Category: News

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Bryan Perri and ACT of CT Present Broadway Unplugged  Come Hang Out with Broadway Star Elizabeth Stanley on August 24 at 8PM!  Ridgefield, Conn. (August 15, 2018) – Bryan Perri, ACT of Connecticut’s resident Music Supervisor and Broadway Music Director, is bringing his favorite Broadway singers, songs, and stories to his hometown of Ridgefield!  Mr. Perri, the music director and conductor of Wicked at the Gershwin Theater, has invited his Broadway friends to help him present an ongoing series of one-of-a-kind evenings of great conversation, behind-the-scenes stories, and—of course—extraordinary music. Perri has chosen, in his own words, “people of incredible talent, who are incredibly… read more

If your hair is shellacked to an inch of an Egyptian pyramid and piled high like a Dairy Queen ice cream cone, you are clearly sporting a beehive hairdo. No need to visit your stylist because Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury is offering a grand musical tour of the 1960’s, with historical commentary, until Sunday, August 19, “Beehive The 60’s Musical.” Come swing and sing with Amy Bentley, Brittany Mulcahy, Chelsea Dacey, Samantha Rae Bass, Erin West Reed and Patricia Paganucci as they play teenyboppers in a swirl of pastel prettiness. All your favorites from the past, like Brenda Lee… read more

For many, New York in 1979 was a wild, out-of-control place. The city had barely survived bankruptcy, crime was at record levels and garbage was piling up on sidewalks. Nightclubs like glamorous Studio 54 and later counter-culture Mudd Club reflected that sense of anything-goes while at the same time offering themselves as a glorious refuge, a welcoming place to hide — or thrive, and even as a little piece of heaven. That sense of fantasy, family and freedom are themes that reverberate in the world premiere of a new musical opening this week at off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater. “This Ain’t Not… read more