Cocktails at Goodspeed
Goodspeed Musicals creates special drinks in honor of each musical it stages. Often the cocktails (available in the theater’s ground-floor bar area, whose outdoor balcony overlooks the gorgeous Connecticut River) are simply named for characters in the show. In the case of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” they had more to work with.
The loving parody of old-school musicals is set during the Depression, and one whole comedy routine is based around illicit vodka being furtively referred to as “a glass of ice water.” In the show, this leads to a succession of what vaudeville performers call “spit takes.” At the bar, it has led to a drink known as “A Glass of Ice Water,” which is in fact a vodka martini. A “Toledo Surprise,” named for “The Drowsy Chaperone”’s big full-cast dance number, is otherwise known as a Whiskey Sour. For kids, Shirley Temple is now “The Aviatrix” and Roy Rogers has become “The Best Man.”
The Goodspeed also sells bottled water near the front door of the theater during intermission. They have not renamed that water “A Bottle of Vodka.”
Celebrating a legacy
Branford’s Legacy Theatre company, which is in the process of renovating and reopening the historic Stony Creek Puppet House near the Thimble Islands, has announced a series of performances “highlighting the history” of that renowned building. The Stony Creek Theatre is where the 1930s hit “Death Takes a Holiday” premiered, and where Orson Welles made his first film (an abstract short intended as part of his production of the curiously titled comedy “Too Much Johnson”).
The series, which will be held at the Stony Creek Museum a few blocks from the theater building, begins Nov. 2 and 3 with “A Grand Legacy: Stony Creek Theater History Through Song and Story,” followed by a Dec. 14-15 “golden age of radio”-style performance of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” Feb. 15-16, George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” March 15-16, Connecticut playwright Joe Landry’s script “The Wicked Stage” (about Orson Welles’ time in Branford) April 5-6, a children’s theater production of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” May 17-18, Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” (based on a George S. Kaufman/Moss Hart play that was staged at Stony Creek in 1936) June 6-8 and two original revues: “Stars, Stripes and Quarries” July 11-13 and “Past, Present, Future: an overview of the Stony Creek Theatre’s songs, stories and dances from 1866 to the present.” Details at legacytheatrect.org.
‘The Inheritance’ a hit in London
“The Inheritance” opened in London’s West End on Oct. 13. The play is a seven-hour epic by Matthew Lopez, and was originally commissioned by Hartford Stage, which has staged Lopez’s “The Whipping Man,” “Somewhere” and “Reverberation.” Hartford Stage’s associate artistic director Elizabeth Williamson has been actively involved with “The Inheritance” as its dramaturg. She was working on the production in London in August while simultaneously dramaturging “Make Believe” at Hartford Stage and preparing to direct “Henry V,” which is running now at Hartford Stage (through Nov. 11).
The play is inspired by the E.M. Forster novel “Howards End” but set in early 21st century New York City. The reviews have been rapturous, with many critics comparing “The Inheritance” to Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America.”
The Times of London critic Dominic Maxwell found that “The Inheritance” had “characters who are flawed, fascinating, funny, self-aware and self-destructive in a way more lifelike than theatre normally has the skill or the space to manage.” David Nice of The Arts Desk says Lopez’s new play is “To be seen, and not just for the sake of it.” Fiona Mountford in The Evening Standard wrote “This is a work of rare grace, truth and beauty and is undoubtedly this century’s answer to Angels in America — and then some.” Frey Kwa Hawking’s Exeunt Magazine review began “I think you should see The Inheritance. The only other way I can think of starting this review is calling it a minor masterpiece, with all that implies.” Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out London was more circumspect, yet concluded “Despite being very long, it’s a jolly good watch. And yet Lopez does pull something transcendent out of the bag, a vision of a long, sad tragedy, of an inheritance lost, but also a firm belief that we can learn from what remains.”
London had already experienced “The Inheritance” when it premiered in March at the Young Vic theater. Its move from that 550-seat venue to the more imposing 872-seat Noel Coward Theatre is the equivalent of a U.S. show transferring from off Broadway to Broadway. Back in the spring, the eminent Guardian critic Michael Billington declared that “Stephen Daldry’s crystalline production … pierces your emotional defences, raises any number of political issues and enfolds you in its narrative.”
Theater reading
One way to prepare for seeing the national tour of the recent Broadway revival of “Fiddler on the Roof,” at The Bushnell Nov. 6-11, is to read “After Anatevka” by Alexandra Silber. The author is also a musical theater star who played Tzeitel in “Fiddler” when it was on Broadway. Not long before that, she played another of Tevye’s daughters, Hodel, in London’s West End. The novel is a sequel of sorts, following some of the characters after they’ve been forced from their hometown of Anatevka.
“After Anatevka” is also available as an audiobook, plus there’s a whole other audio presentation of Silber’s book: “After Anatevska Live!,” documenting a concert held at New York’s Minetta Lane theater last year. In that 80-minute show, Silber reads excerpts from her book, sings songs from “Fiddler” plus some newer works by contemporary composers, gushes over the piano accompaniment from Ben Moss, and gives numerous shout-outs to “Fiddler” book-writer Sheldon Harnick, who’s in attendance.
The musical “Fiddler on the Roof” is of course based on short stories by Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem, who died in 1916. The Broadway revival and the new tour were both directed by former Hartford Stage associate artistic director Bartlett Sher.
