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03/24/2022 12:01 AMRockin’ and Rollin’: MTC in Norwalk had planned The Buddy Holly Story before the pandemic. It’s finally making it onto the stage through Sunday, April 10. You can expect lots of music made famous by Holly, Richie Valens, the Big Bopper, and others. For tickets, visit musictheatreofct.com.
All About the Choir: Next up at Yale Rep is Choir Boy by Oscar-winning playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, who wrote Moonlight. The story is about a gifted student at a prep school for African-American boys who hopes to lead the legendary school choir, but he wants do it in his own way. It runs from Thursday, March 31 to Saturday, April 23. For tickets, visit yalerep.org
Time Travels: Ivoryton Playhouse is opening the season with a new musical written by Connecticut writers, Star of Freedom, from Thursday, April 7 to Sunday, May 1. The musical is about an Irish immigrant and an African-American slave who travel the United States in the 1860s. For tickets, visit ivorytonplayhouse.org
Westport Opens Season: The venerable Westport Country Playhouse opens its 92nd season with the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal running Tuesday, April 5 through Saturday, April 24. In addition to the Pulitzer, the musical won multiple Tony awards. It’s about a family who has lost a son and his mother who continues to battle mental illness. Director Marcus Santana has assembled a diverse cast that should explore how these issues affect communities of color as well. For tickets, visit westportplayhouse.org.
Another Tony Winner: The Bushnell lineup continues with the national tour of Dear Evan Hansen running from Tuesday, March 29 to Sunday, April 3. The show, which has since become a movie, tells the story of a teen boy who inadvertently is viewed as the best friend of a deceased classmate. For tickets, visit Bushnell.org.
I’ve Always Wondered: How many productions of Jesus Christ Superstar are staged each spring around Eastertide? This year, ACT-CT in Ridgefield is one of them producing this Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical. It runs Thursday, March 24 to Sunday, April 17 (Easter). For tickets, visit actofct.org. A sensory-friendly performance is scheduled for Saturday, April 16 at 2.
Plan Ahead: The record-breaking musical Hamilton is returning to the Bushnell from Wednesday, June 22 through Sunday, July 10. It will be a hot ticket; tickets have just gone on sale, so if you want to see Hamilton on stage, you should go immediately to Bushnell.org. As with the New York City production, some $10 lottery tickets will be available for each performance. Details on how that will work will be announced later.
Is This a Trend? Airlines and Amazon have for years used “variable pricing,” the idea of adjusting prices frequently based on demand. I’ve heard discussions about possibly doing it for theater. Already, there are premium seats with variable pricing for the biggest New York City hits. But in the announcement of Westport’s production of Next to Normal, there was this sentence “Buy early for best prices.” No further explanation was given, but the implication is that if the show is popular, prices might go up.
NYC Notes: Both the Broadway and off-Broadway theater schedules are heating up as deadlines for awards approach in April. According to my count, 14 shows are opening on Broadway in April and at least that many off-Broadway. I’m most interested in seeing the Lincoln Center revival of The Skin of Our Teeth, Tracy Letts’s new play The Minutes, the revival of Funny Girl, and the revival of Take Me Out, as well as Daniel Craig in MacBeth, Hangman, and Birthday Candles, which I know little about. I’ll have a very busy month.
East Haven resident Karen Isaacs is a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle, New York’s Outer Critics Circle, the League of Professional Theater Women, and the American Theatre Critics Association. To check out her reviews for New York and Connecticut shows, visit 2ontheaisle.wordpress.com.