While two sisters, each over 100 years old, hold forth about their triumphs and struggles in the current Hartford Stage production of “Having Our Say,” they also prepare an elaborate meal. To augment the kitcheny atmosphere, the theater tried various ways to waft the odors of fresh-cooked ham and chicken into the audience. “Chemicals and oils,” a Hartford Stage spokesman reveals, didn’t have the desired effect. “The Solution? There’s a small backstage door with a kitchen set-up just inside. A production assistant is actually cooking a real piece of ham and chicken and using a regular house fan to blow the scent in the theater.”
How To Cast ‘How To Succeed’
The Connecticut Repertory Theatre has cast its Nutmeg Summer Series production of the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” which runs June 2-12 in Storrs. Riley Costello, from last summer’s “Peter Pan” at CRT, stars as the fast-rising advertising exec J. Pierpont Finch. Sarah Schenkkan, who did “Guys and Dolls” at CRT and now appears in the Amazon series “Z,” is his love interest Rosemary. Tina Fabrique is Miss Jones, a role she played in the 1995 Broadway “How to Succeed …” revival and subsequent national tour. Robert Fritz is Bud Frump, Steve Hayes doubles as Mr. Twimble and Mr. Womper, John Bixler is Bert Bratt and Adria Swan is Smitty.
The casting coup here is getting Charles Shaughnessy, an actor who was on TV’s “Mad Men,” to play bigwig J.B. Biggley. Both “Mad Men” and “How to Succeed…” are set at New York advertising agencies in the 1960s, a connection that the TV series exploited by casting Robert Morse — who starred in the show’s 1961 premiere and in its 1967 movie version — as the senior partner of the show’s firm Sterling Cooper. Shaughnessy’s “Mad Men” role was Saint John Powell, whose British firm bought out Sterling Cooper in the second and third seasons of “Mad Men.”.
“How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” will be directed by Vincent J. Cardinal and choreographed by Cassie Abate. Details at 860-486-2113, crt.uconn.edu.
Their Cast For ‘My Paris’
The Long Wharf Theatre’s season-ending production of the presumably Broadway-bound musical “My Paris” has a few cast members in common with the Goodspeed Musicals production of the same show last year. Bobby Steggert will star again as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, with Donna English as Maman, Mara Davi as Suzanne Valadon, Kate Marilley as Yvette Guilbert and John Riddle as Grenier.
New to the show are Tom Hewitt — a Long Wharf veteran of “Private Lives” and “Travesties” whose Broadway credits include “The Rocky Horror Show,” “Dracula” and “Amazing Grace” — as Papa and Bonnat (roles played by John Glover at Goodspeed), and ensemble members Darius Barnes, Josh Grisetti, Anne Horak, Timothy Hughes, Jamie Jackson, Nikka Graff Lazarone, Tiffany Mann, Andrew Mueller and Erica Sweany.
The creative team is the same: director Kathleen Marshall, music director David Gardos, scenic designer Derek McLane, costume designer Paul Tazewell and lighting designer Donald Holder. There is a different sound designer, Brian Ronan.
“My Paris” is an extensive reworking of “Lautrec,” a 2000 musical with songs by French pop star Charles Aznavour. The new book is by Alfred Uhry, with “English lyrics and musical adaptations” credited to Jason Robert Brown, whose “The Last Five Years” was done at Long Wharf in 2014.
On At The O’Neill
The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center has announced the eight plays to be developed at its 2016 National Playwrights Conference, July 7-30, not to mention the three musicals-in-progress for its 2016 National Music Theater Conference, June 25 to July 15. Both conferences, as well as the smaller gatherings of puppeteers and cabaret artistes that the O’Neill also hosts, are held on the center’s spacious and grassy grounds in Waterford.
The scripts won’t seem familiar — the O’Neill workshops new plays — but some of the playwrights might. Kate Tarker (“Laura and the Sea”) graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2014, where her “Thunderbodies” was a standout at the school’s Carlotta Festival. Kathryn Walat (“Small Town Values”) graduated from YSD in ’03. Mike Lew (“Teenage Dick: vaguely from Richard III”) was a Yale undergrad. Keith Huff (“Up the Hill”) has been a writer/producer for TV’s “Mad Men,” “House of Cards” and “American Crime.” Aurin Squire (“Running on Fire”) has been produced off-Broadway and been a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Tegan McLeod (“Girls in Cars Underwater”) grew up in England and has been writing plays since she was a teenager. Matt Schatz (“The Burdens”) won a 2012 Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre for “Love Trapezoid.”
All the plays get public readings. Playwright Stephen Karam (“The Humans”) will also be at the conference, as a playwright in residence, but isn’t obliged to do a reading.
The three musicals at the O’Neill will be “The Museum of Broken Relationships” (book and lyrics by David H. Bell, music and lyrics by Daniel Green), “GIRL Shakes Loose” (book and lyrics by Zakiyyah Alexander, music and lyrics by Imani Uzuri) and “Darling Grenadine” by Daniel Zaitchik (book, music and lyrics). A gala “Frozen in Summer” event on July 23 will pay tribute to the “Frozen” songwriting team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, both of whom developed musicals at the O’Neill earlier in their careers. Details at theoneill.org.
