The cast of Waiting for Lefty, and their right fists, from left: J. Kevin Smith, Jeremy Funke, Peter Chenot, Christian Shaboo, George Kulp, Erich Greene, Rick Bean, Brian Willetts, Hilary Brown.
New Haven Theater Company‘s spring season is upon us. It’s not the spring season that was prophesied just a few months ago. In fact, it’s a revolutionary shift.
Opening this Thursday is Clifford Odets’ up-the-workers classic Waiting for Lefty. It’s the best-known pro-union play ever, and it’s satirized at the start of the the Coen Brothers’ film Barton Fink.
The timing is just great for a grass-roots political piece in New Haven, since there are ward co-chair elections are happening around the city next Tuesday. Those co-chairs will in turn vote on a new Democratic Town Committee chairperson the following week. The play is similarly focused on normal folks jumping into the political process on the lower rungs and making a big difference.
Waiting for Lefty runs for just one weekend at 118 Court St., New Haven. The run’s short, but so is the show, which means they can squeeze two performances in on Saturday night. So you can see it at 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and either 8 or 10 p.m. on Saturday.
Waiting for Lefty’s directed by New Haven Theater Company member Steve Scarpa. You’ll recognize a lot of faces in the cast, and be amused that George Kulp—who just played corrupt senatorial royalty in Macbeth 1969 at Long Wharf, is playing another upper-class powermongering big-business type here.
George Kulp, seated, as Harry Fatt in Waiting for Lefty, with the upstanding Christian Shaboo as Phillips.
In May, NHTC will present another vaguely Brechtian political-power parable, Urinetown: The Musical. This clever modern musical, a fantasy urban nightmare where citizens have been taxed and politicked into total submission and ultimately revolt, rose up from the New York Fringe into Off Broadway and Broadway acclaim. It quickly became a college and community theater delight. It’s got a big cast, a perky score, and scads of sociopolitical skepticism—what’s not to like?
While waiting for Urinetown, there’s already:
