A host of Broadway and screen talent will be part of the 12-week season that will feature four productions on the Weston MainStage and two at the Playhouse's Other Stage venue.
First up is Becky Mode's Fully Committed, running June 23-July 4 under the direction of Steve Stettler. "Scrubs" actor Sam Lloyd, Jr. will appear in the comedy that "charts the liberation of an aspiring actor from his day job as the harried reservationist at a posh Manhattan restaurant."
William Finn and Rachel Sheinken's Tony-winning musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee follows, playing July 9-25, under the direction of Tim Fort with choreography by Tesha Buss. The cast will feature Randy Blair (Adding Machine) as William Barfee, Piper Goodeve (Anne of Green Gables) as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, Susan Haefner (Thoroughly Modern Millie) as Rona Lisa Peretti, Logan Lipton (Wicked) as Leaf Coneybear, Tracy Michailidis (Beauty and the Beast) as Olive Ostrovsky, Marcus Neville (The Full Monty) as Douglas Panch, C. Mingo Long (Show Boat) as Mitch Mahoney, Jason Yau as Chip Tolentino and Ka-Ling Cheung (Metamorphoses) as Marcy Park.
Bill Castellino will direct the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Jonathan Larson musical Rent, which will rock the Weston MainStage July 30-Aug. 22. The 1990's East Village-set work will include Drama Desk nominee Christiana Bianco (Forbidden Broadway) as Maureen, Kristoffer Cusick (Wicked) as Roger, Rona Figueroa (Miss Saigon) as Mimi, Jeremy Leiner (Bombay Dreams) as Angel, Jordan Barbour (Stormy Weather) as Collins, Stacey Sargeant (Legally Blonde) as Joanne, Brian Sears (Grease) as Mark and Joshua Denning as Benjamin. The Rent ensemble includes C. Mingo Long, Craig Fogel, Norman Payne, Paul Rawlings, Charlie Parker, Katy Karr, Nadine Malouf and Jenny Powell.
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun will be the final MainStage offering, running Aug. 27-Sept. 5 under Malcolm Ewen's direction. "Weeds" actress Tonye Patano will lead the cast as Lena Younger with Wendell Franklin (Desire) as Walter Younger, Chantal Jean-Pierre (King Lear) as Ruth Younger, Erica Peeples (Day of Absence) as Beneatha Younger, Raphael Peacock as Bobo, John Leonard Thompson (Butley) as Karl Lindner, Jaime Lincoln Smith as Joseph Asagai and Charlie Hudson III (Old Comedy) as George Murchison. The role of Travis Younger will be announced at a later date. Following the Weston engagement, Raisin will embark on a New England tour. Other Stage offerings include Joan Didion's stage adaptation of her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, from July 15-Aug. 2. Malcolm Ewen will direct Susan Blommaert (Grease, "Law & Order") in the solo work that chronicles the loss of Didion's husband and daughter over the course of one year.
The second production will be The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!), by Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart, Aug. 12-Sept. 6. Tim Fort directs a cast including David Bonanno (The Light in the Piazza), Susan Haefner (42nd Street), Roger Seyer ( Les Miserables) and Dorothy Stanley (Gypsy). The intimate comedy spoofs theatre composers including Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber and the team of Kander and Ebb.
The Weston Playhouse will also stage a children's production of the E. B. White classic Stuart Little, adapted by Joseph Robinette, June 23-July 4.
For tickets phone (802) 824-5288 or visit WestonPlayhouse.
