The Connecticut company currently presents Eduardo Machado's The Cook on its mainstage through March 27 and will conclude its season with Othello and — part of its ongoing Tennessee Williams tribute — Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Stage and screen actress Olympia Dukakis ("Moonstruck") kicks off the summer with a version of her Broadway solo Rose written by Martin Sherman (Bent). Nancy Meckler will direct the work about a Holocaust survivor, July 7-17.
Next, Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt's musical comedy 2 Pianos 4 Hands will play July 21-31. Based on the lives of the creators, the work follows the journey of opposing musicians and the stories of their piano lesson days, taking on over 20 characters in 20 songs.
Concluding the summer is a revival of the Fats Waller musical tribute Ain’t Misbehavin’. Kent Gash, who provided Providence, Rhode Island's Trinity Repertory Company with the work last year, directs the revue — featuring such songs as "Honeysuckle Rose" and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" — anew for Connecticut audiences, Aug. 4-21.
The forthcoming 42nd anniversary season for the company is being decided upon. David Grimm's free adaptation of Molière's The Learned Ladies called The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue will likely open the season, according to a Hartford spokesperson. Artistic director Michael Wilson directs the work which resets the story in 1930's Manhattan. Other works being considered are another Wilson-helmed Williams work (one of his latter plays) "A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur" and a revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Further possibilities include the Peter Melnick musical with lyrics by Christopher Durang Adrift in Macao, the David Cale-Jonathan Kreisberg country musical Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky (currently performing under the direction of Wilson in Chicago) and the previously reported staging of Allan Knee's Syncopation which was set to star Neve Campbell and Michael Hayden on Broadway, but was canceled.
Tickets to shows at Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street in downtown Hartford, CT will be available by calling (860) 527-5151 . For more information, visit www.hartfordstage.org.
