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09/05/2018 07:00 AMHamilton, Hamilton, Hamilton.
That’s the biggest news when it comes to this fall’s theater season. So here’s what you need to know: It finally arrives at the Bushnell in December. But don’t expect tickets to be easy to come by. Your best chance—unless you are subscriber or donor to the Bushnell—may be the daily lottery that has been run at every site the show plays.
Tickets for Hamilton will go on sale on Saturday, Sept. 8 at 9 a.m. at the Bushnell box office or through bushnell.org. No tickets are available by phone. The Bushnell said that additional tickets will be available later. There’s a limit of four tickets.
And, theater goers will be happy find there is so much more to pick from. Will it be “Comedy, Tonight,” “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” or “I Feel a Song Coming On” in Connecticut theaters this fall? Actually, it will be all of the above, plus some.
Connecticut is blessed with an abundance of fine professional theaters—including the major regional companies (Yale Rep, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Goodspeed, TheaterWorks, and Westport Playhouse) along with the Ivoryton Playhouse in Ivoryton, Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, Connecticut Repertory Theater at UConn, Sharon Playhouse, Seven Angels in Waterbury, MTC in Norwalk, and ACT-CT in Ridgefield. Plus there are the major presenting houses that bring in national tours, including the Bushnell in Hartford, the Shubert in New Haven, and the Palace in Waterbury.
Each fall, I look through upcoming shows and highlight some of the ones that I believe are most promising.
One thing I have noticed in the last few years: More and more new plays are being produced while fewer classic works are featured.
Why?
Sometimes it’s easier to get financial support for new works. New works allow theaters to reach out to more diverse audiences and present works by diverse playwrights. Even length may play a role; classic plays tend to be full-length (two-plus hours), while modern audiences seems to prefer the 90-plus minute play.
During the first half of the Connecticut theater season only four familiar or classic plays are being produced. When it comes to musicals, on the other hand, practically all of those being presented are established works. But I wish works by Ibsen, Strindberg, Moliere, Miller, Williams, and others were offered more regularly. Audiences lose out also by not being exposed to these enduring masterpieces.
The 2018-’19 theater season kicked off in June with a number of good shows. One that exceeded my expectations, Oliver! at Goodspeed, runs through Saturday, Sept. 13.
As we move into fall, looming over the Connecticut theater season is the search for new artistic directors at both Long Wharf and Hartford Stage. Gordon Edelstein, Long Wharf’s longtime artistic director, was fired earlier this year over sexual harassment allegations. Darko Tresnjak, artistic director at Hartford Stage, announced that he was leaving as of June, 2019. His success at Hartford and on Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, and more has led to many opportunities.
Both organizations have hired outside search firms to survey the landscape and identify candidates. Certainly I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both of the theaters hire either a woman or an ethnically diverse director; Connecticut’s major theaters are all led by white males, most in their 50s or older. Long Wharf probably will make its decision first; it’s been operating for nine months already without an artistic director. I doubt that it will want to plan the 2019-’20 season (which is usually finalized in March or April) with no input from a permanently placed director.
Hartford has an easier task; it has an excellent artistic director around through June who can have a major impact on the next season.
The Month of Musicals
September could be called the month of musicals: Five Connecticut theaters are producing musicals with records of success. Mark Lamos, the artistic director of Westport Country Playhouse and an outstanding director of musicals, opera, Shakespeare, and more, is directing Man of La Mancha, Tuesday, Sept. 25 to Saturday, Oct. 13. I would expect a very good production of this classic show, which began life at Goodspeed.
After Goodspeed finishes the run of Oliver! on Saturday, Sept. 13, just a week or so later on Friday, Sept 21, The Drowsy Chaperone will begin performances through Nov. 25. This Tony Award-winning show is a delight; part spoof of those ’20s musicals and part nostalgia, it is an ensemble piece that I’ve enjoyed every time I’ve seen it. You can bet that Goodspeed will do a terrific job with it.
Ivoryton is presenting another Tony Award-winning musical, Once, from Wednesday, Sept. 19 to Sunday, Oct. 7. This small-cast show is very Irish and has a folk music feel to it. It’s a love story and a story about finding your creative soul, which should be perfect for the Ivoryton stage, yet it isn’t circled on my calendar as a potential favorite. While others love it and the music, I was only pleasantly amused; it’s charming but not quite my type of show.
Two other, less well-known musicals will be hitting the stage. It will be interesting to see how Kevin Connors, the artistic director handles Jekyll & Hyde on the small stage at MTC (Music Theatre of Connecticut) in Norwalk. This Frank Wildhorn musical is in the Phantom genre—over-the-top poporetta as it is sometimes called. But Connors has an excellent track record. Seven Angels in Waterbury is doing the long-running Off-Broadway show Altar Boyz, about the final performance of a touring boys band that specializes in Christian music. To be honest, neither of these shows excite me; the 1980s poperettas were melodramatic, overblown, and musically not very creative—give me the old-fashioned operettas instead. Boyz doesn’t have music that I enjoy.
New Plays, So Much Promise
New plays are often a main part of my list of anticipated shows. There’s so much promise—will it be a work that intrigues or breaks new ground, causing me to think about it for days? Will I discover a playwright I haven’t heard of before? Yet, the potential for disappointment is also huge. The show may try to do too much; it may be muddied or need revisions and cutting. If they work, new plays can be a tremendous theater-going experiences. I still remember the world premiere of Athol Fugard’s Master Harold and the Boys.
Yale and Hartford Stage are opening their fall seasons with dramas that appear to be very interesting. Hartford’s Make Believe, Thursday, Sept. 6 to Sunday, Sept. 30, is described as funny and touching. Four young siblings in the 1980s find the childhood disrupted by problems the adults have, that the children don’t understand. I see potential for a meaningful discussion of sibling relationships and parental secrets.
Yale is opening with El Huracán, one of three world premieres, from Friday, Sept. 28 to Saturday, Oct. 20. World premieres can always be a gamble and particularly when they are written by relatively young playwrights, here Charise Casto Smith. As you might guess from the title, it is about a hurricane, in this instance threatening Miami and a mother and daughter who prepare to withstand it. I’ll keep my fingers crossed about this one.
Playhouse on Park is presenting Peter & The Starcatcher Wednesday, Sept. 12 to Sunday, Oct. 14, one of the many plays that tells some part of the Peter Pan story. In New York it won praise for its imaginative staging, which is an integral part of it. I’ve unintentionally missed the show multiple times, so I’m looking forward to seeing it and judging for myself.
The Bushnell will feature slapstick comedy with The Play that Goes Wrong, which is still running on Broadway, from Tuesday, Sept. 25 to Sunday, Sept 30. Quite honestly, I found this a funny idea for a sketch (amateur theater company whose set keeps collapsing) that was drawn out so much that it lost its humor for me. But if you like slapstick and silly physical comedy, you may love this.
Serious Works in October
If September had many musicals, October is featuring more serious works by most of the theaters.
A few seem to me to be very promising. I love Shakespeare so Henry V at Hartford Stage Thursday, Oct 11 to Sunday, Nov. 4 is high on my list. But....it may depend on the director, Elizabeth Williamson, and her concept of this play, which can seem either pro- or anti-war. When I first saw that Hartford was doing it, I assumed Darko Tresnjak would be directing; his Shakespeare direction is magnificent. So I do have a question mark next to it.
I’m also less enthusiastic by TheaterWorks Rob Ruggiero’s selection of The River Thursday, Oct. 4 to Sunday, Nov. 11. Yes, Jez Butterworth is one of the hot English playwrights right now. Yes, it is a small cast ideal for TheaterWorks. But I saw the play in New York City and if it hadn’t been for Hugh Jackman as the man who brings his girlfriend to his family’s fishing cabin, I doubt that it would have run.
Certainly, the world premiere Thousand Pines, which closes the Westport season Tuesday, Oct. 30 to Sunday, Nov. 17, seems ripped from the headlines; so much so that it may be difficult to see. The play is set six months after a junior high school shooting and how the survivors and their families are attempting to cope with what happened.
I hope The Roommate, which opens the Long Wharf season Wednesday, Oct. 10 to Sunday, Nov. 4, will be insightful, and not fall into the Lifetime movie genre. It’s described as telling the story of two mid-50s women who become roommates; one has secrets and the other wants to transform her life.
Ivoryton is also giving us a world premiere, The Queens of the Golden Mask, Wednesday, Oct. 31 to Sunday, Nov. 18, with all the risks that new plays have. Yet, the idea behind it looks promising. It focuses on mothers and daughters in Alabama in 1962; the civil rights and the feminist movements are emerging, causing debate, questioning, and changes. It will be interesting to see what playwright Carole Lockwood does with this.
The other October shows don’t excite me. I’m one of those who found Les Miz boring, but it’s at the Shubert from Thursday, Oct. 4 to Sunday, Oct. 7; ACT-CT, the newer theater in Ridgefield, is doing Evita (I’ve seen it recently several times) Thursday, Oct 4 to Sunday, Oct. 28; and Playhouse on Park is doing One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest Wednesday, Oct. 31 to Sunday, Nov. 18. They do good work, but the play isn’t a favorite of mine.
And Into the Winter
Before the end of November—when many of the holiday-themed shows begin, I’ve circled a few shows. The Prisoner, a United States premiere at Yale Rep from Friday, Nov. 2 to Saturday, Nov. 17, is high my list. Why? Peter Brooks, one of the great innovative British directors, conceived (with Marie-Hélène Estienne) and directed this piece. From the description (a man sits alone outside a prison), I expect a production that will require your attention and your mind to decipher all that it is saying.
Long Wharf is bucking the trend of holiday shows with Paradise Blue from Wednesday, Nov. 21 to Sunday, Dec. 16. It’s easy to look forward to this work by Dominique Moriseau; she is a gifted playwright who often focuses on her hometown of Detroit. TheaterWorks produced one of her plays, Sunset Baby, two seasons ago—I didn’t love it, but I did respect the talent. Paradise Blue is one of three plays she calls the “Detroit Project.” This play, the last in the project but set the earliest, focuses on 1947 Detroit and Blue, a musician who is thinking about selling his club, Paradise. But how does that affect the community and those around him? This show should have lots of great music.
The most recent revival of Fiddler on the Roof, which I saw twice, will be at the Bushnell from Tuesday, Nov. 6 to Sunday, Nov. 11; if you like silly humor—I don’t really—you may enjoy the tour of Something Rotten at the Shubert, Friday, Nov. 30 to Sunday, Dec. 2.
And then, the big news for December, Hamilton will make its long-awaited arrival in Hartford to stay at the Bushnell for three weeks from Tuesday, Dec. 11 to Sunday, Dec. 30. I’ve not seen the show (the reasons are long and complicated), so I will finally be able to see what all the fuss is about. Tickets will be almost impossible to get.
I’ve seen The Pianist of Willsden Lane twice before, yet it is circled on my calendar for Westport Country Playhouse, Wednesday, Dec. 5 to Saturday, Dec. 22. This one-woman show with terrific classical music tells the story of a young Jewish Austrian girl who is part of the kindertransport of children to England just before World War II, and her dream and determination to continue her piano training. It is touching and uplifting and beautiful performed by her daughter; I hope this time I can bring my 17 year-old granddaughter.
For the holidays, I will see A Christmas Carol—A Ghost Story of Christmas at Hartford Stage running Friday, Nov. 23 to Saturday, Dec. 29. This will be at least the 15th time. Each year, I’m once again delighted by the staging and story-telling. Every child over seven or so should see this. I’ll also see Xmas on the Rocks at TheaterWorks Friday, Nov. 28 to Sunday, Dec. 23, for a much more cynical look at the holiday; this is an adult (or older-teen) show. And I want to see the improvements in A Connecticut Christmas Carol at Goodspeed in Chester, running Friday, Nov. 30 to Sunday, Dec. 30. I saw it last year and felt the show needed some major work.
That brings us to the end of the calendar year, but only half way through the theater season. As usual, some of those most anticipated shows will disappoint, and others that were afterthoughts will turn out to be terrific.
Theater columnist and critic 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.