The score of “Chasing Rainbows” is made up of popular songs from the 1920s and 1930s. Some of the tunes (“Swing, Mr. Mendelssohn,” “Meet the Beat of My Heart”) will be deliciously obscure for today’s theatergoers, sounding new to everyone but hardcore Judy Garland fans.
Other songs have been so ubiquitous for so long that they’ve been covered by an extraordinarily wide range of artists. The show’s title song “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” for instance, was featured on Alice Cooper’s 1976 album “Goes to Hell.” “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart” was recorded by the The Coasters, The Trammps, Smoking Popes and many others.
“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” was done by Mickey and Minnie Mouse in 1931 and Marlene Dietrich in 1965. And “Over the Rainbow” has been an R&B hit for Patti LaBelle, a rockabilly hit for the British band Matchbox, a pop hit for Cliff Richards, a punk curiosity by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, sung on film by Jimmy Stewart and on TV by the cast of “Glee.”
O’Neill’s Honors
The Eugene O’Neill Center in Waterford received its National Medal of Arts on Sept. 22.
Most media coverage made it seem like all the other awardees that day were upstaged by Mel Brooks (who comically buckled his knees when Obama hung the heavy medal around his neck), but if you watch the video of the ceremonies at c-span.org, it’s really quite respectful.
In that ceremony, the O’Neill Center was noted for “its unwavering support of American theater. For more than 50 years, the O’Neill Theater Center has nurtured award-winning playwrights, directors, and actors, enriched the craft of stage production, and delighted audiences with exceptional programs.”
Later that day, the center’s Executive Director Preston Whiteway released a statement: “Today the President of the United States recognized the value of discovery and support of artists at the beginning of their career. The O’Neill pioneered many art forms and continues to each year. I’m grateful to the artists, students, staff, trustees, and O’Neill Center family who has nurtured and sustained this wonderful place through decades. This Medal belongs to all of us… “
The O’Neill runs a year-round National Theater Institute training program. Every summer it hosts national conferences for playwrights, musical theater creators, puppeteers and cabaret artists, featuring dozens of public performances. The new-work development isn’t restricted to summertime. On Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m., the New York-based Wacka Wacka troupe will be there as part of the Jim Henson Foundation Residency. The performance (which incorporates puppetry, clowning, masks and music) is free and open to the public. Details at theoneill.org.
From Elia To Elvis
What else is Sarah Ruhl working on, now that she’s had two major premieres this year? How about a new musical based on the political satire “A Face in the Crowd,” with Elvis Costello as her collaborator. The playwright is basing her script on the original Budd Schulberg short story as well as the screenplay Schulberg did for the 1957 Elia Kazan film (starring Andy Griffith). Ruhl says she’d worked on a different musical with Costello a few years ago, but they gave up on the project when too many similarly themed shows started appearing. That theme was “Memphis.”
Besides dozens of pop albums, Costello has written several film and TV soundtracks, as well as the Shakespeare-themed classical song cycle “The Juliet Letters.” Costello and his band The Imposters are playing at the Oakdale in Wallingford Nov. 5.
Ruhl’s “For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday” played at both the Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre earlier this year. Her “Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince” is at the Yale Rep Sept. 30 through Oct. 22.
Reading ‘Richard II’
The West Hartford-based Shakespeare Book Club hopes to get through all eight of The Bard’s “War of the Roses” plays, one per month, starting Monday, Oct. 3. The 7 p.m. Book Club Talk on “Richard II” is preceded by a 3 p.m. screening of a film version of the play. The club meets at the Noah Webster Library, 20 South Main St. in West Hartford.
Copies of Shakespeare’s play are easy to find at just about any public library. Just don’t go looking for the First Folio at UConn’s Benton Museum; the three-week display of that historic edition ended Sunday.
The REGI Mantle
This year’s Regional Initiative Arts Grant — known as the REGI grants, though acronymically it really should be RIAG — were bestowed earlier this month by nine of the state’s arts councils (or similar arts-supporting organizations). The list serves as a teaser for local arts projects in development around Connecticut. Here are the theatrically inclined beneficiaries, and who picked ’em:
Chosen by the Greater Hartford Arts Council: Toots and Sliders Musical Tales ($4,000), Spectrum in Motion Dance Theater Ensemble ($2,825 for “Stretching for Life — A Celebration”), Hartford Opera Theater ($3,725 to perform Copland’s “The Tender Land”), The Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society ($3,725 for the original theater piece “West Hartford Hauntings”).
Chosen by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven: A Broken Umbrella Theatre ($4,000), Collective Consciousness Theatre ($4,000).
Chosen by the Arts & Culture Collaborative, Waterbury Region: Arts Escape Inc. ($4,000 for “Telling Their Stories”), Connecticut Summer Opera Foundation and Connecticut Lyric Opera ($1,500 to “produce a fully stage opera”) and Middlebury Public Library ($4,000 for the “Page to Stage” program).
Chosen by Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County: Bridgeport Public Schools (For “Encore” ballet classes and performances), Liz Squillace ($3,807 for public art on a stairway outside the Downtown Cabaret Theatre).
Chosen by the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut: Joanne Hudson ($3,830 for a reading of the play “Sisters”), Kate Katcher/Stray Kats Theatre Company ($3,542 for “Still Crazy After All These Years — A Senior Festival”).
Chosen by the Northwest Connecticut Arts Council: The Desultory Theatre Club ($3,698 for a performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), Regional One School District ($3,698 for a “Using Musical Theatre to Bring Generations Together”), Sing Out! Connecticut ($3,698 for “Amahl and the Night Visitors”).
Chosen by Shoreline Arts Alliance: Madison Lyric Stage ($4,000 for Verdi’s “Otello”), Macdonough Elementary School ($2,500 for the Macdonough Playwrights Community), ARTFARM ($3,200 for the Artfarm Community Ensemble), Starship Dance Theater ($3,200 for “The Magic Toyshop”).
Chosen by Southeastern Connecticut Cultural Coalition: Norwich Public Schools ($3,726 for the Kelly Middle School Playwright Project).
Seems that if it weren’t for the REGIs, there’d be a lot fewer operas and playreadings happening in Connecticut.
Pre-Show Announcement Of The Week
“Please silence all cellphones, pagers — and small children. … Do the baby have a phone?!”
The vivacious trio of Crystal, Chiffon and Ronette (Cherise Clarke, Brandi Porter and Famecia Ward) taking notice of a crying child in the audience at the beginning of a performance of “Little Shop of Horrors” at Playhouse on Park.
