Author: Stuart Brown

Last month it was announced that The Phantom of the Opera will close on Broadway on February 18, 2023 after 35 years and 13,925 performances. In January 1988, I was certain the show was going to be a huge hit before it opened on Broadway and bet a sizeable chunk of my department budget on this hunch. At the time, I was living in New York City and was employed as the Associate Director of Student Activities at Barnard College (part of Columbia University). I ran a discount ticket booth for the campus, selling hundreds of tickets via a program… read more

Carpenters are building sets, actors are learning lines, dancers are rehearsing routines, and the front-of-house people are preparing. The fall theater scene in Connecticut is starting. For some of Connecticut’s professional theaters, it is the start of a new year, and for others, it is the finishing of a season that began in the spring. It will include everything from hard-hitting comedy/drama such as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to Tony-winning musicals – 42nd Street, Fun Home and Sunset Blvd and everything in between. In fact, two shows – the Great Gatsby and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are getting… read more

One of the leading summer theaters in the country is The Ogunquit Playhouse in the town of Ogunquit, Maine. According to the history of the theater, “it was the first, and remains the only, summer theatre from the summer stock era built exclusively as a seasonal theatre.” Opening in 1933, he theater is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015, the listing was raised to National Level of Significance “in consideration of the significant contributions made by its founder Walter J. Hartwig and the Playhouse to Performing Arts Education throughout the nation.” This summer’s productions have already… read more

The Barrington Stage Company has consistently produced hight-quality, award-winning productions. A number of their shows have gone onto Broadway including the world premiere of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; and in 2013 the theater produced Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green’s On the Town. Our CT Critics Circle member, Karen Isaac, traveled to Barrington to review their current production – the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music. The music starts and the five ensemble singers enter individually, one strikes a note on the piano and they all begin to harmonize… read more

One of the leading summer theaters in the country is The Ogunquit Playhouse in the town of Ogunquit, Maine. According to the history of the theater, “it was the first, and remains the only, summer theatre from the summer stock era built exclusively as a seasonal theatre.” Opening in 1933, he theater is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015, the listing was raised to National Level of Significance “in consideration of the significant contributions made by its founder Walter J. Hartwig and the Playhouse to Performing Arts Education throughout the nation.” This summer’s productions have already… read more

Yep, it’s all true! “Hamilton”, the much-exalted, much-awarded landmark musical by Lin Manual Miranda, lives up to expectations. Often when you see a show that has entered the zeitgeist with rapturous reviews and multiple prizes, you are left disappointed when you see the actual product. Not the case with “Hamilton”, Miranda’s brilliant and often astonishing take on the historical figure and victim of Aaron Burr via rap, hip-hop and Ron Chernow’s extensive, 800-page Hamilton memoir. This simply should not work. By some miracle (and more) it does. Gloriously. Currently on a national tour and playing through July 10 at Hartford’s… read more

The Square One Theatre Company will hold a special tag sale at its storage site located at 1470 Main Street in Stratford, on Sunday, July 10 from 12-6 pm. After a two-year delay, Square One will reopen and conclude its 30th anniversary season in November. The tag sale will be a major fundraiser for the theatre helping to alleviate its many re-opening expenses. The theatre has a 30-year collection of props and furnishings that it needs to move now at rock-bottom prices. The sale will include a variety of such items as furniture, smaller furnishings, stage floral and greenery, paintings,… read more

Music Theatre of Connecticut’s production of “Falsettoland” and Long Wharf Theatre’s “The Chinese Lady” and Hartford Stage’s “Lost in Yonkers” lead the shows nominated for the 30th annual Connecticut Critics Circle Awards. The awards event, which celebrates the best in professional theater in the state, will be held Monday, June 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven. Kenneth Gartman, a New York City based singer, music director, and producer, will preside over the show which is free and open to the public. “Falsettoland” earned six nominations, including outstanding actor in a musical, best director, and… read more

[Reprinted from The Journal Inquirer, May 27, 2022] Tony- and Emmy-winning actor/playwright John Leguizamo will return to Hartford Stage with a new musical comedy making its East Coast debut, “Kiss My Aztec!” Previews start Wednesday. The play opens June 10 and runs through June 26. “It’s about the birth of Latin man, because the conquest was the birth of Latin man, the mixed races of what we Latin people are,” Leguizamo said in a recent interview. Based on a screenplay by Leguizamo and Stephen Chbosky, “Kiss My Aztec!” follows a handful of rebels who continue to fight against Spain during… read more