The Wall Street Theater in Norwalk Ct is a fantastic local venue to experience live music. This historic theater opened in 1915 hosting live entertainment. This famous venue is now hosting on Saturday February 11th, “The First Ladies of Disco”.
Three decades of music come together in the First Ladies Of Disco (Retro Music Box) Tour. A rocking, toe-tapping, on your feet, ninety-minute tribute to Billboard’s ’70s 80’s ’90s, Soul, Rock, Pop, and R&B,
The performance features the original platinum, and gold-selling hit makers of its time, Two-time Grammy nominee MARTHA WASH, the voice of The Weather Girls, C&C Music Factory and Black Box. NORMA JEAN WRIGHT, formerly of American Disco, Funk and R&B Band CHIC; and Soul, R&B legend LINDA CLIFFORD. This is a power house trio that will have the audience on their feet!
Join these legendary performers as they sing their hits and pay tribute to some of their favorite artists and songs. The show is a breathtaking, non-stop thrill ride. This supergroup has sold millions of records around the world and audiences are on cloud 9 when they get to see and hear these scintillating performers who made our youth so much fun! The First Ladies Of Disco (Retro Music Box) Tour is an electrifying, high-energy concert and a stunning lesson in the evolution of music.
Tickets are on sale now and range from $35-$59. If you are a fan of this genre of music, this is a must see performance in a legendary venue. Doors open at 7pm and show starts at 8pm
A hilarious zany comedy is now on stage at the Music Theater of Connecticut. Lend me a Tenor was first produced on the West End (London) in 1986 and on Broadway in 1989. The play was nominated for nine Tony awards, and won two. It also was nominated for six Drama Desk awards and won four. Now this comedy is on stage until November 20th. It is truly in the style of modern British comedy with exaggerated acting, physical comedy, over the top characters and a clever set that is a vital part of the story.
Hold on to your armrests as you may just fall out of your seat from laughing too hard! The play is set in a hotel suite in Cleveland Ohio in 1934. An internationally famous opera tenor, Tito Merelli is coming to Cleveland to perform the famous role of Pagliacci the clown. His anticipated arrival is a huge event for the local theater which is betting their season on this performance. Merelli is quite the ladies man and when he arrives we discover that all the women in the play are all trying to seduce him with the exception of his wife who storms out of the hotel after she suspects him of an affair. Act One soon gets turned on his head as Merelli mixes too many sleeping pills and wine. The theater manager fearing that his star is dead asks his assistant Max to don the make up and costume of Pagliacci and assume his role that very evening on stage. If the play is cancelled it could spell disaster for the theater.
The stage design is an integral and very important part of the comedy. The stage is one large hotel suite with a partial wall that divides the bedroom from the sitting area. The audience can see all the action in both rooms but the characters cannot. There are also 5 doors that exit the room, two to closets, one to the bathroom and two to the corridor. These doors are part of this very over the top physical comedy as the actors race in and out of the doors. Act Two turns the whole story on its head. Is Merelli the word famous tenor really dead? Or just in a deep sleep? Is there room for two operatic clowns in this comedy? Will Max overcome his fears and appear on stage as Pagliacci and save the day? You will have to see to find out.
Direction of this witty, fast moving comedy is essential for its success. Timing in comedy is everything and director Pamela Hill brings out the comedic best in this ensemble of fine actors. From rapid fire delivery to exaggerated facial expressions, the delivery is right on target.
Lend Me A Tenorstars Frank Mastrone (B’way- Phantom, Jekyll & Hyde, BIG) as Tito Merelli, Jeff Gurner(B’way- The Lion King, MTC- Sunset Boulevard) as The Bellboy, Michael Damian Fasano (Tour of Jersey Boys, Summer Theatre of New Canaan- West Side Story) as Max, Cynthia Hannah (TV- The Guiding Light, All My Children) as Maria, Jim Schilling(Hamlet with Tony Roberts, South Pacific with Jamie Farr) as Henry Saunders, Jo Anne Parady (Players Club- The Life of Shakespeare, Stratford Shakespeare Festival– Othello) as Julia, Emily Solo (Charlottesville Opera- Sound of Music, New Camerata Opera- Infinite Energy) as Diana, andAlexandra Fortin (Red Monkey Group- HeddaGabler, Gallery Players- Steel Magnolias) as Maggie Saunders.
Lend Me A Tenor is stage managed by Abbey Murray. The creative team includes fight and intimacy choreography by Dan O’Driscoll, scenic and prop design by Sean Sanford, lighting design by RJ Romeo, costume design by Diane Vanderkroef, and sound design by Will Atkin.
Ticket prices range from $40-$65 plus fees and can be purchased online. Support local theater!
Sunset Blvd. the Tony Award winning musical is now live on stage at the Music Theatre of Connecticut (MTC) in Norwalk . The music is by Andrew Lloyd Webber and book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. The musical based on the 1949 movie by director Billy Wilder and opened in London’s West End in 1993 with Patti Lapone as the lead actress. In 1994 it opened on Broadway and with Glenn Close as lead actress and the play won Tony’s for Best Original Score, Best Book and Lyrics, Best Actress as well as other accolades.
MTC is a small theater that consistently produces top quality performances featuring actors with Broadway, off-Broadway, and National Tour experience. This is all produced in an intimate black-box theater setting where the audience sits on three sides of the stage and is so close, you feel you are in the performance itself. It is quite the experience. Sunset Blvd which runs through October 2nd is a Broadway quality musical right in our backyard.
The setting is Hollywood in 1949-1950. Our main character is silent movie star Norma Desmond (Elizabeth Ward Land) who like so many silent movie era stars was cast aside by the Hollywood studios when sound replaced silent movies. Her desire is to return to the big screen and has even written her own screenplay, but she is shunned by the studios. By fortune, she crosses paths with Joe Gillis (Trevor Martin), who is down on his luck screen writer who spends more time dodging bill collectors then writing for the studios. Norma sees an opportunity and hires Joe to edit and improve her screenplay. But he must move into her house and work exclusively for her. Seduced by her stardom and wealthy lifestyle, Joe is persuaded to take on the work. He soon finds himself longing for the world outside Norma’s estate. He had promised a young studio assistant, Betty to collaborate on a script together. But this they must do in secrecy without Norma or her ever present and loyal butler, Max(James Patterson) finding out.
There is sadness in the story as Norma has grand delusions of returning to the silver screen and the studios that cast her aside at the end of the silent movie era. As the new year approaches with the optimism of her return and is echoed by the songs, “The Perfect Year” and “This Time Next Year”.
However despite these dreams, the story spirals downward to its dramatic conclusion.
Sunset Blvd is a first rate production. Since this is a large 12 member cast and a small stage, set design is limited but clever. Costumes, especially those worn by Norma evoke the era of Hollywood in its glamour era. You will walk away from the show impressed by the vocal performances. Elizabeth Ward Land as Norma amazed the audience with an award winning performance. Her vocals were powerful, emotional and mesmerizing. She has performed on Broadway no less than 6 times and she thrilled the theater the evening we attended. We were also very impressed with the vocals of Max the Butler played by James Patterson. At first limited to a talking role, Mr. Patterson impressed the audience with his deep and moving rendition of “The Greatest Star of All”. As always Kevin Connors delivers yet another directing triumph.
MTC’s revival of Sunset Blvd. delivers everything you expect from a Broadway show. The evening is filled with emotion, power, tragedy, the glamour of bygone Hollywood all wrapped in a beautiful musical performance. With Broadway talent and first rate production, why travel all the way to Manhattan when you can see great theatre so close?
Sunset Boulevard stars Elizabeth Ward Land (B’way- Amazing Grace, Memphis) as Norma Desmond and Trevor Martin (Wolfbane Prod.- Sweeney Todd, Sharon PH- Beauty & the Beast) and Joe Gillis. The cast also includes James Patterson (B’way- Beauty & The Beast, Gigi) as Max von Mayerling, Sandra Marante (Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Westport Country PH- In The Heights) as Betty Shaefer, Jacob Sundlie (MTC- Ragtime, Shawnee PH- Addams Family) as Artie Green, and in multiple roles is Philip Callen (Legacy Theatre Deathtrap, Urban Stages- Honky), Jeff Gurner (B’way- The Lion King, MTC- Falsettoland), Paul Aguirre (Nat’l Tour- Billy Elliot, Seussial), Matt Grasso (MTC- It’s A Wonderful Life, ACT of CT- Joseph…Dreamcoat), Helen Clare (SToNC- YAGM Charlie Brown, Honky Tonk Angels), Emily Solo (Charlottesville Opera- Sound of Music, New Camerata Opera- Infinite Energy), and Leigh Klinger (Sharon PH- Beauty & the Beast, Mac-Haydn Theatre- Sunset Blvd.)
Sunset Boulevard is directed by Kevin Connors with musical direction by David John Madore and choreography by Corinne C. Broadbent. Abbey Murray stage manages alongside the creative team which includes scenic design by Lindsay Fuori, lighting design by RJ Romeo, costume design by Diane Vanderkroef, prop design by Sean Sanford, and sound design by Will Atkin.
Ticket prices range from $40-$65 plus fees and can be purchased online.
MTC Music Theatre of Connecticut
phone (203-454-3883). MTC MainStage is located at 509 Westport Ave. in Norwalk, Ct
A moving and very relevant production of Ragtime the Musicalis now on stage at the Music Theatre of Connecticut (MTC). Ragtime relates the story of three different groups of people in the United States at the turn of the 20th Century. The three groups are African Americans, an upper class white family from New Rochelle in Westchester County and Eastern European immigrants. These groups aver very different but their lives will become intertwined.
The story adapted for the stage by Terrence McNally also weaves actual historical figures of the period along with the fictional characters. We see appearances from Henry Ford, Booker T. Washington, Admiral Peary (polar explorer), Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman (writer and anarchist), Stanford White (famous architect- Penn Station NYC) and Evelyn Nesbit (actress, model and lover of Stanford White). The historical figures bring a dose or reality into this otherwise fictional story. The tale explores the world of early 20th Century America where African Americans represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr. a musician, (Ezekiel Andrew), a white upper class family represented by Mother (Juliet Lambert Pratt) and Father(Dennis Holland) , and the immigrants represented by Tateh (Frank Mastrone) all tell their stories of life in America. Their worlds are very different, but their world start to collide in unexpected ways as the new century transforms the nation.
Ari Frimmer and Juliet Lambert Pratt
When Father leaves on a polar expedition he is quite surprised by meeting Matthew Henson, an African American explorer who ventured to the arctic many times. At home Mother discovers an African American baby left in her yard and decides to care for him and his mother Sarah (Soara-Joye Ross) who moves into Mother’s home. We soon find out that the father is the famous Harlem musician Coalhouse Walker Jr. who comes to Mother’s home in New Rochelle to reunite with his family. His fine clothes and new Model T are met with resentment and racism by whites in the area. When Father returns and finds that Mother has taken in the baby and his mother, he realizes that the safe world he knew is changing just as America was changing. He laments that nothing would ever be the same, but his wife welcomes the changes.
Meanwhile Teteh and his daughter cannot scratch out a living on the streets of the lower East Side selling drawings, so they move to a factory town in New England where Teteh finds long hours and exploitation. Still believing in the dream of a better life he moves again to Philadelphia. Later he crosses paths with Mother in Atlantic City where his artistic abilities have landed him a job as a director of silent films. The three worlds of very different people cross, and are all transformed as was the nation during this period.
Jessica Molly Schwartz as Evelyn Nesbit
The music written by Stephen Flaherty with Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens is woven with period correct ragtime piano pieces that are performed by two pianists on stage. The score is moving and dramatic with lighter songs woven in to break the dramatic tension. This is a big production for MTC to undertake with 20 songs alone in Act One and 12 in Act Two. In the end the performance was brilliant. The cast of 16 actors is large for the small size of the theater but credit goes to director Kevin Connors for guiding these wonderful actors so well through a complex production. This musical does not have the usual dance routines seen in musicals but rather leans on the story, the music and the actors to tell the story. If you have not been to this theater then you are missing a special experience. It is a small intimate space with seating for the small audience on three sides. The effect is that the guests feel as if they are being drawn into the play itself.
The play includes actors with Broadway, Off-Broadway, National Tours and Regional experience. Standout performances abound and we loved Juliet Lambert Pratt as Mother. We last saw her at MTC in Bridges of Madison County. A wonderful acting and vocal performance. Soara-Joye Ross as Sarah, Brian Demar Jones as Booker T. Washington, Mia Scarpa as Emma Goldman (previously at MTC in Always…..Patsy Cline), Ezekiel Andrew as Coalhouse Walker, Jr. Dennis Holland as Father, and Jessica Molly Schwartz as Evelyn Nesbit and the rest of the cast all gave wonderful performances and brought the opening night audience to their feet.
With a moving musical score, relevant story and tremendous performances, you should add Ragtime the Musical on your must see list. But hurry the show runs through October 13th 2019.
Cabaret the multi award winning musical is now on stage at MTC, the Music Theatre ofConnecticut in Norwalk. MTC has produced another fine show that premiered this past weekend and runs through Sunday April 14. Like all the shows we have enjoyed at this local theater, this production is first rate and should not be missed.
Cabaret is a 1966 musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Joe Masteroff, and was adapted from the short novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. The setting is Berlin in 1931. The city of Berlin in the period between World War 1 and the rise of the Nazis was the center of the arts and culture of Weimar Germany. The play is set at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and at a rooming house. We are introduced to Cliff Bradshaw (Nicholas Dromard) an American writer who is traveling to Berlin in hopes the artistic atmosphere will kick start his novel. He meets on the train to Germany a mysterious man, Ernst Ludwig (Andrew Foote) who befriends him and finds him cheap lodging at a Berlin boarding house. Here we are introduced to woman who owns the building, Fraulein Schneider ( Anne Kanengeiser) and fellow boarder, a Jewish fruit merchant named Herr Shultz (Jim Schilling). Ernst takes Andrew out on the town to the Kit Kat Club. Here we meet the iconic character The Emcee (Eric Scott Kincaid) and the entertainers including Fraulein Kost (Hillary Ekwall) and Sally Bowles (Desiree Davar). Sally is much like Cliff as she has come to Berlin to revel in its artistic and sexual freedoms.
Soon an unlikely romance develops between Cliff and Sally. As a subplot we also see a romance blossom between the spinster Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, even at their advanced age. It seems that the feeling is anything is possible in post World War I Berlin. But the idealism of the age is interrupted by a underlying current which upends the worlds of our characters. Ernst is exposed as a Nazi and we see the rise to power of the Nazi party which threatens the very nature of German society. Fraulein Schneider realizes that to survive in a Nazi ruled Berlin she cannot marry a Jewish man and must break off her engagement. The gay men at the Kit Kat Klub are even the targets of the hate and intolerance of the new order. Cliff decides the reasons for coming to Berlin are quickly vanishing and he decides to return to America with Sally. But Sally does not flee with him stays behind. She keeps on singing at the cabaret in denial of the drastic change on the horizon. Even Herr Schultz feels that even though a new order is coming to Germany, not much will change. He too is in a state of tragic denial. A poignant tale that is relevant in today’s environment of how a nation of freedom loving people can have their country slowly turned into a dark and intolerant culture.
Desiree Davar as Sally Bowles
The songs of Cabaret lighten the heavy and important message of the play as they tie together all the scenes of this musical. Many of the memorable numbers are present and wonderfully executed including “Wilkommen”, “So What”, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” and of course “Cabaret” .
The MTC theater is a small black box style theater with the audience sitting on three sides (only 4 rows each side) which creates an intimate an up close theater experience. The stage is small and the designers must use their artistic skills to carve out the separate scene spaces. They do so very effectively. Due to the size the cast is smaller than might be in a larger theater but Director Kevin Connors skillfully uses the talented cast to fill the theater with drama and song. He masterfully reminds the audience of the joys of the cabaret where we can forget our troubles, but we must be vigilant as freedom of artistic expression can be fleeting in the face of oppressive forces. The full house on opening night approved of the great performance. The cast is wonderful and Ms Davar as Sally Bowles wowed the audience with her fine vocal talents.
A fantastic production of a relevant and timely play that should be seen.
I On The Valley 