Tours
Meet Palestine’s Freedom Theatre, for free, 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Yale
Always worthwhile when a scrappy political theater visits the Yale campus. On Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 5, the Yale School of Drama welcomes The Freedom Theatre from Palestine. The five-year-old company runs a youth theater and cultural center at the Jenin Refugee Camp in the north part of the West Bank, grew out of a project, … Continue reading
Another Season, another reason…
Who’s gonna be in Jersey Boys when it trucks to Hartford for a return engagement Oct. 19-Nov. 6? The same Frankie Valli who’s been with the touring company since it first hit the road four years ago, Joseph Leo Bwarie. John Gardiner, who was in the ensemble when Jersey Boys last visited Hartford in 2009, … Continue reading
Mark Jacoby’s Wicked Wizard Hits Hartford
Mark Jacoby had never seen Wicked until he learned that he’d be auditioning for the role of The Wizard in the musical’s first national tour. “The Wizard is not a big part, but it’s an interesting part. It’s more sinister than the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz. It’s political. Part of the success of … Continue reading
Colin Quintessence
Colin Quinn ends his two-week stand of his one-man show Long Story Short at Long Wharf with two performances today (Sunday the 21st, 3 & 7 p.m.), than heads to Chicago’ Broadway Playhouse Aug. 24-Sept. 10, where I imagine his fiercely friendly discourse on a slew of failed (or just plain funny) social systems will … Continue reading
And a Nun, and a Two…
A RARE PHOTO OF NONIE NEWTON BREEN NOT BEING A NUN. LATE NITE CATECHISM 2 PLAYS AT WHARF STAGE II JULY 13-AUGUST 21. Nonie Newton Breen has carved out a sweet little career dolling up in a habit and berating theatergoers as the nameless “Sister,” the indomitable conductor of Late Nite Catechism classes. She’s Sistered … Continue reading
The Soldier Songs Review
PROMO VIDEO FOR DAVID T. LITTLE’S SOLDIER SONGS The songs, I like. The soldier part I’m still wrestling with. Since both shows have classical elements and war themes, it’s hard not to compare David T. Little’s Soldier Songs (which I saw in its final Arts & Ideas performance, 5 p.m. June 25) with Bill T. … Continue reading
West Side DeRosa: Glad Handing the National Tour of Arthur Laurents’ West Side Story Revival
STEVEN DEROSA CENTER STAGE IN THE NATIONAL TOUR OF WEST SIDE STORY—FOR ABOUT ONE MINUTE, UNTIL ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. THE NATIONAL TOUR OF THE ARTHUR LAURENTS-DIRECTED REVIVAL IS AT THE BUSHNELL IN HARTFORD THROUGH SUNDAY MAY 29. I’ve been a Stephen DeRosa fan for over 15 years, and rejoice whenever I see his name … Continue reading
Fela! Follow-up
For Fela! fans who want to read beyond the Playbill notes yet aren’t up to the harrowing biography Fela: This Bitch of a Life by Carlos Moore can avail themselves of a no-nonsense six-page (with big photos) feature on the Afrobeat icon. There’s even an accompanying piece of Fela’s sons Femi and Seun and how … Continue reading
Memphis in print
The musical Memphis teems with Connecticut regional theater connections. While it did NOT have an out-of-town try-out or workshop at Goodspeed Musicals (main developer of Broadway-friendly song-and-dance shows in the state, from Man of La Mancha to Annie to All Shook Up), Memphis availed itself of the expertise of producer Sue Frost (who left her … Continue reading
Chautauqua! soldiers on
Chautauqua!, the National Theater of the United States of America’s postmodern recreation of oratory spectators of the late 1800s and early 1900s, continues to tear up the provinces after premiering in New York over a year ago. Touring the show would seem tricky, since entire tracts of it need to be rewritten in order to … Continue reading