Boston Spotlight: July 2005

It’s that time of year again: when every Bostonian with the wherewithal — thespians included — heads for the hills or shoreward to escape the summer heat. But those who stick it out in town have some al fresco theatrical treats in store

The big event — so big, it was forced to relocate to a more spacious natural arena amid Boston Common — is the free Commonwealth Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet (July 16-August 7). Film star Jeffrey Donovan (Touching Evil) assumes the title role, surrounded by some of Boston’s finest actors, including Karen MacDonald, John Kuntz, and Jacqui Parker.

There’s also the pleasures of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia at the open-air Publick Theatre on the banks of the Charles; it runs in repertory through September 4; beginning later this month, the show alternates weekly with Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors (July 21- September 10). And TheatreZone offers Chekhov’s The Seagull / La Gaviota (alternately in English and Spanish) waterside in Chelsea (July 12-24).

Heading back indoors, The American Repertory Theater’s satellite space, Zero Arrow Theatre, is hosting a return visit of Pamela Gien’s award-winning memoir of South Africa The Syringa Tree (July 15-August 7). Meanwhile, the Tribe Theatre Wing will mount Nicky Silver’s dysfunctional-family comedy Pterodactyls at the hole-in-the-wall Devanaughn Theatre (July 8-24), and Queer Soup is planning a Summer Simmer of staged readings at the Boston Playwrights Theatre (July 18-30).

For decades, the Reagle Players have managed to lure major stars to suburban Waltham. From July 14-23, the luminary will be Oscar winner Shirley Jones appearing as Aunt Nettie in Carousel. She was the luminous Julie Jordon in the 1956 film version — a role assumed here by Sarah Pfisterer, a veteran of Broadway’s Phantom of the Opera. And speaking of Rodgers & Hammerstein, The North Shore Music Theatre has shoehorned Cinderella into its schedule, with Broadway’s Sara Schmidt in the lead. (July 12-31).

At the Stoneham Theater, baby-boomers nostalgic for the sounds of the ’70s can “get down” to 8-Track, a jukebox chamber musical that has played to great acclaim in the West (July 7-24). Heading northward, Gloucester Stage is presenting Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize-wining drama Dinner with Friends (through July 17), followed by founder Israel Horowitz’s odd and unsettling My Old Lady, with Nancy E. Carroll playing a cagy ninety-something Parisian apartment dweller.(July 21-August 7).

If you’re seeking cooler climes and great theater, The Cape Playhouse is offering Mad TV‘s protean comics Stephnie Weir and Michael MacDonald, Tony Award winner Harriet Harris, and the incomparable Brian Murray in A.R. Gurney’s The Dining Room (July 4-16), followed by the indefatigably funny Fred Willard heading the company of No, No, Nanette (July 18-30).

Some other major stars are spending their summers up in these parts. Bill Pullman will star in a reading of Neil LaBute’s Autobahn at The Cape Cod Theatre Project in Woods Hole (July 7-9); John Shea, who calls Nantucket his summer home, will add polish to a production of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters there (July 14-23); and Stacia Fernandez, last seen in Lone Star Love, takes on the iconic role of 1960s pop superstar Dusty Springfield in A Girl Called Dusty at Provincetown Rep (July 7-24).

As always, The Berkshires are busy-busy this summer. Barrington Stage is offering the world premiere of Cusi Cram’s comedy Fuente, a magical-realist romp involving the hitherto “unknown powers of Aqua Net hairspray” (through July 17). The Berkshire Theatre’s Main Stage continues to trot out the stars, with Randy Harrison as disturbed Alan Strang in Equus (July 12-23), followed by TV heartthrob Chris Noth in American Buffalo (July 26 – August 13). And Shakespeare and Co serves up a The Taming of the Shrew set in Venice during Carnivale (July 8-September 3) , and the challenging, rarely-seen King John with Allyn Burrows in the title role (July 21-September 3).

Lastly, the theatre world is waiting eagerly to see how new artistic director Roger Rees reshapes the Williamstown Theatre, which has also undergone a major physical transformation: the Nikos Stage has expanded into the old Adams Memorial Theatre, and the big productions now occupy a 550-seat Main Stage at the Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams College.

Kicking off the mainstage season are productions of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, with Emmy winner Jean Smart heading the cast (July 6-17) and director Jo Bonney’s rendition of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls with Jessica Hecht in the central role of Marlene (July 20-31). Meanwhile, The Nikos houses Etan Frankel’s cautionary romance Create Fate, starring John Bedford Lloyd and Sarah Chalke (July 13-24), and Lucy Prebble’s The Sugar Syndrome, in which the hot young film star Gaby Hoffman plays a 17-year-old chatroom habituee who gets in over her head (July 27 – August 7).