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08/12/2010 12:00 AMMoney, Money, Money: Yale Drama School has raked in two major grants to support its new playwrights' programs. First the drama school received $950,000 from the Robina Foundation for the Yale Center for New Theatre. Now the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has given the center $1 million to be used over the next five years. Among the new works that have been or are being produced with the grants include last season's Pop! and Compulsion and this year's We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Bossa Nova.
Comedy at Long Wharf: Long Wharf's summer comedy series concludes with Paul Perroni in Rob Becker's Defending the Caveman, through Sunday, Aug. 22. Defending the Caveman, the longest-running solo play in Broadway history, explores the gender gap vis-à-vis the ways men and women relate. For tickets, call 203-787-4282 or visit www.longwharf.org.
Something Grandish: Ivoryton Playhouse is producing the delightful musical Finian's Rainbow through Sept. 5. According to Artistic Director Jacqueline Hubbard, the theater is using the adaptation produced originally at the Irish Rep in New York City. It turns the musical into a more intimate, chamber piece, which will certainly work better on Ivoryton's small stage. You'll hear all the great songs-"How Are Things in Glocca Mora," "Old Devil Moon," "Look to the Rainbow," "Something Sort of Grandish"-and others. For tickets, call 860-767-7318 or visit www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.
New Cast in Broadway Musical: We saw the new stars of the Broadway revival of A Little Night Music recently and all we can say is that you must see Bernadette Peters as Desiree Arnfeldt. You may recall that the show opened with Catherine Zeta-Jones in the role-she won the Tony-and Angela Lansbury as Madame Arnfeldt. Both left the cast in June, the show closed, and now has reopened with Peters and Elaine Stritch in the roles. All we can say is that we have never heard "Send in the Clowns" sung as magnificently as Bernadette Peters does. She had us near tears. To us, Stritch seemed a little too "modern" and over-the-top in her performance. You can judge for yourself. For tickets, call Telecharge at 800-432-7250 or visit www.telecharge.com.
The Bard Outdoors: Bring your blankets, bring your lawn chairs, and enjoy the words of Shakespeare outdoors. New Haven's Elm Shakespeare Company is producing The Winter's Tale, a story of romance, jealousy, abandonment, and reconciliation at New Haven's Edgerton Park, Thursday, Aug. 19 to Sept. 5. Admission is free, but there is a suggested donation. For more information, call 203-393-1436 or visit www.elmshakespeare.org.
The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is presenting Twelfth Night on the Old Saybrook Town Green Aug. 12, 14, and 15. The shows are free. Audience members are encouraged to bring picnic dinners, blankets, and chairs. The show is produced by Connecticut
Free Shakespeare, a professional educational theater project, now in its 11th season. For more information, call 877-503-1286 or visit www.katharinehepburntheater.org.
A New Tony Voter: Gordon Edelstein, Long Wharf's artistic director, has been added to the committee that nominates productions for the Tony Awards.
Tickets On Sale: You can now order tickets for How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying starring Daniel Radcliffe (a.k.a. Harry Potter), which begins previews Feb. 26, 2011. Also, tickets are available for the 16-week run of Driving Miss Daisy with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave. It beings previews Oct. 7. This is actually the Broadway debut for the play that was originally performed-before the movie version-off-Broadway. Tickets are available for both via Telecharge by calling
800-432-4250 or by visiting
www.telecharge.com.
Broadway Casting Notes: The Roundabout Theatre Company's new Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession stars Cherry Jones as Kitty Warren and is directed by Long Wharf's former artistic director, Doug Hughes. It begins previews Sept. 3 and the cast includes Sally Hawkins. For tickets, call 212-719-1300 or visit www.roundabouttheatre.org.
Al Pacino will play Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, beginning Oct. 19 for a limited run. This is the New York Shakespeare Festival production that played this summer in Central Park.
Tony Award-winners Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Tony nominee Sherie Rene Scott will star in the Lincoln Center Theater production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The new musical adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 film arrives Oct. 2. Tickets go on sale Monday, Aug. 30; visit www.lct.org.
John Cullum has joined the cast of The Scottsboro Boys, the Kander and Ebb musical that is making the transition from off-Broadway, where it sold out, to Broadway. It is currently in Minneapolis. Previews in New York begin Oct. 7. Tickets are available via Telecharge by calling 800-432-7250 or visiting
www.telecharge.com.
Bob and Karen Isaacs are North Branford residents with a five-minute radio show, Two on the Aisle, and a DJ Memory Lane show every Monday from 8 to 10 a.m. Both shows are broadcast on University of New Haven's radio station, WNHU 88.7 FM, and online at www.wnhu.net.