her suitor Freddie. For her part, Eliza is swept up in the monumental task of transforming herself from head to toe, inside and out, and she does a magnificent job of the business at hand. Samantha Saltzman directs this tour cast, fit for the whole family to enjoy, with energetic choreography by Jim Cooney, lovely sets by Michael Yeargan and lush costumes by Catherine Zuber. For tickets ($45-85), call the Palace theater, 100 East Main Street, Waterbury at 203=346-2000 and online to www.palacetheaterct.org. You can reserve a four course dinner for $73 at the Poli Club at 5:30 p.m. before the show. Special events such as 2nd Act, Jazz Series, table readings, I Wrote That! and Coffeehouse Series are also available to enjoy in the Poli Club. Cheer on Miss Eliza Doolittle as she trades in her bunches of flowers for a tiara and title, all thanks to a bet that the conceited Professor Henry Higgins can't resist making and winning.

"BLITHE SPIRIT" FLIES ON GHOSTLY WINGS INTO THE KATE

Playwright Noel Coward described his play “Blithe Spirit” as "an improbable farce in three acts.” He termed it witty and well constructed and knew it would be a success. Eight decades ago he penned the comedy in a six day writing marathon and it is still entertaining audiences to this day. The Saybrook Stage Company is inviting you to discover the world of the occult, believers and non-believers alike, at The Kate, 300 Main Street, in Old Saybrook the weekend of Thursday, January 19 at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, January 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 22 at 2 p.m. Author Charles Condomine (Mark Gilchrist) is researching his next book, a look into the psychic realm. For some authenticity or dialogue or just plain fun, he sets up a séance with the local medium, an eccentric and colorful character, in feathers and fringe, Madame Arcati (Terri Corigliano). Charles, accompanied by his second wife Ruth (Amy Bentley) and dear friends Dr. Bradman (Kevin Spedding) and his wife Violet (Barbara Schreier) gather for what they hope will be lively entertainment. Madame Arcati, as promised, goes into a trance and contacts the “other side.” She inadvertently plays a recording of Irving Berlin’s “Always.” Who should answer the call but the ghost of Charles’ first spouse, Elvira (Alicia James), who was temperamental and demanding in her previous life and hasn’t changed much since. This time around Elvira, who can only be seen and heard by Charles, has an agenda of her own. She wants Charles to join her in the hereafter and the only way to accomplish that is to murder him, ever so gently of course. Elvira’s plans go slightly awry as Ruth jealously accuses Charles of spousal abuse or of going crazy, neither of which she will tolerate. The Condomine’s servant Edith (Mary Corigliano) gets into the fray when Madame Arcati returns and tries spell after incantation to exorcise Elvira. In the 2009 play Dame Angela Lansbury and in the 2020 film Dame Judy Dench both played the clairvoyant who unwittingly causes a major upset. Can Madame Arcati resolve this new untenable situation? Soon there is more than one ghost running amok and sending the Condomine household into total chaos. Director Glenn Bassett keeps the fun spirited (pun intended) as vases go flying and lamps crash down. For tickets ($15-25), call The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center at 860-510-0453 or online at www.TheKate.org. Watch how easily a seven-year old ghost upsets the delicate balance of a marriage when she is invited in for a manifestation of merry mayhem.

"SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD" OFFERED AT BREGAMOS THEATER

The Bregamos Community Theater is a hidden gem at 491 Blatchley Avenue in the Fair Haven section of New Haven, just off I-91 and even GPS has trouble directing you to its welcoming, eclectic doors. In the heart of Erector Square, it was originally the brain child of Rafael Ramos, who in 2019 received the C. Newton Schenck III Award for lifetime achievement in the arts from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. For more than a quarter of a century, Ramos worked for the Livable City Initiative, New Haven's anti-blight agency. He is proud that Bregamos Theater has become a community center accessible to the youth and adults of the state. According to Ramos, the theater’s name, Bregamos, means “we tweak it until it works,” and since 2000 has secured its nonprofit status. In 2007, it moved to Blatchley Avenue and exists as an all-volunteer effort, working with dozens of diverse organizations. Lara Morton, as creative producer, co-founded FUSE on site here in 2019, with the goal of “telling a story.” FUSE’s current offering is “Songs for a New World” with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, a show that is described as neither a musical or a song cycle, but an abstract piece of diverse songs all connected by “the moment of decision.” Brown defines it as “the moment…it’s hitting the wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.” Come meet Amber Emerson, Tiessa Hills, Susan Kulp, Brian Meltzer, Kelaey Mulligan and Ty Scurry on the weekend of Saturday, January 14 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, January 15 at 3 p.m. with Matt Durland on piano. The musical numbers range from a woman who threatens to jump form her penthouse apartment to gain her husband’s attention in “Just One Step,” two lost souls who bemoan their poor luck in “The River Won’t Flow,” a woman in “Stars and the Moon” who chooses wealth over love and regrets it, an unhappy Mrs. Claus who is bidding a sad farewell to her unresponsive mate and many more. The program, directed by Noah Golden, ends with “Hear My Story” and the hope that everyone can overcome hardship by standing together. For tickets ($15-22), go online to FuseTheatreCT.org. Masks are required while in the theater. Follow/Like Us on FB and Instagram: @fusetheatrect or #fuseislit Go on a musical adventure and discover the crossroads and decisions that need to be selected in order to succeed.

A SEXY SEXTET OF WIVES TELL ALL MUSICALLY AT THE BUSHNELL

What you might ask do Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleaves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr all have in common? They have each had the misfortune to marry the Tudor King Henry VIII and few lived long enough to regret it. Two were divorced, two were beheaded, one died by natural means and only one survived unscathed. The infamous Henry the VIII was King of England for almost four decades. His primary claim to fame were his six colorful and contentious marriages and the outlandish results of those alliances, mainly to the Queens directly involved. Henry created radical change to the English Constitution, mainly the theory of the divine rights of kings. This was in direct opposition to the power of the Pope. He didn’t believe he required formal trials if he accused someone of treason. Beware if you fell out of favor, for he could summarily banish or behead you. He loved money and power, yet was often on the verge of bankruptcy. In later years, he was driven by lust and egotism and became the model for a tyrannical monarch. Who wouldn’t love his advances? Thanks to Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, his Queens are finally getting their say, musically and magnificently, in “SIX” at Bushnell’s Hartford Theater from Tuesday, January 17 to Sunday, January 22. Ex-wives often have a plethora of gossip to say about their former spouses, but none more so than the six unhappy wives of good old Henry. There are no secrets here or indiscretions that can’t be revealed. After all, this sextet of sexy females were not simply divorced they were beheaded if they displeased him. Even though these ordeals happened five hundred years ago, their impact still stings today. They tell it like it was in songs like “Ex-Wives,” “Heart of Stone,” “Get Down,” “All You Wanna Do,” “I Don’t Need Your Love, “ “Six,” “No Way.” and “Don’t Lose Your Head.” This show has won 23 awards in the 2021-2022 Broadway season, including a Tony for Best Original Score and the Outer Critics Award for Best Musical. The North American tour Aragon company cast features Khaila Wilcoxon as Catherine of Aragon, Storm Lever as Anne Boleyn, Jasmine Forsberg as Jane Seymour, Olivia Donalson as Anna of Cleves, Didi Romero as Katherine Howard, and Gabriela Carrillo as Catherine Parr. The cast also includes Kelsee Kimmel, Erin Ramirez, Cassie Silva and Kelly Denice Taylor. For tickets ($42-167), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at bushnell.org. Performances are Tuesday-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. Talk about energy and girl power, this musical has it all, six times over.