Bernadette Peters, Tony Award-winning stage, screen and TV star, will perform at Barrington Stage as part of the theater’s 30th anniversary season, on Aug. 27. She will perform music from Broadway including works by Stephen Sondheim. For details: www.barringtonstageco.org.
TheaterWorks Hartford will open its 39th season with Jeffrey Lieber’s “Fever Dreams (of Animals on the Verge of Extinction),” this fall. Lieber is co-creator of the hit TV series “Lost.” “King James” from Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph begins the new year. Eboni Booth’s 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner, “Primary Trust,” follows. The season will close with “Your Name Means Dream,” by Academy Award nominee Jose Rivera (“The Motorcycle Diaries”). For details: www.twhartford.org.
“La Cage aux Folles,” the beloved multi-Tony Award winner, with book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, opens Barrington Stage Company’s Bouyd Quinson mainstage season, June 11 to July 6. “La Cage aux Folles” is based on the play by Jean Poirot that also inspired the 1978 French film of the same name and its American remake, “The Birdcage,” starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. Mike Donahue directs, and Paul McGill choreographs. Angela Steiner is musical director. The musical co-stars Alex Michaels (aka Alexis Michelle from “RuPaul’s Drag Race”) as Albin, and Tom Story, who has staged many productions at Berkshire Theatre Group, as Georges. For details: www.barringtonstageco.org.
“Sandra,” David Cale’s thriller about a woman who goes to Mexico in search of a missing friend, is next at TheaterWorks Hartford, May 30 to June 23. Matthew Dean Marsh provides the music, Jared Mezzocchi (who staged the award-winning “Russian Troll Farm”) directs, and Camilla Tassi provides creative content and video design. The play stars Felicia Curry, the award-winning Washington, D.C., actor, who played the title role in “Nina Simone: Four Women” at Berkshire Theatre Group. Her credits include “My Lord What a Night” (as Marian Anderson) at Ford’s Theatre, “Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountain,” a stint with the political satire group the Capitol Steps, and more. The June 6 performance is a benefit. For details: www.twhartford.org.
“South Pacific,” the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, had just begun rehearsals at Goodspeed when the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down in March 2020. The wait is over, and the musical, adapted from James Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific,” plays Goodspeed from June 15 to Aug. 11. Hammerstein and Joshua Logan wrote the libretto, and Rodgers’ score includes some classics like “Some Enchanted Evening”, “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair,” “Bali Ha’i” and more. “You’ve Got to Be Taught” anchors the show. Danielle Wade stars as cockeyed optimist Nellie Forbush, and Omar Lopez-Cepero plays Emile deBecque. Chay Yew directs; Adam Souza is musical director, and Parker Esse choreographs. For details: www.goodspeed.org.
“The 2.5 Minute Ride,” Lisa Kron’s portrait of the ups and downs of her family life, plays Hartford Stage May 30 to June 24. Director Zoë Golub-Sass and actor Lena Kaminsky have collaborated on this one-person show before. Kaminsky plays a daughter trying to reconcile her father’s past in a play that is richly funny and very poignant. For details: www.hartfordstage.org.
Plan ahead: “The Queen of Versailles,” Broadway’s most anticipated new musical next season, does a tryout run in Boston, and the engagement at the Emerson Colonial Theatre has been extended through Aug. 25. Performances begin July 16. Kristin Chenoweth and F. Murray Abraham head the cast. This new musical will feature music and lyrics by celebrated Oscar-winning songwriter Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”). Based on Lauren Greenfield’s award-winning 2012 documentary film “The Queen of Versailles” and the life stories of Jackie and David Siegel, the book for “The Queen of Versailles” is by Lindsey Ferrentino (“Ugly Lies the Bone,” “Amy and the Orphans”) with direction by Tony Award winner Michael Arden (“Parade,” “Once on This Island”) and choreography by Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant (“Parade”). For details: www.emersoncolonialtheatre.com.
MIFA Victory Theatre presents “Puerto Abierto (Open Port),” the Victory Players Holyoke Residency and Concerts, with public performances on May 31 and June 1, at Holyoke Media Studio. Tianhui Ng is music director. For details: www.mifafestival.org.
“The Back-Porch Gang,” Springfield playwright Ben Scranton’s new play, will be featured in Vermont as part of Bennington Theater’s Plays-In-Progress Reading Series on May 30. Stephanie Phelan directs. For details: benningtontheater.org.
“Orlando,” Virginia Woolf’s classic as adapted by Sarah Ruhl, will be presented by Eggtooth Productions at the Shea in Turners Falls on May 30 to June 1. Directed by Linda McInerney, and featuring Linda Tardif in the title role, this cast includes Kyle Boatwright, Lindel Hart, and Rich Vaden, with Broadway makeup artist Mr. Drag, aka Joe Dulude II, as Queen Elizabeth. For details: sheatheater.org.
Mark G. Auerbach studied theater at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He has worked for arts organizations nationwide and reported on the arts for print and broadcast. Mark produces and hosts “ArtsBeat,” “Athenaeum Spotlight” and “On the Mark” for WCPC, Channel 15 in Westfield, and WSKB 89.5 FM. His “Arts Beat” column appears Mondays in The Westfield News. He’s a regular contributor to Pioneer Valley Radio and a member of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association.
