Who’s living in “Oklahoma!”? The cast of the Goodspeed Opera House revival of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical includes Rhett Guter as Curly McLain, Samantha Bruce as Laurey Williams, Terry Burrell (from “Swinging on a Star” at Goodspeed and on Broadway) as Aunt Eller, Jake Swain as Will Parker, Gizel Jimenez (from “Theory of Relativity” at Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theater in 2015) as Ado Annie, C. Mingo Long as Andrew Carnes and Matthew Curiano (who was in the “Camelot” tour that played The Bushnell in 2014) as Ali Hakim. Matt Faucher, seen recently as one of the Righteous Brothers (and many other people) at The Bushnell in the national tour of “Beautiful,” is Jud Fry. Oh, and nearly 20 other people, in jeans and flannel shirts.
“Oklahoma!” is directed by Jenn Thompson, for whom Rhett Guter gyrated as Conrad Birdie in last summer’s Goodspeed production of “Bye Bye Birdie.” The set design is by Wilson Chin, who designed “Anything Goes” for Goodspeed, “Next to Normal” for TheaterWorks and “Abundance” for Hartford Stage. Costumes are by frequent Goodspeed designer Tracy Christensen (“City of Angels,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Red, Hot and Blue!”), who is represented on Broadway right now with “Sunset Boulevard.”
The show plays July 14 through Sept. 23. When “Oklahoma!” first played Connecticut it was called “Away We Go!” It had its premiere at New Haven’s Shubert Theatre in 1943. goodspeed.org.
LaChiusa Live
Michael John LaChiusa, live and in person, is a late addition to the 30th Connecticut LGBT Film Festival happening in Hartford. The celebrated musical theater and opera composer (“Marie Christine,” “The Wild Party”) will take part in a post-screening talkback of the movie version of his musical “Hello Again,” alongside the film’s director, Tom Gustafson, its writer/editor/producer, Cory Krueckeberg, and actor Al Calderon. The screening is 7:30 p.m. June 7 at Cinestudio.
“Hello Again” is based on the 1897 Arthur Schnitzler sex drama “La Ronde.” LaChiusa’s musical version has had two off Broadway runs, in 1994 and 2011. The film stars Audra McDonald, Martha Plimpton, Cheyenne Jackson, T.R. Knight and Jenna Ushkowitz.
Ping Chong At Wesleyan
The Wesleyan University Center for the Arts’ eclectic summer season will include the New England premiere of Ping Chong + Company’s performance piece “Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity,” 7:30 p.m. July 13 at the center’s CFA Theater. According to a press release, “Beyond Sacred” tells the stories of five real-life “young Muslim Americans, from a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, coming of age in New York City at a time of increasing hostility towards, and violence against, Muslims in the United States.” The company will also participate in a talkback following the hour-long performance. 860-685-3355, wesleyan/edu/cfa.
Storming The Palace
The Palace Theatre in Waterbury has added some events to its 2017-18 schedule that straddle the line between concerts and theater shows. “One Night in Memphis” (Oct. 14) features impersonations of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash by men who portrayed those same legendary figures in the musical “Million Dollar Quartet.” “Price is Right Live!” (Oct. 18) is a stage version of the long-running TV game show. “Rain” (Feb. 16) is the Beatles tribute act that makes considerable use of costumes, lighting and projections, and has actually played on Broadway.
“Broadway’s Rock of Ages — The Concert” (March 3) is a classic rock show set by the pit band from Broadway’s “Rock of Ages.” “Rhythm of the Dance,” the “Riverdance” rip-off that’s been touring internationally since 1998, comes to the Palace March 14. “We’ve Only Just Begun,” a tribute to Connecticut-born soft-rock superstars The Carpenters, is there May 8.
Tickets for these shows go on sale June 12. Also on sale that day: tickets for a genuine Broadway musical at the Palace, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” This is the second time “A Gentleman’s Guide” has visited Connecticut on tour. It premiered at Hartford Stage in 2012. 203-346-2000, palacetheaterct.org
Let Us Talk About ‘Lettice And Lovage’
Westport Country Playhouse’s first Sunday Symposium event of its 2017 season follows the 3 p.m. performance of “Lettice and Lovage” on June 4. . It’s a discussion of the play’s author, Peter Shaffer, who also wrote “Amadeus” and “Equus” and who died in 2016. WCP’s Associate Artistic Director David Kennedy is joined by Shaffer authority Alan Pally, who produces the performance and lecture series for the New York Public Library.
“Lettice and Lovage” stars Kandis Chappell (the nurse in “Romeo and Juliet” last year at Hartford Stage), Mia Dillon (fresh from her triumph as Edward/Betty in Hartford Stage’s “Cloud Nine”), Sarah Manton and Paxton Whitehead. Shaffer wrote “Lettice and Lovage,” about the unusual friendship between two women who share a love for British history, in 1987 for Maggie Smith to star in. The first U.S. tour, which kicked off at the Shubert in New Haven in 1992, starred Julie Harris and Roberta Maxwell.
Your CD Collection
The Broadway cast album of the musical “Holiday Inn” will be released June 15 on Ghostlight Records. The musical (set in Connecticut and based on the 1942 Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire film) premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in 2014. The Broadway transfer, which ended its limited run in January of this year, had a different cast than the Goodspeed production, but the same director (Gordon Greenberg) and choreographer (Denis Jones, who just directed and choreographed the Goodspeed’s current offering, “Thoroughly Modern Millie”). Among the 20-plus Irving Berlin ditties on the soundtrack: “Steppin’ Out With My Baby,” “Easter Parade,” “Blue Skies,” “White Christmas,” “Shaking the Blues Away” and “Be Careful, It’s My Heart.”
“Holiday Inn” will not have a national tour. Regional productions have already being readied. One is scheduled for the 5th Ave. Theater in Seattle, Washington, this November.
Details on the soundtrack at sh-k-boom.com/holiday-inn.
In other Broadway CD news, the “2017 Tony Award Season” album will be released June 9, two days before the Tony Awards are broadcast on TV. The compilation includes songs from a number of Connecticut-groomed shows: “Journey to the Past” from “Anastasia” (which premiered at Hartford Stage), “Shaking the Blues Away” from “Holiday Inn” (which premiered at Goodspeed), “Me and the Sky” from “Come From Away” (which had a developmental reading at Goodspeed), “Deep Beneath the City/Not There Yet” from “In Transit” (which was workshopped at the O’Neill Center) and “The Baseball Game” from “Falsettos” (which owes a debt to Hartford Stage’s original combining of two short William Finn musicals).
Also on the disk: songs from “Dear Evan Hansen” (co-written by Fairfield-raised Justin Paul), “Sunset Boulevard,” “Amelie,” “A Bronx Tale,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812,” “Groundhog Day,” “Bandstand,” “Miss Saigon” and “Cats.” That’s a solid sonic scrapbook from a refreshingly full and diverse Broadway season.
