Tennessee Williams, Amiri Baraka, William Shakespeare and new plays by Lanford Wilson and Matthew Barber are on Hartford Stage's schedule for the 1999-2000 season.
As first reported by Playbill On-Line, the season will begin with Williams' Camino Real (Sept. 9-Oct. 10), starring Betty Buckley as Camille. James Colby will play Kilroy, with Hartford artistic director Michael Wilson at the helm.
The expressionistic Camino Real is experiencing an unlikely rash of popularity. High profile productions of the play have played or are planned for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. Ethan Hawke starred in the Williamstown staging this summer, while Michael Hayden will star as Kilroy, the doomed boxer, in the D.C. mounting in spring of 2000. Also, original star Eli Wallach and his wife, actress Anne Jackson, did a scene from the play in their recent NYC show, Tennessee Williams Remembered.
The play marks Buckley's second non-musical assignment this year. She recently starred in the Vineyard Theatre's staging of Nicky Silver's The Eros Trilogy, in which the actress played two different mothers. She is primarily known for her musical credits, including Cats and Sunset Boulevard.
The rest of the season runs as follows: * Lanford Wilson's The Book of Days, Oct. 21-Nov. 20, a co production (with the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis) which is expected to come to New York. Dee Hoty (Footloose), Alan Campbell (Sunset Boulevard) and Jonathan Hogan star. Marshall Mason directs.
* Amiri Baraka's classic Dutchman (Jan. 13-Feb. 13, 2000). No casting has been announced for the key roles of Clay and Lulu in the landmark Off-Broadway work.
* Enchanted April (Feb. 24-March 26, 2000), Matthew Barber's stage adaptation of Elizabeth von Arnim's novel (made into a 1992 film) about two bored English women who flee to a medieval Italian villa. Michael Wilson directs.
* Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (April 6-May 7, 2000), director and cast to be announced.
* Tom Stoppard's Rough Crossing (May 25-June 24, 2000), about the authors and cast of a Broadway musical who try to finish the production aboard an ocean liner before docking in New York. Tracy Brigden directs.
For information, call (860) 527-5151.
-- By Robert Simonson
