Boston Spotlight: April 2006

Already a draw for self-styled theatre scouts, Huntington Theatre’s third annual Breaking Ground Festival, at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts April 6-9, gets some extra elan from visiting celebs: Douglas Sills in a new musical version of the classic film, Kind Hearts and Coronets (April 6); Julie White in Noah Haidle’s comedy Persephone (April 7); and Michael T. Weiss in Valerie Martin’s Property, based on her Civil War novel (April 8). On April 9, Broadway vet Campbell Scott stars in Ronan Noone’s The Atheist, about an unscrupulous journalist, and Denis O’Hare stars in Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius, a thriller set in the high-stakes world of stamp-collecting (really). Also on the roster is Lydia Diamond’s Voyeurs de Venus (April 8), about an African-American scholar’s personal struggles as she writes a biography of the performer pegged as “The Hottentot Venus.”

The Huntington’s mainstage production is the world premiere of The Road Home: Re-Membering America (through April 30)., Written by and starring Marc Wolf — whose OBIE-winning Another American: Asking and Telling played here last season — this outing captures 20 characters, from a Muslim dentist to a teenaged Latina shopaholic, whom Wolf encountered in the course of a post-9/11 cross-country trek back to Manhattan.

The Boston Center for the Arts hosts a rich olio of adventurous fare this month: Sugan Theatre performs Robin Soans’s documentary play Talking to Terrorists (through April 8); Bradford Louryk recreates his praised off-Broadway portrait, Christine Jorgensen Reveals (April 6-29); Alarm Clock Theatre debuts Rosa, about a Guatemalan adoption tangled up in “national security” concerns (April 7-21); Boston Theatre Works offers the East Coast premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s The Sweetest Swing in Baseball (April 13-May 6), about a woman painter in crisis who finds an expected mentor in former Met Darryl Strawberry; Kyle Jarrow’s musical Gorilla Man (April 21-30); and Hiding Behind Comets, Brian Dykstra’s scary ode to family dysfunction (April 28 – May 20).

Meanwhile, Lyric Stage continues its run of the heart-warming Lanford Wilson’sTalley’s Folly though April 22, and the Lyric’s resident children’s theatre, Once Upon A Time, puts on an interactive Peter Pan on April 9. Also for kids, the Wheelock Family Theatre is sweet on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (April 7- May 14).

Three major national tours are in town this month. Monty Python’s Spamalot continues at the Colonial (through April 15), followed there by Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (April 20-23). Meanwhile, the Tony Award-winning Wicked blows into the Opera House (April 12-May 14).

Over in Cambridge, the American Repertory Theatre’s black box at Zero Arrow shelters the avant-garde Orpheus X (through April 23) to be followed by the Civilians’ political revue (I am) Nobody’s Lunch (April 25-30). The Actors Shakespeare Project resurfaces at the Cambridge Family Y with All’s Well that Ends Well (April 20- May 14), featuring Allyn Burrows, John Kuntz, Paula Plum, and other company favorites.

Boston’s fringe spaces are brimming with activity. The Piano Factory’s tiny Threshold Theatre hosts Devanaughn’s rendition of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal ( through April 9). Up next there is AYTB’s Death & You: A Beginner’s Guide, a comedic sampler by local playwright John Shanahan (April 14-30). The Boston Playwrights Theatre presents the Out of the Blue Theatre Company in Monica Bauer’s The Maternal Instinct, about a lesbian married couple at odds over reproductive expectations (through April 16). It’s followed by the Nora Theatre Company’s The Man Who, adapted from Oliver Sacks’s book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by the author along with Peter Brook and Marie Helene Estienne (April 20-May 7.)

Suburban action includes Cindy Pierce’s picaresque Finding the Doorbell at Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway in Somerville (April 7-8). Merrimack Rep mounts John Corwin’s Real Hush-Hush (April 20-May 14). Stoneham Theatre hosts Unforgettable: The Nat King Cole Story, with Monroe Kent III in the title role (through April 16), followed by Nunsensations! (April 20-30) Last, but by no means least, North Shore Music Theatre serves up a site-specific Damn Yankees, in which the 1955 chestnut gets a timely Red Sox twist, with Broadway stars Jim Walton and Shannon Lewis in the leads (April 25-May 14).

Heading down through New England, Rhode Island’s Trinity Rep offers Boots on the Ground (April 14-May 21), which maps the impact of Iraq on the Ocean State. In Connecticut, Goodspeed Opera House opens its season with the musical Li’l Abner (April 21-May 17). Yale Rep follows up dance of the holy ghosts: a play on memory (closing April 8) with All’s Well That Ends Well (Apr 21-May 20) starring Kathleen Chalfant and John Cunningham. New Haven’s Long Wharf counters with The Front Page (April 5-30), with Broadway pros Jeff McCarthy and Chris Henry Coffey as the avid journalists (April 6-May 7). Hartford Stage welcomes TV favorite Joan Van Ark as part of a quartet of romantically challenged women in the rarely seen Tennessee Williams comedy A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (April 6-May 7). Finally, Tony Award winner James Earl Jones will play the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in Thurgood, a new solo play by George Stevens, Jr. at the Westport Country Playhouse (April 30-May 14).