Mandy Patinkin to Appear at Long Wharf

A special ONE NIGHT ONLY engagement
Friday, June 7
8:00 p.m. performance
Tickets: $125
(includes complimentary pre-show cocktail)

LONG WHARF THEATRE
BOX OFFICE: 203-787-4282 | WWW.LONGWHARF.ORG

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Offers Salon Program on Mental Health

Salons at Stowe Mental Health: Stigmas, Stereotypes & Solutions May 16 5-7 p.m. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center How prevalent is mental illness in our community? Is mental health treatment accessible to all? How can we support individuals and families struggling with mental health issues? Join the discussion with Harold I. Schwartz, M.D., Hartford Hospital Institute of Living and Sara Frankel, J.D. National Alliance on Mental Illness Connecticut. Click here for more information RSVP or 860-522-9258, ext. 317.

77 Forest St., Hartford, CT 06105 HarrietBeecherStowe.org 860-522-9258

Arts Week

Next Long Wharf Season Offers Two Premieres

Long Wharf Theatre has announced the slate of shows for its 49th season.

The season will begin with a farce, The Underpants, by Steve Martin, directed by Long Whar's Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein in co-production with Hartford Stage. Martin’s play is based on Carl Sternheim’s play Die Hose, which was banned in Germany in 1911 for its risqué content. Then, Phylicia Rashad will make her Long Wharf Theatre directorial debut with Fences, the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic by August Wilson

Heidi Schreck, known for her brilliant career as both an actor and a playwright, will debut her newest work, The Consultant, on Stage II in January. The Consultant deals with the financial meltdown, the absurd world of the modern workplace and the unlikely relationships formed there. Kip Fagan, who recently directed Jesse Eisenberg and Vanessa Redgrave in The Revisionist at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in NewYorl.

Amy Herzog's 4000 Miles plays the Mainstage in late February. It's a very honest look at the unsteady relationship between a grandmother and grandson who are worlds apart generationally

Athol Fugard makes his first appearance on stage in over a decade in the world premiere of his most recent work The Shadow of the Hummingbird. This sensitive portrayal of an 80-year-old man giving advice to his young grandson will take place on Stage II in April. “This is a great work by a late master about living and dying, and how to live one’s life” Edelstein said. “It is written by and starring one of the most important voices in the world theatre in the last fifty years. We are honored that Athol has chosen to give us his newest play.”


The season will conclude with the musical The Last Five Years, taking place in May on the Mainstage.The heartbreaking romance from Jason Robert Brown is  a portrait of a marriage.


Subscriptions are currently on sale. Single tickets for the 2013-14 Season will go on sale Thursday, Aug. 1. For more information about the 2013-14 season, or to purchase tickets, visit www.longwharf.org or call 203-787-4282. 

Theater Review: Looped -- The Bushnell

Stefanie Powers. Photo: Ian Ibbetson

It’s a Recording Session from Hell When the Star Gets Looped
By Lauren Yarger
A single line of dialogue is the catalyst for Matthew Lombardo’s multi-layered and laugh-filled play Looped making a tour stop this week at The Bushnell in Hartford.

It seems the sound is garbled on one important line of dialogue in the 1965 film “Die, Die My Darling,” so star Tallulah Bankhead (Stefanie Powers), who has returned to films after a 12-year hiatus, is summoned to re-record (or “loop”) the line in sync with the film. Sounds uncomplicated, but when the larger-than-life actress known for her outrageous language and behavior gets a little looped herself on alcohol and cocaine, the recording session is anything but simple for film’s editor Danny (Brian Hutchison, who played the role on Broadway) and sound engineer Steve (Matthew Montelongo).

Throwing off her fur coat and strutting about in a dark-blue evening dress (William Ivey Long, design), Tallulah makes repeated attempts to record the line “And so Patricia, as I was telling you, that deluded rector has, in literal effect, closed the church to me.”

Danny’s frustration grows with each unsuccessful attempt. Steve keeps his distance up in the second-story booth, offering only a few words while a growing battle of words and will ensues between Tallulah and Danny. (Adrian W. Jones designs the set; Michael Gilliam designs the lighting to include the look of the film being shown).

At one point Steve leaves to get another film reel and the conversation turns personal. Tallulah intuitively senses that Danny’s angst about the recording session really is a manifestation of a deeper frustration in his personal life. He hides behind his work, she tells him.

He counters with an accusation that Tallulah’s outrageous behavior is a cover for inability to deal with reality. Her reality, it turns out, is a bit harder to deal with than he might have imagined. Dark secrets are shared and the two form a bond of tentative friendship.

It’s funny and poignant, as directed by Rob Ruggiero, with complexities for the stage that keep that “And so Patricia” line from sounding repetitive. Montelongo manages to turn a few one-word responses into a developed character. Powers simply becomes Tallulah Bankhead. The perky jet-setting, mystery-solving character from the TV series Hart to Hart is nowhere to be found.

There are some drawbacks, however. The intimate show is ill-placed in the cavernous Mortensen Hall (which had a small house on opening night) and the sound (Michael Hooker, design) has an echo quality, as though the voices are muffled in a large space.

As it turns out, this tour is poignant in real life as well as on stage. The recording session is based on a true incident. “Die, Die My Darling” turned out to be Tallulah’s last film, and the part of “Patricia” was played by none other than Stefanie Powers. In addition, Powers stepped into the role of Tallulah for Valerie Harper, who had starred on Broadway, but who had to drop out of the tour when she was diagnosed with cancer. (The tour had been scheduled to launch here earlier this year, but with the cast change, the Hartford run was rescheduled to this week).

Looped runs through Sunday at the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Performances:
Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm; Friday at 8 pm; Saturday at 2 and 8 pm; Sunday at 1 and 6:30 pm. Tickets $35-$60: (860) 987-5900; www.bushnell.org.

Theater Review: In a Year With 13 Moons

Mickey Solis and Bill Camp. Photo © Richard Termine

Yale Rep’s In a Year With 13 Moons Puzzles Audience – and Critic
By Lauren Yarger
As a critic, my first obligation is to be honest, so my readers will trust me when reporting on my experiences in the theater. After seeing the world premiere of In a Year With 13 Moons at Yale Rep, I have to tell you the truth. I didn’t get it. 

I have no idea what is about, really, even with the aid of the script, so if you are looking for expert analysis on this one, I need to refer you to another source who appreciates absurdist, existential theater. This play might be great for those of you who love this type of theater, but it’s completely lost on me.

In an effort to shed some light on the experience, however, I will tell you what I can and offer, in italics, what I was thinking at various points during the presentation. Then I’ll bring you a report of what the ladies in line in the restroom had to say after the show. These comments really are more insightful than any attempt at analysis I could provide.

Commissioned by Yale Rep In a Year With 13 Moons is adapted for the stage by its star, Bill Camp, and Director Robert Woodruff, who previously teamed on Notes From Underground at Yale Rep (the film and screenplay are by Rainer Werner Fassbinder; the literal translation is by Louisa Proske). Set in 1978 Frankfurt, it tells the story of Erwin (Camp) who had an operation in Casablanca and who is now Elvira. “Now, adrift and alone, Elvira resists the people and places of the past, desperately searching for the identity and love she’s never known.” That synopsis is thanks to Yale’s Senior Associate Director of Communications Steven Padia, which I never would have been able to come up with myself. I’ll add that the whole of the action is leading up to Elvira’s suicide and is very depressing.  

Lauren’s thoughts: They paid for this?

My brain, you see, had started to shut down (self defense, you know) after the opening scenes in which a man making out with Elvira discovers her breasts and is disgusted. He and a bunch of people beat her up and with her pants down, Elvira crawls around the stage while reciting prose that makes no sense. Meanwhile another woman appears on a platform with her legs up and open for another man’s sexual pleasure. Elvira chokes herself while masturbating. Her abusive lover Christoph (Babs Olusanmokun) beats her and tells her she is repulsive and ugly as a pig. He tells her he is leaving her.

“I’m getting out,” he says.

Lauren’s thoughts: Please take me with you.

There’s a reason why they don’t put intermissions in existential shows like this: given a chance to flee, most of the audience will. The ploy wasn’t enough to stop a number of people from getting up and walking out during the play, however.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, the absurd story started to strike me funny. Elvira used to be a slaughterer, by trade, and hopes to find a job in that field. Suddenly we’re in the slaughterhouse and a man covered in blood walks slowly across the stage carrying a dead pig person (a human in an oversized pig head). As dialogue continues, other blood-covered people carry or drag pig persons across the stage until a blood-covered man carries out a bloody dead man, rather than a pigman (with some sort of great significance, I’m sure).

Lauren’s thoughts: Holding in this burst of laughter is really starting to hurt my sides. If I start, I won’t be able to stop.

All of this action takes place on David Zinn’s dim set (Jennifer Tipton designs the lighting) enhanced by video projections (Peter Nigrini, design) and musical notes, noises and bursts played by composer Michael Attias, who also designs the show’s sound, and one other musician in the pit.

There are a number of people Elvira encounters along the way: Irene and Marie-Ann, his former wife, and their daughter (Jacqueline Kim, who provides a much-needed dose of beauty, and Mariko Nakasone), Anton Saitz (Christopher Innvar), a former lover/Mafioso type for whom Elvira originally had her radical surgery, and Sister Gundrun (Joan MacIntosh), a nun at the orphanage where Erwin was raised. He seeks her out to fill in the blanks from the childhood he can’t remember. She starts with his birth and tells the long story while walking very, very, very very slowly around the perimeter of the stage….

Lauren’s thoughts: My watch must have stopped. There’s no way that we’re only just an hour in (the show is two hours and 10 minutes).

I’ll leave the plot description at that, except to say that there is a suicide (not even Elvira’s), a gruesome bedtime story, a shootout, and a concentration camp theme. And let’s not forget the chorus line (David Neumann, choreography).

Lauren’s thoughts: Please make it stop! Here’s two hours of my life I’m never going to get back.
When the play finally concluded to the softest applause I’ve ever heard, the woman in front of me, with a very troubled expression, turned to her companion and said, “We need to find a place where I can get a drink.” A man behind me asked his companion whether she would like to stay for the talkback taking place.

“Yes. Maybe I’ll find out what it was about.” 

As I closed my notebook, I noticed that it was almost completely full of notes, but I still didn’t have a clue what to say in this review. I headed to the restroom. There, conversation centered on the play and I whipped my notebook back out, identifying myself as a critic interested in their thoughts, asking for insight into what I had missed. Women gave up their place in line eager for an opportunity to vent.

“I’m university educated,” said one woman, but I have no idea what that was about.”

“Maybe if we watch the film it will clear things up,” another suggested.

“It made no sense.”

“Very unpleasant to watch.”

“That poor girl under the guy for so long much have been uncomfortable.”

Another woman, a theater educator, praised the efforts of the actors. Another gave Yale kudos for being willing to take risk, “but you have to give the audience something to work with,” she added.

Our favorite: a woman joining the queue who heard us discussing the play who asked, “Was this written by him before he died?”

There was a lot of laughter in the bathroom.

“This is probably better than the talkback taking place upstairs,” said one woman wiping away tears.

Lauren’s thoughts: Marie Antoinette, Dear Elizabeth and Hamlet (presented earlier this season at Yale) were so good, I’ll forgive them for this one.

In a Year With 13 Moons runs at Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven, through May 18. Showtimes vary. Tickets $20-$96 :(203) 432-1234; www.yalerep.org.

Note: Yale warns that the show is for mature audiences and that is contains strong language, sexual situations, nudity and violence. For production footage and a three-part series of short interviews with the cast, visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/YaleRepertoryTheatre.

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A series of glitches prevented us from being able to post this week. News and Reviews of Connecticut's art and theater news is now back up and running!

Theater Review: Good News -- Goodspeed

Ross Lekites and coeds. Photo by Diane Sobolewski.

Rah! Rah! An Old-Fashioned Musical for Team Goodspeed
By Lauren Yarger
Goodspeed Musicals kicks off its 50th Anniversary Season on the football field with an old-fashioned musical comedy, Good News, which premiered on Broadway back in 1927.

With music by Ray Henderson, B.G. DeSylva and Lew Brown, and book by Laurence Schwab, Frank Mandel and B.G. DeSylva, the story follows love on the Tait Unversity campus and angst about this weekend’s big football game told with songs like “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries” “Button Up Your Overcoat,” “Lucky in Love” and “The Best Things in Life Are Free.” Director and Choreographer adds his touch to the newly adapted story (Jeremy Desmond) by moving the large ensemble around the Opera House stage through tap dances and a fun game-day encounter between the two football teams.

When football star Tom Marlowe (Ross LeKites) might not be able to play in the big game because he is flunking an astronomy class, the campus is thrown into a tizzy. His girlfriend, Pat (Lindsay O’Neill) needs him to win so he can propose to her the at the post-game victory ball, just like her father had done with her mother. Third-string geeky player Bobby Randall (Barry Shafrin) might actually have to play!

Assistant Coach Pooch (Max Pearlman) wants Coach Bill Johnson (Mark Zimmerman) to appeal to the astronomy professor, Charlotte Kenyon (Beth Glover), but he is reluctant since their romantic relationship back when they were students at Tait didn’t end well. Sparks still fly between them, however, and Kenyon decides to allow Tom to take a make-up exam. Pat’s cousin, mousy astronomy student Connie Lane (Chelsea Morgan Stock) is recruited to tutor him. Something happens when they are star gazing, however, and Tom must decide whether the future Pat has planned for him is really what he wants. Meanwhile party girl Babe O’Day (Tessa Faye) has her eye set on reluctant Bobby, which isn’t setting well with her former conquest, Beef Saunders (Myles J. NcHale) who is large in physical size, if not in intelligence.

It’s a simple tale, mostly predictable, but somehow perfect for the Goodspeed stage. It’s light, fun and lends itself to big dance numbers and colorful costumes (Tracy Christensen, design), though nothing just smacks of the ‘20s, interestingly.

Lekites has a dreamy singing voice that sounds like it was made for an old-fashioned musical. It blends beautifully with Stock’s lovely soprano. Court Watson has fun with the sets, giving them an almost cartoon quality that doesn’t take things too seriously. Some other solos among the cast are much weaker, however, and Faye comes off looking way too old to be a college coed, perhaps because of makeup and hair selections. Some of the “funny” bits aren’t all that funny and there’s an attempt to try too hard.

Good News runs through June 22 at the Goodspeed Opera House, 6 Main St., East Haddam. Performances are Wednesday at 2 and 7:30 pm; Thursday at 7:30 pm and select matinees at 2 pm; Friday at 8 pm; Saturdays at 3 and 8 pm; Sunday at 2 pm with select performances at 6:30 pm. Tickets $27-$76.50 (860) 873-8668; www.goodspeed.org.

Music Rocks the Waterbury Palace for Next Broadway Series

Jersey Boys.Photo: Joan Marcus

The Palace Theater in Waterbury's 2013-2014 Broadway season features some of the most iconic songs and biggest names in Rock and Roll history.

The season kicks off Oct. 9-13 with eight performances of Jersey Boys, the Tony Award-winning blockbuster musical about the rise of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. 

Rock of Ages takes center stage March 21-22, featuring 28 classic '80s songs by artists like Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Journey and more. Then, May 2-4, Hair, the chart-topping journey through the tumultuous 1960s plays, followed by Million Dollar Quartet, the musical that features four of the world’s greatest rock and roll icons Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash which closes out the season June 6-8.

In addition, the season incudes a holiday treat, Elf the Musical, Nov. 19-21. More info: www.palacetheaterct.org..

HartBeat Ensemble Explores the Word of Sex Trafficking

Herbert Newsome and Cindy Martinez. Photo: Courtesy of HartBeat Ensemble 

HartBeat Ensemble continues the tradition of bringing original investigative theater works to the stage with the premiere of Riding the Turnpike. A visionary theater work, Riding the Turnpike
explores the variations and definitions of trafficked women, survival sex workers, and voluntary sex workers.

The play is HartBeat’s first at its new home theater, the Carriage House Theater at 360 Farmington Ave., Hartford. The production runs through May 18 with performances scheduled Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm. www.hartbeatensemble.orgrt;  860-548-9144.

Set in a strip club on the Connecticut Berlin Turnpike,  Riding the Turnpike introduces four women involved in prostitution in different ways and for different reasons. The lines between who is trafficked, who is there of their own free will and who is there for survival, are blurred as we watch the women navigate their own disparate situation, each more complex than the next. The play looks at what makes certain women and girls targets and examines all that one person can and will do to survive and secure their needs.

The work is inspired by the book, "The Berlin Turnpike: A True Story of Human Trafficking in America" by Raymond Bechard.

HartBeat ensemble members Cindy Martinez and Debra Walsh are lead playwrights, Co-Artistic Director Steven Raider-Ginsburg directs, and Co-Artistic Director Julia B. Rosenblatt is dramaturg. The cast is Herbert Newsome, Bryan Swormstedt, Michelle Mount, Caitlin McInerney, Cindy Martinez and Taneisha Duggan.

Founded in 2001 by Raider-Ginsburg, Rosenblatt and Gregory R. Tate (1952-2012), HartBeat Ensemble is a Hartford-based performance company that creates theater productions
based on stories drawn from contemporary life in Connecticut. Through Mainstage Plays and Education Programs.