by Mark G. Auerbach
Misha Dichter
Springfield Symphony Orchestra Unveils Upcoming Season
The Springfield Symphony Orchestra has announced its classical and pops season for the 2017-18 season at Symphony Hall. It’s the SSO’s 74th! Maestro Kevin Rhodes returns to the podium with several “must hear” programs: Viva America with music by Gershwin, Copland, and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; an all-Rachmaninoff program with pianist Misha Dichter, and a Star Wars and Star Trek Sci-Fi Spectacular. The annual Holiday Pops returns with a Seuss theme, and The Texas Tenors from America’s Got Talent and the PBS special You Should Dream make an appearance. Cellist Julian Schwarz, SSO Principal trombone player Brian Diehl are amongst the soloists, and The SSO and Chorus and choral ensembles from UMass/Amherst performs The Verdi Requiem. For details: 413-733-2291 or www.springfieldsymphony.org.
Million Dollar Quartet Opens Berkshire Theatre Group’s Summer Season
Million Dollar Quartet, the Broadway hit musical by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux, inspired by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, rocks and rolls into Western Massachusetts as the Berkshire Theatre Group’s season opener, June 14-July 15 at the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge.
Million Dollar Quartet recaps December 4, 1956 at Sun Records’ Memphis studio. Rockabilly star Carl Perkins was there working on a revamped version of the blues song “Matchbox,” when fellow Sun recording artists Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley drifted into the studio, and the quartet took part in a loose jam session that producer Sam Phillips had the foresight to record. A local reporter who was called and sat in on the session headlined his newspaper article which ran the next day, “Million Dollar Quartet.”
James Barry
James Barry directs and provides musical direction for the juke box musical, whose score includes classics like “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Fever,” “Walk the Line,” “Sixteen Tons,” “Who Do You Love?,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” and “Hound Dog.”
Barry says, “I’m thrilled to be making my debut as a director at BTG, specifically in The Unicorn Theatre, where I made my professional acting debut 18 seasons ago, in The Einstein Project. Coming back to the Unicorn to direct a show that I have been involved with for years is an honor. I performed the role of Carl Perkins in the first National Tour of Million Dollar Quartet for two years, and since then, I have reprised the role many times, and provided musical direction. I am honored to take a seat in the director’s chair for this production!”
The Broadway production premiered in 2010, and was nominated for three Tony Awards, including “Best Musical”.
For details on Million Dollar Quartet at Berkshire Theatre Group: 413-997-4444 or www.berkshiretheatregroup.org.
Note: The Majestic Theater in West Springfield is also reviving its production of Million Dollar Quartet on June 14-25 in West Springfield. For details: www.majestictheater.com.
Plan Ahead
Hershey Felder
Hartford Stage has added Our Great Tchaikovsky, a celebration of the famed Russian composer, written and performed by internationally-acclaimed pianist, actor and playwright Hershey Felder, to the summer season, August 19 through 27. Our Great Tchaikovsky marks Felder’s return to Hartford Stage. His previous productions include George Gershwin Alone and Monsieur Chopin. Most recently, he adapted and directed Mona Golabek in The Pianist of Willesden Lane. For details: 860-527-5151 or www.hartfordstage.org
Keep in Mind…
Arts Beat Radio talks Tony Awards on Friday, June 2 at 8AM on 89.5FM/WSKB. Host Mark G. Auerbach interviews Longmeadow native and Tony Award-winning set designer Todd Rosenthal, and Denis Jones, this year’s nominee for outstanding choreography for Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn, whhich moved from Goodspeed to Broadway. Jones directed Goodspeed’s current hit Thoroughly Modern Millie. Tune in live on the airwaves, on Comcast ch. 15, www.wskb.org or at www.westfieldtv.org
Alex Moutouzkine
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra presents Choral Fantasy and Mystical Songs, June 9-11 at The Bushnell. Adam Kerry Boyles conducts, and the Hartford Chorale, baritone John Hancock Jr, pianist Alexander Moutouzkine, and other soloists perform works by Brahms, Haydn, Beethoven, and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs. For details: 860-987-5900 or www.hartfordsymphony.org .
Deathless, the new Zack Zadek musical at Goodspeed’s Terris Theatre in Chester, CT through July 2, takes place in the not-too-distant future where no one ever dies. A family takes an annual road trip to Niagara Falls, during which they navigate life’s big questions. Deathless is part of Goodspeed Musicals continued commitment to innovative, thought-provoking works. This bittersweet musical will be directed by Tina Landau, who most recently directed and co-conceived The Spongebob Musical, which received rave reviews in Chicago. Landau’s New York credits include the Broadway productions of Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts and Bells Are Ringing; In the Red and Brown Water and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head of Passes at The Public. For details: 860-873-8668 or www.goodspeed.org.
David Neill’s Dixieland Stomp at North Hall in Huntington, MA.
Dixieland Stomp, David Neill’s sextet, performs high-energy, foot-stomping Dixieland classics at the North Hall Arts Festival in Huntington, MA on June 4. Before the show, the North Hall Gallery will feature works by the late Janet Longe Sadler. For details: 413-667-5543 or www.northhallhuntington.org
Connecticut Repertory Theatre announces that each show of its 2017 Nutmeg Summer Series will have performances interpreted in American Sign Language (ASL) through a partnership with the UConn Interpreting Services (UCIS), a division of the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD). ASL interpreted performances will take place during the Saturday matinee performances on June 10 (1776), June 24 (Noises Off), and July 15th (Disney’s Newsies). For details: 860.486.2113 or www.crt.uconn.edu.
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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.
