Hartford Stage’s season-ending production of George Bernard Shaw’s “Heartbreak House” will star British actor Miles Anderson as the imperious Captain Shotover, alongside Dani de Waal as Ellie Dunn, Mary VanArsdel as Nurse Guinness, Tessa Auberjonois as Lady Utterword, Charlotte Parry as Hesione Hushabye, Keith Reddin as Mazzini Dunn, Stephen Barker Turner as Hector Hushabye, Andrew Long as Boss Mangan and Grant Goodman as Randall Utterword. That’s an accomplished bunch of actors, the type who can handle both classics and modern works.
You might remember Turner from Yale Rep’s “Arcadia,” or Long from Hartford Stage’s “Hamlet,” or VanArsdel from the national tour of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” (Wearing his playwright hat, Reddin adapted “Rear Window” for Hartford Stage last year.) Bodes well for a production that director/set designer Darko Tresnjak hopes will have some contemporary political relevance. The classic play, about a family maneuvering massive social change, was placed on the Hartford Stage schedule when the announced production of a different Shaw play, “Saint Joan,” proved unfeasible for this season.
None of these performers, by the way, were in the production of “Heartbreak House” Tresnjak did for Boston’s Huntington Theatre in 2002. The designers are different, too: Colin McGurk is doing the sets, Ilona Somogyi the costumes, Matthew Richards the lighting Jane Shaw the sound. Details at hartfordstage.org.
Deathless, Where Is Thy Casting?
“Deathless,” the first of the three world-premiere musicals to grace Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre in Chester this summer, will star Jennifer Damiano (Broadway’s “Spring Awakening,” “American Psycho” and “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”), Sean Allan Krill (off-Broadway’s “Joan of Arc: Into the Fire”), Johnny Shea (a Connecticut native), Kelli Barrett (“Doctor Zhivago,” “Wicked”) and Jessica Phillips (“Leap of Faith”). “Deathless,” with book, music and lyrics all by Zack Zadek, is directed by Tina Landau, the acclaimed New York director whose Connecticut credits include “A Civil War Christmas” at Long Wharf and “Good Goods” at Yale Rep. Details at goodspeed.org.
Upstanding Stand-Outs
The Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the national theater union Stage Directors and Choreographers Society puts out an interesting list every year of “Top Ten Stand-Out Moments” from the theater season. It encompasses not just Broadway, but all aspects of professional theater. The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center is mentioned on the 2016-17 Stand-Out Moments as part of the alliance that established the National Directors Fellowship.
The founders of the national political action The Ghostlight Project, which Connecticut celebrated in force, were also acknowledged. Writers and directors on the SDC list who’ve worked at regional theaters in the state include Chay Yew and Bill Rauch. Wendy Goldberg of the O’Neill Center and Mark Lamos from Westport Country Playhouse were on the committee that selected the moments. The full list is at sdcweb.org/diversity-inclusion.
O’Neill Announcements
The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center has announced the plays it will be developing at its two main summer conferences. These are artist retreats for works-in-progress, with public readings of the scripts held for all us theater-process geeks.
It’s sometimes hard to get too worked up about a title and a brief description, but how about this one? “Home Street Home,” a new musical about “survival and self-realization among teenagers living on the streets … based on the true stories of the authors’ experiences of homelessness and punk culture.” Those authors? Fat Mike of the exalted L.A indie punk band NOFX, adult film star/dominatrix Soma Snakeoil, “Avenue Q” co-creator Jeff Marx and writer/lyricist David Goldsmith. “Home Street Home” opens the National Music Theatre Conference in late June, followed by “Illa! A Hip Hop Musical” by Ronvé O’Daniel and Javares Mynck and “Superhero” by John (“Red”) Logan and Tom (“Next to Normal”) Kitt.
The National Playwrights Conference, in July, features six plays: the generational drama “We Are Among Us” by Stephen (“Tape”) Belber; the immigrant saga “Queens” by Yale School of Drama grad Martyna Majok; the basketball-recruitment story “Exposure” by Steve DiUbaldo; “Title IX,” the final installment of Elaine Romero’s trilogy of plays set along the U.S./Mexico border; Adam Esquenazi Douglas’ musing on sobriety, “The One ATM in Antarctica”; “Black Super Hero Magic Mama” by Inda Craig-Galvan; and “Assisted Living” by Michael Tucker (yeah, the “L.A. Law” actor and accomplished playwright.) The 2017 NPC Writer in Residence (who will be at the conference but whose work will not have a reading) is producer/children’s book author Devlin Elliott. Details at theoneill.org.
‘Anastasia’ Up for Awards
“Anastasia” amassed more Outer Critics Circle nominations than any other Broadway musical this season: 13, including nods for Outstanding New Broadway Musical, Outstanding Book of a Musical (Terrence McNally), Outstanding New Score (Stephen Flaherty/Lynn Ahrens), Outstanding Director (Darko Tresnjak), Outstanding Set Design (Alexander Dodge), Outstanding Costume Design (Linda Cho), Outstanding Lighting Design (Donald Holder), Outstanding Projection Design (Aaron Rhyne), Outstanding Orchestrations (Doug Besterman), Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Christy Altomare as Anastasia), Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (John Bolton as Vlad) and two for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical: Mary Beth Peil (the Dowager Empress) and Caroline O’Connor (Countess Lily). Outstanding!
Do we really need to remind you here that “Anastasia” had its world premiere at Hartford Stage a year ago, and that this is the second musical that the theater has sent to Broadway under Tresnjak?
Some other Outer Critics nominations with Connecticut connections: Playwright Paula Vogel and director Rebecca Taichman for the Yale-Rep-groomed “Indecent” (also up for New Broadway Play, Tal Yarden’s Projection Design and Featured Actor Richard Topol); “Come From Away” (nominated for New Broadway Musical, Book, Score, Director, Choreographer, Sound Design and Featured Actress) which had a Goodspeed reading early in its development process; and “Holiday Inn,” which premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House and earned noms for choreographer Denis Jones and orchestrator Larry Blank.
Give Greatly
Great Scott! Great Caesar’s Ghost! Great horny toads! This week is The Great Give, an annual “community philanthropy” marathon which has been hosted by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven since 2010. It spurs fundraising for hundreds of non-profit organizations through incentives, awards, bonuses and old-fashioned peer pressure. Donations made between 8 a.m. May 2 and 8 p.m. May 3, to the non-profits listed at thegreatgive.org website are enhanced with matching funds, and organizations get further enriched if they do well in “Most Money Raised,” “Greatest Number of New Donors” and other categories.
Several dozen of the approved Great Give beneficiaries are theater-related, including Elm Shakespeare Company, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the Shubert Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Center Stage Theatre, Projects for a New Millennium, Whitney Players, Yale Repertory Theatre, Elm City Dance Collective, Pantochino Productions, A Broken Umbrella Theatre, Legacy Theatre, Backyard Theater Ensemble and Square Foot Theatre Company. Hartford’s Real Art Ways is also on the list.
