Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury has announced its next season. It opens Sept. 26 through Oct. 21 with “Altar Boyz,” a dual satire of boy bands and religion-based pop culture. “Altar Boyz” was an off Broadway hit in 2004; its first national tour launched in 2008 at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre. West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park did it in 2015.
The second show of the season, Nov. 8 through Dec. 2, is the elderly roommate comedy “Ripcord” by David Lindsay-Abaire, the writer of “Rabbit Hole,” “Fuddy Meers” and “Shrek The Musical.” “Ripcord” was an off Broadway hit in 2015.
Jan. 31 through Feb. 24, Seven Angels revisits the works of George Burns and Gracie Allen with a second round of live recreations of the couple’s sitcom routines. R. Bruce Connelly and Seven Angels founder Semina De Laurentis will star in “George & Gracie: Part II,” as they did in “George & Gracie: The Early Years” in 2017.
The musical “First Date,” by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, will play Seven Angels March 14 through April 7. It’s a relationship comedy with seven performers playing over a dozen characters, set in a restaurant during the fraught situation denoted in the show’s title. “First Date” ran for five months on Broadway in 2013.
The Seven Angels season ends April 25 through May 19 with “The Who’s Tommy.” That’s the Broadway version of the celebrated rock opera about a deaf, dumb and blind boy who sure plays a mean pinball. “Tommy” creator Pete Townsend adapted the 1969 album for the stage with the help of Des McAnuff of La Jolla Playhouse, which premiered the show in 1992. It went on to run for two years on Broadway.
Seven Angels has subscription deals and other details at 203-757-4676, sevenangelstheatre.org.
Hosanna, Who-Sanna; CT Rep Casts ‘JCS’
Connecticut Repertory Theatre has cast its lot upon the waters, and has cast its production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” July 12 to 22 at UConn’s Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. Ryan Vona, who was in the Broadway productions of “Cirque du Soleil: Paramour” and “Once,” will play Judas. Jesus Christ will be Alex Prakken, who was in the national tour of “Newsies” when it played The Bushnell in 2015. Sasha Brown, just seen in the chorus of “Disaster!” at CT Rep, is Mary Magdalene. Jonathan Cobrda, from CT Rep’s “Les Miserabeles: A Musical Celebration,” “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “Peter Pan,” will wash his hands as Pontius Pilate. Other persecutors include Griffin Binnicker (the jolly Maury in “Disaster!”) as Herod, Tyler Grigsby as Caiaphas and Bryan Mittelstadt as the High Priest Annas.
The main apostles are Will Bryant (Peter) and Simon Longnight (Simon Zealots). The ensemble consists of Jamie Colburn, Maddie Dunn, Annelise Henry, Mike Katz, the ubiquitous Nick Nudler (who did several shows during CT Rep’s regular season, and just played the scoundrel Tony in “Disaster!”), Jovick Pavajeau-Orostegui, Hayden Elizabeth Price, Paige Smith, Anna Uzele, and Andy Viviano.
“Jesus Christ Superstar” is directed by Terrence Mann — fresh from playing the title role in “Sweeney Todd: A Musical Thriller in Concert” at the same theater June 21 through July 1. It’s choreographed by Christopher d’Amboise, who directed “Newsies” for CT Rep last summer.
That’s a couple of different “Newsies” connections. Details at 860-486-2113, crt.uconn.edu.
May Adrales Receives TCG Award
May Adrales is one of the five recipients of a National Conference Award from Theatre Communications Group (a national organization of regional theaters that counts Hartford Stage, Long Wharf and Yale Rep among its members). Adrales, associate artistic director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2005; her thesis show was a bracing, metallic, modernist “Hamlet” which featured an onstage bathtub.
She apprenticed at Long Wharf Theatre and has since worked at theaters around the country. She is perhaps best known for directing several early productions of Qui Nguyen’s award-winning war drama “Vietgone,” including its cool, flashy Manhattan Theatre Club production at City Center Stage.
I remember some wondrous things Adrales directed at the Yale Cabaret, including a magical rendition of Federico Garcia Lorca’s “The Love of Don Perlimplin for Belisa in the Garden.” Congrats to her, and I hope some theater can bring her back to Connecticut sometime.
Our Two Cents
Playhouse on Park has begun a campaign to raise $96,000 during the run of “In the Heights.” The show contains a song called “96,000,” about the windfall from a winning lottery ticket.
Other money-themed fundraising shows could include producing “Million Dollar Quartet.” Musicals with songs about money include “Cabaret” (“Money Makes the World Go Around”), “Mamma Mia” (“Money, Money, Money”), “The Wedding Singer” (“It’s All About the Green”), “Evita” (“The Money Kept Rolling In”), “Doonesbury” (“The Right Time to Be Rich”) and “42nd Street” (“We’re in the Money”), to name a few. Playhouse on Park produced “Avenue Q” (which includes “The Money Song”) at the start of the 2017-18 season.
Sutton Foster To Perform At Westport Gala
Sutton Foster, of Broadway’s “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Young Frankenstein” and “Shrek The Musical,” not to mention the TV series “Younger,” will perform at Westport Country Playhouse’s 2018 fundraising gala Sept. 8. The WCP will honor Eunice and David Bigelow (co-chairs of the Fairfield-based Bigelow Tea Company) with its 2018 Leadership Award. Tickets range from $350 to $2,500. Details at 203-571-1138, westportplayhouse.org.
I’ve heard Sutton Foster’s new CD, “Take Me to the World” (on the Ghostlight label). She delivers fresh and unorthodox renditions of showtunes such as “If I Were a Bell” (from “Guys and Dolls,” in a mash-up with “Singin’ in the Rain”), “It All Fades Away” from “Bridges of Madison County,” “A Quiet Thing” from “Flora the Red Menace,” Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye” (accompanied by the harmonious Ball State Cabaret Class Singers) and the title tune, which is from Stephen Sondheim’s 1966 TV musical “Evening Primrose.” Oh, and a couple of Paul Simon songs end up in there too. It’s a very calming, tender record, yet quite a workout for Foster.
