The Yale Institute for Music Theatre has played its last note. The program, which began in 2009, served as a key transitional opportunity for writers and composers who had recently graduated from musical theater writing programs and were just beginning to navigate the real-world theater industry.
Musicals that were first read at YIMT included Maggie-Kate Coleman and Anna K. Jacobs’ “Pop!” (later produced at the Yale Rep and several other theaters); Christopher Cerrone’s “Invisible Cities” (a Pulitzer Prize finalist); and (a personal favorite) Sharon Kenny and Janine Nabers’ “Mrs. Hughes,” about the poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.
Performers at the readings included Broadway stars as well as Yale School of Drama students.
I’ve attended YIMT readings since the program first began. Judging — as one should — by how much the participants seemed to learn from hearing these scripts and scores performed live for the first time, rather than by whether they were complete or problem-free, these events were a triumph. A great workshop situation, with networking opportunities, that also had a summer camp vibe.
The end of the YIMT means that New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas has lost a reliable crowd-pleasing event as well. Tickets to the public readings of the YIMT musicals were sold through Arts & Ideas, which promoted them as regular festival events. The festival also hosted the premiere of a show that was initially developed at the YIMT: Aaron Jafferis and Byron Au Yong’s “Stuck Elevator.”
Connecticut will always be a major incubator of new musicals, thanks to the decadeslong efforts of Goodspeed Musicals and the O’Neill Theater Center. But the Yale Institute of Music Theatre had a special place in the process and will be missed.
Gentlemen, Start Your D’Ysquiths
“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” — which premiered at Hartford Stage in 2012, then moved to Broadway where it won four Tonys (including Best Musical) — is about to embark on its second national tour.
James Taylor Odom will be the latest actor to play the eight doomed D’Ysquith heirs. Blake Price will play the murderous Monty Navarro, with Colleen McLaughlin as Sibella Hallward and Erin McIntyre as Phoebe D’Ysquith. The show’s original choreographer, Peggy Hickey, now gets a “tour direction and choreography” credit, with her staging based on the original production directed by Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak. The tour will visit the Palace in Waterbury Oct. 20 and 21. Details at 203-346-200 and palacetheaterct.org.
Merch Watch
Hartford Stage explores many passions in “Our Great Tchaikovsky,” a special summer event at the theater through Aug. 27. In the lobby, the passion is for chocolate. The theater has cleverly labeled a basket of candy bars “Hershey’s Tchaikovsky at Hartford Stage” in honor of the show’s creator/performer Hershey Felder. Here’s hoping that the theater casts performers named Reese, Mike & Ike and Twizzler in future shows.
Lin-Manuel Miranda Update
The ever-popular Wesleyan grad and O’Neill Theater Center alum appeared on James Corden’s “Late Late Show” Aug. 15, taking part — and stripping down — in a “Crosswalk Theater” production of “Hair.” Besides being wildly popular on social media, the abbreviated outdoor production was praised by “Hair” co-creator James Rado, who pointed out that Corden and Miranda had changed the lyrics of “Aquarius” from “peace will guide the planet” to “peace will heal the planet.”
Miranda was in Los Angeles for the opening of the “Hamilton” tour there. Also starting this month: the Disney XD cable TV cartoon series “Duck Tales,” for which Lin-Manuel Miranda provided the voice of Gizmoduck (aka Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera).
‘Fireflies’ Gets Starry Cast
Jane Alexander, Denis Arndt, Judith Ivey and Christopher Michael McFarland will appear in the Long Wharf Theatre’s premiere production of Matthew Barber’s “Fireflies” Oct. 11 through Nov. 5.
Alexander — an esteemed actress, conservationist and former National Endowment for the Arts chairman — last appeared at Long Wharf (in a flowing 19th century dress) in Eugene O’Neill’s “Mourning Becomes Electra” in 2002. Ivey was at the Long Wharf in “Curse of the Starving Class,” “Shirley Valentine” and “The Glass Menagerie.” McFarland has been regularly found at the Yale Repertory Theatre, in “Cymbeline,” “Richard II,” “Rough Crossing” and “The Unmentionables.”
Matthew Barber’s stage adaptation of “Enchanted April” premiered at Hartford Stage in 2000. “Fireflies” is also adapted from a novel: “Eleanor & Abel” by Annette Sanford. Details at 203-787-4282 and longwharf.org.
Norton!
The long-gestating musical based on the Golden Age TV series “The Honeymooners” will be at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey Sept. 28 through Oct. 29 with Michael McGrath starring as Ralph Kramden, Michael Mastro as Ed Norton, Leslie Kritzer as Alice Kramden and Laura Bell Bundy as Trixie Norton. Lewis Cleale, Lewis J. Stadlen and David Wohl are also in the cast. Some cast!
This is interesting to Connecticut audiences for a number of reasons. For one, the original Ed Norton, Art Carney, was a longtime Connecticut resident. The stage “Honeymooners” had a key developmental workshop at Goodspeed Musicals in 2014 with McGrath, Kritzer, Hank Azaria and Megan Hilty in the lead roles.
It was announced that the musical would premiere at the Goodspeed Opera House during the 2015 season. But it was yanked from the schedule, reportedly because the producers wanted the show to go directly to Broadway without the need for an out-of-town tryout. That plan obviously changed.
