The Hartford Stage Young Company and the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s Neighborhood Studios have decided that for the 10th anniversary of the “Breakdancing Shakespeare,” they’ll adapt the same Shakespeare play that was done when the summer teen program began.
That show is “Romeo and Juliet,” and there are plenty of timely reasons to select it: Hartford Stage did its own “Romeo and Juliet” a few months ago, the modernized musical version “West Side Story” was just at Connecticut Repertory Theatre, and there’s been international attention for a London production directed by Kenneth Branagh and featuring the couple who starred in his “Cinderella” movie. Tragic love is in the air.
True to the six-week summer program’s title, “Breakdancing Shakespeare” involves hip-hop performance techniques as well as Elizabethan theatrical behavior. The students analyze, adapt and perform a Shakespeare script, and the results are shared with all-ages audiences. “Breakdancing Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet” has its three public performances Aug. 11 and 12 at 7 p.m. and Aug. 13 at 2 p.m. Details at hartfordstage.org.
Wicked, Wicked Wallingford
The Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford began as an outdoor musical theater venue in the 1950s. It stopped offering a “Broadway” subscription series more than a decade ago, but still occasionally books major touring shows such as “Jersey Boys.” The Oakdale has the national tour of “Wicked” scheduled for a whopping 16 performances Nov. 30 through Dec. 11.
Seeking Women
I’ve been having testosterone issues this summer.
The Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s Nutmeg Summer Series ends this week with the final performances of “West Side Story.” This has been a series of musicals where, by my count, male performers outnumbered female ones 42 to 22, with men also getting the lion’s share of the lead roles. “Peter and the Starcatcher,” for example, had only one female actor in a cast of 12, though the play in fact has two female roles.
In other summer seasons around the state, I sense similar inequalities. As for the gender of the writers and directors of most of these shows, you hardly need guess.
Now, you can argue that the sort of shows done in summer tend to be older and traditional, and that strong female roles are scarcer. Yet the first four shows at Westport Country Playhouse this season — all contemporary works, by living authors — have gone by without a single woman appearing onstage.
A host of energies, attitudes and issues are being discounted and disregarded.
So kudos to Playhouse on Park for choosing “A Chorus Line,” to Goodspeed for doing “Bye Bye Birdie” (with a female director), to TheaterWorks for “Midsummer” and to Ivoryton Playhouse for putting “Chicago” and “Rent” out there. All these shows have great roles for women. Thanks especially to the Yale Summer Cabaret: three of the four shows in its season are written by women, all are directed by women, and in the cool new comedy “Antarctica” women played two of the leading male roles.
I’m looking forward to the fall, when Hartford Stage is offering works by Caryl Churchill and T.D. Mitchell, Yale Rep has world premieres from Sarah Ruhl, Aditi Brenna Kapil and Amy Herzog, Long Wharf is doing plays by Lydia Diamond and Meghan Kennedy, and national tours at the Bushnell include “If/Then,” “Beautiful,” “The King and I” and “Fun Home.”
That’s the sort of balance that keeps Connecticut ahead of the curve while national studies continue to suggest an egregious gender disparity in the American theater. But let’s not take a summer vacation from such efforts.
More At The Palace
The Palace Theater in Waterbury has added a few more theater events to its 2016-17 season. Besides the already announced “Broadway Series” of “Dirty Dancing,” “Kinky Boots,” “Cinderella,” “Sound of Music” and “Once,” the theater is also bringing in “A Christmas Story: The Musical” on Nov. 18 and 19, “Girls Night: The Musical” on March 30 and “Annie” for two shows on April 29. Details at palacetheaterct.org.
Miller Time
The “absurdist observational stand-up” comedian and “Silicon Valley” TV star T.J. Miller will perform at the College Street Music Hall in New Haven on Aug. 21. Tickets are on sale. Besides playing Erlich Bachman in “Silicon Valley,” Miller was Weasel in the “Deadpool” movie and voiced Tuffnut Thorston in both “How to Train Your Dragon” films.
Another comedian coming to College Street Music Hall: Moroccan comic/actor Gad Elmaleh, Feb. 9, with his stand-up show “Oh My Gad,” revised from the “All in English” set he did in New York and elsewhere in 2015.
A Plethora Of Puppets
The UConn Puppet Arts Program’s yearlong celebration of its 50th anniversary, which began a year ago with UConn hosting the National Puppetry Festival, culminates Aug. 11 to 14 when the program starts a festival of its own. The first annual Storrs Puppet Festival will feature children’s shows, a puppet slam and an interactive “Shadow Play” event. Performers include the Crabgrass Puppet Theatre (doing “African Adventure Tales”), Nappy’s Puppets (“Jack and the Beanstalk”), Toybox Theatre (“Billy the Liar”), Red Ball Theatre Company (“Adventures!”) and. of course. the UConn Puppet Arts folks themselves “Tiny Tales for Small Audiences”). Performances will be held at several different venues in the Storrs Center neighborhood. Details at storrspuppetfestival.com.
The Game’s Afoot
Gillette Castle State Park in East Haddam — the landmark stone home imbued with the spirits of master thespian William Gillette and his most famous role, Sherlock Holmes — has had to cut back on some of its weekday tours due to state budget issues, but the free live shows staged at the park by the East Haddam Stage Company on weekends have been spared. The half-hour show “William Gillette: Senator’s Son to Super Sleuth” stars Alex Kirstukas and Nicole Morin and is performed Saturdays and Sundays at 1 and 2:30 p.m. on the outdoor stage near the castle through Aug. 14. Details at www.ehsco.org.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Alex Kirstukas name and correct the web address for East Haddam Stage Company.
