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Thursday, July 9, 2009

Review: Hartford Stage's Broadway By Request with Betty Buckley is a Treat


By Lauren Yarger
Betty Buckley's cabaret show Broadway By Request is a real treat and a perfect kickoff to Hartford Stage's SummerStage series.

The star of such Broadway shows as Sunset Boulevard, Cats and 1776, sings songs from those shows and throws in others, some requested by members of the audience. Opening night, one lucky attendee got "Happy Birthday" sung to her by the star and Hartford Stage Artistic Director Michael Wilson joined Buckley on stage to deliver a line as Rose's father in a number from Gypsy. Local celebrities Scot Haney of Channel 3 News and Allison Demers of WRCH Lite 100.5 are scheduled to make appearances in the run, which ends Saturday.

When she's not belting out favorites from Broadway musicals, Buckley shares anecdotes about her experiences in or auditioning for shows. She is backed up by a trio of musicians (Clifford Carter on piano, Anthony Pinciotti, drums and longtime Buckley collaborator Tony Marino on bass). The intimate setting, including cabaret tables up front, is a real treat and the quick 90-minute program doesn't seem near long enough. Buckley is one of the few performers who can move me to tears with her songs (I was a sobbing mess at Sunset Boulevard), and her "Memory" from Cats is not to be missed.

Additional shows upcoming in the Summer Stage series are Thwak! featuring the mayhem-producing, noise creating Umbilical Brothers (July 15- Aug. 2) and Yesterdays, an evening with Billie Holiday (Aug. 5-22).

For additional information, call the Hartford Stage box office at 860-527-5151 or visit hartfordstage.org.

Check out other Connecticut summer offerings at http://www.curtainup.com/ctnewandnoteworthy.html
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Lauren Yarger with playwright Alfred Uhry at the Mark Twain House. Photo: Jacques Lamarre)

My Bio

Lauren Yarger has written, directed and produced
numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont
Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.”

Yarger trained for three years in the Broadway
League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway
run.

She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill
Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She writes reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/. She
is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (http://ctarts.blogspot.com), CT Press Club's award winner of first place for web editing and second place in feature writing for the web in 2012.

She is a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com and is a theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer. She previously served as Connecticut theater editor
for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web. Yarger is a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly and freelances for other sites. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

She is a freelance writer and playwright and member of The Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle, The American Theater Critics Association and The League of Professional Theatre Women. She served as a judge for the SDX Awards presented
by the Society of Professional Journalists. She also is a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle (awards committee).

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts,
the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

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