Michael Wilson Returns to Direct Show Next Season at Hartford Stage

Hartford Stage has announced its 2014 - 2015 season.

ETHER DOME (East Coast Premiere)
By Elizabeth Egloff
Directed by Michael Wilson
September 11 – October 5, 2014
A co-production with La Jolla Playhouse and Huntington Theatre Company
Terror, murder, betrayal, and ruthless ambition. When a new treatment promises to eradicate pain, a doctor and his student play out an epic battle between altruism and financial gain. Based on the true story of the discovery of ether as an anesthetic in 1846 by Hartford’s own Dr. Horace Wells, Ether Dome is a psychological thriller that explores the pain that afflicts humankind, our attempts to find relief, and the beginning of healthcare as big business.

HAMLET
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
October 16 – November 9, 2014
Following his productions of The Tempest, Twelfth Night and Macbeth, Tresnjak takes on Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet. A Danish prince returns home to find his father killed, and his mother marrying the murderer. When his father’s ghost rises to demand retribution, Hamlet is put in an impossible situation. In this opulent, Elizabethan staging, Hamlet’s tragic tale of revenge gets the full-on, terrifying — and bloody — treatment.

PRIVATE LIVES
By Noel Coward
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
January 8 – February 1, 2015
Amanda: vivacious, sexy, sophisticated. And Elyot: virile, charming, seductive. The epitome of a 1930's cosmopolitan couple. Until the divorce. Five years later, they are horrified — yet intrigued — to bump into each other while honeymooning in a French hotel with their new spouses. With its stinging barbs and clever wit, Private Lives is Noel Coward’s finest and funniest comedy.

REVERBERATION (World Premiere)
By Matthew Lopez
Directed by Maxwell Williams
February 19 – March 15, 2015
From the author of The Whipping Man and Somewhere. After a personal tragedy, Jonathan has withdrawn from the world, with little social life beyond the men he meets online. When charming, flighty Claire moves into the apartment upstairs, she tries to coax him out of his shell. They forge a tenuous connection, but the past reverberates into the present, threatening what happiness they’ve found. (Adult themes, language, violence.)

THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE (East Coast Premiere)
Based on the Book The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen
Adapted and Directed by Hershey Felder
March 26 – April 19, 2015
An expression of hope and the life-affirming power of music, The Pianist of Willesden Lane tells the true story of a young Jewish musician, who was sent from Nazi-ruled Vienna to the relative safety of London during the Blitzkrieg. In this inspirational show, piano virtuoso Mona Golabek performs some of the world’s most beautiful music as she shares her own mother’s riveting story of survival.

KISS ME KATE
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
Book by Bella and Samuel Spewack
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
May 14 – June 7, 2015
Cole Porter’s joyful and high-spirited musical comedy follows the backstage antics of a touring company performing The Taming of the Shrew, featuring two feuding couples, a few gun-toting gangsters, and some of the best numbers ever written: “Another Op’nin,’ Another Show,” “Too Darn Hot,” “Wunderbar,” “So in Love,” and “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.”