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08/03/2017 12:01 AMConnecticut Theater Info: If you want to learn all about Connecticut theater, check out the updated website for the Connecticut Critics Circle, cccritics.org. The site has listings of current and upcoming productions by both professional and non-professional theaters, photos and feature stories plus reviews of current and past productions by member critics. It’s one stop shopping for theater news.
Family & Estates: Next up at Westport Country Playhouse is Appropriate, which won the 2014 Obie (Off-Broadway) Award for best new American Play. It runs Tuesday, Aug. 15 to Sunday, Sept. 2. The press materials describe the play thusly: “When the Lafayette children gather at the crumbling Arkansas plantation of their recently deceased father to catalog his estate, they discover a shameful legacy. In the tradition of American family dramas, from Long Day’s Journey into Night to August: Osage County, this funny, award-winning play unleashes a series of surprises.” The play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is directed by David Kennedy, the playhouse’s associate artistic director. He recently won the Connecticut Critics Circle award for directing The Invisible Hand last year. For tickets, visit westportplayhouse.org or call 888-927-7529.
New Musical: Goodspeed’s next new musical at the Terris Theatre in Chester is Darling Grenadine, which began life at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in 2016. Its creator Daniel Zaitchik is a singer-songwriter who worked with the band Blue Bottle Collection. His musical Picnic at Hanging Rock was showcased at Goodspeed’s Festival of New Musicals last January. Darling Grenadine is about jingle composer Harry who seems to have it all in New York City—girlfriend, brother, dog (Lab)—until reality interrupts. The show runs Friday, Aug. 18 to Sunday, Sept. 17. For tickets, visit goodspeed.org or call 860-876-8668. As usual, Goodspeed has planned various events during the run including a wine-tasting, girls’ night out, talkbacks, and more.
Disco Returns: The 1977 film Saturday Night Fever made John Travolta a star. Twenty years later it was turned into a musical playing both London and Broadway. Now it is coming to Ivoryton Playhouse. The musical features almost all of the movie songs by the Bee Gees; it follows the story of Tony, a young man in a dead-end job who wants to become the disco king. It runs, Wednesday, Aug. 9 to Sunday, Sept. 3. Tony is played by Michael Notaradonato and Stephanie by Caroline Lellouche. Todd L. Underwood directs and choreographs and Mike Morris handles the musical direction; both had the same responsibilities for the recent West Side Story. For tickets, visit ivorytonplayhouse.org or call 860-767-7318.
Long Time Coming: Prince of Broadway has had a long road to Broadway, but the show about producer/director Hal Prince is finally opening this month. It began development years ago and had a 2015 production in Japan. Prince directed or produced shows from Damn Yankees to Sweeney Todd, Fiddler on the Roof, Evita, Cabaret, and others, as well as working extensively with Stephen Sondheim. He won 21 Tony awards. The cast features Karen Ziemba, Emily Skinner, Tony Yazbeck, and many other well-known Broadway performers. In addition to songs from the various shows with which Prince was associated, Jason Robert Brown, a Tony winner himself, has written original songs for the show. While it is part of the Manhattan Theatre Club’s subscription season, if it is a hit, it may easily transfer to another Broadway theater. For tickets, visit Telecharge.
More Broadway on Film & TV: Following in the very successful Metropolitan Opera and National Theater of England “live” performances screened to movie theaters, more and more Broadway shows are also following the path. After the success of She Loves Me, recently the revival of the musical Falsettos was in local theaters. More are to come. In addition, PBS will have a line-up of Broadway shows aired between Oct. 21 and Dec. 1 on Friday evenings. The shows include She Loves Me on Oct. 20, Holiday Inn (which began at Goodspeed) on Nov. 24, and Kevin Kline in Present Laughter on Nov. 3. Plus there will be encore airings of In the Heights (Nov. 10) and Hamilton’s America (Dec. 1).
East Haven resident Karen Isaacs is a member of both the Connecticut Critics Circle and New York’s Outer Critics Circle. To check out her reviews for New York and Connecticut shows, visit 2ontheaisle.wordpress.com.