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09/27/2018 12:01 AMMusic for Saturday Evening: This Saturday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m., Broadway and Metropolitan Opera star David Pittsinger and his family are giving a concert at Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven to benefit the boys’ and girls’ choir programs. The boys’ choir will also sing. Pittsinger took over the leading role in Lincoln Center’s South Pacific; he has also performed extensively at Ivoryton Playhouse. He and his family live in the area. His wife Patricia Schuman, also has sung at the Metropolitan Opera and his two children are both professional musicians. For tickets, visit trinitynewhaven.org and click on the family voices link.
“The Impossible Dream”: It’s not impossible to see what should be a fine production of Man of La Mancha. Westport Country Playhouse is presenting the Tony award-winning show through Saturday, Oct. 13. Artistic Director Mark Lamos is directing; he has a sure hand with musicals and opera. Broadway performer Phillip Hernandez will play Cervantes/Don Quixote. Hernandez is the only actor on Broadway to play both Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert in Les Miz. For tickets. visit westportplayhouse.org or call 888-927-7529.
Classic Story at MTC: MTC (Music Theatre of Connecticut), which performs in Norwalk, is opening its season with the musical Jekyll & Hyde based on the classic horror story. With music and lyrics by Frank Wildhorn and a book by Leslie Bricusse, it runs Friday, Sept. 28 to Sunday, Oct. 14. Call 203-454-3883 or visit www.musictheatreofct.com for tickets.
Fishing and Relationships: The River, which opens at TheaterWorks in Harford on Thursday, Oct. 4 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 11, tells the story of a man who always brings his current girlfriend to his family’s fishing cabin. What is the allure? The remoteness? Checking out her reactions? But one time, the two aren’t the only ones there. The play, by Jez Butterworth, one of Britain’s most popular playwrights, was on Broadway starring Hugh Jackman. For tickets, visit twhartford.org or call 860-986-7466.
Classic Steinbeck: CRT (Connecticut Repertory Theatre) on the UConn campus in Storrs opens its season with the adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath Thursday, Oct. 4 to Sunday, Oct. 14. It tells the trials and tribulations of the Joad family who try to escape the dust bowl of the mid-West by moving to California. Joining the students are professionals Joe Jung, Johanna Leister, and Dale AJ Rose. For tickets, visit crt.uconn.edu or call 860-486-2113
More Sad News: It seems that the loss of major Broadway performers continue. Marin Mazzie, who starred in Ragtime and Kiss Me, Kate as well as numerous other shows (she was last seen as Anna in the Lincoln Center The King and I), passed away at 57 from ovarian cancer. Her husband, Jason Danieley, is a fine Broadway performer, currently wasted in Pretty Woman.
No More Theater Talk: Theater Talk, the public television show that featured theater critics and the performers and creators of New York City shows, is no longer. Apparently a change of leadership at the station (CUNY-TV) led to disputes on editorial control. The rumor is that the station wanted to scrap the critics and replace them with a more “high powered” host. Too bad.
NY Notes: The songs of Bob Dylan are part of Girl from the North Country, which is having its North American premiere at the Public Theater. The story is written by Irish playwright Conan McPherson, but is about Duluth, Minnesota in 1934. It sold out in London. This is a limited engagement that’s been extended through Sunday, Dec. 9. For information, visit PublicTheater.org. Jez Butterworth (he wrote The River now at TheaterWorks) has his latest hit play, The Ferryman, beginning previews on Tuesday, Oct. 2. The play takes place at a harvest festival in Northern Ireland. For tickets, visit Telecharge.
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.