Boston Metro Spotlight: May 2010

It’s turnover time — the official start of a brand-new season. The top contender this month is Johnny Baseball, a new musical about the alleged “Red Sox Curse,” with book by Richard Dresser, music by Robert Reale, and lyrics by Willie Reale, directed by Diane Paulus at the American Repertory Theatre (May 14 – June 27). Colin Donnell stars as Johnny O’Brien, a 1919 team member who embarks on an interracial romance with blues singer Daisy Wyatt (Stephanie Umoh); Broadway vet Burke Moses plays Babe Ruth.

The Huntington Theater Company presents a revival of Craig Lucas’ Prelude to a Kiss (May 14-June 13), directed by Peter DuBois. The production stars Brian Sgambati and Cassie Beck as the about-to-be-newlyweds, and MacIntyre Dixon as the errant soul who disrupts their nuptials. Attesting to the growing spirit of camaraderie within the Boston theatre scene (Paulus and DuBois are old friends), the ART and Huntington will be collaborating for the first time — along with the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston — on an Emerging America Festival (May 14-16), with highlights including works by Dan Hurlin, Amy Herzog, and Steven Levenson. Ryan Landry of the local Ridiculous-legacy troupe Gold Dust Orphans will also be participating in the festival, while the Orphans’ own show, a revival of their popular Hitchcock-inspired spoof/homage The Gulls, is at the Machine (May 7-30).

The Boston Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 125th birthday with several events, including a new work it commissioned, The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers, with music by Peter Boyer and lyrics — drawn from speeches — by Lynn Ahrens. Robert De Niro, Ed Harris, and Morgan Freeman will play John, Robert, and Teddy, respectively, for the initial performances (Symphony Hall, May 18-19), with as yet unnamed narrators taking over for performances at the Charles River Esplanade (May 20-22, July 3-4) and further celebrities — e.g., Alec Baldwin, Chris Cooper — participating at Tanglewood and in Hyannis later in the summer.

The Boston Center for the Arts hosts Another Country performing Pinter’s Betrayal (May 20 – June 5) and Imaginary Beasts’ M2 (Molière Squared) (May 27 – June 13). It will also harbor the popular Boston Theater Marathon XII (May 22-23), a theatre-community benefit comprising fifty 10-minute plays, as well as day-long “Warm-Up Laps.” Other shows of note include Blithe Spirit at the Lyric (May 7 – June 5), with Paula Plum as the antic revenant Elvira and Kathy St. George as Madame Arcati, and the Actors’ Shakespeare Project performing Timon of Athens at Midway Studios in Fort Point Channel, with newly appointed artistic director Allyn Burrows in the title role (May 23 – June 13).

Touring shows span August: Osage County with Estelle Parsons, at the Colonial (May 4-16); UK comedian Billy Connolly Live! at the Shubert (May 7); and, at the Wang, Ted Neeley in his final appearance in Jesus Christ Superstar (May 7-9).

Cambridge’s Nora Theatre Company will snap up The Lady With All The Answers, David Rambo’s charming portrait of Ann Landers (May 13 – June 20), here starring Stephanie Clayman and with the added bonus of Margo Howard (Landers’s daughter/successor, a local) on hand for a couple of talkbacks. Watertown’s New Rep has opted for Hot Mikado (May 2-23), a jazzed-up version of Gilbert & Sullivan, and Stoneham Theatre has lined up a fine cast for Gaslight (May 27 – June 13): Marianna Bassham plays the tormented wife, Angie Jepson the saucy maid.

The Berkshires are stirring after a long winter’s nap. Shakespeare & Company kicks off the season with Julius Caesar (May 21 – June 13), and S&Co. founder Tina Packer and Nigel Gore partner up to perform segments from her compendium Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays (May 28 – July 24 and August 25-27). Barrington Stage Company offers the New England premiere of The Whipping Man, Matthew Lopez’s drama about a momentous seder held during the twilight of the Civil War (May 27 – June 13); Christopher Innvar directs, and the cast includes Clarke Peters of HBO’s Treme and The Wire fame, LeRoy McClain, and Nick Westrate.

Out on Cape Cod, the Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster will be taking on Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice (May 6 – June 6), while at the Provincetown Theater, Obie-anointed director David Drake helms a mostly hometown cast in Our Town (May 13-23). Jeff Zinn, a co-founder of the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, directs Daughter of Venus by his late father, the influential historian Howard Zinn (May 27 – June 26).