Category: News

Berry Gordy tried his hand at boxing, owning a record store, working on an auto assembly line and being a soldier in the Korean War and, fortunately for the American music scene, really wasn’t happy with any of those career choices. He went on to become an American record executive, a songwriter, film producer, television producer and the founder of Motown Records, and, in the process, becoming one of the highest earning African-American business owners for decades. In 1959, in Detroit, he took a family loan of $800 and bought a house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard and converted the… read more

I first interviewed Matthew Lopez in 2015, when Hartford Stage was about to produce his play Reverberation . His two previous plays The Whipping Man, which quickly became one of the most produced plays nationally and which received the Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards for an off-Broadway production. In 2013, his play Somewhere had a reading during the Festival Brand/New presented by Hartford Stage, and a full staging in 2014. Each one of those plays deals with very different issues, like slavery and freedom (Whipping Man);  a theater loving Puerto Rican family about to be evicted (Somewhere)  or a gay… read more

The snow was coming down. The turntables didn’t turn. The star refused to perform. The cast was dismissed, thinking that that night’s show would not go on. Yet “My Fair Lady” opened improbably, triumphantly, to its first paying audience on that Saturday, Feb. 4, 1956, at the Shubert Theater here, making the night the stuff of theater legend. The out-of-town circuit for shows destined for Broadway — and its pressure cooker atmosphere — has largely been replaced with the more measured pace of readings, workshops and developmental productions at regional theaters and presenting houses. The latest, highly anticipated revival of… read more

The 2018-19 season closes with the world premiere of the musical The Flamingo Kid (May 9 – June 2, 2019), based on the 1984 box-office hit film co-written and directed by the late Garry Marshall that helped make Matt Dillon a household name. The stage musical will be directed by Tresnjak (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Anastasia) and feature book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman (2014 Tony Award-Winner for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) and music by Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens, War Paint on Broadway). The Flamingo Kid will be Freedman’s first musical since A… read more

It takes a lot of time, talent and perseverance to put on a show (and a sense of humor doesn’t hurt), but what if the onerous task of producing not just one but seven shows in a single season falls on your shoulders? Would you, like Ayn Rand’s Atlas, shrug, let the weight fall from those shoulders? Well, Jacquelyn Hubbard is not one to shrug, and she hasn’t for close to two decades as she has boarded plays and musicals at the historic Ivoryton Playhouse, where, as the Playhouse’s executive/artistic director, she is hip-deep in the details of creating the… read more

INTIMATE APPAREL already has a lot going for it, with a script by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, but what drew Dawn Loveland Navarro to direct it was the fully developed female lead characters. Esther (played by Darlene Hope) is a “fully 3D female character,” Navarro said, something you don’t often get to see on stage. Esther is a turn-of-the-century African-American seamstress who earns her living by creating lingerie for other women to attract their men – something Esther hasn’t had in her own life. She loves creating the intimate apparel for the other women, but longs for a… read more

Sharon McNight stars at Seven Angels Theatre in the show she wrote about Sophie Tucker, Connecticut’s own Red Hot Mama, who enjoyed fame from her Burlesque days to Broadway and beyond. We asked her to discuss the star and this role of a lifetime. CTAC: How were you first drawn to write this show about Sophie Tucker? SM: The man who first signed me to a recording contract had a dream that he saw me playing her on the Broadway stage.    I believe in omens and dreams Interview continues here   read more

West Hartford native Andrea Grody, who is the musical director of the Broadway hit, The Band’s Visit, will be a guest on the radio program “On Broadway” on Sunday, February 18, 2018 from 5:30-6:30pm. The show airs on the Trinity College radio station, WRTC-FM, 89.3. It can also be heard via live streaming at WRTCFM.com. “I’m very happy to have Andrea back on my show,” stated long-time host Stuart Brown. “In February 2012 Andrea came on to talk about Strange Faces, a musical she wrote as part of her senior thesis at Princeton University.” On the February 18th program Ms.… read more

A glorious production of “Evita” is onstage at the Westport Playhouse this weekend, thanks to a collaboration the Playhouse has with BMA, the Broadway Method Academy in Fairfield. BMA is a studio program that trains young students for careers in theater, by bringing them together with artists, actors, and other theater folk to learn techniques and to experience productions. In the case of “Evita,” a large student chorus provided singing and dancing and staging under the direction of Connor Deane [New Canaan will recognize the name of Kitchens by Deane – yes, related]! Music direction was by J Scott Handley.… read more

The Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women will host a panel discussion and reception as part of the Second Women Playwrights Initiative at Ivoryton Playhouse. Laura Copland, director of new play development at the Playhouse, will moderate a panel comprised of the playwrights and directors participating in the initiative readings next month. The panel will be held at 4 pm Saturday, March 3 and will be followed by a reception at 5:30. There is no charge to attend the panel and reception for members of the LPTW. Non members may attend with a $5 cash donation at… read more