It was heartening to see “The Band’s Visit” do so well at the Tonys. Not only were the 10 wins (out of 11 nominations) deserved, this is just the kind of show that regional theaters should embrace when the performance rights become available. The show’s national tour will begin in Providence, R.I., a year from now.
Connecticut connections in “The Band’s Visit” include area businessman and philanthropist Thomas Perakos as one of its producers. Best-actress winner Katrina Lenk starred in the play “Indecent” at Yale Rep and on Broadway. Best-actor winner Tony Shalhoub is a Yale School of Drama grad. Itamar Moses, who won for best book of a musical, was a Yale undergrad. The show’s music director (leading the orchestra from a little structure that’s part of the street-scene set) is a West Hartford native, Andrea Grody.
By the way, of last year’s (2017) Tony nominees, the Hartford Stage-premiered “Anastasia” is in a very small club of shows that premiered that season and are still running. (“Come From Away,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Hello, Dolly!” are the others.)
CT Critics Circle Awards
The Connecticut Critics Circle bestowed its annual awards June 11 in a ceremony at Westport Country Playhouse.
Hartford Stage’s new adaptation of “The Age of Innocence” was named Outstanding Production of a Play, and also earned an award for Linda Cho’s Outstanding Costume Design).
Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s “1776” won awards for its director Terrence Mann and its star Jamie LaVerdiere (Outstanding Actor in a Musical).
“The Diary of Anne Frank” earned honors for its Anne, Isabelle Barbier (Outstanding Actress in a Play) and its director, Ezra Barnes.
The Westport Playhouse production of Branden Jacob Jenkins’ “Appropriate” was recognized for Fitz Patton’s sound design and Matthew Richards’ lighting.
The Outstanding Choreography award went to Kelli Barclay for “The Will Rogers Follies” at Goodspeed Opera House. The Goodspeed’s production of “Oklahoma” earned an award for the actor playing Jud Fry, Matt Faucher (Outstanding Featured Actor). The Goodspeed’s reworking of “Rags” won awards for Samantha Massell (Outstanding Actress in a Musical) and the show in general (Outstanding Production, Musical).
Awards were also presented to Elizabeth Stahlmann (Outstanding Solo Performance, “Grounded” at Westport Playhouse), Reg Rogers (Outstanding Actor in a play, “An Enemy of the People” at Yale Repertory Theatre), Megan O’Callaghan (Outstanding Debut, for two shows she did at MTC in Norwalk), the cast of “The Wolves” at TheaterWorks (Outstanding Ensemble), Yana Birykova (Outstanding Projections, “Grounded”), Jodi Stevens (Outstanding Featured Actress, “Singin’ in the Rain,” Summer Theater of New Canaan).
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play went to Judith Ivey in “Fireflies” at the Long Wharf Theatre, while the Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play was awarded to Peter Francis James, who played the Friar in “Romeo & Juliet” at Westport Playhouse.
Special awards went to Billy Bivona for his live guitar accompaniment for “Constellations” at TheaterWorks; to the Flock Theatre (which presented “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” at Monte Cristo Cottage in New London); and to Fairfield’s Broadway Method Academy. The Connecticut Critics Circle presented its Tom Killen Award to conductor/musical director Michael O’Flaherty of Goodspeed Musicals. Details at ctcritics.org.
Courant arts writer Christopher Arnott is not a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle.
This item was amended to correct an omission, that Ezra Barnes received the award for Director of a Play.
Lin-Manuel Miranda Update
The esteemed Wesleyan grad and playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes (whose Pulitzer-winning “Water by the Spoonful” premiered at Hartford Stage) wrangled back the film rights to “In the Heights” from the demoralized Weinstein Company just last month. The film landed at Warner Brothers, which last week announced a June 2020 release date for the $50 million feature. Hudes has written the screenplay, Lin-Manuel Miranda is the producer and Jon M. Chu is directing. “In the Heights” was developed at the O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford. The latest Connecticut small theater production of the show is June 13 through July 29 at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford.
Read: How To Get Tickets To ‘Hamilton’ At The Bushnell
There are no real updates to report regarding “Hamilton” coming to The Bushnell Dec. 11 to 30. The on-sale date for single tickets has yet to be announced. There appears to be one change in the cast of the tour that’s hitting Hartford: Carvens Lissaint is now playing George Washington. There are two concurrent U.S. tours of “Hamilton,” dubbed the “Philip” and “Angelica” tours. The Bushnell is getting the “Angelica” one, which stars Austin Scott as Alexander Hamilton, Julia K. Harriman as Eliza Hamilton, Nicholas Christopher as Aaron Burr, Sabrina Sloan as Angelica Schuyler, Chris De’Sean Lee as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson and Peter Matthew Smith as King George.
Hartford Stage Names New Board President
David Jimenez is the new president of the Board of Directors at Hartford Stage. Jimenez, of the law firm Jackson Lewis P.C., was elected at the board’s June 4 meeting. He will be president as the theater searches for a successor to artistic director Darko Tresnjak, who will be leaving Hartford Stage in the summer of 2019.
NEFA Blunk Fund Awards
Just as his first U.S. show, “Requiem for an Electric Chair,” premieres at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven (June 22 and 23), Congolese political playwright/performer Toto Kisaku has received a Rebecca Blunk Fund Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Kisaku received political asylum in the U.S. this year; he currently lives in Middletown.
Also receiving a Blunk Fund Award: Hartford-based choreographer and multidisciplinary artist Arien Wilkerson of the TNMOT AZTRO performance troupe. Wilkerson’s work will next be seen as part of the “Universal Womb: The Emergence” event June 29 at Hartford Prints! on Pratt Street.
Blunk Fund awardees receive $3,000. The other recipient this year is New Hampshire jewelry artist Margaret Jacobs. Details at nefa.org.
Where Are They Now?
Christiane Noll, the star of “Next to Normal” last year at TheaterWorks, will play grieving mother Cynthia Murphy in the national tour of “Dear Evan Hansen” which starts this fall. The tour, which stars Ben Levi Ross as Evan, will not be in Connecticut during the 2018-19 theater season, but I think we can safely expect it in ’19-20. The only New England dates announced so far are July 10 through Aug. 4 in Boston. “Dear Evan Hansen”’s co-creator Justin Paul grew up in Fairfield County.
The Old Razzle Dazzle
Stephanie Pope, who worked with legendary choreographer Bob Fosse on his 1986 revival of “Sweet Charity” and well as “Big Deal,” and has also appeared in Broadway revivals of “Chicago,” “Fosse” and “Pippin,” will teach a master class on Fosse at 6:30 p.m. July 9 at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford. The two-hour class will include a half hour of technique training, an hour of learning Foster’s dance to “Bye Bye Blackbird” and a concluding 30-minute Q&A session.
Other master classes at Playhouse on Park this summer include “The Art of Clowning” with Eric Robertson July 16 and “Contemporary Musical Theater Audition Technique” with Michelle Pruiett July 23. Details at 860-523-5900 x10, playhouseonpark.org.
