Special Performances: Long Wharf Theatre is offering a variety of options for its production of She Loves Me. The Sunday, Dec. 1, and Tuesday, Dec. 3 performances are billed as pay-what-you-can;  on Friday, Dec. 6, is an under-40 night, including preshow activities, a discounted ticket, and an after-show party with a live DJ, and more; space is limited. Long Wharf will also offer an ASL-interpreted performance on Friday, Dec. 13, and an open-captioned performance on Sunday, Dec. 15. For tickets, contact LongWharf.org.

2025 at the Legacy Theater: The Legacy Theatre in Branford has announced its 2025 season featuring four shows. It opens May 1 to May 18 with A Spoonful of Sherman, a U.S. premiere revue featuring the music of the Sherman Brothers, who wrote many Disney musicals, including Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and others. In June will be the world premiere of Long Days (June 12-29), which is about a group of actors putting on a production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey at a regional theater: it sounds very interesting.

In August, the Legacy has an ambitious show, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Aug. 27- 24), the Stephen Sondheim musical. The season concludes with the Noises Off, Sept. 18 to Oct. 5, a back- and front-of-stage farce about a small regional theater company putting on a play where everything goes wrong. For more information, visit LegacyTheatreCT.org.

Ticket Options: Many Connecticut theaters offer a variety of plans allowing you to purchase tickets at a discount or get a free ticket. One example is TheaterWorks in Hartford. If you subscribe now, you get to see the terrifically funny holiday show Christmas on the Rocks, and you get tickets to three other shows. The benefits are no-fee ticket exchanges, discounts on additional tickets, flexible scheduling, plus a free drink. Contact TWHartford.org for information.

Holiday Fare? It may be the holiday season, but the Yale rep is not necessarily going with the holiday spirit. From Thursday, Dec. 5, to Saturday, Dec. 14, it presents Macbeth in Stride. The show is a joint production of the Philadelphia Theater Company, Shakespeare Theater Company, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. According to press materials, Lady Macbeth is reimagined as the story of an ambitious black woman told from her own contemporary perspective of femininity, desire, and power. Tickets are available at YaleRep.org.

NYC Notes: It’s not been a good season for musicals to open on Broadway. The only show to have received almost universal praise is the musical Maybe Happy Ending, which I haven’t yet seen; almost all the critics agreed it was delightful. Sunset Boulevard got very mixed reviews, and I’ve heard very negative comments about it from theatergoers. Tammy Faye about Tammy Faye Bakker with music by Elton John opened to negative reviews overall. Even the holiday musical Elf, which just opened on Broadway, did not get very positive reviews. The Louis Armstrong musical, A Wonderful World, got mixed notices. I’m waiting to see the reviews for Death Becomes Her to see if it follows the path. Probably the only musical which will get good reviews, and it won’t open officially until the middle of December, is Gypsy starring Audra McDonald and Danny Burstein.

Annie, Daddy Warbucks, and Miss Hannigan: The new tour of Annie is making a stop at the theater at Madison Square Garden in New York from Wednesday, Dec. 4, through Sunday, Jan. 5, just in time for the holidays. It will then continue its tour to 20 cities. The show is directed by Jenn Thompson, who directed Goodspeed and performed in Connecticut for the New York stay of the show. Whoopi Goldberg will play Miss Hannigan. Tickets are at msg.com.

Grammy Nominations: The Grammy nominations in the musical theater category went to the musicals Hell’s Kitchen, The Notebook, The Outsiders, and Suffs, which won the Tony for best score, as well as the revivals of The Wiz and Merrily We Roll Along.

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 the Connecticut Critics Circle, New York’s Outer Critics Circle, the League of Professional Theater Women, and the American Theatre Critics Association.