Some Shakespeare, a touch of Stoppard and then things get really Wilder (Thornton, that is). That’s just some of the major writers whose works will highlight a busy stage season on Connecticut. Throw in a new musical at Goodspeed, a new comedy by a writer/producer of “The Simpsons” and a dash of Pinter and Sontag for intellectuals and you have something for all theater tastes.
Smart and sexy: Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven (Oct. 3 to 25). When Stoppard visited New Haven last week he said: “I don’t have a hidden agenda. My plays are about what they seem to be about.” So what’s “Arcadia” about? Sex, jealousy and a startling scientific discovery that leaps over two centuries in a play that is one of Stoppard’s best. Info: www.yalerep.org.
Life goes on and on and on: Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven (Oct. 8 to Nov. 2). Grover’s Corners looks like New Haven, or at least the folks who will be populating the stage at Long Wharf, which launches its 50th anniversary with this American classic by one of its hometown writers. The cast is made up entirely of actors who have tread the theater’s boards over the many decades. Info: www.longwharf.org.
To go or not to go? Go. William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at Hartford Stage. (Oct. 16 to Nov. 16). Say Darko Tresnjak, you’ve just won a Tony Award for directing, so what’s next? How about directing the most famous (arguably) play ever? Info: www.hartfordstage.org.
Old Hollywood in East Haddam: “Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn” at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam (Sept. 19 to Dec. 7). Universal Pictures is trying its hand at making a new stage work based on one of its film musicals. But will there be life beyond Bing (and I don’t mean the search engine)? Info: www.goodspeed.org.
Better than Project Runway: Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” at Westport Country Playhouse. (Oct. 7 to Nov. 1). Hartford Stage vet Mary Robinson directs the popular play centering on a young African-American woman who travels to New York in 1905 to pursue her dreams of becoming an independent woman as a seamstress, stitching elaborate corsets and negligees in her boarding house bedroom and discovering as you sew, so shall you reap. Info: www.westportplayhouse.org.
Sometimes, you just gotta laugh: Mike Reiss’ “Comedy Is Hard” at Ivoryton Playhouse in Essex. Micky Dolenz (ex-Monkee) and Joyce DeWitt (TV’s “Three’s Company”) star in a new comedy about comedy from writer/producer of “The Simpsons” and writer of the yuk-fest “I’m Connecticut” (Sept. 24 to Oct. 12). Info: www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.
An epic tale told intimately: “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford. (Oct. 1 to 19). The theater begins its season with an ambitious socio-political epic: The first part of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama about AIDS, sex, drag queens, Roy Cohn, heaven, Mormons — and America. And a fine time to take another look at the play that shook America, 20 years later. Info: www.playhouseonpark.org
Singing paperboys and unionizing the press, I love it: National tour of “Newsies” at Place Theater in Waterbury (Oct. 23 to 25). The movie was a box office bomb when it first came out but it later turned into a cult fave. But the stage musical was a smash, with extraordinary choreography that earned it a Tony Award. And a great show for the kids, especially boys. Info: www.palacetheaterct.org.
Hold for the pause, please: Julian Sands stars in “A Celebration of Harold Pinter” at Fairfield University’s Quick Center for the Arts. (Oct. 17). John Malkovich directs Sands’ personal tribute to the passionate, opinionated, and enigmatic Nobel Prize-winning writer. Personal anecdotes, reflections, poems and political prose make up the show, which was nominated for a 2013 Drama Desk Award. Info: www.fairfield.edu.
Trailer trash: Sharr White’s “Annapurna” at TheaterWorks in Hartford. (Oct. 3 to Nov. 9). Debra Jo Rupp (“Becoming Dr. Ruth”) and Vasili Bogazianos star in new play by the writer of last season’s devastating “The Other Place.” A woman unexpectedly visits her ex in his trailer home in the middle of nowhere and together they come to grips with love and loss. Info: www.theaterworkshartford.org.
Also of note: “Sontag Reborn” by The Builder’s Association at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts in Middletown (Oct. 2); New York-based Neo Futurists presents “The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill, Volume II at, fittingly, the O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford (Oct. 24); the season kicks off at the Yale Cabaret in New Haven with Emily Zemba’s “Look Up, Speak Nicely, And Don’t Twiddle Your Fingers All the Time” (Sept. 18); Michael Bradford’s “Olives and Blood” at Connecticut Repertory Theatre on the UConn campus in Storrs (Oct. 2 to 12); “Evita” is at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford (Sept. 23 to 28); and a special evening is slated with “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz and “Wicked” novelist Gregory Maguire at the Bushnell, moderated by me (Oct. 21), followed by a return engagement of “Wicked” at the Bushnell (Nov. 5 to 23).
