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10/12/2017 12:01 AMTelephone Memories: A Broken Umbrella Theatre in New Haven specializes in creating new works that it writes based on New Haven-area history. Did you know the first telephone switchboard and the first phone directory were in New Haven? Using that, plus more than 200 interviews with local people, the group has created a new work, Exchange, featuring personal stories from the community. It will play Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 14 and 15 in the Muster Hall of the Goffe Street Armory, 200 Goffe Street, and Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 28 and 29 at Erector Square, 315 Peck Street. Performances are free, but donations are appreciated. The 60-minute show is performed each day at 12:30 and 4:30 p.m.
Next Year at Westport: Westport Country Playhouse will stage five productions that are “big for the soul” next season, according to Artistic Director Mark Lamos. The season will begin with Flyin’ West (May 29 to June 16), followed by the classic farce, A Flea in Her Ear (July 10 to 28), the The Understudy by Theresa Rebeck (Aug. 14 to Sept. 1), the musical Man of La Mancha (Sept. 25 to Oct. 13), and concluding with the world premiere drama, Thousand Pines (Oct. 30 to Nov. 17). Subscriptions are now available; tickets for individual productions go on sale in March. For information, visit westportplayhouse.org or call 888-927-7529.
Two Classics: Next year, Goodspeed Musicals will present two classic shows and one recent show on its mainstage. David Lutken, whom Connecticut audiences will remember for his performance as Woody Guthrie in Woody Sez, will play Will Rogers in The Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue from April 13 to June 21. Oliver! the 1960s musical based on Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist runs June 29 to Sept. 9. The season concludes with the recent Broadway musical, Bullets Over Broadway based on the Woody Allen film and using music of the ’20s and ’30s. It runs Sept. 21 to Nov. 25. Season tickets are now on sale; tickets for individual shows go on sale Feb. 18. For information, visit goodspeed.org or call 860-873-8668.
A New Anne Frank: Many Connecticut theater goers have seen productions of The Diary of Anne Frank, but Playhouse on Park in West Hartford is presenting a new adaption that weaves her story with those of survivors of the Holocaust. The show runs Wednesday, Oct. 25 to Sunday, Nov. 19. For tickets, visit playhouseonpark.org or call 860-523-5900 ext. 10.
World Premiere in Hartford: Hartford Stage is presenting the world premiere of Seder by Sarah Gancher, Thursday, Oct. 19 to Sunday, Nov. 12. The story takes place over Passover in Budapest in 2002 where a daughter’s homecoming and revelations about the mother’s past working for the Hungarian KGB roil the waters. It is described as tackling a less well-known period of 20th century Jewish history—that in post-World War II Communist Eastern Europe. For tickets, call 860-527-5151 or visit hartfordstage.org.
At the Bushnell: The national tour of the Broadway musical School of Rock will be at Hartford’s Bushnell Theater Tuesday, Oct. 24 to Sunday, Oct. 29. The show, which opened on Broadway in 2015, is based on the film of the same name and features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. For tickets, visit Bushnell.org or call 860-987-5900.
Complicated Ticket Procedure: The process to purchase tickets for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 & 2 which will open this spring is complicated. You have to first register as part of Tickemaster’s Verified Fan program, which is designed to filter out those purchasing blocks of tickets for resale. That process is now going on. Verified genuine ticket buyers are given an access code and those randomly selected will receive an email on Monday, Oct. 16 with further information including a designated purchase window. The access code does not guarantee tickets. For more information, visit HarryPotterthePlay.com/register.
Karen Isaacs is an East Haven resident. To check out her reviews for New York and Connecticut shows, visit 2ontheaisle.wordpress.com. She’s a member of both the Connecticut Critics Circle and New York’s Outer Critics Circle.