by Mark G. Auerbach
Fager Kalsi and Eric Bryant in The Invisible Hand at TheaterWorks. Photo by Carol Rosegg.
TheaterWorks Stages The Invisible Hand
The Invisible Hand, the powerful political thriller by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and 2018 Tony nominee Ayad Akhtar, takes a chilling and complex look at how far we will go to save ourselves. When kidnapped investment banker Nick Bright is challenged to use his skills as a trader to raise his ransom, we gain insight into the devastating ramifications of individual actions on global power and politics. The drama, directed by Westport Country Playhouse’s Associate Artistic Director David Kennedy, plays Hartford’s TheaterWorks, May 24-June 23. This production, which originated in Westport, won Connecticut Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Director. The cast includes: Anand Bhatt, Rajesh Bose, Eric Bryant, and Fajer Kaisi.
Playwright Ayad Ahktar, born in New York City, and raised in Milwaukee, is a graduate of Brown and Columbia. He is the author of American Dervish, published in 25 languages worldwide. His play Disgraced played at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater in 2012 and premiered at the Bush Theater in London in May 2013. Disgraced won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Invisible Hand was nominated for the ATCA/Steinberg Award, and won Best New Work 2013 from the St. Louis Theater Critics Circle. As a screenwriter, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for The War Within. His play Junk, is nominated for a Tony for Best Play.
For details: 860-527-7838 or http://www.theaterworkshartford.org/
Storm Large plays the Fine Arts Center. Photo by Laura Domela.
The UMass Fine Arts Center New Season
The UMass Fine Arts Center has announced one its most diverse and exciting seasons in years. From Dee Dee Bridgewater and her Memphis Soulphony on a Jazz Flight Opening Weekend to the Darius Jones Quartet, the FAC Jazz line-up will please traditionalists and those hooked into the more contemporary sounds. The zany drag ballet, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo are Amherst-bound, and surprisingly, they perform ballet classics with stunning technique, and plenty of laughs. Ballet Hispanico also appears on the FAC line-up. The Reduced Shakespeare Company will perform The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. (Abridged) [Revised]. There’s classical music, world arts and music, classical music and jazz crossovers, and Pink Martini singer Storm Large with her new show Storm Large’s Holiday Ordeal. And, Lea Delaria, cutting edge comic, Broadway star, and Orange Is The New Black’s “Big Boo” performs her concert. In addition to being an out, in-your-face, comic, she’s a smooth jazz singer who can give showtunes a great new sound. There are discounts of all kinds for subscribers, students, seniors, and more.For season details, call 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMASS or www.fineartscebter.com/preview.
Keep in Mind
Arts Beat Radio airs every Friday at 8AM, on 89.5fm/WSKB. On June 1, Host Mark G. Auerbach talks with David M. Lutken, star of The Will Rogers Follies at Goodspeed, and Terrence Mann, Artistic Director of the Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s Nutmeg Summer Series. Start your weekend with ArtsBeat Radio. Tune in live on the airwaves, on Comcast ch. 15, or www.wskb.org
Meghan Picerno (“Christine Daaé”) and Gardar Thor Cortes (“The Phantom”) star in Love Never Dies. Photo: Joan Marcus.
Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom” Sequel Comes to Hartford, May 29-June 3 at The Bushnell. With music and orchestrations by Andrew Lloyd Webber, creator of the very long-running musical hit The Phantom of The Opera; book by Glenn Slater, Ben Elton and Frederick Forsuth, and lyrics by Glenn Slater, the musical opens in 1907, a decade after the first “Phantom” ends. It’s set in New York and Coney Island. Llyod Webber and company opened their production in London in 2010, where it opened to grim reviews. But major revisions to the production brought great reviews a year later in Australia,and Love Never Dies has enjoyed many productions around the world. The current tour launched last Fall, and it has Broadway in sight. For details: 860-987-5900 or www.bushnell.org.
Will Swenson returns to Barrington Stage in The Royal Family of Broadway
The Royal Family of Broadway, a new musical based on the Broadway classic by George S. Kaufman & Edna Ferber, has its world premiuere at Barrington Stage, June 7-July 7 in Pittsfield. With a book by Rachel Sheinkin, and a score by William Finn, the production is directed and choreographed by John Radno and Joshua Bergasse, who helmed Barrington Stage’s On The Town, which became a Broadway hit. Set in the 1920s and loosely based on the legendary Barrymores, it centers around the Cavendish family of actors: an aging imperious grande dame, a Broadway star looking for love, a self-centered boozy leading man who has fled to Hollywood, and a promising ingénue – each having to make pivotal choices in their lives. Harriet Harris an Will Swenson co-star. For details: 413-236-8888 or www.barringtonstageco.org
Morning After Grace, Cary Crim’s unconventional comedy has its New England premiere at Shakespeare and Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre in Lenox, MA from May 24-July 15. The cast includes: Steven Barkhimer, Corinna May, and Kevin Vavasseur. Regge Life directs. For details: 413-637-3353 or www.shakespeare.org.
Tina Fabrique brings her cabaret performance Ella in Concert to Barrington Stage’s Mr. Finn’s Cabaret, June 3-4, in Pittsfield. A musical journey through Ella Fitzgerald’s Great American Songbook and a celebration of the timeless music of Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, the Gershwins and more. For details: 413-236-8888 or www.barringtonstageco.org
Antonio Abate sings opera at North Hall, Huntington
The Opera Showcase opens the ninth season of Historic North Hall Arts Festival on May 27. Amy Orsulak, soprano, tenor Antonio Abate; and baritone, Christopher DeVage, accompanied by pianist Jerome Tan. perform arias from Rusalka, Peter Grimes,Tosca, and Carmen and songs by Kurt Weil. For details: 413 667-5543 or www.northhallhuntington.org
WGBY’s Asparagus Festival, to be held rain or shine on the Hadley Town Common on June 2, features entertainment on its “Rooted in the Valley” stage. Emmy Award-winning children’s musician Mister G at 12 noon, followed by three popular Signature Sounds acts: Heather Maloney, a singer-songwriter merging folk roots with indie rock.Jig Jam quartet blens traditional Irish music with Americana and bluegrass. Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters perform honky-tonk country. For details: https://wgby.org/asparagus
There Are Things I Didn’t Tell You, written and performed by Mary Mott, and directed by Bob Moss, will be presented by Berkshire Theatre Group on May 26-27 at The Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, MA. Mott , a humorist and raconteur, shares her funny, personal and poignant thoughts about the things we tend not to talk about. For details: 413-997-4444, or www.berkshiretheatregroup.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. Mark produces and hosts ArtsBeat Radio for 89.5fm/WSKB.
