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04/26/2018 12:01 AMRomantic Comedy: Shakespeare’s As You Like It ends the season at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre on the UConn Storrs campus. It runs through Sunday, April 29. As is typical in Shakespearean comedies, it’s all about family feuds, love triangles, and disguises. For tickets, visit crt.uconn.edu or call 860-486-2113.
It’s Political, It’s a Farce: This is how Kiss, the final show of the Yale Rep season, is described. By Guillermo Calderón, the play is about four friends in Damascus who meet weekly while civil war rages outside. It’s directed by Drama School professor Evan Yionoulis and runs Friday, April 27 to Saturday, May 19. For tickets, visit yalerep.org or call 203-432-1234.
Not Just About Hats: Crowns could be described as all about hats—the church hats of African-American women—but it is about much more. It is about a Chicago teenager who goes to live with her grandmother in South Carolina and discovers her world and her family. Long Wharf, in association with the McCarter Theatre Center, is presenting the 13th anniversary production, directed by author Regina Talyor. This play with music, runs through Sunday, May 13, which happens to be Mother’s Day. For tickets, visit longwharf.org or call 203-787-4282
New Musical: You Are Here opens the season at Goodspeed at Chester from Friday, May 18 through Sunday, June 10. The new show is set on July 20, 1969, the day when man first walked on the moon. As it is described, “a Chicago housewife walks out of her comfortable suburban life.” She then finds a series of unexpected encounters. The show is written by Brian Hill (book) and Neill Bartram (music and lyrics), who wrote the musical The Story of My Life which was also produced at Chester. For tickets, visit goodspeed.org or call 860-873-8668.
A Blank Is Filled: Hartford Stage announced the remaining show of the 2018-’19 season. It’s the North American premiere of the London hit comedy, Jeeves & Wooster in ‘Perfect Nonsense.’ The Olivier Award-winning comedy will run March 21 to April 14. It’s a farce based on the early 20th century comic stories of Jeeves, a very proper English butler, and Wooster, a young man who gets into all sorts of predicaments from which Jeeves must extricate him. Sean Foley, who directed the show in London, will direct.
Behind the Scenes: This summer, Hartford Stage is completing the last stage of its multi-year renovation, which included a new, enlarged lobby and restrooms, new seating, remodeling the upper lobby, and more. This year, the focus will be backstage with refurbishment of dressing rooms, a remodeled green room, and a state-of-the-art costume shop. The project began in 2010 with stage one, and in 2015 stage 2 was completed. The entire project was to cost $14 million.
Angels in America: Two of the most anticipated shows on Broadway this spring is the English revival of Tony Kushner’s two-part work Angels in America, A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. These two plays, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika explore the early years of the AIDS epidemic in America. It’s really about a great deal more—America’s sense of purpose and morality, religion, politics, and the world. Highlights of the productions are the performances by Nathan Lane as attorney Roy M. Cohn, Andrew Garfield as a young man dying of AIDS, and Lee Pace as a stalwart conservative lawyer wrestling with his sexuality. These performance alone, as well as a talented cast that plays multiple roles, are reason enough to see this theatrical marathon. Each part is more than 3 ½ hours long; but you can see just one part. If you want to try to get tickets—this is a limited engagement through sometime in June—visit ticketmaster.com.
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.