47th MainStage Season to
Feature
International Musical Sensation Sheila's Day;
August Wilson's Gem
of the Ocean;
Broadway Hit Comedy Thriller Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps;
World Premiere of Michael Kramer's Divine Rivalry
SummerStage 2010 Features Broadway Legends
Chita Rivera and Ben
Vereen
13th Annual presentation of Connecticut's Holiday
Favorite
A
Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas
April 1, 2010/Hartford, CT ... Classic stories, international rhythms, and a compelling
new voice will transport audiences next season at Hartford Stage, currently represented Off-Broadway by the
world premiere co-production of The
Orphans' Home Cyclewith Signature Theatre Company. The Tony Award-winning theatre, under the
leadership of Artistic Director Michael Wilson and Managing Director Michael Stotts,
has announced four initial productions for the theatre's 47th
MainStage season. Opening the season
will be the internationally acclaimed musical drama Sheila's Day. Accompanied
by rousing gospel and blues and stirring Zulu chants, Sheila's Day offers
a riveting history of the civil rights movement in rural Alabama
and apartheid in South
Africa that is also a triumphant celebration
of the human spirit. Also announced for
the MainStage season are Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, the Tony Award-winning Broadway smash hit comedy
that mixes a thrilling Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel; August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean,
the 2005 Tony Award-nominated Best Play by one of America's greatest
storytellers; and the world premiere of Divine Rivalry by noted political journalist
Michael Kramer, a compelling
exploration of a little known painting competition between Leonardo da Vinci
and Michelangelo engineered by the brilliant Niccolo Machiavelli. Divine
Rivalry will be directed by Michael Wilson.
The 2010-2011 season will also
mark the completion of the first of two phases of renovation and upgrade
projects for Hartford Stage. To facilitate these essential renovations to
the Church Street theatre, the 2010-2011 MainStage season will present Sheila's Dayat its temporary
summer home at the Roberts Theatre at the Kingswood-Oxford School in West
Hartford, a ten-minute drive from downtown Hartford. Following the completion of this first phase
of renovation, the 2010-2011 season will continue in October at Hartford Stage's
50 Church Street
home.
Also at the Roberts Theatre
this summer is a theatrical treat for Connecticut
audiences: Broadway legends Chita Rivera and Ben Vereen will both bring their hit solo shows to Hartford Stage's
SummerStage series for back-to-back one-week limited runs. Each performer will bring his or her unique
talents to Hartford
as they revisit their storied Broadway careers in Chita Rivera: My Broadway and An Evening with Ben Vereen. Tickets for the Broadway Legends series are
on sale now and can be purchased individually or as a multi-show subscription.
The holiday season brings the 13th annual production of a Connecticut's favorite yuletide
tradition, the crowd-pleasing A Christmas Carol, seen by more
than a quarter million people during its unprecedented run at Hartford Stage. Tickets for A Christmas Carol are on
sale now for subscribers and will go onsale to single ticket buyers July 1.
Artistic
Director Michael
Wilson states, "When
audiences come to Hartford Stage this season, both in downtown Hartford and to our summer
home at Kingswood-Oxford, they will be part of a unique, moving and uplifting
journey. Our 2010-2011 season celebrates
the resilient power of art to overcome seemingly insurmountable adversities,
with extraordinary potential to transform individual lives, whole societies,
and nations. The final two projects,
which will be announcing shortly, continue this theme, reminding us of the
essential, restorative nature of live theatre.
Managing Director Michael Stotts comments, "We are also excited
that our Church Street
home is getting a much-needed upgrade, which will allow us to continue to offer
artistic experiences that promise to be benchmark events in the 21st
century American Theatre."
Tickets to Hartford Stage's 2010-2011 season are on
sale now. To purchase a subscription or
to receive more information, call the Hartford Stage Box Office at 860-527-5151,
or visit our website at www.hartfordstage.org. Single tickets to Sheila's Day and the Broadway Legends series are on sale now; individual
tickets for all other productions go on sale July 1. Groups of 10 or more may receive discounts;
call the box office for further information.
Confirmed
2010-2011 MainStage Productions:
Internationally Acclaimed Musical Drama
Hartford Stage in
collaboration with the Connecticut Theatre Festival presents
the Crossroads Theatre
Company production of
SHEILA'S DAY
Conceived and written by Duma Ndlovu
Co-created by Mbongeni Ngema with additional material by Ebony Jo-Ann
Directed by Ricardo Khan (based in part on original staging by Mbongeni Ngema)
July 22 - August 15, 2010
Accompanied by rousing gospel and blues and stirring Zulu chants, Sheila's Day, set in Perry County,
Alabama, and Soweto township, Johannesburg, interweaves the personal
stories of two groups of women which lay bare racial injustice through the eyes
of domestic workers, known as "Sheilas". By the author of Sarafina! and performed by an international cast, Sheila's Day offers a joyful, startling
history and a triumph of the human spirit.
Sheila's
Day was originally created in 1989
at Crossroads Theatre. The musical play
went on to major theater houses and festivals around the world: New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., South Africa
and Toronto,
and has been performed for Nelson Mandela.
Tony Award-winning Broadway Smash Hit Comedy Thriller
Alfred Hitchcock's
THE 39 STEPS
Adapted by Patrick Barlow
Dates TBD
Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece
with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have this hilarious
Tony Award-winning hit! A beautiful spy
leaks a deadly secret to a man she's just met. With that, our hero suddenly finds himself
embroiled in a high-speed chase across England
and Scotland,
dodging police, charming ladies, and uncovering clues at every turn. The mind-blowing cast of four plays 150
characters!
Compelling World Premiere
DIVINE RIVALRY
By Michael Kramer
Directed by Michael Wilson
Dates TBD
Michelangelo, Leonardo
DaVinci, Machiavelli. A little-known painting competition brings together three
geniuses of the Renaissance. Written by noted political journalist Michael
Kramer (Time magazine), this engaging
world premiere examines the hazards of using art as a tool for political and
personal ambition.
2005 Tony Award Best Play Nominee
GEM OF THE OCEAN
By August Wilson
Directed by Hana Sharif
Dates TBD
Set in 1904, this haunting tale of a spiritually tormented young man, Citizen
Barlow, who comes to Aunt Ester's home seeking asylum, sets off a spiritual journey
to find a city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
On his way to the mythic city, Barlow makes startling discoveries about
guilt, duty, and redemption. The first
entry in Wilson's extraordinary ten-play cycle
examining America's
20th century.
2010 SummerStage Broadway Legends Series:
CHITA RIVERA: MY
BROADWAY
June 22 - 27, 2010
An
evening of song, dance, and stories with the two-time Tony Award winner performing
songs from her legendary Broadway career. Rivera will perform selections from her most
celebrated musicals, including numbers from West
Side Story ("America"),
Sweet Charity ("Where Am I Going?"
and "Big Spender"), Chicago ("All
That Jazz" and "Nowadays"), Kiss of the
Spider Woman, Bye Bye Birdie, and The
Rink. Featuring the music of Leonard
Bernstein, John Kander & Fred Ebb, Charles Strouse, Stephen Sondheim, and
Cy Coleman. The New York Times raves, "You leave this show walking on air!" "Shimmering show-biz perfection," cheers the Los Angeles Times.
AN EVENING WITH BEN VEREEN
July 6 -
11, 2010
A unique blend of artistry
combining a tribute to Broadway, Frank Sinatra, and a very special homage to
Sammy Davis, Jr., An Evening With Ben Vereen is a
contemporary and timeless journey through the Broadway songbook featuring such
hit songs as Defying Gravity, Being Alive, Something's
Coming, and Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries. A Tony Award winner for his renowned
performance in Bob Fosse's Pippin, Ben Vereen has gone on to
solidify his place among Broadway royalty, with starring roles in such
productions as Wicked, Fosse, Chicago, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair,
and I'm Not Rappaport. Best known on screen for his
iconic role as Chicken George in the groundbreaking TV miniseries Roots.
The Roberts
Theatre at Kingswood-Oxford
School, Hartford Stage's summer home,
has ample free parking, is convenient to I-84, and within walking distance to
restaurants in West Hartford
Center and Blue Back Square. The Roberts
Theatre is comparable in
size to the Church Street
facility, is fully accessible, and has the production capabilities needed to
deliver the exciting and powerful theatre experience that Hartford Stage
audiences both expect and treasure.
Hartford Stage's 50 Church Street
theatre has wheelchair accessible seating, assistive listening devices, open
captioned performances, and other amenities.
For more information, please call the box office at 860-527-5151. Hartford Stage is located at 50 Church Street in
downtown Hartford
with parking located in the MAT Garage, directly adjacent to the theatre. The theatre is easily accessible from I-84
and I-91.
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