Fall Arts Preview: Eric Clapton, Emus Wars and an Elephant in the Room
As summer winds down with the beach chairs stored away, the last of the ripe tomatoes devoured, and the tans finally faded, we now turn to the fall and those extra special shows to get us excited — and to divert us from work, school and troubling world events.
As always, Connecticut offers us a wealth of performing arts events, so get ready to mark these dates. Calendars ready?
— Rob Ruggiero who’s staged some of Goodspeed’s best musicals, returns to direct a decidedly different kind of show for the jewel box of a theater on the river: “A Chorus Line,”
which runs Sept. 5 to Nov. 2 at the Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam.
— This show’s got our favorite title of the fall: “The Great Emu War” and the musical gets a run Oct. 3 to 26 at Goodspeed Musicals’ Norma Terris Theatre in Chester. The plot? War is made against the large flightless birds which are feeding on the wheat of local Australian farmers. Enter the Army. Sounds like some feathers will be flying — and a lot of musical fun.
— Playwright Ken Ludwig (“Lend Me A Tenor,” “Crazy for You”) pays tribute to the great English farces of the 1930s and 1940s with the golf-themed country club romp, “The Fox On the Fairway.” The comedy runs November 7 to 23 at the Music Theatre of Connecticut in Norwalk.
— It’s going to be quite the homecoming when Justin Silva, who was born and raised in New Haven, brings his comedy show to the Shubert Theatre on Oct. 3. For more traditional Broadway fare, our favorite is the popular Neil Diamond Broadway bio-musical “A Beautiful Noise” Dec. 2 to 7. And over at the theater’s new upstairs performing arts space — Elm City’s Cabaret — we’re intrigued by “Deconstructing The Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul” with Scott Freiman who will walk Beatles fans through the creation the classic 1965 album.
— Who doesn’t like a thriller on stage and Hartford Stage has a crime tale that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film “Rope” starring Jimmy Stewart. This is a Jeffrey Hatcher’s fresh stage adaptation, based on the play “Rope’s End” by Patrick Hamilton. It’s not so much a whodunnit but will-the-killers-be-caught? My bet’s on the detective. The world premiere runs Oct. 10 to Nov. 2.
— Meet Spunk Banks, a strong, confident and charismatic man known for his disregard for social norms, including seducing another man’s wife. For artistic director and dean James Bundy’s final season at New Haven’s Yale Repertory Theatre, there’s Zora Neale Hurston’s rediscovered play “Spunk,” which is based on her short story. It will run Oct. 3 to 25. There will be new songs, arrangements, and music for this theatrical fable about the triumph of love set in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated all-Black town in America.
—Talk about language barriers. Set in an English-learning classroom in Iran, Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “English” has its Connecticut premiere at TheaterWorks Hartford Oct. 2 to Nov. 2.
— The Tony Award-nominated play is in partnership with New Haven’s itinerant Long Wharf Theatre which will present the play Jan. 16 to Feb at SCSU’s Kendall Drama Lab. (For its fall show, Long Wharf Theatre will present — in association with The Sol Project, Latinx Playwrights Circle and the WP Theater — Monet Hurst-Mendoza’s play “Torera” at the WP Theater in New York City. It’s about a Mexican woman who dreams of becoming a bullfighter. Ole! It will play Sept. 20 to Oct. 19 in New York City.)
— With seven Tony Award nominations — and two wins — Sutton Foster (last seen in the Broadway revival of “Once Upon a Mattress” returns to the Ridgefield Playhouse for a concert on Nov. 20. (For non-Broadway fans, Sutton is also the star off the television series “Boneheads” and “Younger.”)
— What’s love got to do with it? Apparently plenty if you’re talking about the Broadway tour of the musical “Tina,” which arrives at The Palace Theatre in Waterbury Nov. 1 and 2. If one Tina Turner isn’t enough there’s a trio of Tinas in this bio-musical presenting the sizzling singer at three different stages of her career and tumultuous life.
— To celebrate the 10th anniversary of “Hamilton,” the landmark musical (and still one of the top tickets on Broadway) makes a return run at The Bushnell in Hartford Nov. 4 to 16. And speaking of dynamic political leaders, Pete Buttigieg will speak on democracy and the future of politics as part of The Connecticut Forum at The Bushnell in Hartford on Nov. 20. OK, One more event you won’t want to miss at The Bushnell: On Oct. 26 the Tony Award-nominated (twice) Jeremy Jordan will be in concert. (His vocals in Broadway’s “Floyd Collins” were thrilling. Hartford theater fans might remember him from an early career gig at TheaterWorks in “And a Little Dog Laughed.”)
— “More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read,” says a character in Oscar Wilde’s epigram-packed comedy, “The Importance of Being Earnest” which will kick off Playhouse on Park in West Hartford’s MainStage season running Oct. 28 to Nov. 15. This sparkling satire gleefully skewers love, marriage, and high society. A perfect show for “The Gilded Age” fans.
— A Contemporary Theatre of Connecticut (A.C.T.) in Ridgefield presents the Broadway musical “Almost Famous,” based on the beloved Cameron Crowe film and with music and lyrics by Tom Kitt. Set in 1973, it follows a teenage journalist who lands the assignment of a lifetime: touring with an up-and-coming rock band for Rolling Stone magazine. The show runs Oct. 18 to Nov. 23.
— Acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke, now 80, plays The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Center (AKA “The Kate”) at Old Saybrook. Kottke, known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, made his major label in 1971 with “Mudlark,” and continued to demonstrate his instrumental skills with “Greenhouse,” “My Feet Are Smiling,” “Dreams and All That Stuff” and “Chewing Pine.” And saving theater fans a trip to the West End, there are live HD broadcasts of National Theatre Live. This fall these direct-from-London shows include:“Inter Alia” on Oct. 15 starring Rosamund Pike and the musical “Next to Normal” starring Cassie Levy on Oct. 18 and Shaw’s “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” starring Imelda Staunton (“The Crown") and her real-life daughter Bessie Carter (“Bridgerton”) on Oct. 30.
— Two rock giants come to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville: Eric Clapton on Sept. 20 and Sting on Nov. 18. As member of the bands The Yardbirds, Blind Faith and Cream as well as a stunning solo career, Clapton is a guitar god. Sting is legendary, too, selling more than100 million albums from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist.
— Over at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, the music legends continue to come to Connecticut with the still-fabulous Diana Ross on Nov. 1 and, appropriately enough, John Legend on Nov. 8, celebrating the 20th anniversary of his breakout album "Get Lifted.” And I can’t resist one more: For those with a swinging rockabilly bent, there are those cool cats, the Stray Cats with Brian Setzer on Nov. 7.
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— Over at the Peoples Bank Arena in Hartford there’s another rock-pop legend: Stevie Nicks performing in concert on October. 25, one of only eight dates she’ll be playing in the U.S. I’m feeling twirly already.
— Fans of Monty Python, “Fawlty Towers” and the film “A Fish Called Wanda” (and many other comic gems), rejoice! Brit wit John Cleese will present “Not Dead Yet: John Cleese and The Holly Grail at 50” at Stamford’s Center for the Arts at The Palace Theatre on Oct. 16. It will include a screening of the “Holy Grail” film, a conversation with Cleese and q and a from the audience, “where he’ll share behind-the-scenes stories, wit, and wisdom—assuming he remembers any of it.” And keeping with our theme of touring rock and pop legends, Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply (“Lost in Love,” “All Out of Love,” “Every Woman in the World,” “The One That You Love,” “Here I Am”) perform its 50th anniversary celebration at the theater, too.
— Dubbed “the colorful Mozart of Gen Z” by The New York Times, Jacob Collier’s radically joyous and genre-bridging music earned him seven Grammy wins (and 15 nominations). He plays UConn’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in Storrs on Oct. 18. Then for something equally cool, there’s Compagnie Herve Koubi performing in “Sol Invictus.” The movement collective of 17 male and female dancers combines contemporary and urban dance movements, capoeira, ballet and martial arts with powerful imagery and inspired choreography.
J— ust when you think there’s not any more variations you can do with that holiday perennial “A Christmas Carol,” along comes “A Sherlock Carol.” No mystery why Westport Country Playhouse turned to this doubling of literary icons in a playful play by Mark Shanahan,
based on characters created by Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It runs Dec. 13 to 21.
— Wait, I spoke to soon. There yet one more variation of the Dickens classic — and it’s at the Legacy Theater in Branford Dec. 3 to 14. “Scrooge and Marley” is musical prequel to “A Christmas Carol,” following how young Marley and Scrooge crossed paths, became business partners and “how one man’s ultimate sacrifice is another man’s redemption". It’s based on the award-winning book “Jacob T. Marley” by R. William Bennett. Legacy Theater also winds up its popular Sunday Broadway Concert Series -- a great chance to see terrific Broadway performers in an intimate setting — with stage, concert and cabaret star Karen Mason (“Mamma Mia!”, “Hairspray,” “Wonderland”) on Oct. 26.
— This is offbeat and intriguing— and I’m there at the College Street Music Hall in New Haven: Accomplished woodworkers Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”— he’s known as an actor, too) and Lee Buchanan present “an evening of conversation and tomfoolery” with “Little Woodchucks," their illustrated woodworking guide, “chock-full of projects to engage the whole family and teach young craftsmen the satisfaction of a job well done.” The book tour event on Oct,. 17 has a mixture of conversation, hands-on woodworking demonstrations, singing, laughs (and hopefully no slivers). But it is, after all a music hall, so here’s another blast from the past: On Oct. 25 there’s the Bachman-Turner Overdrive, famous for the hits “Let it Ride,” “Roll on Down the Highway,” “Takin' Care of Business,”“Looking Out for #1,” and “You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet.”
— OK, let’s keep this rock and pop run rolling: Over at Bridgeport’s Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater there’s a killer double bill of Melissa Etheridge and the Indigo Girls on Sept. 16. Then turning to the dark, if not the bizarre, side here comes Alice Cooper and Judas Priest on Sept. 23 (with Corrosion of Conformity).
— There’s always something entertaining from a global perspective at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts in Middletown. The menu is international this fall but a standout is “Ukraine Lives!” by the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America in its first Connecticut concert since 2007. Formed in Kyiv in 1918, the show will celebrate Ukraine's cultural heritage through music — and its survival against waves of tyranny — and will feature the traditional 60-stringed instrument, the bandura.
Remember the great 1999 documentary “Buena Vista Social Club?” How about the terrific Broadway musical from last season of the same name? Did you miss it? Well on Sept. 28 at the Garde Arts Center in New London there’s The Buena Vista Orchestra, under the direction of Jesus “Aguaje” Ramos, the original orchestra leader, composer and trombonist of The Buena Vista Social Club — and featuring key players from throughout the legendary Cuban group’s history. I’m practically dancing in the aisle already.
Speaking of dance, there’s “Iluminate” on Sept. 27 at the Warner Theater in Torrington. Named “Best New Act in America” by “America’s Got Talent" in 2011, the multi-sensory show is a fantastic fusion of cutting edge technology and dance with performers outfitted with customized LED suits synced to the choreography.
— On Sept. 27, the Yale Schwarzman Center in New Haven will present playwright and solo performer Priyanka Shetty with her one-woman show “The Elephant in the Room.” The play is described as “a witty, dark comedy about an Indian metalhead and software-engineer-turned-actor who must navigate life as an immigrant arriving in Trump's America.” For dance fans on Oct. 25 there’s “Visionary Steps: Balanchine & Beyond” with dancers from the New York City Ballet in a special event created by principal dancer Adrian Danchig-Waring. Being a huge fan of MacArthur genius grant recipient Taylor Mac, I look most forward to his annual holiday extravaganza, “Holiday Sauce” on Dec. 13 which blends music, burlesque “and random acts of fabulousness in the most subversive and cathartic event of the season.”
— We all know that King Lear is losing his mind. Dan Colley and Company take it a step further — make that two steps — in the stage production of “Lost Lear” on Oct. 21 at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University. This moving and darkly comic remix of Shakespeare’s play is told from the point of view of Joy, an elderly person with dementia, recalling when she was in her 30s when she played the title role in an avant garden production. On a lighter note, be sure to catch one of my favorite musicians at the center, the sublime John Pizzarelli and The Swing 7 on Oct. 3.
— Catholic guilt, neighborhood gossip, and family secrets: What’s not to like? And you can find them all in the ‘70s-set comedy “Incident Of Our Lady of Perpetual Help” plays Oct. 2 to 28 at Ivoryton Playhouse in Essex.
— If only walls could talk. But for the Madison Lyric Stage they sing. The company presents “Four Murders in Forty Years,” an evening featuring operatic excerpts and one-act operas arranged to follow a central concept: People in a tenement apartment over four decades and the events within those walls. The production features “La Voix Humaine” (“The Human Voice”) by Francis Poulenc and Jean Cocteau, presented in English, followed by "The Medium” by Gian Carlo Menotti. The show runs Sept. 19 to 21.
— Boo! Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Pop Series will feature “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas,” a fabulously wild PG film accompanied by the full lush sound of a symphony Orchestra. The music/film event will play Oct. 25 at The Bushnell’s Mortensen Hall. For those of a tonier persuasion will flock to “Beethoven and Sibelius” at the Bushnell’s Belding Theater, on Oct. 17 to 19. Under the direction of Viswa Subbaraman, the orchestra performs a program highlighted by Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a masterful balance of stormy intensity and lyrical beauty performed by guest artist pianist Drew Petersen.
— Something stirring will emerge no doubt from “Montgomery Variations,” a Nov. 2 concert by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra at Woolsey Hall under the baton of conductor and music director Perry So. It promises to be a powerful program with themes of resilience and remembrance through Margaret Bonds’ “Montgomery Variations,” community singing, and “Sanctum" by NHSO Composer-in-Residence Courtney Bryan. Also featured will be pianist Courtney Bryan.