CT Theater Review: Fade -- TheaterWorks

Elizabeth Ramos and Eddie Martinez. Photo: Lanny Nagler

Fade
By Tanya Saracho
Directed by Jerry Ruiz
TheaterWorks
Through June 30

By Lauren Yarger
What's It All About?
An inside Hollywood tale from inside-Hollywooder Tanya Saracho (Mala Hierba ; writer, co-producer of ABC’s "How to Get Away with Murder," HBO’s "Girls"). Lucia (Elizabeth Ramos) is hired as a writer for a TV detective show with a Latino character, and there is little doubt, by the lack of respect she gets from her boss and the other people in the room, that she is the "Latina" hire. The only thing her boss thinks she is good for is translating his orders to his Spanish-speaking housekeeper. She gets a break, however, when she pitches a new character. The only problem is that the characters is real-- based almost word for word on the experiences of Abel (Eddie Martinez), the janitor who stops by while she is working at the office. The two form an unlikely friendship, but will it be threatened when Abel discovers that his personal life is being exploited?

What Are the Highlights?

90-minutes no intermission (though it ran about 15 minutes longer the night I saw it). 

Ramos isn't afraid of taking on the less-than-likable Lucia; Martinez brings some warmth to room (the office is designed in depth by Mariana Sanchez) and manages to get the few laughs of the evening.

The ending is very thought-provoking, both in content and staging. 

What Are the Lowlights?

Lucia isn't a very likable character, so it's a bit difficult to accept that Abel would befriend her and share intimate parts of his life. The plot is very predictable and Director Jerry Ruiz lets the pace lag, especially for a story centered around the fast-paced world of TV and Hollywood. Too many short, unnecessary scenes are included (with peppy Spanish music playing in between) -- note to Hollywood writers: quick camera shots don't translate to the stage. 

More Information: 

This one will fade on June 30, so catch it before then at TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl Street, Hartford. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; Weekend Matinees at 2:30 pm. Tickets are $50-$65: www.theaterworkshartford.org; 860-527-7838.

Additional credits:
Harry Nadal (Costume Design), Amith Chandrashaker (Lighting Design), and M.L. Dogg (Sound Design).

CT Theater Review: Thoroughly Modern Millie -- Goodspeed

The cast of ’Thoroughly Modern Millie .Photo: Diane Sobolewski

Thoroughly Modern Millie
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan
Lyrics by Dick Scanlan
Directed and Choreographed by Denis Jones

By Lauren Yarger
What's it All About?
The delightful Tony-Award wining stage version of a movie classic about a "modern" girl named Millie Dillmount (Taylor Quick)  who arrives in 1922 New York with one goal in mind: find a rich boss to marry.  She secures a job and zeros in on boss Trevor Graydon (Edward Watts), even if she does kind of find herself liking not-so-well-ff  Jimmy Smith (Dan DeLuca).  Meanwhile, something's not quite right at the Hotel Princess, where Millie and other young girls room. The landlord, Mrs. Meers (Loretta Ables Sayre) particularly likes to house orphans so she can ship them off in a white slavery ring she operates with Ching Ho (James Seol) and Bun Foo (Christopher Shin). Before you think there is a lot going on here, take a step back and know that the book (by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan, who writes the lyrics) is just a silly tale around which to stage a bunch of clever songs written by Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home)  and choreographed by Director Denis Jones (who is nominated for Tony for his work on Holiday Inn, which got its start at Goodspeed). Gregory Gale supplies flashy, shimmering costumes and Paul Tate dePoo III designs deco sets to create the flapper-era world.

What Are the Highlights?
It's a fun musical with catchy tunes and big dance numbers. Quick is a charming Millie and there is good rapport between her, DeLuca and the engaging Watts.

What Are The Lowlights?
The pace seems slow at times and some of the comedic edge isn't sharp. Some performers aren't lighted well and appear to be singing in the dark.

More Information:
Millie is thoroughly entertaining at Goodspeed,  6 Main St., East Haddam through July 2. Performances are Wednesday at 2 and 7:30 pm, Thursday at 7:30 pm (with select performances at 2 pm), Friday at 8 pm, Saturday at 3 and 8 pm and Sunday at 2 pm (with select performances at 6:30 pm). Tickets: goodspeed.org; 860-873-8668.

Additional credits:
Lighting Design by Rob Denton, Hair and Wig Design by Mark Adam Rampmeyer, Sound Design by Jay Hilton, Music Direction by Michael O’Flaherty, Assistant Music Direction by William J. Thomas, Orchestrations by Dan DeLange. Original Story and Screenplay by Richard Morris for the 1967 Universal Pictures Film.

Additional cast:
Samantha Sturm (Miss Dorothy), Ramona Keller (Muzzy), Lucia Spina (Miss Flannery). Ensemble:
Darien Crago, Caley Crawford, Patrick Graver, Bryan Thomas Hunt, Emily Kelly, Daniel May, PJ Palmer, Amelia Jo Parish, Sherisse Springer, Sarah Quinn Taylor, Amy Van Norstrand, Darius Wright, Evan Mayer, Elise Mestichelli.

Next to Normal, Invisible Hand Lead CT Critics Circle Award Nominations

David Garris, Christiane Noll and Maya Keleher. Photo Lanny Nagler

Featured actressChristina Pumariega in the Long Wharf production of Napoli, Brooklyn. If you can, please make this correction.

heaterWorks' production of the musical NEXT TO NORMAL Westport Country Playhouse's production of the play THE INVISIBLE HAND lead the nominations for this year's Connecticut Critics Circle Awards

The 27th annual event honoring the best of Connecticut's theer season will be held 7:30 pm Monday, June 26 Sacred Heart University's Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts in Fairfield

NEXT TO NORMAL received 10 nominations including Best Musical THE INVISIBLE HAND by Ayad Akhtar received seven nominations, including outstanding play

Nominations:

Eric Bryant and Rajesh Bose

in THE INVISIBLE HAND.

Photo: Carol Rosegg

Outstanding Play:

THE INVISIBLE HAND Westport

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS Hartford Stage

MARY JANE Yale Repertory

SCENES FROM COURT LIFE Yale Repertory

MIDSUMMER TheaterWorks

Outstanding Musical:

NEXT TO NORMAL TheaterWorks

ASSASSINS Yale Repertory

BYE BYE BIRDIE Goodspeed Opera House

MAN OF LA MANCHA Ivoryton Playhouse

WEST SIDE STORY Summer Theatre of New Canaan

Actor in a Play:

Jordan Lage, OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY, Long Wharf

Tom Pecinka, CLOUD NINE, Hartford Stage

Michael Doherty, PETER THE STARCATCHER, Connecticut Re

Eric Bryant, THE INVISIBLE HAND, Westport Country Playhouse

M Scott McLean, MIDSUMMER, TheaterWorks

Actress in a Play:

Semina DeLaurentis, GEORGE AND GRACIE, Seven Angels

Emily Donahoe, MARY JANE, Yale Repertory

Ashlie Atkinson, IMOGEN SAYS NOTHING, Yale Repertory

Vanessa R Butler, QUEENS FOR A YEAR, Hartford Stage

Rebecca Hart, MIDSUMMER, TheaterWorks

Actor in a Musical:

Robert Sean Leonard, CAMELOT, Westport Playhouse

Riley Costello, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, Connecticut Repertory

David Harris, NEXT TO NORMAL, TheaterWorks

David Pittsinger, MAN OF LA MANCHA, Ivoryton Playhouse

Zach Schanne, WEST SIDE STORY, Summer Theatre of New Canaan

Actress in a Musical:

Ruby Rakos, CHASING RAINBOWS, Goodspeed

Christiane Noll, NEXT TO NORMAL, TheaterWorks

Julia Paladino, WEST SIDE STORY

Karen Ziemba, GYPSY, Sharon Playhouse

Talia Thiesfield, MAN OF LA MANCHA, Ivoryton Playhouse

Director of a Play:

Darko Tresnjak, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, Hartford Stage

David Kennedy, THE INVISIBLE HAND, Westport

Marc Bruni, OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY, Long Wharf

Tracy Brigden, MIDSUMMER, TheaterWorks

Gordon Edelstein, METEOR SHOWER, Long Wharf

Director of a Musical:

Rob Ruggiero, NEXT TO NORMAL, TheaterWorks

David Edwards, MAN OF LA MANCHA, Ivoryton Playhouse

Melody Meitrott Liboni, WEST SIDE STORY, Summer Theatre of New Canaan

Jenn Thompson, BYE BYE BIRDIE, Goodspeed

Kevin Connors, GYPSY, Music Theater of Connecticut

Choreography:

Denis Jones, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, Goodspeed

Chris Bailey, CHASING RAINBOWS, Goodspeed

Doug Shankman, WEST SIDE STORY, Summer Theatre of New Canaan

Patricia Wilcox, BYE BYE BIRDIE, Goodspeed

Darlene Zoller, ROCKIN' THE FOREST, Playhouse on Park

Ensemble:

SMART PEOPLE, Long Wharf

TRAV'LIN': THE 1930S HARLEM MUSICAL, Seven Angels

METEOR SHOWER, Long Wharf

ASSASSINS, Yale Repertory

THE 39 STEPS Ivoryton Playhouse

Debut Performance:

Maya Keleher, NEXT TO NORMAL, TheaterWorks

Dylan Frederick, ASSASSINS, Yale Repertory

Nick Sacks, NEXT TO NORMAL, TheaterWorks

Solo Performance:

Jodi Stevens, I'LL EAT YOU LAST, Music Theater of Connecticut

Jon Peterson, HE WROTE GOOD SONGS, Seven Angels

Featured Actor in a Play:

Jameal Ali, THE INVISIBLE HAND, Westport

Andre De Shields, SEVEN GUITARs, Yale Repertory

Cleavant Derricks, THE PIANO LESSON, Hartford Stage

Steve Routman, OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY, Long Wharf

Paxton Whitehead, WHAT THE BUTLER SAW, Westport Country Playhouse

Featured Actress in a Play:

Miriam Silverman, MARY JANE, Yale Repertory

Rachel Leslie, SEVEN GUITARS, Yale Repertory

Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, SEVEN GUITARS, Yale Repertory

Mia Dillon, CLOUD NINE, Hartford Stage

Christina Pumariego, NAPOLI, BROOKLYN, Long Wharf

Featured Actor in a Musical:

Mark Nelson, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ROOM IN NEW YORK, Long Wharf

Edward Waats, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, Goodspeed Opera House

John Cardoza, NEXT TO NORMAL, TheaterWorks

Jonny Wexler, WEST SIDE STORY, Summer Theater of New Canaan

Rhett Guter, BYE BYE BIRDIE, Goodspeed

Michael Wartella, CHASING RAINBOWS, Goodspeed Opera House

Featured Actress in a Musical:

Maya Keleher, NEXT TO NORMAL,TheaterWorks

Jodi Stevens, GYPSY, Music Theater of Connecticut

Kie Stewart, WEST SIDE STORY, Summer Theater of New Canaan

Kristine Zbornik, BYE BYE BIRDIE, Goodspeed

Ke Simone, GYPSY, Music Theater of Connecticut

Set Design:

Colin McGurk, HEARTBREAK HOUSE, Hartford Stage

Michael Yeargan, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ROOM in New York, Long Wharf

Wilson Chin, NEXT TO NORMAL, TheaterWorks

Adam Rigg, THE INVISIBLE HAND, Westport Country Playhouse

Darko Tresnjak, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, Hartford Stage

Costume Design:

Ilona Somogyi, HEARTBREAK HOUSE, Hartford Stage

Marina Draghici, SCENES FROM COURT LIFE, Yale Repertory

Fabio Toblini, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, Hartford Stage

Gregory Gale, THOROUGH MODERN MILLIE, Goodspeed

Lisa Steier, ROCKIN' THE FOREST, Playhouse on Park

Lighting Design:

Matthew Richards, THE INVISIBLE HAND, Westport Country Playhouse

Yi Zhao, ASSASSINS, Yale Repertory

John Lasiter, NEXT TO NORMAL, TheaterWorks

Matthew Richards, COMEDY OF ERRORS, Hartford Stage

Christopher Bell, A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN, Playhouse on Park, Hartford

Sound Design:

Jane Shaw, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, Hartford Stage

Fan Zhang, SEVEN GUITARS, Yale Repertory

Shane Rettig, SCENES FROM COURT LIFE, Yale Repertory

Karen Graybash, THE PIANO LESSON, Hartford Stage

Fitz Patton, THE INVISIBLE HAND, Westport Country Playhouse

Mark Twain House Names New Executive Director

Pieter Nicholson Roos begins as the new executive director at the Mark Twain House July 5.

Roos most recently served as executive director of the Newport Restoration Foundation in Newport, Rhode Island, a preservation and museum organization that owns and administers nearly ninety 18^th- and 19^th-century properties in and around Newport. Under Roos’s leadership, the Foundation transformed Rough Point, Doris Duke’s Newport home, from private house to one of the city’s premier house museums. Among other initiatives during Roos’s tenure, the NRF in 2010 led an effort to revise Newport’s Queen Anne Square with a new design by nationally renowned artist Maya Lin.

Roos has written extensively about museums, architecture, and material culture; he also lectures widely on those topics. Over the years he has served on many boards and committees in Rhode Island, including the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, New England Museum Association, The Governor’s Commission on the King Charles Charter, the Governor’s Commission on World Heritage, Discover Newport, the Watercraft Collections Committee of Mystic Seaport, the Advisory Board of the International Yacht Restoration School, the Trinity Church Landmark Preservation Fund, and the Properties Committee of the Newport Historical Society.

Roos has served in the museum field since 1984. His career began at Sleepy Hollow Restorations (now Historic Hudson Valley). After earning his M.A. in museum studies at the Cooperstown Program, he administered historic sites for the Morris County Park Commission in Morris County, New Jersey. He went to Newport in 1993 to become Director of Education for the Newport Historical Society.

CT Theater Review: Heartbreak House -- Hartford Stage

The cast of Heartbreak House. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

Heartbreak House
By George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Darko Dresnjak
Hartford Stage
Through June 11

By Lauren Yarger
What's It All About?

A house like a ship that's anything by shipshape. Though set in England in 1914, this production is surprisingly timely, Captain Shotover (Miles Anderson) runs his home like a ship (and it looks like one too, thanks to set design  (Colin McGurk). His daughters two daughters couldn't be more different. There's Ariadne, a.k.a. Lady Utterword (Tessa Auberjonois), who has just arrived from Australia after a 23-year absence with her wimpy brother -in-law, Randall Utterword (Grant Goodman), in tow. 

There's also Hesione Hushabye (Charlotte Parry) who lives at home with her father (and off of themoney he earns with odd inventions involving dynamite) invites folks for a dinner party: Ellie Dunn, (Dani DeWaal), her father, Mazzini (Keith Reddin) and her fiance, Boss Mangan (Andrew Long), whom the young girl feels obligated to marry despite the difference in their ges because the successful magnate has bailed her father's business out of trouble. Awkwardness ensues when Ellie confesses she might not love Mangan, but have feelings for another man, who turns out to be none other than Hector Hushabye (Stephen Barker Turner), Hesione's womanizing husband. A nurse (Mary VanArsdel) is thrown in for good measure.

If you find all of that amusing and how these characters relate to each other (not everyone turns out to be who they seem), with an emphasis on mores of society in a time when england is entering the war, you are a bigger fan of George Bernard Shaw than I, even if he did give us Pygmallion, which was the inspiration for the musical My Fair Lady.

What Are the Highlights?
You won't see a more relevant, timely production, as Director Darko Tresnjak puts a blond wig and protruding gut on Mangan to evoke thoughts of Donald Trump. It's not a parody or a political bash -- simply an observation -- and it is brilliant. Instead of this dated play drawing some yawns as Shaw takes a poke at the folly of man, the audience gasps and chuckles as realization dawns and lines of dialogue suddenly seem familiar.

"Too rich: I can’t eat such things. I suppose it’s because I have to work so much with my brain. That’s the worst of being a man of business: you are always thinking, thinking, thinking."

"I saw that he had a sound idea, and that he would work himself silly for it if he got the chance. I saw that he was a child in business, and was dead certain to outrun his expenses and be in too great a hurry to wait for his market. I knew that the surest way to ruin a man who doesn’t know how to handle money is to give him some. I explained my idea to some friends in the city, and they found the money; for I take no risks in ideas, even when they’re my own."

"(I) listened to such unfairness, such lies, such injustice and plotting and backbiting and slandering of me, if I could have up and told you what I thought of you! I wonder I didn’t burst."

What Are the Lowlights?
The dialogue often is hard to hear. I attended a performance with audio transcription projected on the wall and many of us found this helpful.

This play is way too long at two hours and 45 minutes.

More Information:
Heartbreak House runs through June 11 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,  and Sunday at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets: www.hartfordstage.org.

Additional credits:
Costume Designer Ilona Somogyi; Lighting Designer Matthew Richards; Sound Designer Jane Shaw.

CT Theater Review: Lettice and Lovage -- Westport

Paxton Whitehead, Mia Dillon, and Kandis Chappell. Photo: Carol Rosegg

Lettice and Lovage

By Peter Shaffer

Directed by Mark Lamos

Westport Country Playhouse

Through June 17

By Lauren Yarger

What's It All About?

A fun comedy written by Peter Shaffer, who gave us the must more serious Amadeus. Kandis Chappell stepped in as a late replacement in the role of Miss Lettice Douffet, a tour guide at of one of England’s historic homes. The rather humdrum stories she tells bore the tourists, so she decides to augment them. Parts of history blend with fantasy and soon Lettice is one of the most popular tour guides in England. This doesn't sit well with Lotte Schoen (Mia Dillon), head of personnel for the National Trust, who comes to see for herself the fiction being performed as truth. She ends up firing Lettice,  but intrigued by her unique personality, she reaches out to the woman and recommends her for another tour guide position. The two become unlikely friends who enjoy dramatically re-enacting historical moments -- until some play with an executioner's ax leads to some trouble. Enter attorney Bardolph (Paxton Whitehead, reprising his role from the original Broadway production)

What Are the Highlights?

Solid performances from the performers (Sarah Manton rounds out the cast as Lotte's shy assistant, Ms. Framer) and direction from Mark Lamos. Particularly nicely done is a quick change of costumes to create a fresh group of tourists for Lettice's tours (played by an assembly of local actors).

Set Designer John Arnone cleverly creates the ancestral Fustian House where Lettice enhances history as well as her comfortable basement apartment and Lotte's office at the Trust.

What Are the Lowlights?

It's a cut idea that drags on a bit too long. The run time is about two hours and 20 minutes with an intermission. This is one of those plays which would benefit from a trim and a 90-minute, no intermission run.

More Information:

Lettice and Lovage plays at Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport, through June 17, Performances are Tuesday at 7 pm, Wednesday at 2 and 8 pm, Thursday and Friday at 8 pm, Saturday at 3 and 8 pm. and Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets: www.westportplayhouse.org; 203-227-4177.

CT Theater Review: The King and I -- The Bushnell

Jose Llana and Laura Michelle Kelly. Photo: Matthew Murphy

The King and I
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Directed by Bartlett Sher
Choreography by Christopher Gatelli (based on the original by Jerome Robbins)
The Bushnell

By Lauren Yarger
What's It All About?
The tour of Lincoln Center Theater's Tony-Award-winning production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic about a 19th-Century English school teacher who goes to Siam to teach the wives and children of the king. Anna (Laura Michelle Kelly) struggles to adjust to the new culture to which she and her son Louis (Graham Montgomery) have arrived. Women are nothing more than property -- literally -- as Tuptim (Manna Nichols) is brought from neighboring Nurma as a gift for Siam's king (Jose Llana). Anna tries to lift the poor girl's spirits by arranging secret meetings for her with her true love,  Lun Tha (Kavin Panmeechao), but the couple is doomed when the King's lead wife, Lady Thiang (Joan Almedilla) finds out. Meanwhile, Anna develops a bond of friendship with Lady Thiang, her son and heir to the throne Prince Chulalongkorn (Anthony Chan), with her students and also with the king, who is surprised as she that the two might become very fond of each other as Anna helps him steer his country toward 1865's  modern west.

What Are the Highlights?
That score! One of the best ever written for the stage, it gives us "I Whistle a Happy Tune," "Hello, Young Lovers," "Getting to Know You," and "Shall We Dance," among others. Kelly and Llana sing their roles well and have a nice rapport. In addition, Llana portrays the king with a fun side that is engaging (and he certainly welcome -- I saw Ken Wantanabe in the role on Broadway and could not understand a word he said even though I know this script be heart. It was the only flaw in an otherwise brilliantly staged production by Bartlet Sher)

Choreographer Christopher Gatelli wisely doesn't fuss too much with the brilliant original choreography of Jerome Robbins (immortalized in the movie starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr) and the ballet "Small House of Uncle Thomas," is a pleasure.

Also bringing to mind the originals without directly copying are the stunning costumes by Catherine Zuber (the Shall-We-Dance ball gown is lovely and doesn't disappoint).

Lady Thiang and Tuptim show a little more backbone in this production and stand out.

What Are the Lowlights?
The tempo (music is supervised by Ted Sperling and orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett) is a bit slow at times and some of the singers come in off cue and have some difficulty hitting or holding notes and don't enunciate consonants at the end of words. This is an Equity Broadway tour. I expect better.

Young Louis is sporting some sort of weird, wooden sounding accent, but I don't find a dialect coach credited, so perhaps that is why.

Michael Yeargen's looming, but stark sets don't translate as well in the scaled-back version for the tour, but still impress. Chulalongkorn somehow looks older than the king.

More Information:
The King and I polkas across the Mortensen Stage, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford, through June 4. Run time with an intemrission is just under three hours.Performances are tonight at 7:30, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; Saturday at 2 pm and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 pm. bushnell.org.