“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date,” according to a Shakespeare sonnet. The Bard of Avon is well represented on the summer theater schedule, but so are many contemporary playwrights and composers, from Kander and Ebb to Yorkey and Kitt.
Art & Our Ladies: The International Festival of Arts & Ideas eases us from the school year into summer vacation time, running June 11-25 at venues in and around downtown New Haven. One of the highlights of the 21st annual fest is about small-town Scottish schoolgirls going wild on a choir trip to the big city. Created by the National Theater of Scotland and written by Lee Hall (“Billy Elliot”), “Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour” was a hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival; the Arts & Ideas booking is the show’s U.S. premiere.
‘Take A Card, Any Card’ Meets Strip Poker: Following in the (bare) footsteps of “Puppetry of the Penis” and the end of the first act of “Hair,” “The Naked Magic Show” literally has nothing up its sleeve — or down its pants, or involving any clothes at all. The internationally touring (or would that be streaking?) sensation, starring the exhibitionist Australian prestidigitators played New London in April, but seems better suited (or unsuited, in another sense) to summertime. “The Naked Magic Show” June 30 and July 1 at The Bushnell. 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. 860-987-5900, bushnell.org.
‘If/Then’ When?: The fall theater season starts a few weeks early this year, when the first national tour of the new musical “If/Then” comes to the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford (860-987-5900, bushnell.org Aug. 3-7. The show is about fresh starts and paths not taken, imagining two possible scenarios in the life of a divorced woman who begins life anew in New York City. “If/Then” is the creation of librettist Brian Yorkey, composer Tom Kitt and director Michael Greif — the same team that was behind “Next to Normal,” which was at The Bushnell in 2011. It will be done at Hartford’s TheaterWorks next spring, and has had several small-theater productions around the state.
Clay & Wattles, Moss & Zorba: The Clay & Wattles Theater Company stages a summer season at The Gary-The Olivia Theater on the grounds of the Abbey of Regina Laudis, 249 Flanders Road in Bethlehem (thegarytheolivia.com). Usually Clay & Wattles does a play and a musical. This year brings two intriguing adaptations: “Act One,” James Lapine’s stage version of the theatrical memoir by early 20th-century Broadway playwright and director Moss Hart, June 10-19; and the musical “Zorba,” based on the Nikos Kazantzakis novel with music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb (“Cabaret,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman”), July 30 through Aug. 14. The season ends Sept. 17-25 with “The Fantasticks.” (The company is shown here in a recent production of “The Man of La Mancha”). Another small theater in a bucolic Connecticut town, The Ivoryton Playhouse (103 Main St., Ivoryton; ivorytonplayhouse.org), is doing a different Kander/Ebb musical this summer — “Chicago,” June 29 through July 24 — followed by “Rent” Aug. 3-28.
Elm Shakespeare & Company: The Elm Shakespeare Company (elmshakespeare.org) has been staging outdoor shows in Edgerton Park, on the border of New Haven and Hamden every summer for 20 years. This year marks a turning point, since ESC’s founding Artistic Director James Andreassi left the company last year. The new producing artistic director, Rebecca Goodheart, has enlisted the renowned Tina Packer of Shakespeare & Company to direct Elm Shakespeare’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Aug. 18 through Sept. 4.(The photo here is from ESC’s production “Julius Caesar.”) Other outdoor Shakespeares this summer include Capital Classics’ Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival production of “Othello” July 14-31 on the University of St. Joseph campus in West Hartford and Connecticut Free Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” in Bridgeport (dates and location to be announced).
’60s Old And New: Goodspeed Musicals (goodspeed.org) has a classic 1960s musical — the Elvismania parody “Bye Bye Birdie” — at its Goodspeed Opera House June 24 through Sept. 4. Then it has “A Sign of the Times,” subtitled “A New ’60s Musical” and featuring pop hits made famous by Elvis (“If I Can Dream”), Petula Clark (“I Know a Place”), Fontella Bass (“Rescue Me”), Dobie Gray (“The In Crowd”) and Betty Everett (“The Shoop Shoop Song”) at the Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre in Chester July 29 through Sept. 4. The show is scripted by comedy writer and erstwhile “Hollywood Squares” icon Bruce Vilanch (in photo), and directed by Gabriel Barre.
