Tag: theatre

Dreamgirls comes to Downtown Cabaret in Bridgeport

The Downtown Cabaret Theatre is a direct descendent of the Sacred Heart University Cabaret. After several successful seasons in an academic setting, the entire company, under the artistic direction of Claude McNeal, moved to its present home in 1975. Today, this venue has hosted well over one million adults and children that have enjoyed musical productions in the unique “Bring Your Own Picnic” cabaret atmosphere.

BTC-SLIDER-DGirls-Show

“Dreamgirls” will kick off the 2014 Season. It will be presented by the Bridgeport Theatre Company (Downtown Cabaret’s Community Theatre Project) on January 16-18, 24-26 and January 30 – February 1. Shows begin at 8 p.m. on Thursday (Jan. 30 at 7:30), Friday at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 26 at 5 p.m.

Dreamgirls is a smash Broadway musical and an award-winning motion picture that captures the spirit and hope of Motown when a girl group from Chicago makes it big. In a business controlled by men, the female trio fights for recognition, fellowship and love as superstardom challenges their musical and cultural identity. A rich, glowing spectacle about the price of show-biz success, Dreamgirls sizzles with sparkling dance and R&B soul.

Based on the story of Diana Ross’ rise to fame, the show has made stars of Tony Award-winner Jennifer Holliday and Academy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson. Featuring such hit songs as “Dreamgirls,” “And I am Telling You I’m Not Going” and “One Night Only”.

Reserved tickets for performances: $28. Tickets may be reserved: By Phone: Box Office: 203.576.1636 or In Person: at box office located 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport, Connecticut Online at www.downtowncabaret.org (24/7),
By US Mail: The Man In Black, c/o Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport, Ct. 06604.

Box Office Hours: 10:30am to 4:30pm – Mondays thru Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays – Box Office opens 90 minutes prior to scheduled performance times

Theatre seating begins 30 minutes prior to performance times.

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

JanetLeave a comment

The VOICE OF CONNECTICUT’S INFINITY HALL Online Radio is live!

The music of Infinity Music Hall & Bistro is now available 24/7 with the launch of The Voice of Infinity Hall, an online streaming radio show hosted by Rick Allison. Featuring the music of artists who have played at the hall or who are coming to the hall, the Voice of Infinity Hall (www.infinityhall.com/radio/) ensures that fans of the award-winning hall can get their Infinity music fix whenever they want.

Infinity Hall, Norfolk, CT
Infinity Hall, Norfolk, CT

Bringing outstanding music to the people online is just an extension of Infinity Hall founder Dan Hincks’ original vision. “When I opened the hall in 2008, I always knew I wanted to expand beyond the four walls of the hall itself,” Hincks says. “A few years ago we formed a partnership with Connecticut Broadcasting Network to create the television series Infinity Hall LIVE, next year we open a second Infinity Music Hall & Bistro in Hartford, and now we’re online with the radio. I couldn’t be more excited.”

The Voice of Infinity Hall is DJed by someone well known in the industry in general and in Connecticut in particular, Rick Allison. His career has led him from WYBC to WHCN to WPIX to WPLR over the last 30 years. He’s also worked for ABC, CBS, ESPN, MSNBC, “an alphabet soup” of broadcast clients, as he puts it.

For Allison, going on line with Infinity Hall is the right move at the right time.”Imagine a playlist that covers rock, pop, folk, jazz, soul, blues and more. Imagine programming an on-line radio station that covers that much musical territory to an informed and passionate audience of music fans,” he says. “I am one happy DJ. I have found my radio home on the Voice of Infinity Hall.”

Now in its fifth year of operation, Infinity Music Hall & Bistro is located on Route 44, 20 Greenwoods Road, Norfolk. The box office telephone number is 866-666-6306 or tickets may be purchased online. Visit www.infinityhall.com for complete calendar and other information.

For area information www.litchifeldhills.com

JanetLeave a comment

Westport Country Playhouse Opens Season With “Into the Woods”

Into the Woods Laren Kennedy, Erik Liberman and Danielle Ferland

A 25th anniversary production of the imaginative, fractured-fairy tale musical “Into the Woods” by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim will be staged at the theater where Sondheim was an apprentice in 1950, Westport Country Playhouse, in Westport, CT, May 1 through May 26. Directed by Mark Lamos, the Playhouse’s artistic director, the musical will open the historic theater’s 82nd season. It is co-produced with Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE.

A multiple Tony Award winner, “Into the Woods” takes the audience to a beguiling and dark place inspired by the Grimm fairy tales. Among the classic characters that wander the woods searching for fulfillment of their wishes are Cinderella and her wicked stepsisters, Little Red Ridinghood and the Wolf, Rapunzel and her Prince, and Jack of beanstalk fame. As their fanciful tales intertwine, they are forced to confront the harsh reality of what actually happens after “happily ever after.”

Director Mark Lamos, who also serves as Westport Country Playhouse artistic director, has helmed Playhouse productions of “Twelfth Night, or What You Will”; “Lips Together, Teeth Apart”; “Happy Days”; “She Loves Me”; “The Breath of Life”; “That Championship Season”; and “Of Mice and Men.” His extensive New York credits include “Our Country’s Good,” for which he received a Tony Award nomination. A former artistic director at Hartford Stage, he received the 1989 Tony Award for the theater’s body of work.

The performance schedule is Tuesday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Special series feature A Taste of Tuesday, Previews, LGBT Night Out, Opening Night, Thursday TalkBack, Sunday Symposium and Backstage Pass. In addition, the Playhouse will offer an open captioned performance on Sunday, May 13, 3 p.m., for the hearing impaired.

For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at http://www.westportplayhouse.org.

About the Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, professional theater under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management leadership of Michael Ross. The Playhouse creates five live theater experiences, produced at the highest level, from April through November. Its vital mix of works—dramatic, comedic, occasionally exploratory and unusual—expands the audience’s sense of what theater can be. The depth and scope of its productions display the foremost theatrical literature from the past—recent as well as distant—in addition to musicals and premieres of new plays. During the summer, the Playhouse is home to the Woodward Internship Program, renowned for the training of aspiring theater professionals. Winter at the Playhouse, from November through March, offers events outside of the main season—Family Festivities presentations, Script in Hand play readings and a Holiday Festival. In addition, businesses and organizations are encouraged to rent the handsome facility for their meetings, receptions and fundraisers.

As an historic venue, Westport Country Playhouse has had many different lives leading up to the present. Originally built in 1835 as a tannery manufacturing hatters’ leathers, it became a steam-powered cider mill in 1880, later to be abandoned in the 1920s. Splendidly transformed into a theater in 1931, it initially served as a try-out house for Broadway transfers, evolving into an established stop on the New England straw hat circuit of summer stock theaters through the end of the 20th century. Following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005, the Playhouse became a state-of-the-art producing theater, preserving its original charm and character.

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Start the New Year at Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret Theatre!

What better way to begin the New Year than with the wildly popular comedy, Defending the Caveman written by Rob Becker? The place to be in the New Year is Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret Theatre where audiences will have every reason to laugh at themselves about all the different ways men and women fight, laugh and love. Couples throughout America and around the world are enamored of Caveman, described as an hilariously insightful play about the ways men and women relate and always has both sexes roaring with laughter and recognition as well as serving as a peacemaker in the ongoing misunderstandings between men and women.

Defending the Caveman is scheduled: Friday, January 13 at 7:30pm; Saturday, January 14 at 5pm and 8pm; Sunday, January 15 at 5pm.; Friday, January 20 at 7:30pm; Saturday, January 21 at 5pm and 8pmand Sunday, January 22 at 5pm at the Downtown Cabaret Theatre located at 263 Golden Hill Street in downtown Bridgeport, Connecticut.


Defending the Caveman” has been performed in 45 countries and translated into 18 languages making it popular with audiences around the globe! It has won the hearts of millions and has become a peacemaker in the ongoing misunderstandings between men and women. It originally opened in San Francisco and soon moved across the country as an unqualified hit. Caveman entered the record books as the longest running solo play in Broadway history.

The Downtown Cabaret Theatre is located at 263 Golden Hill Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Reserved tickets for performances: $19 – $39 Tickets can be reserved: By Phone: Box Office: 203.576.1636 In Person: at box office located 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport, Connecticut Online at downtowncabaret.org (24/7) By US Mail: Defending the Caveman, c/o Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport, Ct. 06604. Box Office Hours: 11am to 5pm – Tuesdays thru Fridays. Box Office open 90 minutes prior to performance times. Mondays, Saturdays and Sundays, closed.
The Downtown Cabaret has a busy winter season planned. Future performances planned include: The Amazing Kreskinon Feb. 18-19; SCARAB – A Tribute to Journey on Feb. 25; Face to Face – A Tribute to Billy Joel and Elton John on March 3 and Gary Puckett and the Union Gap on March 31.

For more information and up-to-date news about the Cabaret, the performances, the actors, seating chart, parking and reserving tickets visit http://www.downtowncabaret.org

JanetLeave a comment

Bravo! A Century of Theatre in Fairfield County at the Fairfield Museum and History Center


Photo Caption: Katharine Hepburn as Portia in Merchant of Venice American Shakespeare Festival Theatre, Stratford. Photo Credit: Friedman-Abeles Courtesy, ASFTA Archives

When the curtain rises on Bravo! A Century of Theatre in Fairfield County, Fairfield Museum and History Center expects the crowds to be standing room only!

The six-month exhibition will begin with a special gala fundraising preview that will honor actor Christopher Plummer; playwright A.J. Gurney; director Mark Lamos; and costume designer Jane Greenwood on Saturday, September 24th at the Museum.

The honorary event chair is distinguished actor Joanne Woodward and the gala event chairs are Mary Jane Berrien, Lisa Callahan and Caroline Owens Crawford, all of Fairfield.

According to Director of Exhibitions and Programs for the Museum, Kathleen Bennewitz, Bravo! opens to the public on Sunday, September 25th and will run through Sunday, March 18th, 2012. “It will be the largest, first-of-a-kind exhibition the Museum has undertaken and will focus on the legacy of Fairfield County’s regional theatres, highlighting the Westport Country Playhouse, the White Barn Theatre and the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre and Academy,” she said.

Photo Caption: From left…Actors Maggie Lacey, Paul Newman and Ben Fox in the 2002 Westport Country Playhouse production of Our Town.

The Fairfield Museum and History Center is working in partnership with Martha S. LoMonaco, PhD, Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University, who is guest curating this exhibition. The Fairfield Museum has chosen this topic because Fairfield County holds a unique place in the history of American theatre and is rich with vibrant stories. “One of Connecticut’s important roles in the performing arts has been as an ‘incubator’ of emerging talent, providing a place where playwrights, actors and designers have had the freedom to experiment with groundbreaking ideas,” Bennewitz noted. “Over the past century, regional theatres have provided opportunities for internationally known artists to ‘try out’ their craft on a regional stage to allow audiences to experience the best in classical, popular and innovative dramatic art in a different setting outside New York. “Collectively, the productions have comprised a who’s who of stage artists like Katharine Hepburn, Alfred Drake, Morris Carnovsky, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, June Havoc, Robert Ryan and Bert Lahr, to mention only a few.

Bravo! will offer visitors a unique opportunity to hear the fascinating stories behind those actors and some of their landmark performances,” Bennewitz added. Bennewitz explained that interactive stations will provide a window to “behind the scenes” stage production and a colorful array of costumes, props, photographs and manuscripts will combine to illustrate Fairfield County’s theatrical history.

Photo Caption: The internationally famous and glamorous producer, Lucille Lortel, popularly known as the “Queen of Off-Broadway”, opened the White Barn Theatre in 1947 on her Westport estate in a former horse barn.

The Museum will also offer a slate of public education programs, related to Bravo!, where visitors may participate in activities, presentations and performances at the Museum and at partnering institutions. These programs will provide the experience of live theatre while inspiring the artists and audiences of tomorrow.”Another of the very exciting aspects of Bravo! is the partnerships we have established with more than 60 performing arts organizations throughout Fairfield County that will co-promote the exhibition and its related educational programs and performances,” Bennewitz said. “These partnerships will help make the exhibition and their own performances appealing.”

For more information on Bravo! A Century of Theatre in Fairfield County, its programs and the opening gala, visit http://www.fairfieldhistory.org or call 203-259-1598.

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A Riddle Wrapped In a Mystery at The Sherman Playhouse Sept. 9 – Oct. 1

The Sherman Playhouse will debut the classic mystery-drama, AN INSPECTOR CALLS, by J.B. Priestly on Friday, September 9 at 8:00 p.m. The play is scheduled for a four-week run.

AN INSPECTOR CALLS takes place in 1912 in an English industrial city, where a young girl commits suicide and an eminently respectable British family is subject to a routine inquiry in connection with the death. An inspector calls to interrogate the family, and during the course of his questioning, all members of the group are implicated lightly or deeply in the girl’s undoing. The family, closely knit and friendly at the beginning of the evening, is shown up quite differently by the night’s end in the play’s strange and mysterious conclusion.

“When the play is set, prior to World War I, big business and the upper-class – represented by the Birling family – run the world’s mightiest empire,” said director Laura Gilbert of New Milford. “And then the mysterious ‘Inspector’ shows up, a working-class girl is found dead, and that’s when the mysterious questions arise: Is the girl in all the characters’ confessions the same girl? Is there in fact a dead girl at all? And is the inspector really a policeman? The play just keeps you guessing.”

“The play is brilliant because it’s a political statement disguised as a melodramatic thriller,” said producer Katherine Almquist of Sharon, who also portrays Mrs. Sybil Birling. “The play opened in Moscow in 1945 at the end of World War II. And [playwright] Priestly was an avowed socialist. So there is definite social commentary here, but first and foremost it’s a classic drama that provokes audiences to leave the theater talking, and even more importantly, questioning.”

Along with Almquist, the cast features some of the region’s finest actors: David Fejes (New Fairfield), Quinn Uniacke (Sherman), Ben Grinberg (New Preston), Heather Mock (Danbury), and Robin Frome and Alex Echeverria (both New Milford).

In addition to producer/performer Almquist and director Gilbert (who also designed the set), the show’s crew includes lighting designer Peter Petrino, costumer Terry Hawley, and stage manager David Almquist.

AN INSPECTOR CALLS was first performed in 1945 in two Moscow theatres. The play had its first English production in 1946 at the New Theatre in London starring a young Alec Guinness. The play opened on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on October 21, 1947 and was also adapted into a 1954 film starring Alastair Sim as Inspector Goole. Variety called Priestly’s work “An engaging play…Its mood is sustained throughout, so that it is practically always interesting.”

AN INSPECTOR CALLS runs September 9,10 16,17,18 23,24 30 and October 1. Curtain time is 8:00 p.m. Fridays & Saturdays, with a 2:00 p.m. Sunday matinee on September 18. Tickets for all shows are $20 for general seating.

On Thursday, September 8, all patrons are invited to attend a “Half-Price Preview Night” at 8:00 p.m. where all tickets are only $10. Students may see any performance for only $10 if they pay in cash only at the door and carry a valid student ID. Students may not make reservations in advance for a performance. On September 9, an opening night party will be held after the show, complete with wine and hors d’oeuvres.

Reservations can be made online at http://www.shermanplayers.org or by calling the box office at (860) 354-3622. The Sherman Playhouse now accepts credit card payments both online and at the door.

The Sherman Playhouse is a local, non-Equity theatre company located on 5 Route 39 North (next to the firehouse) in Sherman, Conn.

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