By Mark G. Auerbach
KRISTIN CHENOWETH
Kristin Chenoweth Performs in Storrs, CT on March 27
Kristin Chenoweth, the Tony and Emmy award winning actress and singer, brings an eclectic evening of song selections to UConn’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on March 27, including personal reminiscences, Broadway showtunes, and music from her recent album, “For the Girls.”
“For The Girls,” released late last year, is a heartfelt tribute to the great female singers throughout history, particularly some of Kristin’s heroes and friends. To celebrate the release of her new album, Chenoweth returned to the Broadway stage last November in an eight-performance concert engagement.
In 2015, Kristin received a coveted star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2009, she received an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Pushing Daisies. In 1999, she won a Tony Award for You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and she was also nominated for her original role of Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked in 2004, she was nominated for two Emmy Awards and for a People’s Choice Award for her role on Glee. In 2009, she wrote an upliftingly candid, comedic chronicle of her life so far, A Little Bit Wicked, which debuted on the New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction Best Seller List.
Chenoweth has performed to sold-out audiences around the world, including performances at Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall. Her album “The Art of Elegance” debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Current Jazz and Traditional Jazz charts, and #1 on Amazon’s Vocal Pop Chart.
For information on Kristin Chenoweth: https://www.officialkristinchenoweth.com. For performance and venue details: jorgensen.uconn.edu
Sing a Song of Sondheim
ANDRE SONNER
Stephen Sondheim, Broadway’s revered composer and lyricist, turns 90 on March 22. (He shares a birthday with Andrew Lloyd Webber). His many musicals frequently get featured on area stages, and there’s seldom a season, where a Sondheim musical isn’t playing in New York City. His lyrics are currently featured in the revised West Side Story. His musical Company, retooled in London, opens on Broadway on his birthday, and a revival of Assassins opens next month.
There have been some memorable productions in the region. Barrington Stage had a great revival of Company with Aaron Tveit. Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s Nutmeg Summer Stage performed Sweeney Todd in concert with Terrence Mann. Berkshire Theatre Group presented Eric Hill’s vision of A Little Night Music, and K&E Theatre Group mounted an ambitious revival of Assassins.
The Greater Worcester Opera presents A Little Night Music through March 15 in Sturbridge. For details: http://www.greaterworcesteropera.org/
DOUG PERRY
GhostLit Repertory Theatre in West Stockbridge performs an original revue, What Sondheim Means to Me on March 27. For details: http://www.greaterworcesteropera.org/
ArtsBeat Radio/TV on 89.5fm/WSKB and WCDC in Westfield, airs a Sondheim special on March 20 at 8AM. As producer/host, I’ll be chatting with John Pike of the Hartt School, and a former member of Goodspeed Musicals; Evan Casey, the actor who has appeared in numerous Sondheim musicals in Washington, DC, and Evan Pappas, actor/director with Goodspeed and Hartford Stage credits, who starred in the London production of Follies. For details: www.wskb.org.
And, Sondheim gets a disco treatment next month with the release of Losing My Mind: A Sondheim Disco Fever Dream , with more than 40 Sondheim standards reimagined with a disco beat. (Ethel Merman did a disco album which included Sondheim’s lyrics in Gypsy’s “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”). It’s produced by Broadway Records.For details: www.broadwayrecords.com.
Of Note:
EVAN CASEY
The Huntington Theatre in Boston will present the world premiere of Common Ground Revisited, co-conceived and directed by Hartford Stage’s new Artistic Director, Melia Bensussen. It’s based on J. Anthony Lukas’ book Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families Performances begin in January, 2021, and the play is not on Hartford Stage’s upcoming season schedule. Calista Flockhart , best known as TV’s Ally McBeal, will star in Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, on the Huntington stage this fall. For details: www.huntingtontheatre.org.
David Korins, the UMass Theatre graduate who has created numerous award-winning Broadway scenic designs, including Hamilton, concert designs for Kanye West and Lady Gaga, is profiled in the Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-day-in-the-life-of-kanye-wests-set-designer-11583155720
Keep in Mind…
The New Works Project brings six new plays (readings) and two talks about the upcoming production of the Tony Award winning musical Fun Home, to TheaterWorks in Hartford on March 20-22. For details: www.twhartford.org.
She Loves Me, the musical by Joe Masteroff (Cabaret) and Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (Fiorello, Fiddler on The Roof), will turn the Westfield Woman’s Club into a perfumery in Budapest, as the Westfield Theatre Group performs March 20-April 4. The musical, based on the film, The Shop Around The Corner, and the Judy Garland and Van Johnson musical version, In The Good Old Summertime, is the story of two colleagues, who don’t get along, and share their lives with their pen pals, not realizing that they are the penpals. The plot was used in the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan comedy You’ve Got Mail.. She Loves Me opened on Broadway in 1963 with Barbara Cook, Daniel Massey, and Jack Cassidy, and was recently revived on Broadway in 2016. For details: www.westfieldtheatregroup.com.:
The Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s Percussion Trio performs a Basically Beethoven concert on the afternoon of March 29, at the Twin Hills Country Club in Longmeadow. Martin Kluger, Doug Perry, and Andrew Sonner perform Beethoven and Percussive Pleasures by Glenn Prior, Marty Kluger, and Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic. Their program features Beethoven’s Allegretto from Piano Sonata No. 17, Op. 31, No. 2. “The Tempest” by Ludwig van Beethoven (arranged by Brian Slawson); Largo con gran espressione from Sonata No. 4, Op. 7 by Ludwig van Beethoven (arranged by Martin Kluger); and Adagio cantabile from Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op 13 (“Pathetique”) by Ludwig van Beethoven (arranged by Doug Perry) Doug Perry, marimba soloist. For details: www.springfieldsymphony.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, and is a contributor to Pioneer Valley Radio.
