HartBeat Ensemble is reviving its locally rooted, socially relevant “Christmas Carol” adaptation “Ebeneeza: A Hartford Holiday Carol” after five years on hiatus. Debra Walsh returns in the title role. This is the first time “Ebeneeza” has been done since HartBeat took the Carriage House on Farmington Avenue as its year-round home, and the first time since the show’s (and the company’s) co-creator Greg Tate died from cancer in 2012.
“Ebeneeza: A Hartford Holiday Carol” haunts HartBeat Ensemble, 260 Farmington Ave., Hartford, Dec. 1 to 11, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. $25, $20 for students, seniors and Let’s Go Arts. 860-548-9144 and hartbeatensemble.org.
Everybody Say Yeah!
The national tour of Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein’s musical “Kinky Boots” has already played Connecticut twice — at Hartford’s Bushnell in June 2015 and at New Haven’s Shubert a year later. It will be at the Palace in Waterbury for eight performances Dec. 6 to 11.
The cast is the same as at the Shubert: J. Harrison Ghee as the London drag queen Lola; Adam Kaplan as Charlie Price, who hopes to save his family’s shoe factory by creating a line of fashionable boots for the transgender community; and Tiffany Engen as the ever-supportive, lovestruck factory worker Lauren.
Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. 100 E. Main St., Waterbury. Tickets are $64.50-$94.50. 203-346-2000 and palacetheaterct.org.
The Turkey Trot
French farceur Georges Feydeau wrote “Le Dindon” 120 years ago. In 1993, the comedy was adapted by the British director Peter Hall and his wife Nicki Frei for a popular production at London’s Globe Theatre.
Connecticut Repertory Theatre has enlisted Brooks Brantly and John Leonard Thompson to appear in its rendition of this riotous and ribald show about adulterous spouses, “An Absolulte Turkey,” Dec. 1 to 10 at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, 2132 Hillside Road, Storrs. Tickets are $30, $21 for the Dec. 1 preview. 860-486-2113 and crt.uconn.edu.
Accordion Chamber Opera
The Wesleyan Center for the Arts is hosting the New England premiere of Elliott Sharp’s “Port Bou — A Chamber Opera” Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 9 p.m. The plot concerns the critic/philosopher Walter Benjamin at the end of his life, exiled in Catalonia after fleeing Germany and France during World War II.
“Port Bou” is scored for accordion, piano and “pre-recorded electroacoustic music.” Composer/performer Sharp is coming to Wesleyan just after completing a European tour. Bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood sings the piece, which includes a projection design by Janene Higgins. Admission is free. At the Ring Family Performing Arts Hall (aka CFA Hall), 283 Washington Terrace, Middletown. 860-685-3355 and wesleyan.edu/cfa.
They Sing It On Mulberry Street
Curtain Call, Inc. has had regular success with the seasonal comedy “A Very Mulberry Street Musical,” set in New York’s Little Italy in the mid-1940s. The show, with songs by Jeffrey Lodin and William Squier, is about to have its fifth production at the theater.
“A Very Mulberry Street Musical” features characters first seen in the 1935 Broadway show “Moon Over Mulberry Street” by Nicholas Cosentino, but is based on an adaptation of that show by Albert Pia simply called “Mulberry Street.” The cast of a popular 1939 Stamford production of the original “Moon Over Mulberry Street” included the father and uncle of Lou Ursone, who is the executive director of Curtain Call and also plays Piccini Morello in “A Very Mulberry Street Musical.”
The show runs Dec. 1 to 17, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. At the Dressing Room Theatre, 1349 Newfield Ave., Stamford. Tickets are $25, $16 for students. 203-461-6358 and curtaincallinc.com
