Carousel, Mame on Tap for Goodspeed Season

Goodspeed Musical's 49th season includes the bold and brassy Mame April 20 – July 1 and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel July 13 – Sept. 23. A third fall musical to be announced will run from Oct.  5 – Dec. 9.

Mame features music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and a book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee and is based on the novel "Auntie Mame" by Patrick Dennis and the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. It will be directed by Ray Roderick (Goodspeed’s Hello! My Baby, My One And Only, Singin’ in the Rain, and 42nd Street) and choreographed by Vince Pesce (associate choreographer of Broadway’s Anything Goes, The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town, and Little Shop of Horrors).

Carousel features music by Richard Rodgers and a book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It will be directed by Rob Ruggiero (Broadway’s High and Looped and Goodspeed’s Show Boat, Camelot, and 1776) and choreographed by Parker Esse (associate choreographer of Broadway’s Finian’s Rainbow and A Tale of Two Cities).

Advance season subscriptions are now on sale through the Box Office (860-873-8668). Single tickets go on public sale beginning Feb. 19, 2012.

GrooveLily’s Concert-Musical Heads Holiday Offerings at Westport

Rock band GrooveLily’s Gene Lewin and Valerie Vigoda in the concert-musical“Striking 12” at Westport Country Playhouse on Sat., Dec. 10, 4 and 7 p.m.

Photo by Joan Marcus

Westport Country Playhouse will present rock band GrooveLily in Striking 12, the critically acclaimed holiday concert-musical based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl,”on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 4 and 7 pm.

With its tagline, “'Tis the season - deal with it,” the original concert-musical blends old-fashioned uplift with a modern tone of 21^st century skepticism. A contemporary take on the classic “The Little Match Girl,” it tells the tale of an incandescent salesgirl whose holiday spirit can’t be matched.

Set on the last night of the old year, Striking 12 has it roots in musical theater, classical, jazz and rock. The recipient of an off-Broadway 2006 Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Musical and a Bay Area Theatre Critic's Choice Award, it is co-written by GrooveLily and Rachel Sheinkin, Tony award winner for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

"Striking 12 put the band GrooveLily on the map of the musical theater world as a rock band writing and performing shows,” said Angela Marroy Boerger, Playhouse education and community programs coordinator. “This clever and inventive pop-folk-rock-rap trio appeals to a wide range of age groups, from children to adults.”

Valerie Vigoda, electric violinist and singer, is the founding member of GrooveLily. A classically trained musician, she toured the world with Cyndi Lauper (opening for Tina Turner and Cher), Joe Jackson and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. She founded GrooveLily in 1994, with a critically acclaimed CD called "Inhabit My Heart." Vigoda is a two-time winner of the Jonathan Larson Award for Excellence in Writing for the Theatre, along with her husband and longtime collaborator Brendan Milburn, keyboards/vocals.  In 2008, Milburn and Vigoda were commissioned by Disney to write the score for “Toy Story: The Musical,” a rock musical based on the critically acclaimed Pixar film “Toy Story.”

Gene Lewin, drums/vocals, blurs the lines between jazz and rock. He tours regularly with Audra McDonald, and has appeared on CDs with George Coleman, John Patitucci, and many others.

Tickets: $40 and $20 for adults; $20 for children/students.

Other “Winter at the Playhouse” events include“The Nutcracker,” a holiday ballet presented by Ballet Etudes, on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 3 and 4 at 1 and 5 pm.; “A Season of Miracles” by Pushcart Players, a sparkling collection of holiday tales from different cultures set to music, on Sunday, Dec.11 at 1 and 4 pm.;“Holiday” by Philip Barry, a Script in Hand reading of the beloved romantic comedy upon which the film starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn was based, Monday, Dec. 12 at 7 pm.; and The Broadway Boys, a holiday concert Broadway style, on Saturday, Dec. 17 at  8 pm, and Sunday, Dec, 18 at 3 pm.

As a community service during all of the “Winter at the Playhouse” holiday events, the Playhouse will collect gently used coats/jackets to benefit the Community Closet of Bridgeport. Collection boxes will be in the Playhouse lobby through December 18. In addition, the theater is hosting a Holiday Memories Writing Challenge for area students, grades K – 8. The deadline for submissions is Friday, December 2. For more information, visit www.westportplayhouse.org.

For more information, tickets or holiday gift certificates, call the box office at 203-227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available at www.westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), view Playhouse videos on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse) or get an insider’s peek on The Playhouse Blog (www.theplayhouseblog.org).

Long Wharf Theatre announces the cast of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play

The film "It's a Wonderful LIfe" gets a magical adaptation Dec. 7-31 with a radio play script by Joe Landry that takes the beloved holiday story and recasts it as a 1940s radio drama performed before a live studio audience. Live sound effects meld with the moving tale of George Bailey.

An ensemble company of actors including Dan Domingues, Connecticut native Kate Maccluggage, Alex Moggridge and Ariel Woodiwiss, performs the show. The production team includes Mikiko Macadams (sets), Jessica Ford (costumes), Stephen Strawbridge (lights), and John Gromada (sound). 

“The radio play lets audiences’ imaginations breathe. It allows them to have some space from the movie and hear the story anew,” said Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein. “It’s a resurrection story, which we love. It also asks us to consider what are the enduring values one should live for? It’s a story of a man whose good deeds ultimately save his life.” 

Landry, a Westport resident, first adapted the film to be performed as a full play at a local high school. However, at the time he was working at the Fairfield Public Library, and began listening to and falling in love with old radio shows. Knowing that "It’s A Wonderful Life" had that pedigree (James Stewart did a radio show version in 1949), Landry put together his adaptation. Landry’s live radio play has enjoyed tremendous theatrical life, enjoying regular professional and local productions across the nation during the holiday season. “It’s a Wonderful Life seems to resonate on several different levels,” he said.

The original film is based on a short story entitled “The Greatest Gift” by historian Philip Van Doren Stern, a piece he distributed to 200 of his friends as a holiday greeting in 1943. When film director Frank Capra read the story, which had been knocking around Hollywood for a bit, he declared it was the tale he had been seeking to tell his whole life. The film came out in 1946, and received good reviews, although it was not a box office smash. When the film briefly fell into the public domain, it found a new audience through regular television airings. 

Dan Domingues has appeared Off-Broadway in The Cherry Orchard at Atlantic Theater Company, His Greatness at the Soho Playhouse and King Lear at La Ma Ma, among others. His television and film work includes “Gossip Girl,” “Law and Order,” “As The World Turns,” “Hope and Faith” and “Third Watch,” among others. 

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

Theater Review: Cabaret -- Music Theatre of Connecticut

Eric Scott Kincaid. Photo by Regina Madwed/Capitol Photointeractive

By Geary Danihy
 The hottest ticket in town right now should be for Cabaret, which recently opened at the 45-seat MTC MainStage in Westport. Hot because it’s probably Cabaret as you’ve never seen it before, pared down to its bare essentials and presented with verve, style and a great deal of feeling by a superb cast.

Directed by Kevin Connors, MTC’s executive artistic director, and choreographed by Lainie Munro (who gives a nod to, but does not slavishly follow the Fosse format), this Cabaret is more intimate, and thus more pointed and, at times, heart-wrenching, than the film version you are probably most familiar with, and it features Kander and Ebb songs that were in the original production but were cut for the film or assigned to different characters.

The book by Joe Masteroff, based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood, focuses on a young American writer, Cliff Bradshaw (Ryan Reilly) who comes to Berlin at the time of the rise of the Nazi party, seeking inspiration for his novel. He immediately connects with Ernst (Robert Daniel Sullivan), who, unbeknownst to Cliff, is making money runs for the Nazis. Ernst directs the American to a boarding house run by Fraulein Schneider (Dorothy Stanley), where he soon meets fellow borders Fraulein Kost (Marty Bongfeldt), a dancer at the Kit Kat Klub, and Herr Schultz (Stuart Zagnit), the owner of a fruit store who also happens to be Jewish. On his first night out on the town he drops by the Kit Kat Klub, hosted by the Emcee (Eric Scott Kincaid) and has a table-to-table phone conversation with another Kit Kat dancer, Sally Bowles (Melissa Carlile-Price), a waif-like British ex-pat who “absolutely adores” his spoken English.

The lives of these characters quickly intertwine as Germany’s political skies darken, and much of the musical deals with various aspects of the Nazi’s rise to power and the decisions individuals must make (or not make) when confronted with the growing terror. In this focused version, the audience’s attention is riveted on the two doomed romances that are at the heart of the show: Cliff’s love for Sally, who refuses to see what is happening around her and clings desperately to the philosophy that “Life is a cabaret,” and Herr Schultz’s more mature love for Fraulein Schneider, equally doomed because of his heritage.

Given that all of this – the Kit Kat production numbers – the arguments between Sally and Cliff – Herr Schultz’s touching courtship of Fraulein Schneider – occurs mere feet from where the audience sits means, among other things, that the audience is inexorably drawn into the milieu in which these characters live and work. It is powerful theater, especially given the quality of the cast.

Kincaid’s Emcee is lascivious and brash, but you can see beneath the façade, see the concern, the disdain for the rising powers, and the fear. His Emcee is perhaps the most vulnerable I’ve ever seen, and his final exit, executed brilliantly, is one of false bravado – the “clown” facing off against the brute. It’s a star turn, equaled by Carlile-Price’s Sally, for Carlile-Price manages to convey a brittle gayety masking both fear and self-doubt, and her take on the musical’s signature song,“Cabaret” (sung just after she has told Cliff she has aborted their child), rips your heart out, for she is spitting in the face of death, defiantly walking away from her only hope of salvation by embracing the ephemeral.  

Most revelatory, however, is the fragile romance between Stanley’s Fraulein Schneider and Zagnit’s Herr Schultz, for these characters, given song assignments and song cuts, were essentially shoved to the side in the film version. Here they come to the fore, and in scene after touching scene (including one that focuses on a pineapple), Stanley and Zagnit, with great poise, delicacy and feeling, present the musical’s essential moral conundrum – what do you do in the face of tyranny? Do you bow and accept, believing you will survive as you have before, or do you deny its very existence, claiming that, after all, it cannot be as bad as people say?

What makes this production so satisfying is that the entire cast, including Johnny Orenberg, who does yeoman work as a Kit Kat waiter, several lustful German sailors, a Nazi rabble-rouser and a German guard, can not only sing and dance, they can act up a storm. There’s not a false note or forced emotion the entire evening – Sullivan’s Ludwig is subtly menacing; Bongfeldt’s Fraulein Kost suitably louche and world-weary; Reilly’s Bradshaw engaging and earnest. Coupled with the riveting performances given by Stanley, Zagnit, Kincaid and Carlile-Price, it all make for a marvelous evening of musical theater.

Cabaret at MTC MainStage runs through Nov. 20, which means you only have two more weekends to see a version of “Cabaret” that will stay with you long after you leave the theater. For tickets or more information call 203-454-3883 or go to www.musictheatreofct.com.

Theater Review: The Woman in Black -- Ivoryton

Ian Lowe, Steve L. Barron. Photo: Anne Hudson

A Ghost Story Within a Play Within a Play Appears in the Mist
By Lauren Yarger
A playwright endeavors to tell the scariest ghost story he's ever heard, but will the real ghost let him?
A creeping mist, a mysterious veiled woman and a play within a play are conjured up at Ivoryton Playhouse in Stephen Mallatratt's play The Woman in Black, based on the novel by Susan Hill (the show has been running for 23 years in London's West End).

Kipps (Steven L. Barron) must tell the story of his experiences settling the estate of a reclusive woman who lived in a rambling estate on an island in a remote part of England, despite his lack of acting experience and the fact that he probably will put his audience to sleep with the more-than-five-hour long play he has written. So he hires an actor (Ian Lowe) to advise him on how to do it.

The happy actor indulges him and decides the best way to proceed is for his to assume the role of Kipps, while the playwright assumes the roles of all the other characters. The actor starts adapting props left backstage at the Victorian theater where they are going to present the piece (Tony Andrea, scenic design) and surprises Kipps with recorded effects (Tate R. Burmeister, design) to produce the sounds of London streets, a ride in a pony and trap and other mysterious noises Kipps encountered at the estate.

As the tale unfolds, Kipps becomes more skilled at portraying the island's odd inhabitants, all spooked by the appearance of a ghostly, gaunt looking woman clad in black who wanders the property and family graveyard. Who is she and why does a child die tragically every time she is spotted? The real script is a little redundant and slow moving at times, but stick with it and you'll be caught up in the chilling ghost story.

Directed by Maggie McGlone Jennings, the actors give skilled performances of characters portraying characters (Barron, morphing from bad actor to various village dwellers to a man who is fear personified, really is superb). Andrea and lighting designer Doug Harry create some ghostly effects and a creeping fog adds to the atmosphere. Voiceovers are by Alana Lee Burke. Costumes are by Vickie Blake.

The Woman in Black appears at Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main St., through Nov. 20. Performance times are Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2 pm;  Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday at 8 pm. Tickets are $40 for adults, $35 for seniors, $20 for students and $15 for children and are available by calling the box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.  (Group rates are available by calling the box office for information.).

Quick Hit Theater Review: Ain't Misbehavin' -- Long Wharf

Kecia Lewis-Evans, Doug Eskew, Cynthia Thomas, Debra Walton and Eugene Barry-Hill. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

Ain't Misbehavin'
Conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr. & Murray Horwitz

Created & Originally Directed by Richard Maltby, Jr.

Original Choreography & Musical Staging by Arthur Faria

Musical Director Phillip Hall
Musical Adaptations, Orchestrations & Arrangements by Luther Henderson
Vocal & Musical Concepts by Jeffrey Gutcheon
Musical Arrangements by Jeffrey Gutcheon & William Elliott
Directed by Richard Maltby, Jr.
Staging & Choreography by Arthur Faria

Summary:
The cast of Eugene Barry-Hill, Doug Eskew, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Cynthia Thomas and Debra Walton, all of whom have previously appeared in productions of Ain’t Misbehavin', sings up more than 30 Thomas "Fats" Waller tunes in a setting reminiscent of 1930s jazz clubs (John Lee Beatty, set design). Wearing sparkling flowy dresses and dapper suits (Gail Baldoni, costume design), they have the audience clapping, and sometimes singing along, with classics like "This Joint is Jumpin'," "Your Feets Too Big," Honeysuckle Rose," "Fat and Greasy" and the title song. The group is accompanied by a band behind the action on stage and a piano player on the set.

Highlights:
Faria's choreography is fun and just the right touch. There's everything from a waltz to tap (Barry-Hill is particularly skilled). There's a lot of humor and there is a nice variety of song styles and tempos. Pat Collins' lighting design creates shadows, lighting effects and even a shower reflections off of a jeweled disco ball to enhance the production.

Lowlights:
Nada. A fun evening, especially if you like Fats Waller.

Information:
The show runs through Nov. 20 at Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven. Tickets range from $40-70 and can be purchased at 203-787-4282 or at www.longwharf.org.
--Lauren Yarger

Brand:NEW Play Fest Offers Chance to See What Could Be Tomorrow's Classics

Zabryna Guevara, Matthew Boston, Liza Colon-Zayás, Armando Riesco in a scene from Water By the Spoonful, the first play commissioned through the Aetna New Voices Fellowship to get a full production at Hartford Stage. Photo by T. Charles Erickson

By Lauren Yarger
Hundreds of submissions make their way to Hartford Stage's new play festival, Brand:NEW, every year where playwrights hope their work will have a chance for readings in front of audiences in a first step to becoming full productions somewhere.

The festival, now in its 14th year, is a "safe space to develop and a place for us to invest in playwrights we believe in," said the festival's line producer Hana Sharif, Hartford Stage's associate artistic director. The "we" includes the artistic director (Darko Tresnjak recently replaced Michael Wilson in the role), the staff and a number of readers who help weed through the submissions. They are looking for plays with heart, energy and dynamic characters, Sharif said.

The plays tend to be different, a little more edgy than those in the regular main stage series. It's sort of like a temporary black box setting in which to experiement a little, she said. This year's lineup includes readings of new works by Bekah Brunstetter, Marcus Gardley, Steven Levenson, Matthew Schneck and Sinan Unel (the schedule is included below).

"The five plays that we have chosen for this year's Brand:NEW festival look at history, family, and desire in exciting and unexpected ways," Tresnjak said. "It is a pleasure to bring these distinctive and provocative writers to Hartford Stage."

Hana Sharif

Many theaters are cutting back on reading series because of the economy. It's harder to take risks, but not every theater can boast of the kind of audience that Hartford Stage has developed over the years. Ticket prices usually are cheaper, but after all, what makes someone want to go see a play that isn't finished, without sets and costumes? (Readings usually involve actors standing or sitting with scripts music stands. Someone reads the stage directions and scene information.)
"There's something special about sitting in a room with actors at music stands teling you the story," Sharif said. There's a back-stage pass feel to being there, meeting and greeting with the authors and being part of the process. Audience feedback is solicited following the readings. While there are some producers attending looking for "the next hot thing," most of the audience is made up if savvy Hartford locals who have formed their own community with the annual festival. One past participant asked Sharif if Hartford Stage knew how lucky it was to have sich an educated and responsive audience.
New play development is part of the identity of this theater, though. There are a number of ways for new plays to get on stage:

• The Aetna New Voices Fellowship awards a year-long residency, a commission and a stipend to a playwright of color. Hartford Stage provides three developmental opportunities and a chance to work with teen playwrights. This year, Quiara Alegria Hudes' Water By The Spoonful, is the first commission from the fellowship to get a full production at Hartford Stage. It runs through Nov. 13.
• The Hartford Heritage Project looking at specific issues, events and characters from Connecticut.
• Open submissions. Submissions from agents are accepted on a rolling basis. Hartford Stage also accepts unrepresented submissions by Connecticut authors.

This year's festival continues through this weekend. Here's the schedule:
Friday, November 4 * 7:30 p.m.
Hey Brother
By Bekah Brunstetter
Directed by Maxwell Williams

Big brother Ben is a financial planner with an alpha-male attitude. Little brother Isaac is a graduate student in history, used to finishing in second place. When a mysterious young woman hunting for her own history comes into their lives, the love/ hate relationship between them is put to the test in this darkly funny adult drama.

Saturday, Nov. 5 at  2 pm
The Ping and the Pang
By Matthew Schneck
Directed by Jenn Thompson
                                        
When a man reluctantly visits a psychiatrist for the first time, he is subjected to a bizarre and aggressive new talk therapy technique. Is his doctor helping him to face his real issues? Or merely pushing him past the brink of sanity? The human psyche, the collective unconscious, and funny-tasting kool-aid combine in this outlandish and hilarious existentialist comedy.

Saturday, November 5 * 7:30 p.m.
The House That Will Not Stand
By Marcus Gardley
Directed by Hana S. Sharif

Set in 1836, against the backdrop of Faubourg Tremé in New Orleans, Marcus Gardley weaves a poetic tale of three sisters trapped beneath the oppressive thumb of their unyielding mother in a mandated six month period of mourning. As the summer heat intensifies, passion, jealousy, and fear collide in this explosive reimagining of Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba.

Sunday, November 6 * 11:00 a.m.
Playwrights' Panel

Meet the playwrights and engage with the creative process, discuss their inspiration, and learn about each individual journey to developing new work. Led by Jerry Patch, Director of Artistic Development at Manhattan Theatre Club.

Sunday, November 6 * 2:00 p.m.
Days of Rage
by Steven Levenson
Directed by Darko Tresnjak

1969. As the summer of love darkens into a long and bitter winter, a group of young activists makes plans for the Revolution from a dilapidated farmhouse in upstate New York. Jenny, a college dropout and a daughter of privilege, begins to have second thoughts about her role in the movement. As paranoia and political divisions threatening to tear the collective apart, Jenny must choose between following the dictates of her heart and a Revolution that may never come.

Pathetique by Sinan Unel, directed by Darko Tresnjak, was presented yesterday.

Key Dates and Information:
Readings will be held at Hartford Stage's Rehearsal Studio 2, 942 Main St., downtown Hartford (Residence Inn building).
Passes good for admission to all Brand:NEW events are $15. Admission to individual readings is $5; admission to the Playwrights' Panel is free. All readings offer general seating.
For reservations, directions, or more information, call the Hartford Stage box office at 860-527-5151 or visit www.brandnewplayfestival.com.

Theater Review: Water by the Spoonful -- Hartford Stage

Zabryna Guevara, Armando Riesco. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

Internet Meets Live Drama in Innovative, Insightful Premiere at Hartford Stage
By Lauren Yarger
Avatars appear as the users of an internet support forum for crack addicts sign on to chat, but the action doesn't take place in cyberspace. It unfolds on stage as Hartford Stage presents the world premiere of Quiara Alegria Hudes' moving play Water by the Spoonful.

Commissioned by the theater company, Water by the Spoonful is the first play to make it from the Aetna New Voices Fellowship to a fully staged production at Hartford Stage.

The lives of family members and complete strangers merge with their connection on the support site administered by Odessa Ortiz (Liza Colon-Zayas), user name Haikumom, who encourages the members with off-the-cuff haikus and support as they try to get and stay sober. Forum regulars are Chutes&Ladders (Ray Anthony Thomas), an IRS customer service rep whose habit lost him a relationship with his son, and Orangutan (Teresa Avia Lim), teaching English while searching for her roots in Japan.

They are joined by Fountainhead (Matthew Boston), a highly paid corporate executive who is in denial about his addiction while desperately trying to hide it from his wife. Chutes&Ladders isn't impressed, but finds it hard to confront reality himself: he resists reaching out to his son, or exploring the possibility of a real-life meeting with Orangutan.

Davis McCallum directs masterfully, having the characters on stage interacting, while visually communicating as though by instant message. They don't look directly at each other, and no real keyboards or computer screen are used. Their avatars (graphic pictures with their user names) are projected onto to a tile-motifed set that also houses Odessa's near-squalor house (Neil Patel, set and projection design). Skilled lighting (Russell H. Champa), sound design (Bray Poor), some John Coltrane with original music (J. Michael Friedman), costumes by Chloe Chapin and a few props do the rest to create the innovative presentation. All of the performances are first rate as well.

Besides the interaction online, events from the real lives of the characters play out too. Odessa, fighting her own addiction, is estranged from her son, Elliot, who was raised by her sister when his biological mother was unable to care for him. He tries to cope with his feeling of abandonment, especially in the face of Mami Ginny's impending death, while being haunted by his experiences in Iraq -- literally -- by a  ghost (Demosthenes Chrysan) who keeps saying something in Arabic.

Providing some comfort is Elliot's close relationship with his cousin, Yazmin (Zabryna Guevara),  an adjunct professor of music, who also loves Ginny for providing harmony in the Philadelphia family's dissonance.
Hudes (In the Heights) combines compelling characters, humor, insights and modern technology to ask questions about how we relate to each other and to provide a window into how real face-to-face relationships differ from those online and define who we are. The playwright definitely has the "I" part of IT down: this play is Interesting, Innovative, Imaginative, Intriguing, Insightful and Internet-savvy. OK, we'll throw in a  "T" for Terrific as well. It is the second part in a trilogy that began with Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, a Pultizer-Prize finalist, which McCallum directed in New York.

Water by the Spoonful runs through Nov. 13 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Sunday at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; matinees Sundays and selected Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2. Tickets range from $23 to $69 and are available by calling 860-527-5151 or online at www.hartfordstage,org.

Storm Updates

Here's what you need to know about the state's theater and arts venues with regards to the snow storm and power outages. We will continue to add as we hear from the press representatives.

• Westport Country Playhouse cancelled the Saturday, Oct. 29 3 pm matinee performance of Twelfth Night, or What You Will due to storm delays on Metro-North which prevented actors travelling from NYC to arrive on time. Other performances over the weekend (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee) went on as scheduled. Ticket holders from the cancelled Saturday matinee may call the box office at 203-227-4177 to exchange for other performances continuing through Nov. 5. 
• The Bushnell is open for business after closing Sunday.  Ticketholders for Sunday’s cancelled performances of Jersey Boys should contact the box office at 860-987-5900 to reschedule.
• Goodspeed Musicals has power, clear parking lots and will be fully staffed for this week’s performances both at the Goodspeed Opera House (City of Angels, Wednesday through Sunday) and at The Norma Terris Theatre where performances of Hello! My Baby begin this Thursday night.
• TheaterWorks -- Theaterworks is up and running - all shows! I you missed a weekend performance, you may call the bo office at 860-527-7838 to reschedule.
• CT Rep's performance schedule for The Miser is uninterrupted by the storm.
• Music Theatre of Connecticut (MTC in Westport) did not lose power. Performance of Cabaret begin on schedule this Friday.
• The Mark Twain House & Museum is open for its normal hours (9:30-5:30 Monday through Saturday, 12:30-5:30 Sunday). The Murasaki Cafe is open Tuesday thrugh Saturday, 11:30 am to  3 pm. The Cabaret Lulu performance originally scheduled for Wednesday has been cancelled. The free Nook Farm Book Talks, Thursday at 5 pm with Dr. Eugene Leach on Lincoln's and Frederick Douglass' speeches, will go on as usual. So will The Mark Twain House & Museum Annual Fall Gala, Saturday at 6 pm. (For Gala information and tickets -- come in out of the cold, put on yer 10-gallon hat, and celebrate "How the West Was Fun!" --  call 860-280-3112).

Hole in the Wall presents four original one-act comedies in Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far

The Hole in the Wall Theater, New Britain’s home for edgy and intriguing plays and musicals, takes on four world premiere one-act comedies by Connecticut playwright Jacques Lamarre.

Entitled Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far, characters push beyond the boundaries of normal, everyday situations into some rather bad behavior. Inspired by John Waters, Saturday Night Live and the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far, the production, which is not suitable for younger viewers, runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm Nov. 18 through Dec. 10. There are Sunday Matinees at 2 Nov. 27 and Dec. 4.

In Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far, the playwright looks at life in modern America and finds it a little stomach-churning. Four short plays make up the evening and each reflects our inability to maintain polite behavior. In Mignonette, directed by Bethany Sanderson, an encounter between two women in a dog park turns into a cat fight. In The Buck Stops Here, directed by Michael Daly, a frustrated housewife engages the services of an ad agency to give her husband a marketing makeover. In Cain DisAbeled, directed by Terri D’Arcangelo, a FarmVille fracas between brothers turns into a battle of biblical proportions. And in Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far, directed by Kit Webb, the Disneyfied town of Celebration, FL gets turned on its Mickey Mouse ears when the title character moves in next door to a pack of Tea Party Patriots.

The production features a mix of Hole in the Wall veterans and new faces: Kathleen-Marie Clark, Terri D'Arcangelo, James DeMarco, Jillian Dion, Roy Donnelly, Joan DuQuette-Aresco, Devin Horner, Angie Joachim, Rebecca Meakin, Charles Merlis, Johnny Peifer and Matthew Skwiot.

Lamarre is the director of communications and special projects at The Mark Twain House and Museum, where he co-adapted an evening of R-Rated Twain at the Hole in the Wall in August 2011. For the museum, he also adapted Twain’s "The Diaries of Adam & Eve" for a one-night-only performance by Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker. He wrote the full-length comedy Gray Matters, which was performed by the Emerson Theater Collaborative at New York’s Midtown International Theatre Festival (nominated for five awards including Outstanding Playwriting). The production was subsequently remounted at the Mystic Arts Center and the Charter Oak Cultural Center.

As a co-writer for international drag chanteuse Varla Jean Merman, he has worked on eight shows.

Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far runs at the Hole in the Wall Theater, 116 Main St., New Britain, Nov. 18, 19, 25, 26 and Dec. 2, 3, 9, 10 at 8 pm and Sundays Nov. 27 and Dec. 4 at 2 pm. The performance on Saturday Nov. 19 will be followed by classic Hole in the Wall festivities and a meet and greet with Lamarre. Tickets are $20 General Admission; $12 Students (with I.D.) and Seniors. To purchase tickets, visit www.hitw.org or call 860-229-3049 for reservations.