by Mark G. Auerbach
Goodspeed Musicals Presents “The Will Rogers Follies” beginning April 13
Goodspeed Musicals kicks off its 2018 season with the “Best Musical” Tony Award-winning Broadway hit The Will Rogers Follies, A Life In Revue, with performances April 13-June 21 With book by Peter Stone, music by Cy Coleman, and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the musical profiles American humorist, vaudevillian, Ziegfeld Follies headliner, and occasional politician Will Rogers, whose rags-to-riches story is told against the backdrop of the lavish Ziegfeld Follies. Tommy Tune staged the Broadway original, which made Keith Carradine and later Mac Davis and Larry Gatlin into Broadway musical stars.
David Lutken headlines The Will Rogers Follies at Goodspeed.
Will Rogers will be played by David Lutken, who previously played the role on Broadway. His other Broadway credits include Inherit the Wind, Ring of Fire and The Civil War. Mr. Lutken has been seen in the Off- Broadway productions of Woody Sez, Southern Comfort, Stars in Your Eyes and Winter Man. The Will Rogers Follies will be directed by Don Stephenson who helmed the Goodspeed productions of Guys and Dolls and The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd. Choreographer Kelli Barclay returns for her seventh production at Goodspeed Musicals where past productions include Anything Goes; Damn Yankees; Hello, Dolly!, and My One And Only. Michael O’Flaherty is music director.
For details: 860.873.8668 or www.goodspeed.org.
Season Announcements
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra has announced an ambitious 75th Master Works classical music season at The Bushnell in Hartford. The season opens on October 5-7 with Maestra Carolyn Kuan conducting Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at An Exhibition. Some of the season highlights include a program of Brass and Brahms, November 2-4; an all-Tchaikovsky program on November 30-December 2; a Latin Lovers program on February 15-17 with music by Copland an Piazzolla. Mozart Meets Klezmer on March 15-17; and the HSO performas Vaughan Williams and Mendelssohn on Ap 12-14. Beethoven’ Fifth takes center stage on May 3-5; and The HSO performs Mahler’s Fifth on May 31-June 2. The Talcott Mountain Music Festival and the Hartford Symphony Pops will be announced at a later date. For details: 860-987-5900 or www.hartfordsymphony.org.
Chris Rohmann
Silverthorne Theater Company’s fifth season will include two world premières of works by local authors. The resident company at the Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield, opens its season with the world premiere of Northampton artist Jeff Olmsted’s musical Tar2f!, based on Moliere’s Tartuffe, and directed by Chris Rohmann. Performances run April 12-21. The summer season opens with Athol Fugard’s classic drama, The Road to Mecca (June 21-30), followed by Steve Henderson and Will Chalmus’s original work White Black and Blue (July 19-28). Silverthorne’s autumn show will be Delectable Durang: An Evening of Six Unruly Comedies (September 27–October 6). For details: www.silverthornetheater.org
Jenn Harris
Berkshire Theatre Group has added two hilarious Christopher Durang one-act plays, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and The Actor’s Nightmare, to the summer line-up, August 16-31 at the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, MA. Emmy Award-nominated director Matthew Penn, who has staged episodes of Orange is the New Black and The Sopranos, directs. Son of legendary director Arthur Penn, who was former Artistic Director of the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Matthew Penn grew up in the Berkshires. The comedies star Tony Award winner Harriet Harris and Theaterworks’ Christmas on the Rocks star Jenn Harris, who are only related by the thouands of laughs they can generate in ninety minutes. For details: 413-997-4444 or www.berkhiretheatregroup.org.:
BalletX at the UMass Fine Arts Center
Keep in Mind…
BalletX, Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet company, comes to the UMass Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on March 29. The company will perform a mixed-rep program, including Gran Partita inspired by a film-noir classic, On The Mysterious Properties of Light, a piece inspired by the physics of light, and Trey McIntyre’s Big Ones set to the music of Amy Winehouse. BalletX’s Associate Artistic Director is Northampton native, Tara Keating, who began her dance training at the age of seven at Pioneer Valley Ballet. For details: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMAS or www.fineartscenter.com.
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Intermix presents The Twittering Machine with conductor Carolyn Kuan at Hartford’s Real Art Ways on March 29. The program includes Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110; Mvts 2 & 3, and his Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a; Mvts 2-5, plus McTee’s The Twittering Machine. For details: 860-987-5900 or www.hartfordsymphony.org.
Alex Brokowski, Vivienne James and Kristin Wolfe in She Kills Monsters at CT. Repertory Theatre. Photo by Matt Pugliese.
She Kills Monsters, Qui Nguyen’s new play, finds a balance between comedy and adventure and themes of death and loss. Connecticut Repertory Theatre stages the new work through March 31 at its Studio Theatre in Storrs, CT. For details: (860) 486-2113 or www.uconn.edu
The Springfield Symphony Orchestra performs Across the Decades: Tchaikovsky to Yoshimatsu on March 24 at Springfield Symphony Hall. Maestro Kevin Rhodes conducts Offenbach’s Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld, Yoshimatsu’s Orion Machine Trombone Concerto with soloist Brian Diehl, and Tchaikovskt’s Symphony No. 5. Brian L. Diehl, principal trombonist of the Springfield Symphony for the past eleven years, is the soloist for the Yoshimatsu piece. Diehl is also Principal Trombonist with The Hartford Symphony Orchestra. A native of Maine, he studied music at Interlochen, Northwest University, and New England Conservatory of Music. He’s the former Principal Trombonist with the Sarasota Orchestra. For details: 413-733-2291 or www.springfieldsymphony.org.
Passages
David Potter, local dancer, choreographer, director and dance teacher passed away on March 9. David was best known for his community theatre work with Callboard Theatre.
Wilfred Burkle, a music educator in the Longmeadow public school system died on March 8. He ha been an oboist with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and had performed with some of the major New England chamber music ensembles.
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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. Mark produces and hosts ArtsBeat Radio for 89.5fm/WSKB.
