Theater Review: The Realistic Joneses -- Yale Rep

Tracy Letts and Parker Posey. Photo: © Joan Marcus, 2012

Keeping Up with These Joneses Isn’t Always Easy

By Lauren Yarger

Knowing chuckles sputter throughout the audience during the world premiere of Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses at Yale Rep. The story is about everything – and nothing – just like the dialogue, but sooner or later you recognize a character you know, or perhaps yourself, and suddenly the seemingly pointless conversation hits home like it was fired at a bullseye. 

There are the older Joneses, Bob and Jennifer (August: Osage County Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright back on the stage and Johanna Day) and the younger couple with the same surname, John and Pony (Glenn Fitzgerald and Parker Posey) who have just moved in next door in the suburban neighborhood somewhere in the USA. Jennifer struggles to care for Bob as a rare degenerative disease attacks the areas of his brain that control language. It’s a good thing this long-married couple can complete each other’s thoughts and sentences. Or can they? 

Jennifer apologizes for blurting out her concerns about Bob’s declining health to her new acquaintances.

“That’s what separates us from the animal,” John consoles her. “You never hear animals blurting things out. Unless they’re being run over by a car or something.” 

So at first it doesn’t seem like the older couple has much in common with their apparently less intelligent neighbors except a moniker, but after a few chance encounters, it becomes clear that they do – practically as John may have the same illness, but particularly on an emotional level, where the slightest touch can bring comfort and hope. The scenes (designed by David Zinn, who also does the costumes) play out in a backyard setting that doubles for other locations. The fog that hangs heavily over the set is a harbinger of the doubt brought on by the uncertainty of life when one’s thoughts can’t be trusted. 

Eno’s script is mind-muscle-tightening word workout that is funny and thought-provoking. Sam Gold tightly directs strong, layered performances (all of them). Posey, however, stands out in bringing even deeper humor with her intonation and impeccable timing.  She makes Pony’s “prayer” for help, in part here, funny and moving on so many different levels: 

“This feels weird. No offense. You probably just think I’m one of so many people. You’re probably, like, my God, what is this even about? Maybe you’re going to burn everything down, anyway. I don’t know your crazy mind . . . I just thought I should try. Maybe this was stupid, Lord, but thank you. I hope there’s an actual heaven.” 

One line, delivered by Fitzgerald, for example, gets a laugh, but has deeper meaning which causes the audience, after they reflect on it, to offer a second, more extended chuckle. Posey didn’t miss a beat delivering her lines around the reaction to allow for the maximum amount of savor. 

The house feels appropriately more intimate for this one, with Yale moving in the back wall of the house in several rows with a temporary barrier. It helps the effect when the lights go out – literally (design by Mark Barton) – symbolic of misfiring synapses. 

The Realistic Joneses runs through May 12 at Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel St. (at York Street), New Haven. Tickets range from $20 to $80 and are available at the box office, 203-432-1234 and at www.yalerep.org.

For production footage, visit

Company interviews about the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHGrEYCIaWY&list=UUP4PNtd5I2JIMiOQTEVjBBw&index=1&feature=plcp
Production footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRYoWXjufks&list=UUP4PNtd5I2JIMiOQTEVjBBw&index=1&feature=plcp

Coming Up at the Mark Twain House

Napua Davoy at Jazz Brunch, May 13.

BRAZILIAN MUSIC
In a free event in conjunction with Trinity College's Samba Fest & The Mark Twain House & Museum's "Race, Rage & Redemption" exhibition, Trinity College Professor Eric Galm, musician Dinho Nascimento and the group Berimbrown will provide a lecture and demonstration of Brazilian music -- specifically the music of the single-stringed berimbau -- at The Mark Twain House & Museum on Thursday, May 3, at 7:00 p.m. 
The berimbau is most commonly associated with a combination martial art, dance and game called capoeira. Both the instrument and the game have descended from African cultures and provide strong icons of Afrocentric identity in Brazil, the berimbau serves as a focal point of Nascimento's and Berimbrown's musical identities.

MOTHER'S DAY JAZZ BRUNCH
Fresh, strong, sensual, exquisite, the voice of Napua Davoy has been heard on concert stages and major jazz venues in New York City and around the world, where she has toured extensively throughout Russia with her longtime collaborator, Russia's famed pianist/composer Andrei Kondakov.
And on Sunday, May 13, at 11:30am and 1:15 pm Davoy brings her smoky tones to the Murasaki Cafe at The Mark Twain House & Museum. It's a Mother's Day Jazz Brunch curated by the famed Dan Blow of Japanalia Music.
The $35 admission includes the performance, full brunch, soft drinks and hot beverages. Alcoholic beverages are available at an additional charge. Call 860-280-3130 for reservations.
THE TROUBLE BEGINS AT 5:30
"The Trouble  Begins at 5:30," The Mark Twain House & Museum's popular series of free, after-work lectures on Twainian subjects, continues on Wednesday, May 16, with a talk by Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar, Associate Dean for the Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Connecticut, on "Beyond Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben: American National Identity and Race."

This spring's series of "Troubles" explores themes of our provocative exhibition, "Race, Rage and Redemption," which includes a tough and disturbing display of racist artifacts and imagery called "Hateful Things." These artifacts provide a stepping-off point for Ogbar's lecture.
"The Trouble Begins at 5:30" is free, with no reservations necessary. It begins with hot hors d'oeuvres and wine and coffee at 5:00 p.m., with the Trouble -- the lecture, that is -- beginning at 5:30.

DJSPOOKY
This is not your great-grandfather's Birth of a Nation, but Rebirth of a Nation, a 2004 work riff on the original by internationally acclaimed director/performer Paul D. Miller, who calls himself DJ SPOOKY That Subliminal Kid.

DJSPOOKY will be speaking and screening the 100-minute riff on Griffith, reduced from the three-hour original and adding a new moody, electronica/hip-hop score and visual effects, at The Mark Twain House & Museum on Thursday, May 17 at 7 pm.

Tickets are $20, $15 for Mark Twain House & Museum and Stowe Center members. Reservations are strongly recommended: Call 860-280-3130.

Madhatters Present Aristocats at Ivoryton

The Madhatters Theatre Company is back at the Ivoryton Playhouse with the Disney favorite, The Aristocats. 

This year, proceeds from the concession stand will support Team Avery.

Four year old Old Saybrook resident Avery Rose Leopoldino suffers from CDKL5, a rare genetic mutation that mostly affects girls because it is located on the X chromosome. About 400 people around the world are diagnosed with this disease and Avery is the only one in Connecticut to have it. Because of these miniscule numbers, little is known in the medical community about CDKL5.

Avery attends Goodwin School but currently suffers with up to six seizures a day and cannot walk, talk or hold her head up. She is also visually impaired, cannot use her hands and suffers from gastrointestinal issues. 

Avery’s parents Mark and Kristen donate all funds raised to CDKL5 organizations and want to raise public awareness of this rare disorder. Avery’s father Mark is the manager of Bill’s Seafood Restaurant in Westbrook.

Performances are Friday, May 18 at 7p m, Saturday, May 19 at 2 and 7 pm and Sunday, May 20 at 2 pm. Tickets: $15 adults and $8 children 12 and under. The Playhouse also will also donate $1 for each admission if you let them know at time of purchase. For tickets call 860-395-1861.

Friday Nights at the Theater Made Easy in Westport

Friday evenings at Westport Country Playhouse will offer two special programs this season: $25 tickets to make theater more accessible for early-career and younger patrons; and childcare to enable parents to enjoy a night out.

“$25 for 35 and Under” will offer a $25 ticket price for patrons aged 35 and under for every Friday night performance during the season, beginning May 4. The specially priced tickets may be purchased online or by phone. Proof of age must be presented at the box office when picking up tickets. In addition, students and educators are eligible for 50% discounts on Playhouse tickets for all performances, Tuesdays through Sundays.
In cooperation with the Westport Weston Family Y, the Playhouse will launch a new program, “Parents’ Night Out,” on Friday, May 11. Parents may drop off their children, age five and up, at the Y, 59 Post Road East, Westport, beginning at 7:15 p.m., prior to the 8 p.m. Playhouse performance of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical, “Into the Woods.” The multiple Tony Award-winning musical takes the audience to a beguiling place inspired by the Grimm fairy tales. The production is directed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, and co-produced with Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE.

Children’s activities at the Y will include gym time, swimming and crafts. At the end of the evening, there will be a movie or video game. A light snack will be provided. Parents will pick up their children at the Y beginning at 10:45 p.m.

Price for “Parents” Night Out” is $45 per person for the theater ticket, plus $22 per child for childcare. To purchase theater tickets and childcare, call the Playhouse box office at 203-227-4177. Future “Parents’ Night Out” dates will be announced

For more information or tickets,: 203-227-4177, 1-888-927-7529, visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport; www.westportplayhouse.org.

Special Mother's Day Treat at the Bijou

Moms Let Loose

Saturday, May 12 at 8 pm
Bijou Theatre

275 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport

Just in time for Mother's Day: "Moms Let Loose," starring Sherry Davey, the uproarious British comedian. America’s funniest moms unite onstage together in this clean, family oriented comedy that blends stand-up and audience participation, culminating in a rollicking Q&A finale and Moms “Confessional.”

The show also includes a rotating cast of her friends, fellow comedian moms, that you’ll recognize from The Late Show With David Letterman, Comedy Central, and others. For tickets, click here.

Improv Teams Battle it Out at Playhouse on Park

The 2011-2012 CT Improv Cage Match Series concludes at West Hartford's Playhouse on Park May 4 at 8 pm.

In this outrageous competition, the final two remaining improv teams will battle head-to-head and the audience will decide who takes the 2011-2012 season title.

Taking the stage are the reigning champs, Sea Tea Improv, defending its title against Horse Lincoln. While Sea Tea Improv is a seasoned team of 10 professionally trained actors who have performed throughout the northeast and regularly at Hartford's City Steam's Brew Ha-Ha Comedy Club, Horse Lincoln is a long form improv group formed at the University of Connecticut to that has won several honors including the 2009 Hole in the Wall Theater Cage Match Tournament.

Only one team can come out on top and your vote will choose!

This is the final in the six night collaboration series between Playhouse on Park, Hole in the Wall Theater, and Hot Cocco Productions.

The battle winds up at Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road. All tickets are $10 (general admission) and can be purchased in person or over the phone at the box office 860-523-5900 ext. 10, Tuesday to Friday (10 am to 6 pm); Saturday (10 am to 2 pm) and two hours before curtain; or online at www.PlayhouseOnPark.org.

High School Seniors Can Apply for Performing Arts Scholarship

Connecticut high school seniors still can apply to audition for a scholarship through the Elizabeth Anne Carlson Performing Arts Foundation.

Deadline is May. 1. The auditions will be held May 19. For more information, visit http://www.elizabethannecarlsonscholarship.com/ or contact audreybcarlson@cox.net or 860-841-5894.

$18 Million Endowment Will Make Yale Home for New Plays

Marc Damon Johnson and de'Adre Aziza in a scene from Good Goods, one of the new plays developed this season at Yale.
© Joan Marcus, 2012

Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre have received a transformational $18 million gift from the Robina Foundation that will permanently endow the creation of new plays and musicals for the American stage through the Binger Center for New Theatre.

“Since their founding, Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre have championed the development of playwrights and the production of new plays,” saidYale University President Richard C. Levin. “Yale serves as both classroom and laboratory for the theatre arts, launching new contributions from the University to the wider world. This extraordinarily generous gift from the Robina Foundation ensures that the School of Drama and Yale Rep will bring exciting innovation to the production of new theatre for generations to come.”

Established with a grant from the Robina Foundation in 2008, and supported by additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and individual donors, the Yale Center for New Theatre is an artist-driven initiative that devotes major resources to the commissioning, development, and production of new plays and musicals at Yale Rep and across the country. Among the Center’s programs, a key component is its Production Enhancement Fund, which provides financial support for productions at other theatres of works commissioned by and/or first produced at Yale Rep. The Center also facilitates residencies of playwrights and composers at Yale School of Drama.

“Over the past four years, under the inspired leadership of James Bundy, Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre have demonstrated tremendous thoughtfulness, innovation, and passion in developing a successful and viable model for the creation of new works for the American stage,” said Peter Karoff on behalf of the Robina Foundation. “The Robina Foundation gift to endow the Binger Center for New Theatre honors our donor’s great love of theatre. This gift is fundamentally an investment in creativity, and in the exciting and important role that theatre plays in the human experience. We hope our gift will inspire other donors to be bold, to be transformative, and to invest deeply in all of the arts at organizations and institutions across the country.”

This $18 million gift combines $3 million in operating funds with a $15 million gift for endowment. It follows a grant of $2.85 million from the Robina Foundation, which established the Yale Center for New Theatre in 2008, and an additional $950,000 gift made in 2010 to support the Center’s activities through June 30, 2012—bringing the Robina Foundation’s total giving to the Center to $21,800,000.

Effective today, the Yale Center for New Theatre has been renamed the Binger Center for New Theatre in honor of James H. Binger (1916-2004), the noted businessman, theatre impresario, and  philanthropist who created the Robina Foundation.

 “We are profoundly grateful to the Robina Foundation," Bundy said. "They have helped us to establish this program, assess its intrinsic ongoing value, envision its long-term impact on the American theatre, and now, to support the Center’s aims in perpetuity. We believe that these significant investments in artists themselves, in combination with robust production opportunities and the fostering of an artistic community, can and will promote vibrant new American plays and musicals for generations to come. It is an honor, in this effort, to commemorate the joyful generosity of James Binger—a great man of the theatre.”

“The early success of the center stems from our flexible capacity to tailor each process to meet the needs of our commissioned artists, putting resources directly in their hands," added Jennifer Kiger, associate artistic director of Yale Rep and director of New Play Programs. “The denter responds to the critical challenges of the field, providing meaningful compensation for writers—including both time to work and reasonable financial incentive to make live theatre—and significant production opportunities for ambitious new work that takes risks, including musicals and plays with larger casts.”

ABOUT JAMES H. BINGER

After graduating from Yale College, James Binger, Class of 1938, attended the University of Minnesota Law School, and joined Minneapolis’s Honeywell, Inc., in 1943, where he led the company through its remarkable expansion into the defense, aerospace, and computer industries in the various executive leadership roles he held from 1961 through 1978. Mr. Binger joined the board of directors of The McKnight Foundation, founded by his father-in-law William L. McKnight and run by his wife Virginia, in 1974. There, he was instrumental in extending the Foundation’s grantmaking into brain research, the arts, and international initiatives.

In 1976, James and Virginia Binger took over William L. McKnight’s struggling theatre enterprise, which they named Jujamcyn Theatres, after their three children: Judy, James, and Cynthia. The company grew to include five Broadway houses, presenting hits such as Angels in America and The Producers.  Mr. Binger also served as a director of the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, a member of the executive committee of the League of American Theatres, and as a board member of the Guthrie Theater.

Mr. Binger established the Robina Foundation shortly before his death in 2004. The Foundation, based in Minnesota, seeks to positively impact critical social issues by encouraging innovation and financially supporting transformative projects of its four institutional partners chosen by the founder. The partners are Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, MN; The Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY; University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN; and Yale University, New Haven, CT.

ABOUT THE BINGER CENTER FOR NEW THEATRE

To date, the Binger Center for New Theatre has supported the work of more than thirty Yale Rep commissioned artists as well as the world premieres and subsequent productions of twelve new American plays and musicals—including this season’sBelleville by Amy Herzog, Good Goods by Christina Anderson, and The Realistic Joneses by Will Eno, and next season’s Marie Antoinette by David Adjmi, Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl, and Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff’s new adaptation ofIn a Year with 13 Moons by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff, was the first commissioned play supported by the Center to receive its world premiere at Yale Rep. In 2010,Notes had its West Coast premiere at La Jolla Playhouse and its New York premiere at Theatre for a New Audience, in association with the Baryshnikov Arts Center. The Center has also supported the world premiere co-production of Rinne Groff’sCompulsion at Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, and The Public Theater; the world premiere of the Yale-commissionedOn the Levee by Marcus Gardley, Todd Almond, and Lear deBessonet at Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3; and the 2009 world premiere of Maggie-Kate Coleman and Anna K. Jacobs’s musicalPOP! at Yale Rep and its City Theatre production this spring in Pittsburgh.
 
The complete list of Yale Rep commissioned artists includes David Adjmi, Todd Almond, Christina Anderson, Hilary Bell, Adam Bock, Bill Camp, Lear deBessonet, Will Eno, Marcus Gardley, Matt Gould, Kirsten Greenidge, Danai Gurira, Ann Marie Healy, Amy Herzog, Naomi Iizuka, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Aditi Brennan Kapil, Carson Kreitzer, Dan LeFranc, Elizabeth Meriwether, Scott Murphy, Julie Marie Myatt, David LeFort Nugent, Lina Patel, Jay Reiss, Sarah Ruhl, Octavio Solis, Rebecca Taichman, Lucy Thurber, Alice Tuan, Paula Vogel, Kathryn Walat, Anne Washburn, Marisa Wegrzyn, and Robert Woodruff.

Beginning in the 2012-13 season, the programs of the Binger Center for New Theatre will include the Yale Institute for Music Theatre (Mark Brokaw, Artistic Director). Originally established in 2009 by Yale School of Drama and Yale School of Music, the Institute bridges the gap between training and the professional world for emerging composers, playwrights, lyricists, and librettists by providing them with an annual, intensive two-week lab at Yale to develop their original music theatre works.

The selections for the inaugural Yale Institute for Music Theatre were the book musicalssam i was with book, music, and lyrics by Sam Wessels and POP! with book and lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman and music by Anna K. Jacobs and the operaInvisible Cities with score and libretto by Christopher Cerrone. The Institute’s other projects have includedThe Daughters with music and libretto by Shaina Taub, and Stuck Elevator with music by Byron Au Yong and libretto by Aaron Jafferis, in 2010, andMaren of Vardø with music by Jeff Myers and libretto by Royce Vavrek, Pregnancy Pactwith music by Julia Meinwald and book and lyrics by Gordon Leary, and The Profit of Creation with music by Tim Rosser and book and lyrics by Charlie Sohne, in 2011. The 2012 selections areMighty Five’s Infinite Funk Odyssey with music and lyrics by Zach Abramson and Derek Muro and book by Phil Aulie and Xaq Webb andMortality Play with music by Scotty Arnold and book and lyrics by Alana Jacoby.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

In a Year with 13 Moons
By Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff
Directed by Robert Woodruff
Featuring Bill Camp
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, April 26-May 18, 2013

Dear Elizabeth
By Sarah Ruhl
A play in letters
from Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell
and back again
Directed by Les Waters
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, November 30-December 22, 2012

Marie Antoinette
By David Adjmi
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
World Premiere Co-Production: American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, MA), September 2012; Yale Repertory Theatre, October 26-November 17, 2012

Creation
By Kathryn Walat
Directed by Michael Michetti
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
World Premiere: The Theatre @ Boston Court (Pasadena, CA), October 13-November 11, 2012

The Realistic Joneses
By Will Eno
Directed by Sam Gold
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, April 20-May 12, 2012

Good Goods
By Christina Anderson
Directed by Tina Landau
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, February 3-25, 2012

Crowded Fire Theater (San Francisco, CA), May 31-June 23, 2012

Belleville
By Amy Herzog
Directed by Anne Kauffman
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, October 21-November 12, 2011

New York Theatre Workshop (New York, NY), February-March 2013
Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Chicago, IL), June 27-August 25, 2013

Bossa Nova
By Kirsten Greenidge
Directed by Evan Yionoulis
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, November 26-December 18, 2010

We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Book and Lyrics by Adam Bock & Music and Lyrics by Todd Almond
Based on the novel by Shirley Jackson
Directed by Anne Kauffman
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, September 17-October 9, 2010

On the Levee
A Play with Music
Conceived and Directed by Lear deBessonet
Play by Marcus Gardley
Music and Lyrics by Todd Almond
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre

World Premiere: LCT3 (Lincoln Center Theater, New York, NY), June 14-July 10, 2010

Compulsion
By Rinne Groff
Directed by Oskar Eustis
World Premiere Co-Production: Yale Repertory Theatre, January 29-February 28, 2010; Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Berkeley, CA), September 13-October 31, 2010; The Public Theater (New York, NY), February 1-March 13, 2011

POP!
Book and Lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman
Music by Anna K. Jacobs
Directed by Mark Brokaw
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, November 27-December 19, 2009

Studio Theatre (Washington, DC), July 13-August 7, 2011
City Theatre (Pittsburgh, PA), May 5-27, 2012

Notes from Underground
By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Adapted by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff
Based on a translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
Directed by Robert Woodruff
Featuring Bill Camp
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
World Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, March 20-April 11, 2009

La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, CA), September 17-October 17, 2010
Theatre for a New Audience, in association with Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York, NY), November 7-28, 2010

CT Arts Connection Wins First Place Award

Lauren Yarger with Alfred Uhry at last week's
Writers' Weekend at the Mark Twain
House in Hartford.

Enter to Win Peter & the Starcatcher Tickets!

Lauren Yarger has received a first-place award for editing for the web from the CT Press Club for The Connecticut Arts Connecetion.

She also won second place award for her feature of Connecticut playwright Matthew Lombardo (High, Looped, Tea at Five) and another first-place award for her web theater reviews of Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark and A Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo for her new York Theater site Reflections in the Light.
The awards will be presented at a dinner honoring Charley Monagan, author and Editor-in-Chief of Connecticut Magazine with the 11th Mark Twain Award on May 8 in Norwalk.
Reflections in the Light is celebrating with a ticket give-away to Broadway's Peter and the Starcatcher. To enter for a chance to win a voucher for two seats to the hit play about how Peter Pan came to be the boy who wouldn't grow up, send an email with your name and address and FAX number to reviews@masterworkproductions.org  with the word STARCATCHER in the subject line by midnight April 30, 2012.  Tells us which reviews you have enjoyed this season. All entries will be placed in a drawing (one entree per email address, please).
Winners will be announced on May 1. A voucher for two tickets to a performance of Peter and the Starcatcher (starring "Smash's" Christian Borle, pictured below) at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York City will be sent to the winner (two date selections can be requested and one will be confirmed by the theater. Tickets will be available for performances through June 1).

Kevin Del Aguila and Christian Borle (c)O&M Co

.

Westport Partners with Triangle Community Center for LGBT Night Out Series

Westport Country Playhouse will present “LGBT Night OUT,” for members of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender communities and allies, beginning on Thursday, May 3, and continuing on selected Thursdays throughout the 2012 season.

The evening will feature a pre-show cocktail party at 6:30 p.m., complete with appetizers, festive drinks, music and door prizes, followed by a performance at 8 p.m. of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical, “Into the Woods,” the multiple Tony Award-winning musical that takes the audience to a beguiling place inspired by the Grimm fairy tales. The production is directed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, and co-produced with Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE.

“We’re thrilled to again be partnering with Triangle Community Center of Norwalk on the ‘LGBT Night OUT’ series after our inaugural series in 2011,” said David B. Byrd, Playhouse director of marketing. “We enjoy seeing both familiar faces and those new to the Playhouse in a welcoming environment for one and all.”

Appetizers for “LGBT Night OUT” will be provided by David’s Soundview Catering of Stamford, a premiere gourmet catering company serving Connecticut and New York since 1988. A selection of complimentary adult beverages will be available in addition to other offerings. Jay Stollman Entertainment will offer music during the cocktail party. Door prizes will be given away, including an “LGBT Night OUT” series subscription to Westport Country Playhouse.

Triangle Community Center, series partner, has been providing services for over 20 years that help strengthen the LGBT community’s sense of identity, pride and visibility. In addition, TCC works with the greater Fairfield County community to foster understanding and awareness of LGBT issues. www.ctgay.org

The Playhouse is joining with various community partners for each “LGBT Night OUT” this season. The May 3 event will feature community centers, including New Haven Pride Center, in addition to TCC. Each community partner will host an information table.

Upcoming LGBT Nights OUT are scheduled for June 14, in conjunction with a performance of “The Year of Magical Thinking,” based on the National Book Award Winner by Joan Didion, directed by Nicholas Martin and featuring Maureen Anderman; July 19 for Molière’s “Tartuffe,” a funny and wise farce, translated by Richard Wilbur, directed by David Kennedy; August 30 for the world premiere of “Harbor,” a comedy about a dysfunctional, loving family, by Chad Beguelin, directed by Mark Lamos; and October 11 for “A Raisin in the Sun,” the timeless classic about a black family in 1950s Southside Chicago and their quest for a piece of the American Dream, by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Phylicia Rashad.

A preview video of Westport Country Playhouse’s “Into the Woods” is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UvMCKkmNI8&list=UUwrrcETvzek2qPjQuoV59Xg&index=1&feature=plcp. Twitter followers can join the conversation about “Into the Woods” by using hashtag #CSWCPWOODS. The production runs May 1 – 26.

Subscriptions are available for the 5-play LGBT Night OUT series at $150 each. Single tickets for LGBT Nights OUT are $35 each.

“Into the Woods” Corporate Partners are BNY Mellon and Northwest Mutual-Bender Financial Group; Production Sponsors are Barbara and John Samuelson and Helen Lee Henderson; Production Partners are Sandra and Neil DeFeo.

For more information or tickets, 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 online 24/7 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).