Category: News

To celebrate the arrival of the national tour of Hamilton at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts (December 11 – 30), the Broadway music radio program, “On Broadway,” will feature an all-Presidential themed show on Sunday, December 9 from 5:30-6:30pm on WRTC-FM, 89.3. The program can also be heard online at www.wrtcfm.com. “Alexander Hamilton may not have reached the Presidency,” said long time host Stuart Brown, “but a number of characters in the musical Hamilton such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe did ascend to our nation’s highest office.” “The most well-known Presidential musical is probably 1776,… read more

New Haven’s Yale Cabaret is a gift to the theater community and has been offering inspired and challenging works for over five decades. With a goal of eighteen shows this school year, overseen by co-artistic directors Latiana “LT” Gourzong and Molly FitzMaurice and managing director Armando Huipe, Cab 51 promises, according to the playbill, to “cultivate surprise, embrace divergence, practice compassion and share joy.” Tucked in a flexible downstairs space on the Yale campus, at 217 Park Street, students from the Yale School of Drama shine a spotlight on work composed by colleagues, find plays that invite presentation or adapt… read more

Jacob G. Padrón, 38, has been named the new Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre and will begin his role February 1, 2019. “Long Wharf Theatre is one of the most important companies in the American theatre.  I am overjoyed to join the board, staff, and New Haven community as we embark on new journey and aim to build a boundary breaking future together,” Padrón said. The Board of Trustees unanimously voted in favor of Padrón at a meeting Tuesday night, completing a lengthy and competitive executive search process guided by Arts Consulting Group. The board received over 160 applications… read more

The festive season is just about upon us and many Connecticut theaters are readying their seasonal offerings. Below is a list of what is in store for area audiences. The Christmas Elf 2 Downtown Cabaret – Bridgeport, CT https://dtcab.com/show/christmas-elf-2/ November 10 – December 29 It’s that time of year again for Santa to call on everyone’s favorite elves and their toy friends to bring holiday joy to boys and girls all over the world, but this Christmas is about more than presents and carols. With new adventures and new challenges, our hero must enlist all the help he can get… read more

The Goodspeed Opera House announced their 2019 season, which, according to Michael Gennaro, Goodspeed’s Executive Director, will include “a beloved classic, a heartwarming new musical and a dance-filled tale of triumph.” The three productions are Meredith Willson’s The Music Man which will run April 12 – June 16; followed by a heartwarming new musical Because of Winn Dixie featuring book and lyrics by Nell Benjamin and music by Duncan Sheik and based on the award-winning novel by Kate DiCamillo which will run from June 28 – September 1; closing the season will be The Goodspeed production of Billy Elliot –… read more

Theaterworks will perform 2 full productions this season at the Wadsworth Atheneum. The theater company anticipates being off-site for the latter part of the 2018 – 2019 season due to previously announced renovations to City Arts on Pearl, its home at 233 Pearl Street in downtown Hartford. Actually by Anna Zeigler (May 23 – June 23, 2019) and Fully Committed by Becky Mode ( August 1- September 1) will both be performed in the Wadsworth theater. Rob Ruggiero, Producing Artistic Director, said “ We are so excited to partner with the Wadsworth Atheneum. Tom (Tom Loughman, Director and CEO of… read more

HARTFORD — The word of professional arts criticism and writing has had a seismic change in the last decade with traditional media print platforms downsizing the role of reviewer, indeed its arts coverage. But there’s hope — and even opportunity — for writers who are savvy enough to navigate a new media terrain. Those who adapt, write well and take an entrepreneurial approach can find new inroads — and even a career, where none existed before. Arts writer Frank Rizzo has seen this media landscape change as dramatically as the shows he’s covered for 40 years as arts writer and… read more

Ten years ago, Lin-Manuel Miranda, director Thomas Kail and many others from the creative team behind Hamilton had their first Broadway hit with their Tony and Grammy Award-winning In the Heights. The pleasure of that musical — which began as a student production when Miranda was a sophomore at Wesleyan University in Middletown and later developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford — was splendidly on display this summer at West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park. To celebrate the show’s 10th anniversary, Ghostlight Records is releasing a three-LP soundtrack exclusively through Barnes & Noble, marking the first time the… read more

Frustrated at not knowing exactly where National Theatre Live films are playing in Connecticut: when and where and what? Me, too. So with the help of my husband Bill Kux  I’m going to try to have a master list of what the films are and where they are playing posted on this website —  as best we can. So hopefully now you can just check in here to find out about these remarkable films, presented live from London (usually matinee shows here; evening shows there with the time difference) or as “encore” presentations.   KATHARINE HEPBURN CULTURAL ARTS CENTER, OLD SAYBROOK “Julie” – Sept.6… read more

The following is my interview with Brian Murray when he was at Hartford Stage performing in Noel Coward’s “A Song at Twilight” in 2014. (The production also played Westport Country Playhouse). According to his Facebook posts, Murray has passed on.. He was 80. By FRANK RIZZO Arguably, Noel Coward’s most famous play is the witty still-in-love divorce comedy, “Private Lives.” But the playwright’s own private life was that of a discreet gay British gentleman, a subject he explored indirectly in his late-in-life play, “A Song at Twilight,” now playing at Hartford Stage through March 16. But Coward didn’t base the 1966… read more