"A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES" A HOLIDAY SPECIAL

The nostalgia of holiday memories, whether it's the baking of raisin-faced gingerbread men or the hanging of popcorn garlands on the tree, are precious ones.  Ivoryton Playhouse is sharing a special batch of childhood Christmas thoughts, courtesy of the National Theatre of the Deaf, until Sunday, December 16 when it offers "A Child's Christmas in Wales - Past and Presents."

Inspired by a favorite poem by Dylan Thomas, it centers on his boyhood by the "two-tongued sea" of Wales when he waited with his pal Jim to ambush the town's cats and pelt them with snowballs.  When the cats wisely failed to appear, the snowballs became the emergency ammunition when Mrs. Prothero's kitchen caught on fire.

His recollections included a bevy of crazy relatives, a tower of useless Christmas presents, lots of cold and snow, valiant postmen and making huge footprints in the snow with bright new boots so people would think a pair of hippos had invaded the town.  Combining signing with the spoken word, Dylan Thomas' childhood thoughts are brought to delightful life by Joey Caverly, Christina Cogswell, Taylor Curtis and Christina Stevens.

A Children's Choir of Julianna Alvord, Jenna Berloni, Olivia Harry, Bridget Harry, Carson Waldron and Mason Waldron sang and signed Christmas carols.  Tales about Virginia asking the New York Sun newspaper if there is a Santa Claus, the lovely story of a husband and wife selling their most precious possessions to buy the other a gift, a clumsy polar bear wanting to help Mrs. Claus decorate a tree, an original audience participation rendition of "On the First Day of Christmas" without a partridge or a pear tree, the story of an unhappy boy Bertram who wants Santa to bring his friends what they want for Christmas, a Chanukah song and a reenactment of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" also were featured.  Brian Jennings directed this happy homespun holiday happening conceived by Betty Beekman.
Performance times are Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Evening performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm.  Tickets are $30 for adults, $28 for seniors, $20 for students and $15 for children and are available by calling the Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting the website at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org   The Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street, Ivoryton. The town is illuminated with thousands of colorful lights for your enjoyment.

Journey with Dylan Thomas and the National Theatre of the Deaf to a snow crusted world in Wales where anything is possible for a child if you just believe.

"DRIVING MISS DAISY" A SMOOTH AND ENJOYABLE RIDE

Miss Daisy Werthan of Atlanta, Georgia has been determining her own destiny for more than seven decades and she has no inclination to change.  Just because her three week old 1948 Packard "misbehaved" and demolished itself, a garage and a tool shed was clearly the fault of the machine and was no reflection on her driving skills.

As a fine and upstanding Southern gentlewoman of the Jewish persuasion, she refuses to acknowledge she is well-to-do.  She also refuses to listen to her son Boolie who insists she must surrender her car keys and let him hire a colored gentleman to chauffeur her to the Piggly-Wiggly for groceries and to the Temple for worship.

Until Sunday, December 23, you are invited to make the acquaintance of this genteel lady with a backbone of steel as Playhouse on Park in West Hartford presents a delightful production of the Pulitzer Prize- winning "Driving Miss Daisy" by Alfred Uhry.

Waltrudis Buck is wonderful as the opinionated, feisty and fiercely independent Daisy who refuses to give up control of her life.  Bristol Pomeroy is the loving and loyal son Boolie who knows his mama is a "doodle" but understands what's best for her.  To that end, he interviews and hires Hoke Colburn, played with wisdom and quiet dignity by Marvin Bell, to escort his mama around town.

With stubborn resistance, Miss Daisy tries Hoke's patience and over their twenty-five year journey together they form a genuine friendship that is endearing to watch.  Eventually even Miss Daisy admits that Hoke is her "best friend."  Stevie Zimmerman directs this superb trio with white-gloved sensitivity.

For tickets ($32.50, seniors and students $20-30), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford at 860-523-5900, ext. 10 or online at www.PlayhouseOnPark.org.  Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. On Friday and Saturday, December 28 and 29 at 8 p.m., the Playhouse will host Mama D's Outrageous Holiday Romp, a Stop/Time Dance Theater Production.  BYOB and tickets are $10.

Take a seat in Miss Daisy's Packard for a smooth ride, with a few bumps like prejudice and racism, as Hoke chauffeurs you along Miss Daisy's interesting life.  Fasten your seat belts, please.

"THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE" IS DARKLY COMIC

When actresses seek out juicy roles on stage and in the movies, Kathleen Turner has gotten more than a fair share of "Tropicana" hits.  Recently she starred on Broadway in the searing role of Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"  Before that she was Maggie the Cat in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."  She has also embodied the soul of Tallulah Bankhead in a memorable one woman show as well as Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate."  From Jessica Rabbit to Peggy Sue, the adventurous Joan Wilder opposite Michael Douglas and the infamous Matty in "Body Heat," Ms. Turner is no stranger to roles that challenge, inspire and even frighten.

Now she has turned her considerable talents in a new direction and New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre is reaping the benefits.  In discovering a play, a dark comedy of a vintage almost five decades ago. she saw its potential and has orchestrated its return to the stage.  "The Killing of Sister George" by Frank Marcus has been updated and adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and will inaugurate Long Wharf's newly renovated Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck II Mainstage Theatre until Sunday, December 23.

Not only does Ms. Turner direct this twisting comic farce she stars in it as June Buckridge, the caring nurse who tends the poor and sickly on the successful British radio soap opera "Applehurst."  Off the air, June is a hard talking, take-no-prisoners feminist who intimates her young lover and helpmate Childie, captured perfectly by Clea Alsip.

When June senses that her character Sister George is likely to be "bumped off" due to falling ratings, she rants at Childie and then consults her resident psychic Madame Xenia, a perceptive Olga Merediz.
The brassy broad Ms. Buckridge downs a few gins and smokes a few stogies as she confronts the radio station's representative Mercy Croft, a diplomatic and calculating Betsy Aiden, who is set to deliver the axe to the sacrificial Thanksgiving turkey.  Whether or not the axe will hit its mark makes the plot even more delicious.

For tickets ($40-70), call Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven at 203-787-4282 or online at www.longwharf.org.  Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m, Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

A day of myth, magic and monsters is planned for the whole family on Saturday, December 15 from 9 a.m. to noon.  You are invited to come dressed as your favorite princess, knight, wizard and monster.  To register for "Quest for Long Wharf Castle," go online at www.longwharf.org or call 203-787-4282. 

Support the theatre's Toys for Tots Drive by bringing a new, unwrapped toy to the theatre lobby until December 20.  Marines will then deliver them to less fortunate children in the community.

The perfect holiday gift is an "Anytime Pass" for $50 each, a minimum purchase of four, to be exchanged for one play or to use throughout the season.  Call the box office for more information.

Let this all-female cast take you on a journey with June as she battles the forces determined to insure her demise.

"GLITZ!" A SNAZZY NEW MUSICAL ABOUT BEAUTIES AND ONE BEAST

Kylie Poggio, Dani Corrigan, Peyton Iott, Cassie Gerace and Elise Sullivan: Glitz! Girls

In a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Honey Boo Boos of this world, with a passing homage to the reality television show "Toddlers and Tiaras,"a new musical by Bert Bernardi and Justin Rugg is a holiday happening.  "Glitz! The Little Miss Christmas Pageant Musical" will take you behind the scenes of the mother-daughter hijinxs that are attached to this mystical event.

Pantochino Productions will offer this inside peek behind the velvet curtain weekends until  Saturday, December 22 at the Milford Center for the Arts, the town's railroad station, 40 Railroad Avenue, Milford.  Bert Bernardi directs a large cast of beauty winner wannabes and their pushy and frantic mamas as they all compete for the coveted title.

Center stage is the master of ceremonies and pageant director, one Shayde Shams, whose name says it all.  He is shady and a sham.  Claiming  the pageant is to benefit a charity for sick children, he has every intention of pocketing all the proceeds for himself.  Jimmy Johansmeyer's sleazy Shayde needs to learn a lesson or three about being nice and not naughty.

To that end, Shayde is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley (a la Dicken's "A Christmas Carol") and warned to repent by the ghosts of pageants past, present and yet to come. George Spelvin takes on all these roles with panache. Thankfully Shayde mends his ways with the help and encouragement of the precocious contestants Haily (Dani Corrigan), Sophia (Cassie Gerace), Goodness Gracious (Peyton Iott), Taylor (Elise Sullivan) and Barbie (Kylie Poggio) and their manipulating and motivating mothers Helen (Dale Allen), Mugsy (Shelley Marsh Poggio), Marybeth (Jennifer Smith), Olivia (Mary Mannix) and Cheryl (Katie Durham).

Get into the Christmas spirit as this fiercely competitive talent show allows the mothers and daughters to learn the value of truth and honesty.  Songs like "The Pageant Life Is For Me" and "My Daughter's Better Than Yours"
say it all, especially the confessional appeal of "I Want to be Like Valerie Bertinelli."

For tickets ($16), call Pantochino Productions at  203-937-6206 or online at info@pantochinoproductions.com.  Performances are Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m with no performances Saturday, December 15.

Take a bevy of little beauties, in ruffled socks and black patent leather shoes, add make-up and ambition and talent, sequins and spangles, and you have all the ingredients for an entertaining new holiday happening.

A CLASSIC TALE OF LOVE AND LOSS AT UCONN

If you were asked to guess which of William Shakespeare's plays, both comedies and tragedies, is the most produced worldwide, would you answer "A Midsummer's Night Dream" or "Hamlet"?  Both would be wrong.  Since it was first published in 1597, "Romeo and Juliet" enjoys that distinction and the answer is in the hundreds of thousands.  It is certain that at any moment in time, it is being performed right this minute.

In fact, "Romeo and Juliet," that beloved classic about young love and family enmity, is available right in your own backyard as a splendid rendition is being offered until Sunday, December 9 by the Connecticut Repertory Theatre on the campus of the University of Connecticut.

This masterful story of first love, a deep affection set on a course to crash and burn, is timeless in its message.  When Romeo attends a masquerade ball given by his family's sworn enemies the Capulets, he becomes immediately taken with their only daughter Juliet.  Despite all the obstacles facing them, the pair bravely face the future with love igniting their souls.

Will Haden's Romeo is impassioned and powerful as the ill-fated suitor, seeking the hand of Hannah Kaplan's luminous Juliet, a girl forbidden for him to know.  The hatred of the Montagues, Romeo's kinsmen, against Juliet's Capulets, is long standing and dooms the couple to a grief filled future.  When Mercutio (Andrea Pane) is slain by Tybalt (Thomas Brazzle), Romeo is swept into the fray and accidentally takes Tybalt's life.

Despite the help of Juliet's loyal nurse (Nora Chester) and the accommodating Friar Lawrence (Richard Ruiz), the couple soon find themselves trapped in a violence not of their own making. Juliet's overbearing father (Anthony J. Goes) demands she marry the suitor of his choice, the Lord Paris (James Jelkin) and issues his ultimatum in a manner bordering on child abuse.  The quiet streets of Verona are marked by swordplay and bloodshed until the death-marked lovers pay the ultimate price for a quarrel begun long before they were even born.  Vincent J. Cardinal directs this complex tale with a strong hand and a surprising number of humorous moments.

For tickets ($6-30), call the Nafe Katter Theatre, 820 Bolton Road, Storrs or www.crt.uconn.edu.  Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Learn for yourself the lesson "for never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo,"  a couple who are ultimately united in death, teaching their parents the price they paid for their hatred.

PAUL ANKA INVITES YOU TO CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS

If you're a fan of the television series "The Gilmore Girls," set in Hartford and Star's Hollow, Connecticut, then you might remember that the star of the show Lorelai Gilmore named her sheepdog pet Paul Anka.  Lorelai has fond feelings for this singing sensation and teen idol who enjoyed top billing in the 1950's and 1960's.

Born in Canada and now a naturalized citizen of the United States, Paul Anka has sung with and composed for some of the top names in the music industry, from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, Johnny Mathis to Peter Cetera.  To hear a marvelous medley of Anka tunes like "Diana," "Lonely Boy" and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder," plan to head to Waterbury's Palace Theater on Saturday, December 8 at 8 p.m. for a concert "Christmas with the Legendary Paul Anka."

Admit it.  You'd like to put your head on his shoulder and let him croon any of the songs he has written and popularized over the last five decades.  Who wouldn't want to hear his rendition of "She's a Lady," a song he wrote for Tom Jones or "My Way" a little ditty he penned for Ole Blue Eyes.

Swoon like you're a teenager again as this prolific songwriter of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries shares his greatest hits as well as a cavalcade of Christmas classics like "Winter Wonderland" and "The Christmas Song."  This personality-plus performer will give 110% as he royally entertains the Palace Theater audience.

Before the performance, attend a 6 p.m. dinner in the Palace's Poli Club by Emily's Catering Group, $40 per member or $50 per non-member, including tax service fees, coffee and tea.  A cash bar will be available.  Call the box office for reservations.

For tickets ($55-100), call 203-346-2000 or go online at www.palacetheaterct.org.  The Palace Theater is located at 100 East Main Street, Waterbury.

Start celebrating this festive season a little early as Paul Anka and his legendary voice and style usher in Christmas My Way, His Way and Your Way.

LONG WHARF THEATRE UNVEILS MAJOR RENOVATIONS

New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre has long been touted for its outstanding regional theater productions, but  if you've enjoyed the pleasure of the work you probably haven't enjoyed the total experience.  A definite lack of knee and leg room interfered with your comfort.

Fear no more.  Long Wharf Theatre has just completed a major renovation to its Main Stage, which will now be known as the Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Mainstage Theatre.  The Tow Foundation, endowed by Len, Claire and daughter Emily, created a challenge grant of $1,250,000 to start the almost $4,000,000 project.  According to Charles Kingsley, chairman of the board, "the physical discomfort of the audience has been cured once and for all."  He has been attending excellent theater at Long Wharf since he saw Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" back in 1965.

Gorden Edelstein, who has been the Artistic Director for a decade, boasted that the renovations were a team effort, coming in "on time and on budget and looking good."  As soon as you walk in the large glass doors, you will be greeted by an expanded lobby area with a bar, a larger green room and dressing rooms for the actors, a new lighting grid, advanced heating and air conditioning systems and a larger woman's restroom.  Mr. Edelstein remarked at the press opening that "It takes a village...all the people involved created a supportive community.  The donations from $10 to multiple thousands were incredibly moving to me."

To Len Tow, the donor who set the project in motion. "Long Wharf is the pinnacle of regional theater."  His attachment goes back thirty years and he is very proud to be intimately involved in the theater  He joked that he wants to play a leading role in the upcoming version of "Hamlet."  Tow called Long Wharf "an island of creativity next to a meat market of chops and steaks...the realization of a dream."

That theme, of its unlikely location, was continued by Mary Pepe, the chair of the facilities committee since 2003. "Long Wharf has left a lasting impression on me since the first day I walked in as a high school student in 1965."  She reflected on its "quirky charm" and incredible history.

If you would like to make a donation to the renovation, please call 203-787-4282, or Eileen Wiseman, Director of Development at 203-772-8237, or visit online at www.longwharf.org.  You can name a seat, a comfortable grey suede one, for $1500, $2500 or $5000 but donations of any amount are most welcome.

A formal celebration will take place at the opening of "The Killing of Sister George," a play directed by and starring Kathleen Turner on Wednesday, December 5.  This classic farce, which plays until December 23, will showcase Ms. Turner as a British radio star who is as different as day from night once she is off the air.  She is a nun tending the poor and sick on the radio by day and a hard living, cigar chewing, gin swilling tart by night.

Come see the new improved Long Wharf Theatre for yourself, soon and often.