Happy Holidays! This week’s column will highlight the most important Connecticut theater news AND the most memorable shows I saw in Connecticut and NYC. (My NYC theatergoing was very limited in the first five months of the year.)
Two Up-Coming Departures: New Haven theater will have two new leaders by this time next year. James Bundy, longtime artistic director of Yale Rep and Dean of the Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, will retire in June. Long Wharf’s artistic director, Jacob Padrún, also announced his departure.
Rebounding: One artistic director told me during Covid that it would take five years for theater to come back. It may not have made it totally, but Connecticut theaters have reported their best attendance since the pandemic. Goodspeed, in particular, had high attendance for its shows.
Money Issues: The sudden loss of Federal funding caused sleepless nights for most theaters, as already awarded grants were rescinded. The funding uncertainty offset the good news of attendance rises.
My Best of 2025 – The Musicals
Ragtime: Two productions of this musical, one of my favorites, made the list. Goodspeed opened its season with a terrific production; this fall, Lincoln Center offered an even better production, which did not seem possible.
Small Musicals: When people ask me for shows to see on Broadway, I mention two shows that aren’t typical, glitzy Broadway shows. Maybe Happy Ending, by Guilford native Will Aronson (and collaborator Hue Park), and Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York are quirky, small musicals that utterly delighted me and everyone I know who has seen them. The acting, the directing, the stories, and the music enchant. Maybe Happy Ending won multiple Tony awards.
Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends: Even though it wasn’t great, this review of Sondheim’s music which originated as a one-night-only London concert following Sondheim’s death offered a star-studded cast. The Broadway version, starring Bernadette Peters, Lea Salonga, Gavin Lee, Beth Leavel, and others, was a delight.
All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914: Whether you classify it as a concert or a musical, this Playhouse on Park production was exquisite, with incredible a cappella harmonies and fine direction, as well as being thoughtful and moving.
My Fair Lady: Ivoryton Playhouse mounted a delightful production of this big musical. Inventive staging and fine performances captured the show almost perfectly.
Waitress: Ridgefield’s ACT-CT theater offered an excellent production of Waitress.
Sharon Playhouse once again proved that a small summer theater can produce terrific work. Annie was an absolute delight with a great cast and creative staging.
Goodspeed: The best musical production of 2025, the Rob Ruggiero-directed anniversary production of A Chorus Line was outstanding. It featured some of the best performances I’ve ever seen in the show. But Goodspeed didn’t stop there, with a terrific production of All Shook Up and, at the Terris Theater in Chester, the delightful The Great Emu War.
Camelot: Barrington Stage Company’s revival of this musical – which has always had some book issues – was excellent with a terrific singing and acting cast. I’m glad I made the trek to Pittsfield.
My Best of 2025 – The Plays
Before I mention my favorite productions in New York and Connecticut, I have to mention that one of the best productions I saw in 2025 was Giant in London starring John Lithgow. It will open on Broadway this Spring.
New York: George Clooney made his Broadway debut in a stage adaptation of Good Night, and Good Luck. The production made effective and appropriate use of projections and videos. Clooney surrounded himself with an outstanding cast, but he more than held his own as Edward R. Murrow. Off-Broadway, Lunar Eclipse was a tender exploration of senior relationships featuring a stunning performance by Reed Birney. But the best production I saw this year was Oedipus. The British import, with an adaptation set in contemporary times, made me truly understand the catharsis that ancient Greek audiences would have felt upon seeing this play.
Connecticut: Five productions stood out to me – I would happily see any of them again. Primary Trust won the Pulitzer Prize, and the TheaterWorks production showed you why. In 2026, at least one other theater will be producing this play; it will be tough to exceed the Hartford production. Jeffrey Archer’s adaptation of Rope, the “how-do-they-caught” thriller, based on the original play and the Hitchcock film, was elegant, stylish, and absorbing, even if you were familiar with the plot. The acting, set, lighting, and direction by Hartford Stage’s Artistic Director, Melia Bensussen, were terrific.
Connecticut playwright Jacques Lamarre’s The Baroness– a look at The Sound of Music from the point of view of the scorned fiancée- was great fun. It may need work, but it was still a delightful evening at Playhouse on Park. Westport Country Playhouse’s production of Theatre People was an old-fashioned drawing room comedy/farce, well directed and performed.
Connecticut was lucky enough to be the first stop on the tour of Mark Twain Tonight! starring Richard Thomas. The space at TheaterWorks was perfect for the piece; Thomas, as usual, was terrific.
I can’t omit Hartford Stage’s A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story of Christmas, which gets better every year.
