MARK AUERBACH
Anything Goes Opens Goodspeed’s Season
When the ship sets sail, the showtunes begin. Cole Porter launched the trend in rhe 1930s with his tuneful Anything Goes. In the 1950s, flapper Lorelei Lee learned that “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” on a crossing from New York to France on the Ile de France. A decade later, Elaine Stritch found love on a cruise in Noel Coward’s Sail Away. Then, there was Titanic, the award-winning musical based on history. (Well, the folks were having fun, until they hit the iceberg).
Stephen DeRosa and Rashidra Scott rehearse Anything Goes at Goodspeed. (Photo by Diane Sobolewski)
Anything Goes sails in to Goodspeed Musicals to launch the 2016 season (April 8-June 16). During a 1930’s crossing from New York to Europe, evangelist turned nightclub singer Reno Sweeney (the role originated by Ethel Merman) finds romance on the high seas, surrounded by high hats and low lifes. Cole Porter supplied the deluxe tunes, and Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay, and Russel Crouse wrote a very funny book, which was revised by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman for a Lincoln Center revival with Patti LuPone. (I saw LuPone’s replacement, Leslie Uggams, and she and Michael Smuin’s choreography were dynamic. When the production played the Bushnell, Mitzi Gaynor, who’d been in a film version, played Reno Sweeney, with enough costume changes to fill all the cargo holds). Anything Goes returned to Broadway a few years ago with Sutton Foster as Reno, and now, this fun musical makes its Goodspeed debut.
Besides the showstopping title song, Anything Goes features the classics “I Get a Kick Out Of You”, “It’s Delovely”, “You’re The Top” and “Blow, Gabriel Blow”. Incidentally, you can find the Merman, LuPone and Foster renditions on YouTube, along with a great performance by Jonathan Groff channeling Foster.
Rashidra Scott, who is currently performing on Broadway in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, is Goodspeed’s Reno. Her other Broadway credits include Avenue Q, Finian’s Rainbow, Hair and Sister Act. David Harris will play Billy Crocker. Area audiences may recognize Harris from his turn as Jean Valjean in Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s production of Les Misèrables last summer. Stephen DeRosa, from Broadway’s On The Town, which originated at Barrington Stage, plays Moonface Martin. He was Eddie Cantor on TV’s Boardwalk Empire.
Ilona Somogyi presents her costume designs at a rehearsal for Anything Goes at Goodspeed. (Photo by Diane Sobolewski)
Anything Goes will be directed by Daniel Goldstein, who directed the Goodspeed productions of Damn Yankees and Hello, Dolly! Kelli Barclay choreographs. She provided the dances for Goodspeed’s Damn Yankees; Hello, Dolly!; My One And Only; and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Michael O’Flaherty celebrates his 25th anniversary at Goodspeed as musical director. Costumes will be designed by Ilona Somogyi, who designed Clybourne Park on Broadway, and the recent Romeo and Juliet at Hartford Stage.
For details: 860-873-8668 or www.goodspeed.org.
Opportunity
The Made in the Berkshires Festival, a program of the Berkshire Theatre Group, is accepting submissions for their upcoming 6th annual festival on October 14-16 in Stockbridge and Pittsfield. The deadline for submissions is May 30. Submitting artists must live and work in the Berkshires, at least part-time. Submissions may include short plays, music, poetry, short stories, performance art/spoken word, film and dance. For details: www.MadeInTheBerkshires.org
The Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra, a semi-professional community orchestra that performs in Greenfield, Northampton, and Amherst, currently has openings for the following instruments: Oboe (principal), E-flat Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon (contra), Double Bass, and Percussion. To apply, please submit a letter of interest and cv to Susanne Dunlap, Managing Director, at [email protected] by March 30.
Wu Man
Keep in Mind…
A Night in Ancient and New China with pipa virtuoso Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet performing traditional Chinese folk songs, movie music, and Mozart’s String Quartet in D Major, will play the UMass Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on March 29. Audiences will hear Red Lantern, a Quintet for Pipa and String Quartet is based on Zhao Jiping’s film score for the 1992 Oscar nominated Best Foreign Language Film, Raise the Red Lantern. The program also includes a suite of traditional Chinese folk songs arranged by 2nd violinist Yi-Wen Jiang, with pipa solos by Wu Man. For details: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMASS or www.fineartscenter.com
The Popovich Comedy Pet Theater comes to Pittsfield’s Colonial Theatre on March 30, under the auspices of the Berkshire Theatre Group. The Popovich Comedy Pet Theater is a family-oriented blend of the unique comedy and juggling skills of Moscow Circus member, Gregory Popovich, and the extraordinary talents of his performing pets. This extraordinary show features Popovich and his cast of jugglers, clowns, 15 house cats, 10 dogs, 4 geese, 8 white doves, and 2 parrots. Each of the show’s 15 cats and 10 dogs were once strays, rescued from animal shelters. For details: 413-997-4444 or www.berkshiretheatregroup.org.
The Puppet Arts Festival at UConn/Storrs.
The Connecticut Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of three puppetry works onstage in one innovative evening called The MFA Puppet Arts Festival (through April 3) at its Studio Theatre on the UConn/Storrs campus. The three one-act plays range in topic and style. Ana Craciun-Lambru presents Dust, a piece inspired by the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. Dust incorporates shadow and object puppetry. Gavin Cummins has created a one-person play entitled Ok, I Love You, Bye, incorporating different styles of shadow and object puppetry. Kalob Martinez molds Macbeth into, El Beto, a story of lust and blood set in the midst the Mexican Drug cartel.. For details: 860-486 2113 or wwwcrt.uconn.edu
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra performs works by Mozart, Tchiakovsky, and Bizet at The Bushnell’s Belding Theater on April 7-10. Carolyn Kuan conducts; Yeh Chi is the bassoon soloist, and The Connecticut Youth Symphony will join the Orchestra in this program (which was revised from previous announcements). For details: 860-987-5900 or www.hartfordsaymphony.org.
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
