“SISTER ROBERT ANN’S CABARET CLASS” COMES TO WATERBURY

Sister Robert Ann never was a shy wallflower kind of nun.  She always craved the spotlight.  Now she has it smack dab in her face.

If you’re a long time fan of Dan Goggin’s Nuns and Nun-sense, you’ll be psyched to discover that Sister Robert Ann will occupy the spotlight the way she always wanted: solo, alone, by herself, individually, without accompaniment.  “Sister Robert Ann’s Cabaret Class, a One Nun-sense Musical Event” will grace Waterbury’s Seven Angels Theatre the weekends of January 21 and 29.

Christine Mild stars as the spunky and feisty Sister who is as skilled with a wrench and pliers working on a car’s carburetor as she is with tuning her own vocal pipes. The good Sister Robert Ann has starred in other Dan Goggin musicals and belted out seventeen signature songs, giving her enough musical material for an evening all her own.

Since Christine Mild is a gold star member of the Little Sisters of Hoboken, having originated Sister Robert Ann and her Brooklyn street-wise ways in south Florida, she is a natural to take on this one- woman feast. She will deliver such memorable numbers as “What Would Elvis Do,” “Growing Up in Brooklyn,” “Twelve Days Prior to Christmas” and her theme song finally come true “I Just Want to be a Star.”   In addition, she will engage the audience in a lesson on cabaret acts just in case you want to take your own show on the road.

For tickets ($30), call Seven Angels Theatre, Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.SevenAngelsTheatre.org.  There is plenty of free parking on site.

Take a stroll down memory lane with Sister Robert Ann as she sentimentally renews her vows musically and spiritually for your listening pleasure.

“PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD” LAUNCHES ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON

If the proof is in the pudding, then “Play With Your Food” has created the perfect recipe for luncheon delights over the past decade.  Combining a good flavorful repast with a trio of savory theatrical treats, “Play With Your Food” is high on the menu of Fairfield County’s most popular noontime activities.

The fun begins at twelve noon with a buffet lunch from one of the area’s epicurean treasures like Westport’s Blue Lemon, Da Pietro’s, Matsu Sushi and Garelick and Herbs or Fairfield’s The Dressing Room, Layla’s, Tuckers and The Pantry or Greenwich’s Nicholas Roberts, Le Pain Quotidien or Garelick and Herbs.

Next up is a selection of readings by professional actors that can be comical or mysterious, but always entertaining.  According to Executive Producer Nancy Diamond, “We’re excited to start our season with Agatha Christie’s short play “The Rats,” complete with adulterous lovers, a locked room, and of course a murder.”

Paired with this will be two lighter comic sketches, “Airbourne” by Gib Johnson about an airline employee who feels obligated to become involved with the travel plans and lives of passengers, with delightfully complicated results and John Bishop’s “Arizona Anniversaries,” a comic look at risk and reward and potential and possibilities.

The fact that art can imitate life is acknowledged by Artistic Director Carole Schweid.  “Our plays tend to reflect, in some ways, where we are in our lives.  “Arizona Anniversaries” was chosen  before it dawned on us that January marks the beginning of  our 10^th season of “Play With Your Food.” How interesting is that!”

The afternoon concludes by 1:30 p.m. with a lively talk back with cast members and the audience.  For reservations ($43), call 203-293-8831 or online at www.jibproductions.org.  January performances will be held on the 10, 11,and 12, Tuesday – Thursday, at Toquet Hall, 62 Post Road East, Westport, on Tuesday, the 17^th at Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford Street, Fairfield and on Wednesday, January 18^th at Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich.

Future performances in February, March and April will incorporate love letters and music from “1776,” light hearted comedies and excerpts from George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion.”  Check the web site for specific dates and selections.

A Tenth Anniversary Gala will be held on Saturday, January 28 with cocktails, wine and hors d’oeuvres from Blue Lemon, Garelick and Herbs, Matsu Sushi and Tito’s Homemade Vodka at 6:30 p.m., followed at 8 p.m. with “Two For the Road,” theatrical offerings from “Sign of Life,” “ Pillow,” “ My Fair Lady,” “Camelot,”  “Mack and Mabel” and more surprises.  All the fun and fine food will take place at Dragone Classic Motorcars, 176 Post Road West, Westport.  For tickets ($100), call 203-293-8831.

Start off 2012 right.  Sign up to “Play With Your Food” for fanciful entertainment and culinary delights.

“MEMPHIS:” A JUMP AND JIVE JUBILATION OF JOY

Tune your radio dial to a Memphis, Tennessee station circa 1950 and get caught up in the sensational sounds emanating from that small rectangular brown plastic box.  The Disc Jockey of the hour is a young, naïve and white Huey Calhoun who sets out to bring a new style of music to the airwaves and unintentionally unleashes a tornado of novel sound.

This Tony Award-winning 2010 Best Musical – “Memphis”- is bringing its exuberant excitement to the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford from Tuesday, January 10 to Sunday, January 15.  With music and book by David Bryan (Bon Jovi) and Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change) and choreography by Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys), we turn in to Huey’s plot to bring the underground music he’s heard in clubs, the lowdown jive of rhythm and blues and rock and roll, up into the light of day.

Defying his ultra-conservative radio station owners, this adventurous high school dropout risks it all to play music that has been termed “racial” and inadvertently starts a sensation on the air.  Discovering a new black singer Felicia, he also finds love for the first time, in a relationship forbidden by society, that he must keep hidden.

Tunes like “Memphis Lives,”  “Say a Prayer” and “The Music of My Soul” focus on the passion this new sound engenders in Huey and underscore the tensions and conflicts of integration at that time and that place.  Hold on to your bobby sox as this musical and dance feast for the eyes, ears and feet rocks and rolls itself into your heart.

For tickets ($17-72), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org.  Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Get into the groove with this “West Side Story” tale of forbidden love that tells the true tale of a DJ whose passion for a bogey beat sets a town to sizzle.

"MAMMA MIA!" WHAT A SHOW!

         You don’t need to understand Swedish or even know where Sweden is on a map to fall in love with the ABBA inspired rock musical “Mamma Mia!”  Even if your knowledge of the music group ABBA is non-existent, the show will surely win your heart and your joy even before the overture is complete.

         Dance down the aisle to the Palace Theater in Waterbury from Friday, January 20 to  Sunday, January 22 to catch this lively with a capital L smash hit musical “Mamma Mia!” with music and lyrics by ABBA musicians Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and book by Catherine Johnson.

         Set on a mythical Greek island, the show is about a daughter Sophie, who at 20 is about to marry.  Her greatest wish is to have her father walk her down the aisle, but there’s one small problem.  Her mother Donna, a determined and vivacious independent spirit, who runs the island taverna, has never spoken Sophie’s father’s name.

         So the industrious and clever Sophie sends wedding invitations to the three candidates for fatherhood as determined by invading the privacy of her mom’s diary of twenty one years previously: an architect Sam, an Australian travel writer Bill and a proper British banker Harry . All three men accept the invitation they believe is from Donna and show up conveniently on the eve of Sophie’s nuptials to Sky .

         Fortunately the unsuspecting Donna has the moral grounding of Tanya and Rosie,  the members of her old singing group Donna and the Dynamos, who literally and figuratively support her when the sparks of mistrust and accusations start to fly. The great ABBA songs like “Dancing Queen,” “The Name of the Game,” “S.O.S.,” “Thank You for the Music,” “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do I Do,” and “The Winner Takes It All” and more than a dozen more, make this show sparkle with neon lights that spell Amazing, Bouncy, Beautiful, and Alive, in snappy and pulsating style.  For tickets ($ 50-70), call the Palace, 100 East Main Street, Waterbury at 203-346-2000 or online at www.palacetheaterct.org.  Performances are  Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m.and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The Palace is encouraging women’s groups of all sizes to choose “Mamma Mia!” as their next “Girls Night Out” destination by offering groups of 15 or more a 10-15 % discount on tickets to the show. Bridal parties, co-workers, social club leaders, and soccer moms looking to book their next group outing can contact Box Office and Special Services Coordinator, Deirdre Patterson at 203-345-2011, to plan their excursion and save on tickets.

Special events  include a pre-show brunch at 11 a.m. on Sunday ($75) prepared by Emily’s Catering Group and a Gla’Mar’Ours Girls Night Out on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. with music, appetizers and a cash bar that is free with a ticket to the 6:30 p.m. show.

        

Once upon a time a girl prays to have her father at her side

for her wedding day.  Is it a blessing or a curse when her

prayers are answered three times over?  Catch the joy of

“Mamma Mia!” and discover for yourself.  Wedding gifts are

optional.

GOODSPEED’S FESTIVAL GUARANTEED TO START A 2012 MUSICAL EXPLOSION

Do you like to be on the cutting edge of new ideas?  Does having bragging rights around the water cooler excite you?  Do you have the need to namedrop?  If these traits sound like your mantra, then the Seventh Annual Goodspeed  Festival of New Artists is your 2012 cup of tea, eggnog, mulled cider and hot chocolate all rolled into one fragrant punch bowl.

From Friday, January 13 to Sunday, January 15, Goodspeed Musicals’ Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre will showcase a festival of brand new musical works in a series of staged readings, workshops, tours, play previews, a dinner and cabarets.  For the incredible price of only $79, you can have an exciting front row seat to the newest offerings in musical theater presented at East Haddam’s historic location on the Connecticut River.

The festival opens at 7:30 p.m., Friday, with “Harmony, Kansas,” with music by Anna K. Jacobs and book and lyrics by Bill Nelson.  When a young farmer, Heath, joins a newly formed gay men’s chorus, he discovers performing in public threatens to turn his world topsy turvy. At 10 p.m., a cabaret of new songs by new artists will take place next door at the Gelston House.

On Saturday, participants will meet from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at the Gelston House for a choice of workshops:  Peter Filichia, theater critic and author of “Broadway Musicals MVPs” will review his selections of most valuable players of the past five decades on Broadway and sign his book; “There Is Life After the Festival!” will feature the “Harmony, Kansas” creative team discussing the past, present and future of their new work; “Noel Coward: the Man and His Music,” a discussion of his life and music by Nancy Anderson, a Goodspeed favorite and Noel Coward Cabaret Award Winner; and “Spotlight on: Tony Walton,”  a discussion with the man whose costumes and scenic designs have won awards for fifty years.

From 2:30 -3:30 p.m., participants will be treated to a preview of a new musical to be featured at Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre in Chester which workshops innovative works.  At 4 p.m., a Noel Coward Symposium will be featured at the Goodspeed Opera House on the “Book of Mormon, Need We Say More?,”  a panel discussion led by Casey Nicholaw, the co-director of this Tony Award-winning hit.  This event is free and open to the public.

A festive three-course dinner will follow at 5:30 p.m. at the Gelston House.  At 7:30 p.m., “Not Wanted on the Voyage,”

with music and lyrics by Neil Bartram and book by Brian Hill, based on a novel by Timothy Findley, will take place at the Goodspeed Opera House.  Imagine being the one and only family, complete with talking cat, selected to survive the Great Flood, when the world ends for the first time.  Magic, mythology and hope fill this extraordinary tale.  A cabaret follows at 10 p.m. at the Gelston House.

On Sunday, at 11 a.m., a tour of Goodspeed’s 250,000 piece costume collection will be held, followed at 1 p.m. with the final musical, “The Dogs of Pripyat,” with music by Aron Accurso, lyrics by Jill Abramovitz and book by Leah Napolin and Jill Abramovitz, based on a play by Leah Napolin, will be presented at Goodspeed.  Based on a true story, it is the tale of the animals left behind when Chernobyl is evacuated in 1986, USSR and what happens to them as they adapt and survive.

At the Gelston House at 3:30 p.m., a Meet the Writers Reception will allow the composers to share their insights and writing process, with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.  Go to www.goodspeed.org for lodging and dining accommodations.  The entire Festival Package can be purchased for $79 or single events ($15, students $10) can be selected.  Call 860-873-8668 for reservations today so you won’t be disappointed.

Mark your brand new 2012 calendar or IPad, IPod, IPhone or Blackberry for this exciting entertainment event.

“WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE?” A CHEERFUL ROMANTIC DELIGHT

Grab a giant bag of Bugles and a six-pack of Hostess Pink Snoballs and bop over to Berlin’s Connecticut Cabaret Theatre for a musical trip back to the 1960’s. Four girlfriends are busy trying to solve the age- old questions about love, marriage and men, whether all the hoopla and fuss are worthwhile.

Roger Bean’s musical comedy “Why Do fools Fall in Love?,” playing weekends until Saturday, January 28, raises lots of questions as it queries the intentions and involvements, successful and not so much, surrounding a quartet of twenty-somethings who readily admit to being confused, anxious and overwhelmed about the dating game.  They may not all be eager to play it, but if they do play, they want to win.

Come meet Millie, Sally, Florence and Dee Dee who are delightfully created by Lauren Adams, Kristin Ceneviva, Anne Collin and Emily LaRose.  The gals have gathered to celebrate Millie’s fast approaching nuptials, only days away.  In the course of toasting the bride-to-be with tequila shots, the scandalous news slips out that her fiancé James has been unfaithful and is among the missing.  While Millie is sure she can work everything out, once she finds him, the group quickly consult their Magic 8 Ball, remember this is the 1960’s, and belt out a bevy of jukebox hits of the era:  “It Hurts to Be in Love,” “He’s a Rebel,” “Baby, I’m Yours,” “Untrue, Unfaithful,” “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” “Hey There Lonely Boy” and “Goin’ Out of My Head (Over You) and many others.

Dee Dee consumes Snowballs and gets a sugar high while rhapsodizing about her Johnny, Flo tries to analyze her relationship to Bobby and Sally lists her entourage of bad boys. They all form a sisterhood of strength and support for Millie.  Kris McMurray directs “this look back fun show” with spirit and verve, on a psychedelic set designed by Matthew Collin Marrero.

For tickets ($30), call CT Cabaret Theatre 31-33 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.  Remember to bring snacks to nibble or buy dessert and drinks on site.

Auditions for CT Cabaret’s 15^th Anniversary Season will be held Monday, January 9 starting at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, January 10, starting at 7 p.m.  Call Kris or Matthew at 860-829-1248 to schedule a 15-minute audition.  Headshots and resumes can also be mailed to mcm_ctcabaret@me.com.

Put your pink paper umbrellas in your alcoholic drink of choice and discover once again why falling in love is definitely worth all the fuss and bother.

"IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE” IS, WELL, SIMPLY WONDERFUL

George Bailey is the reluctant iconic hero of one of the season’s most beloved stories.  Whether you have known George Bailey for decades or you are a brand new acquaintance, New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre’s production of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is filled with care and affection, thanks to playwright Joe Landry.

Until Saturday, December 31, you are invited to follow in George’s footsteps as he walks through his life in Bedford Falls, New York, an ordinary existence that he himself might describe as dull and without definition.

Created as a 1940’s radio show, on Station WBFR, for Playhouse on the Air, the story by Philip Van Doren was originally a Frank Capra movie starring Jimmy Stewart.  Here a troupe of talented actors – Dan Domingues, Kate Maccluggage, Alex Moggridge, Kevyn Morrow and Ariel Woodiwiss- play multiple roles as they create George’s life, up to the moment when he decides it isn’t worth living and the world would be better off if he had never been born.

While Ebenezer Scrooge has his three ghostly visitations on Christmas Eve, George is blessed with only one:  Clarence, an apprentice angel who is more than two centuries old and has yet to earn his wings.  The hard working and dependable George, who saves his brother Harry from drowning, stops a pharmacist from

dispensing a prescription with poison, stands up to the town’s tyrant, helps a community live in homes rather than shacks and marries a fine woman and raises three children, learns that he is not a failure in life and that he has friends who bless him.  Associate director Eric Ting creates a wonderful atmosphere on stage, where the terrific sound effects by Foley Artist Nathan Roberts are like another character.

For tickets ($52.75-72), call Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven at 203-787-4282 or online at www.longwharf.org.  Performances are Christmas week Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m. and Christmas Eve at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and for New Year’s Eve week Monday at 7 p.m., Tuesday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.

In honor of the holiday season, Long Wharf is partnering with the Connecticut Food Bank and patrons are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to donate.  Most desired items are tuna, peanut butter, soups, stews, pasta, beans, rice and canned fruits and vegetables.

Let your imagination soar as you listen to this tale of redemption and what it means to live a life of purpose.