A Lot of Openings, a Lot of Shows

For avid theater-goers, there are a host of choices in the offing over the next three or four weeks.

 

Here’s the menu:

Motherhood Out Loud opens at Stratford’s Square One Theatre on May 12. It’s a series of monologues and vignettes dealing with the joys, sorrows and confusions inherent in being Mom. It runs on weekends through May 29. Tickets can be purchased by going to squareonetheatre.com or calling 203-375-8778.

Out at Ivoryton at the Playhouse, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks opens May 4 and runs through May 22. It deals with a lady of a certain age who hires a private dance instructor. She’s formidable, he’s acerbic and their personalities immediately clash, but over lessons in swing, tango foxtrot and the waltz they eventually learn from each other things of greater importance that proficiency in terpsichore. Tickets are available by calling the Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting our website at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org 

For those willing to drive a bit, New Milford’s TheatreWorks will be offering The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife starting May 6 and running for three weeks. This dramedy offers playgoers entry into the life of a lady who structures her life around trips to the Whitney, MOMA and BAM until a mid-life crisis and a childhood friend appear at the same time to shake up her life. For tickets go online at theatreworks.us or call the box office at (860) 350-6863.

And for those who thrive on star power, two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest will be at the Yale Rep in New Haven, starring in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days. Wiest will play Winnie, a lady of unbridled optimism who must face a marriage that is calcifying and a world that seems eager to swallow her whole. It’s Beckett, so you can expect just a touch of the absurd to liven up the evening. It opens April 29 and runs through May 21. Tickets for Happy Days range from $20 -- 99 and are available online at yalerep.org or by phone at (203) 432-1234.

Long Wharf Theatre, also in New Haven, wraps up its current season with My Paris (May 4 – 29), an imaginative retelling of the life of the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, directed by Tony Award-winner Kathleen Marshall, with music from the legendary French performer Charles Aznavour, and a book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Alfred Uhry. If you wish to visit Montmartre, the can can, and the world of Le Moulin Rouge, tickets can be purchased at longwharf.org or by calling 203-787-4282.

And then there’s “Porn!” which we all know is what the Internet is for, or so Trekkie Monster would have us think. You’ll learn more about porn plus prejudice and Schadenfreude when you travel to Norwich for Avenue Q, which runs through May 1 at the Chestnut Street Playhouse. Tickets: $25 and available online or by calling the box office at 860.886.2378

On April 29, The Sherman Playhouse will open its 2016 Season with its premiere of Noël Coward's classic comedy, Blithe Spirit, a comic masterpiece that playwright Noël Coward described as an "improbable farce." It concerns Charles Condomine, country gentleman and author, who invites the spiritualist Madame Arcati to his home for a séance. Madame Arcati unwittingly brings Elvira, Charles' first wife, back from "beyond." Elvira cannot be seen or heard by anyone except Charles and wreaks havoc with Ruth, Charles' present wife. And, of course, mayhem ensues. The show runs weekends through May 22. Reservations can be made online at shermanplayers.org or by calling the box office at (860) 354-3622.

Finally, the Suffield players are offering up a madcap mix of murder and mayhem with The 39 Steps, a tongue-in-cheek adaptation of the Hitchcock classic with a dash of film noir and just a touch of Monty Python. It opens May 5 and runs weekends through May 21. For reservations, call 800-289-6148 or 860-668-0837 or visit www.suffieldplayers.org    

Death Be Not Proud

Wit -- Playhouse on Park -- Thru May 8

Elizabeth Lande. All Photos by Rich Wagner

“Holy Sonnet 14,” by the seventeenth century metaphysical poet John Donne, begins: “Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you / As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; / That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend / Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.” These lines could easily stand for the inspiration for Wit (often billed as W;t), the one-act, Pulitzer-winning play by Margaret Edson that recently opened at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford. An exercise in existential angst and physical agony, the drama takes the audience into the mind, and heart, of Professor Vivian Bearing (Elizabeth Lande), an expert on Donne’s poetry who, at the beginning of the play, has been diagnosed with cancer. Over the course of an hour and a half (which, at times, seems a bit longer), the imperious Bearing is overthrown, bent, burnt, almost broken and, in an epiphanic close, is made new. There’s both agony and ecstasy to experience in this exposition of the human journey towards the end of life.

In terms of plot, not much really happens, for after the diagnosis of ovarian cancer, Bearing, under the care of Dr. Harvey Kelekian (David Gautschy) and one of Bearing’s former students, Dr. Jason Posner (Tim Hackney), agrees to go through a series of experimental chemotherapeutic treatments involving a drug that is more a curse than a cure. As Bearing’s health deteriorates, there are a series of flashbacks that include her dawning fascination with words as a 5-year-old, her gestation as a Donne scholar under the demanding tutelage of Professor Ashford (Waltrudis Buck), and her somewhat stern and aloof handling of her own students.

Harrison Greene, Sara Detrik, Lande, Tim Hackney and Julia Ekwall

 

Hovering over all of this is Donne’s poetry, oftentimes abstruse lines (some of which are projected onto side and center screens) that seem to hide the poet’s humanity behind a wall of metaphysical wit. As one of Bearing’s students (Sara Detrik) suggests, perhaps Donne made his poetry so difficult to mask the agony of his search for the ineffable. The poetry is also a metaphor for Bearing’s life – unmarried, childless, with no living relatives. She has built her life around her mind and is now forced to confront and deal with a body that is failing. In doing so, she reaches out for human contact and receives it from Susie Monahan (Chuja Seo), a nurse who provides the professor tender loving care in her last days.

Under the direction of Stevie Zimmerman, Bearing’s odyssey is, at times, somewhat slow to unfold, perhaps due to the minimal scenic design by Emily Nichols that is dominated by an up-stage set of semi-transparent sliding doors that, on opening night, seemed to confuse the cast as to which way the doors should slide. The scene changes require that these doors be opened and closed numerous times, often unnecessarily dictating pacing.

The emotional impact of the play rides on the shoulders of the actor playing Professor Bearing, and Lande delivers a multi-level, subtle and, in the play’s final moments, heart-wrenching performance. Perhaps due to the theater’s acoustics, some of her lines, especially in the opening scenes, seem muted, but there is no problem hearing her as she paces about or lectures her “students.” One especially touching moment Lande creates is in the flashback to her 5-year-old self – the delight the “child” experiences as she grasps what “soporific” means is palpable.

Elizabeth Lande

The problem with Wit, if there is one, is not so much with Playhouse’s production, which is enhanced by Marcus Abbot’s evocative lighting, but with the play itself. Given the perspective of several decades (it premiered at South Coast Repertory in 1995), it is essentially a one-trick pony that rises and falls on the conceit that a woman who has embraced and donned Donne’s intellectuality must, in the end, accept that she is mortal and in need of physical human contact…and love. Hence the juxtaposition of Donne’s poetry with the “bunny” stories that the 5-year-old Vivian is entranced by and the “bunny” story Professor Ashford reads to Bearing as Vivian succumbs.

 

Lande and Walpurgis Buck

Wit may not be to everyone’s taste. Several of my colleagues have opted not to see the play given what they have experienced recently in their lives. That is understandable, but it speaks to the visceral nature of the play, for at its heart it is about the dissolution of human consciousness and the question of where all the knowledge and experiences we have accumulated over a lifetime go when we no longer “are.”  

In his poetry, Donne posits an answer: “One short sleep past, we wake eternally / And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.” The play’s final image suggests that when we leave our corporeal self we shall be raised to a higher plane. That, in and of itself, is sufficient to generate a lot of post-play conversations on the drive home. At the end of the journey, is there eternal darkness or a bright light that enfolds us and leads us to a higher, purer existence?

To quote the King James Bible, one thing is sure: “Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.”

Wit runs through May 8. For tickets or more information call 860-523-5900, X10, or go to www.playhouseonpark.org.

Sounds Like Fun

MADE OF NEW HAVEN

One day only: A brand-new show made of old stuff!

You can celebrate A Broken Umbrella Theatre’s first seven years of creative innovation at a grassroots gala (leave the tux at home) called Made of New Haven on Sunday, May 15 at 1pm and 5:30pm. Featuring spectacle and songs from all ten original theater adventures, you can raise the roof and raise the funds for their next New Haven-inspired production. Come dine on the iconic food and beverages that the Elm City is known for at this singular event.

This new musical, directed and penned by ensemble member Jes Mack, features songs from Broken Umbrella’s productions of SEEN CHANGE!, FREEWHEELERS, iMARVEL, and more, traversing the piano scale all the way back to the ensemble’s first show, A SHORT STORY BY A TREE. A Broken Umbrella’s signature whimsy will be out in full force with a team of cast, crew, and designers revisiting and re-envisioning all ten past original works into a one-hour new theatrical adventure. 

Food sponsor SMALL KITCHEN BIG TASTE will celebrate New Haven’s iconic culinary treats, with local beers on tap from Black Hog Brewing Company and Thimble Island Brewery, and much more to get this party started. Additional support for this special event is provided by Erector Square, Creative Growth New Haven, Alderman-Dow Iron and Metal, and Tyco Printing.

A Broken Umbrella Theatre is proud to participate in the City of New Haven's Made in New Haven campaign, featuring Broken Umbrella’s work alongside the diverse products, companies, and innovators that make the Elm City a destination for ingenuity and invention.

Made of New Haven -- Created and conceived by A Broken Umbrella Theatre -- One day only! Two performances! 1pm (Special kid price available, recommended for ages 6 and up) and

5:30pm (Leave the kids at home, come party!)

Both show times feature culinary Elm City-inspired cocktail hours and a brand-new musical adventure. Running time of entire event, including eats: 2 hours.

Location: Erector Square, 315 Peck Street, Building 5, Floor 2, New Haven, CT
Tickets + Info: https://www.artful.ly/store/events/9004. For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/brokenumbrella and www.abrokenumbrella.org.

Another "Festival"

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas is coming back to New Haven, and for those interested in intriguing, cutting-edge theater, it's a don't-miss opportunity.

Here's what's coming up:

"Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour" -- (Just gotta love that title!!) -- this is a production compliments of the National Theatre of Scotland and will be its only American appearance before it opens in the West End in London in August.

What's it about? Well, it's a musical featuring such swinging composers as Handel, Bach (Daddy, not the sons) and the Electric Light Orchestra, and "Our Ladies," well, they're a group of somewhat raucous young women who attend a Catholic school and...girls being girls...

The press release cautions that the play is "Recommended for ages 15 and over..." It will be playing at the Yale Repertory Theatre June 10 -- 25.

A U.S. Premiere of "The Square Root of Three Sisters"

It's a remix of Chekhovian themes produced by the Dmitry Krymore Lab and Yale School of Drama -- it's offers playgoers a world where love can sweep dishes off the table, memory can control a train and a single command can change the world. It will run June 21--25 at the Iseman Theater (1156 Chapel Street).

Another Premiere -- "The Money"

Billed as an "immersive theater experience," "The Money" has audience members buy in to participate as benefactors (or just sit back and watch). The audience has 90 minutes to decide how to spend the money. It will play at the Quinnipiac Club (221 Church Street) June 18 - 25.

And Yet Another Premiere -- "The Bookbinder"

Inspired by "The Polar Express" and "Coraline," this New-Zealand production is a story of mystery, mayhem and magic, a shadow-play that includes paper art, puppetry and music -- suitable for both children and adults who still have a bit of the child in them. It runs at the Yale Center for British Art on Chapel Street -- June 17 -- 19.

Finally, at Long Wharf, will be a production of "Steel Hammer" running June 16 - 18. The play takes a look at contemporary social issues and the African American experience via a traditional folk song -- "John Henry" -- that steel-drivin' man. Of the play the Los Angeles Times said "...it bangs out a spectacularly inventive social message," and the The NY Times had this to say: "...alternately clamorous, haunting and exhilarating."

What's Happening

Avenue Q opens this Thursday at Chestnut Street Playhouse!

The irreverent take on Sesame Street, the winner of the TONY "Triple Crown" for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, is being boarded up at the Chestnut Street Playhouse in Norwich (the town that rivals Dublin for the most incomprehensible traffic patterns). The Playhouse warns: this is not Sesame Street and is not recommended for children. Why? Well, “PORN!” Performances April 14 - May 1; Thursday - Saturday, 7:30pm, Sunday, 2:00pm Tickets: $25 and available online or by calling the box office at 860.886.2378

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)”

Up in Goshen, the Goshen Players will be offering the Bard Lite. It’s all Will’s plays done in less than 90 minutes (Hell, it takes longer than that to figure out what the hell is happening in “Cymbeline”). Obviously, it’s a spoof that will be running April 22, 23, 29, 30, May 6 & 7 at 8:00 pm; April 24, May 1 at 3:00 pm at the Old Goshen Town Hall, 2 North Street. All tickets are reserved seating at $22. Call 860.491.9988 or go to www.goshenplayers.org

Long Wharf Winds Down Season with “My Paris”

Long Wharf Theatre travels back in time to the romance and fun of Montmartre in the late 1800s in its production of the musical My Paris, a imaginative retelling of the life of the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, directed by Tony Award-winning director Kathleen Marshall, with music from the legendary French performer Charles Aznavour, and a book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Alfred Uhry, and with English lyrics and musical adaptations by Tony-winner Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years).

The production runs from May 4 through May 29 on the Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Theatre. The press night is Wednesday, May 11 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are from $25 to $85.

My Paris sketches the life and times of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who lovingly rendered the gaiety, color, and heartbreak of Montmartre, the can-can, and the world of Le Moulin Rouge.

The book is by Oscar, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winner Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy and The Last Night of the Ballyhoo).

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit longwharf.org or call 203-787-4282.

Yale Rep Presents Two-time Oscar Winner Dianne Wiest in Samuel Beckett’s “Happy days”

The show runs April 29–May 21 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, May 5.

About the play: with her husband increasingly out of reach and the earth itself threatening to swallow her whole, Winnie’s buoyant optimism shields her from the harsh glare of the inevitable in this absurdly funny and boundlessly compassionate portrait of the human spirit.

Tickets for HAPPY DAYS range from $20–99 and are available online at yalerep.org, by phone at (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street). Student, senior, and group rates are also available.

A World Premiere

“Lewiston” by Samuel Hunter opens Wednesday, April 13 at Long Wharf in New Haven.

Alice and Connor sit by their roadside stand selling cheap fireworks while developers swallow the land around them. Promised a condo in the new development, their future is secure. Enter Marnie, Alice’s long lost granddaughter, proposing to buy the land to save her family legacy. Marnie and Alice will become reacquainted with each other’s deeply held secrets, uncertain pasts, and hopeful futures. Hunter, a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship recipient, explores the emotional frontiers of a family struggling to make a home in the vastness of the American landscape with affection, poignancy, and a profound sense of empathy.

Please call the Long Wharf Theatre Box Office:  (203) 787-4282.

A Bittersweet Pas de Deux

"The Last Fiver Years" -- MTC Mainstage -- Thru April 24

Jennifer Malenke and Nicolas Dromard. All Photos by Joe Landry

When you’re in love, time seems out of joint, as it does when you’re also falling out of love. In either case, you seem to be in a world without clocks, a world where a moment seems to last a lifetime and five years, well five years seems to be but a moment. Such is the case with Cathy and Jamie, whose story is unfolding currently at MTC Mainstage in Norwalk. Their wooing, marriage and break-up is captured in The Last Five Years, a lovely production directed by Kevin Connors that can’t help but tug at the heartstrings.

Written and composed by Jason Robert Brown (based on his own marital experience), this dance of two fragile, solipsistic hearts offers an interesting take on the deconstruction of a relationship, for Jamie’s story is told in sequence, while Cathy’s story is told in reverse, so the musical opens with Cathy (Jennifer Malenke) finding a note from Jamie (Nicolas Dromard) telling her that their marriage is over, which leads to the first song, “Still Hurting.” This is immediately followed by the exuberant “Shiksa Goddess,” sung by Jamie as he proclaims that he doesn’t give a damn about his Jewish heritage; his people have suffered enough and now he should be allowed just a little happiness to be found in Cathy’s arms. In a way, the evening is a study in the Buddhist concept of tanha, an attempt to hold on to an ungraspable experience.

 

Jennifer Malenke

MTC’s intimate thrust stage layout allows the audience to capture nuances that might be lost, or at least muted, on a larger stage, thus Dromard and Malenke don’t have to worry about playing to the balcony. As befits his character, a 23-year-old author who has made it big with his first novel, Dromard gives us a somewhat larger-then-life Jamie, with broad gestures and aggressive body language. Malenke, as the insecure, struggling actress, offers the audience a study of open-hearted delight mixed with self-doubt, and it is she who makes the most of the fact that the audience is mere feet away from her. Subtle hand gestures and eyes that at one moment glow with delight and then reflect her character’s insecurity all go towards a complete performance: engaging, beguiling and heartfelt.

Given the dual time-line of the musical, the two actors sing but one number together, when their characters’ stories intersect (“The Next Ten Minutes). Other than that, the numbers are set-pieces that allow the audience to experience the relationship from two different angles, and many of these set-pieces are little gems. There is Cathy’s attempt to tell herself that she is still a part of her husband’s life (“I’m Part of That”) and Jamie’s tale of Schmuel the tailor (“The Schmuel Song”) that he tells to her at Christmas, an interdenominational present.

Nicolas Dromard

Perhaps the strongest moments in the show are when Cathy is unsuccessfully auditioning (“Climbing Uphill/Audition Sequence”) and, immediately following that number, “If I Didn’t Believe in You,” during which the frustrated Jamie tries to get his wife to accompany him to a publisher’s party held in his honor. Then there is Jamie and Cathy driving to meet her parents, during which Cathy explains her attempts to escape her small-town upbringing and, finally, the delightful “A Summer in Ohio,” in which Cathy describes the horrors of acting in summer stock in rural America.

The musical’s final number is an exercise in poignancy, for we have Cathy, ecstatic after the couple’s first date, singing “Goodbye Until Tomorrow,” while Jamie laments that “I Could Never Rescue You.” As Cathy waves to him, a first-time goodbye, Jamie turns and, with his back, says goodbye for the last time.

 If there is one problem in the production, it is the dominance of the four-piece orchestra consisting of a piano (Nolan Bonvouloir), Violin (Rebekah Butler), Cello (Charlie Rasmussen) and Guitar (Mike Godette). Wonderful musicians all, they create a sound that, given the confines of the theater, often all but overwhelms the lyrics, even though the two actors are miked.

 That quibble aside, The Last Five Years is an intriguing, engaging evening of musical theater powered by two Broadway veterans who both know how to sell a song. For anyone who has felt the thrill of “true love” followed by the despair of lost love, the evening will resonate, and for those (poor souls) who have never had either experience, consider it a primer.

The Last Five Years runs through April 24. For further information or ticket reservations call the box office at 203.454.3883 or visit: www.musictheatreofct.com.

MTC has announced its upcoming season, an eclectic mix of musicals and plays that will begin with a production of Gypsy. How will Connors et al pull this off in a theater more suited for a drawing room drama? Well, Connors scored big with his production of Cabaret in an even smaller venue, and last year staged an admirable Evita. One can only await with anticipation the boarding of Gypsy writ small.

On The Road Again

The Road: My Life with John Denver -- Ivoryton Playhouse -- Thru April 24

He recorded over 300 songs, with total sales of over $33 million. By 1974, he was America’s best-selling performer. He earned 12 gold and four platinum albums. He was named the Colorado poet laureate in 1974. Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., he’s know to the world as John Denver, and his story is being told in The Road: My Life with John Denver, which recently opened out at the Ivoryton Playhouse. This two-hander written by Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman, and directed by Myler, tells Denver’s story through the eyes of a musician (Wheetman) who worked with the singer-songwriter over the years and, although there are some pacing and script problems, the magnetism, stage presence and musicianship of the show’s two stars keep you happily in your seat for the duration.

Less a juke-box musical, more a concert with anecdotes and asides, The Road offers the audience a ticket to travel down memory lane and the opportunity to listen to two tantalizing voices as they recreate an era – the 60s and 70s -- that, in hindsight, may seem a kinder, gentler time, though those of us who lived through it know the horror and heartbreak that was part of those years.

Although Denver, in his songs, never really dealt with the horror, he did deal with heartbreak, and some of the most touching moments of the evening are when Danny (David M. Lutken) and, as listed in the program, the Singer (Katie Deal) offer some of the songs Denver wrote chronicling his love, his loss and his loneliness.

 

Katie Deal

 

Lutken, as Danny, provides the framework, such as it is, for the evening, reminiscing about his own career and how it intersected and intertwined with Denver’s. Along the way, Lutken and Deal sing some of Denver’s most famous songs, including “Rocky Mountain High,” a rousing “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” and “Sunshine on My Shoulder.” There are also some songs that may not be as familiar to the audience, and several, not written by Denver but were integral to the era, including a rip-roarin’ “Johnny B. Goode,” originally recorded by Chuck Berry.

Throughout the evening, Lutken and Deal interact intimately, with Deal, at times, assuming the persona of Denver’s wife, Annie, and at other moments as Penny, Danny’s wife. The interaction is such that the evening’s final moments seem a bit unbalanced, for Deal leaves the stage, allowing Lutken to sing the final song to the blackout alone. It seems to be an emotional misstep. Not wishing to re-write the show, it might be more appropriate (and emotionally satisfying) to have Deal reappear and the two offer the tender “Perhaps Love” before the curtain rather than earlier in the second act, but what do I know?

 

David M. Lutken

 

Deal does reappear with Lutken for an encore: probably Denver’s most iconic song -- “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” The audience is urged to sing along (as they often are during the evening), and although it’s not a Mamma Mia dancing in the aisles response, voices are raised.

Although the script falls flat at various times, the evening is carried effortlessly by these two charismatic performers, who also worked together in Milwaukee, where the show premiered. Playing a range of acoustic instruments, and vocalizing and harmonizing as if they have been singing together since they were both in their cradles, Lutken, with his down-home manner wry smile, and Deal, a true “Geogia peach,” are a joy to just sit back, watch and listen to. And it would seem that the two just can’t get enough of what they are doing, for at the curtain call Lutken announced that after the Sunday matinee he would wander over to a local tavern for, of all things, a hootenanny (and drinks), and invited all to attend (bringing whatever instruments they so choose). Now, that’s a first.

The Road may not be perfect theater, but it is, in just about every other way, a perfect evening, especially for those who, at their weddings, chose a John Denver song to dance to as their first appearance as a couple.

The Road runs through April 24. For tickets or more information call 860-767-7318 or go to www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.