Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret Theatre has four musicals and one play-with-music scheduled for its 2016-17 season: “Hairspray” Sept. 23-Oct. 16, “A Chorus Line” Nov. 18-Dec. 11, “Amadeus” Feb. 3-19, “Spring Awakening” March 10-April 2 and “In the Heights” April 28-May 21. The shows are presented by the Bridgeport Theatre Company, which was founded in 2010 and has been staging shows at Downtown Cabaret since 2012. The relationship between the DCT and the BTC was strengthened just last year by an official merger and more promotional opportunities.
The 2016-17 Downtown Cabaret season also offers children’s theater shows (“Hansel and Gretel” Oct. 8-30, “Frosty the Snowman” Nov. 12-Dec. 29, “Fancy Nancy” Jan. 7-Feb. 12, the pluralized “Little Red Riding Hoods” Feb. 25-April 2 and “Cinderella” April 15-May 21), plus a dizzying array of 14 tribute bands honoring everybody from Carole King (“Tapestry,” Sept. 18) to Styx (“Rockin’ the Paradise,” Nov. 12) to Huey Lewis and the News (“Power of Love,” March 4) to Bowie (“Star-Man,” June 3). Info at dtcab.com.
‘It’s True! It’s True! The Crown Has Made It Clear!’
Connecticut has seen some interesting King Arthurs in “Camelot.” New Haven’s Shubert alone had Richard Harris in 1985, Robert Goulet in 1993 and Lou Diamond Phillips in 2008, all on national tours of the legendary Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe musical. A youthful tour of “Camelot” that came to the Bushnell last year starred Troy Bruchwalski.
A new “Camelot” at Westport Country Playhouse Oct. 4-30 will star Robert Sean Leonard as Arthur. The production, described as a “reimagined version” of the medieval-monarchy musical, is directed by WCP Artistic Director Mark Lamos using David Lee’s scaled-down adaptation of Lerner’s script.
Judy, Judy, Judy
“Chasing Rainbows — The Road to Oz,” the new Judy Garland biomusical coming to the Goodspeed Opera House Sept. 16-Nov. 27, will star Ruby Rakos as the young Garland (aka Frances Gumm), with Kevin Earley and Sally Wilfert as her parents Frank and Ethel Gumm. Rakos starred in an earlier production of the show at the Flat Rock Playhouse in North Carolina. Earley co-starred in “Annie Get Your Gun” at Goodspeed in 2010.
Ella Briggs (Zuzu in the Goodspeed’s “A Wonderful Life” last season) will play Frances as a young child, with Piper Birney as her sister Virginia
Karen Mason, who was at the O’Neill Center in Waterford with her new cabaret act earlier this month, will appear in the show as the showbiz teacher Ma Lawlor.
Many Hollywood celebrities of the 1930s are characters in the show, including Mickey Rooney (played by Michael Wartella), Georgie Jessel (Gary Milner), Shirley Temple (Lea Mancarella), and studio boss Louis B. Mayer (Michael McCormick).
“Chasing Rainbows” has a book by Marc Acito (Broadway’s “Allegiance,” the comic novel “How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater”) and a score of pop standards (“Over the Rainbow” among them) adapted for the show by David Libby. Tyne Rafaeli, a protege of Bart Sher (she was associate director for his recent Broadway productions of “The King and I” and “Fiddler on the Roof”) whose other recent credits include the national tour of “The Bridges of Madison County,” “Pride and Prejudice” at the American Players Theatre and “Love’s Labor’s Lost” at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.
Living In ‘Fun Home’
Kate Shindle will be Alison, Abby Corrigan will be Medium Alison and Alessandra Baldacchino (and sometimes Carly Gold) will be Small Alison in the national tour of “Fun Home.” The tour begins in October and will be coming to The Bushnell in June 2017. The show’s Tony-winning Broadway production is scheduled to close Sept. 10.
The touring cast of “Fun Home” also features Robert Petkoff as Bruce Bechdel, Susan Moniz as Helen Bechdel, Karen Eilbacher as Joan, Robert Hager as Roy, Lennon Nate Hammond as John and Pierson Salvador as Christian.
Shindle is the current president of the Actors Equity union. She was crowned Miss America in 1998 and wrote about the experience in a 2014 memoir subtitled “Behind the Rhinestone Curtain.” Her Broadway credits include the 1998 revival of “Cabaret.” In 2004, she starred in a concert version of Frank Wildhorn’s “Jekyll & Hyde” at Mohegan Sun Casino, an event which turned into a national tour and a CD.
Petkoff is still well-remembered in Hartford for playing Romeo (opposite Calista Flockhart’s Juliet) at Hartford Stage back in 1995. He was in the Broadway production of the “All the Way” and recent New York revivals of “Anything Goes” and “The Thirty-Nine Steps.”
‘Cinderella’ Returns
Tatyana Lubov is Cinderella and Hayden Stanes is Prince Topher in the second national tour of “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.” The first national tour played the Bushnell last
season, and was an Equity (union) affair. This latest go-round, a non-Equity production, will make two stops in Connecticut: Nov. 11-13 at the Shubert in New Haven and Feb. 24-26 at the Palace in Waterbury.
Also in the cast: Leslie Jackson as the fairy godmother, Sarah Primmer as the wicked stepmother, Joanna Johnson and Mimi Robinson as the stepsisters (one of whom isn’t all that wicked), Vincent Davis as the devious Lord Pinkleton, Ryan M. Hunt as Sebastian and Chris Woods as the rebel Jean-Michel. Gina Rattan directs the tour. The 2013 Broadway production (extensively revised by playwright Douglas Carter Beane from the 1957 written-for-TV musical) was directed by Mark Brokaw.
Bierko Hits ‘Meteor’
Craig Bierko will be in the cast of Steve Martin’s new play “Meteor Shower” when it comes to the Long Wharf Theatre Sept. 21-Oct. 16.
“Meteor Shower” is a world premiere, but it’s also a co-production. The comedy, directed by Long Wharf Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein, is now running at the Old Globe in San Diego, where it’s been extended through Sept. 7. That’s just two weeks before it begins performances at the Long Wharf.
Bierko will take over the role of Gerald played at the Old Globe by Josh Stamberg. The play concerns “two married couples who gather to watch a celestial event.”
A Long Wharf spokesman, when asked about casting changes, said “None of the cast will be coming over from the San Diego production.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda Update
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the “Hamilton” creator/star and esteemed Wesleyan University grad, will be the new host of the PBS documentary series “Fall Festival.” The Friday night broadcasts will begin Oct. 21 with the eagerly awaited “Hamilton’s America,” which is about Miranda’s creative process and features extensive footage from “Hamilton” on Broadway.
“Fall Festival” encompasses episodes of “Great Performances,” “Live from Lincoln Center” and other programs, and will include “Gypsy” (starring Imelda Staunton), a star-studded British tribute to Shakespeare, Bill Murray receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater retrospective.
Miranda is also writing new songs for the live-action “Little Mermaid” movie remake (in collaboration with composer Alan Menken), is scheduled to co-star in the film “Mary Poppins Returns” with Emily Blunt, released the charity single “Love Make the World Go Round” with Jennifer Lopez in July, appeared in an Aug. 16 episode of the Hulu series “Difficult People,” will receive a Ceiba Award from Chicago’s National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture on Sept. 22, has songs in the animated film “Moana” (out in November), has a role in the upcoming film version of Stephen Karam’s comedy “Speech and Debate” … and please don’t make us list all the magazine covers.
