Fall Arts Preview: Emus, Foxes and Eric Clapton, Too
By Frank Rizzo
As summer winds down with the beach chairs stored away, the last of the ripe tomatoes devoured, and the tans finally faded, we now turn to the fall and those extra special shows to get us excited—and to divert us from work, school and troubling world events.
As always, Connecticut offers us a wealth of performing arts events, so get ready to mark these dates. Calendars ready?
Rob Ruggiero who’s staged some of Goodspeed’s best musicals, returns to direct a decidedly different kind of show for the jewel box of a theater on the river: A Chorus Line, which runs September 5 to October 26 at the Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam. goodspeed.org
This show’s got our favorite title of the fall: The Great Emu War, and the musical gets a run October 3 to 26 at Goodspeed Musicals’ Norma Terris Theatre in Chester. The plot? War is made against the large flightless birds which are feeding on the wheat of local Australian farmers. Enter the Army. Sounds like some feathers will be flying—and a lot of musical fun. goodspeed.org
Playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me A Tenor, Crazy for You) pays tribute to the great English farces of the 1930s and 1940s with the golf-themed country club romp titled The Fox On the Fairway. The comedy runs November 7 to 23 at the Music Theatre of Connecticut in Norwalk.musictheatreofct.com
It’s going to be quite the homecoming when Justin Silva, who was born and raised in New Haven, brings his comedy show to the Shubert Theatre on October 3. For more traditional Broadway fare, our favorite is the popular Neil Diamond Broadway bio-musical A Beautiful Noise December 2 to 7. And over at the theater’s new upstairs performing arts space, Elm City’s Cabaret, we’re intrigued by Deconstructing The Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’ with Scott Freiman who will walk Beatles fans through the creation the classic 1965 album. shubert.com
Who doesn’t like a thriller on stage? Hartford Stage has a crime tale that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film Rope starring Jimmy Stewart. This is a Jeffrey Hatcher’s fresh stage adaptation, based on the play Rope’s End by Patrick Hamilton. It’s not so much a whodunnit but will-the-killers-be-caught? My bet’s on the detective. The world premiere runs October 10 to November 2. hartfordstage.org
Meet Spunk Banks, a strong, confident and charismatic man known for his disregard for social norms, including seducing another man’s wife. For artistic director and dean James Bundy’s final season at New Haven’s Yale Repertory Theatre, there’s Zora Neale Hurston’s rediscovered play Spunk, which is based on her short story. It will run October 3 to 25. There will be new songs, arrangements, and music for this theatrical fable about the triumph of love set in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated all-Black town in America. yalerep.org
Talk about language barriers. Set in an English-learning classroom in Iran, Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play English has its Connecticut premiere at TheaterWorks Hartford October 2 to November 2.
The Tony Award-nominated play is in partnership with New Haven’s itinerant Long Wharf Theatre which will present the play January 16 to February 1 at SCSU’s Kendall Drama Lab. (For its fall show, Long Wharf Theatre will present in association with The Sol Project, Latinx Playwrights Circle and the WP Theater, Monet Hurst-Mendoza’s play Torera at the WP Theater in New York City. It’s about a Mexican woman who dreams of becoming a bullfighter. It will play September 20 to October 19 in New York City.) twhartford.org
With seven Tony Award nominations and two wins, Sutton Foster (last seen in the Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress) returns to the Ridgefield Playhouse for a concert on November 20.ridgefieldplayhouse.org
What’s love got to do with it? Apparently plenty if you’re talking about the Broadway tour of the musical Tina, which arrives at The Palace Theatre in Waterbury November 1 and 2. If one Tina Turner isn’t enough there’s a trio of Tinas in this bio-musical presenting the sizzling singer at three different stages of her career and tumultuous life. palacetheaterct.org
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Hamilton, the landmark musical (and still one of the top tickets on Broadway) makes a return run at The Bushnell in Hartford November 4 to 16. And, speaking of dynamic political leaders, Pete Buttigieg will speak on democracy and the future of politics as part of The Connecticut Forum at The Bushnell in Hartford on November. 20.
One more event you won’t want to miss at The Bushnell. On October 26, the Tony Award-nominated (twice) Jeremy Jordan will be in concert. (His vocals in Broadway’s Floyd Collins were thrilling. Hartford theater fans might remember him from an early career gig at TheaterWorks in And a Little Dog Laughed.) bushnell.org
“More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read,” says a character in Oscar Wilde’s epigram-packed comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, which will kick off Playhouse on Park in West Hartford’s MainStage season running October 28 to November 15. This sparkling satire gleefully skewers love, marriage, and high society. playhouseonpark.org
A Contemporary Theatre of Connecticut (A.C.T.) in Ridgefield presents the Broadway musical Almost Famous, based on the beloved Cameron Crowe film and with music and lyrics by Tom Kitt. Set in 1973, it follows a teenage journalist who lands the assignment of a lifetime: touring with an up-and-coming rock band for Rolling Stone magazine. The show runs October 18 to November 23. actofct.org
Acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke, now 80, plays The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Center (AKA “The Kate”) at Old Saybrook. Kottke, known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, made his major label in 1971 with “Mudlark,” and continued to demonstrate his instrumental skills with “Greenhouse,” “My Feet Are Smiling,” “Dreams and All That Stuff” and “Chewing Pine.” thekate.org
Two rock giants come to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville: Eric Clapton on September 20 and Sting on November 18. As member of the bands The Yardbirds, Blind Faith and Cream as well as a stunning solo career, Clapton is a guitar god. Sting is legendary, too, selling more than 100 million albums from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist.mohegansun.com
Over at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, the music legends continue to come to Connecticut with the still-fabulous Diana Ross on stage November 1, and John Legend on November 8 celebreates the 20th anniversary of his breakout album “Get Lifted.” For those with a swinging rockabilly bent, there are those cool cats, the Stray Cats with Brian Setzer on November 7.
foxwoods.com
Over at the Peoples Bank Arena in Hartford, there’s another rock-pop legend: Stevie Nicks performing in concert on October 25, one of only eight dates she’ll be playing in the U.S. I’m feeling twirly already.peoplebankarena.com
Fans of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and the film A Fish Called Wanda (and many other comic gems), rejoice! Brit wit John Cleese will present Not Dead Yet: John Cleese and The Holy Grail at 50 at Stamford’s Center for the Arts at The Palace Theatre on October 16. It will include a screening of the original film, a conversation with Cleese “where he’ll share behind-the-scenes stories, wit, and wisdom—assuming he remembers any of it.” And keeping with our theme of touring rock and pop legends, Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply (“Lost in Love,” “All Out of Love,” “Every Woman in the World,” “The One That You Love,” “Here I Am”) perform its 50th anniversary celebration at the theater, too. palacestamford.org
Dubbed “the colorful Mozart of Gen Z” by The New York Times, Jacob Collier’s radically joyous and genre-bridging music earned him seven Grammy wins (and 15 nominations). He plays UConn’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in Storrs on October 18. Then for something equally cool, there’s Compagnie Herve Koubi performing in Sol Invictus. The movement collective of 17 male and female dancers combines contemporary and urban dance movements, capoeira, ballet and martial arts with powerful imagery and inspired choreography. jorgensen.uconn.edu
Just when you think there’s not any more variations you can do with that holiday perennial A Christmas Carol, along comes A Sherlock Carol. No mystery why Westport Country Playhouse turned to this doubling of literary icons in a playful retelling by Mark Shanahan,based on characters created by Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It runs December 13 to 21.
There is yet one more variation of the Dickens classic at the Legacy Theater in Branford December 3 to 14. Scrooge and Marley is musical prequel, following how young Marley and Scrooge crossed paths, became business partners and “how one man’s ultimate sacrifice is another man’s redemption”. It’s based on the award-winning book Jacob T. Marley by R. William Bennett.
Legacy Theater also winds up its popular Sunday Broadway Concert Series, a great chance to see terrific Broadway performers in an intimate setting, with stage, concert and cabaret star Karen Mason (pictured right) (Mamma Mia!, Hairspray, Wonderland) on October 26. westportplayhouse.org
This is offbeat and intriguing—and I’m there at the College Street Music Hall in New Haven: Accomplished woodworkers Nick Offerman (from Parks and Recreation—he’s known as an actor, too) and Lee Buchanan present “an evening of conversation and tomfoolery” with Little Woodchucks, their illustrated woodworking guide, “chock-full of projects to engage the whole family and teach young craftsmen the satisfaction of a job well done.” The book tour event on October 17 has a mixture of conversation, hands-on woodworking demonstrations, singing, laughs, and, hopefully, no slivers. On October 25 there’s another blast from the past with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, famous for the hits “Let it Ride,” “Roll on Down the Highway,” “Takin’ Care of Business,”“Looking Out for #1,” and “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.” collegestreetmusichall.com
There’s always something entertaining from a global perspective at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts in Middletown. The menu is international this fall but a standout is Ukraine Lives! by the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America in its first Connecticut concert since 2007. Formed in Kyiv in 1918, the show will celebrate Ukraine’s cultural heritage through music—and its survival against waves of tyranny—and will feature the traditional 60-stringed instrument, the bandura. wesleyan.edu
Remember the great 1999 documentary Buena Vista Social Club? How about the terrific Broadway musical from last season of the same name? Did you miss it? Well, on September 28 at the Garde Arts Center in New London there’s The Buena Vista Orchestra, under the direction of Jesus “Aguaje” Ramos, the original orchestra leader, composer and trombonist of The Buena Vista Social Club—and featuring key players from throughout the legendary Cuban group’s history. gardearts.org
Speaking of dance, there’s Iluminate on September 27 at the Warner Theater in Torrington. Named “Best New Act in America” by TV show America’s Got Talent in 2011, the multi-sensory show is a fantastic fusion of cutting edge technology and dance with performers outfitted with customized LED suits synced to the choreography. warnertheatre.org
On September 27, the Yale Schwarzman Center in New Haven will present playwright and solo performer Priyanka Shetty with her one-woman show The Elephant in the Room. The play is described as “a witty, dark comedy about an Indian metalhead and software-engineer-turned-actor who must navigate life as an immigrant arriving in Trump’s America.”
For dance fans on October 25, there’s Visionary Steps: Balanchine & Beyond with dancers from the New York City Ballet in a special event created by principal dancer Adrian Danchig-Waring.
As a huge fan of MacArthur genius grant recipient Taylor Mac, I look most forward to his annual holiday extravaganza, Holiday Sauce on December 13, which blends music, burlesque, “and random acts of fabulousness in the most subversive and cathartic event of the season.” schwarzman.yale.edu
We all know that King Lear is losing his mind. Dan Colley and Company take it a step further—make that two steps—in the stage production of Lost Lear on October 21 at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University. This moving and darkly comic interpretation of Shakespeare’s play is told from the point of view of Joy, an elderly person with dementia, recalling when she was in her 30s when she played the title role in an avant garde production. On a lighter note, be sure to catch one of my favorite musicians at the center, the sublime John Pizzarelli and The Swing 7 on October 3. quickcenter.fairfield.edu
Catholic guilt, neighborhood gossip, and family secrets: What’s not to like? And you can find them all in the ‘70s-set comedy Incident of Our Lady of Perpetual Help plays October 2 to 28 at Ivoryton Playhouse in Essex. ivorytonplayhouse.org
If only walls could talk. But for the Madison Lyric Stage they sing. The company presents Four Murders in Forty Years, an evening featuring operatic excerpts and one-act operas arranged to follow a central concept: People in a tenement apartment over four decades and the events within those walls. The production features La Voix Humaine (“The Human Voice”) by Francis Poulenc and Jean Cocteau, presented in English, followed by The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti. The show runs September 19 to 21. madisonlyricstage.org
Boo! Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Pop Series will feature Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, a fabulously wild PG film accompanied by the full lush sound of a symphony Orchestra. The music/film event will play October 25 at The Bushnell’s Mortensen Hall. For more traditional classical music, there’s Beethoven and Sibelius at the Bushnell’s Belding Theater, on October 17 to 19. Under the direction of Viswa Subbaraman, the orchestra performs a program highlighted by Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a masterful balance of stormy intensity and lyrical beauty performed by guest artist pianist Drew Petersen. hartfordsymphony.org
Something stirring will emerge no doubt from Montgomery Variations, a November 2 concert by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra at Woolsey Hall under the baton of conductor and music director Perry So. It promises to be a powerful program with themes of resilience and remembrance through Margaret Bonds’ “Montgomery Variations,” community singing, and “Sanctum” by NHSO Composer-in-Residence Courtney Bryan. Also featured will be pianist Courtney Bryan. newhavensymphony.org
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