Searching for Summer Fare

Summer has arrived, and the stars are out in numerous vacation hot spots around the country. TheaterMania gives you a rundown of some of the most notable theater events happening around the U.S.A.

THE BERKSHIRES

Jeff McCarthy and Harriet Harris are currently starring in Barrington Stage Company’s production of the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (through July 17). BSC’s Mainstage season will also include Yasmina Reza’s Art featuring Brian Avers, Michael Countryman, and David Garrison (July 22-August 7), and Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular, with Christopher Innvar, Graeme Malcolm, Robert Petkoff, Henny Russell, and Finnerty Steeves (August 12-29). BSC’s Stage 2 offerings include the Off-Broadway-bound Freud’s Last Session (through July 3), as well as the new musicals Pool Boy (July 13-August 8) with a cast that includes Sara Gettelfinger and John Hickok, and The Memory Show (August 18-29).

Christopher Fitzgerald, Josh Grisetti, and Jeremy Shamos are among the cast members of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s mainstage production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (June 30-July 11). Margaret Colin, Tim Daly, and Ato Essandoh head John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation (July 14-25), while Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (July 28 – August 8) will feature Becky Ann Baker, Dylan Baker, Jessica Hecht, and Campbell Scott. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Franz, Anson Mount, Jennifer Mudge, Kellie Overbey, and David Wilson Barnes are featured in Terry Kinney’s production of Fifth of July (August 11- 22), co-presented by Bay Street Theatre. The theater’s programming on the Nikos Stage will include Judy Gold’s It’s Jewdy’s Show (June 23 – July 4), Amy Herzog’s After the Revolution, Mat Smart’s Samuel J. and K., featuring film star Justin Long, and The Last Goodbye (August 5-20), a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet using the songs of Jeff Buckley.

Berkshire Theatre Festival has just opened its Mainstage season with Jason Robert Brown’s musical The Last Five Years (through July 10), starring Julie Reiber and Paul Anthony Stewart. Next up, Ferenc Molnr’s The Guardsman (July 13-31) will feature Jayne Atkinson, Richard Easton, Michael Gill, and Mary Louise Wilson; Shakespeare’s Macbeth (August 3-14) will star C.J. Wilson in the title role and Keira Naughton as Lady Macbeth; and Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (August 17-September 4), will feature Maureen Anderman, Mia Barron, Mia Dillon, Keir Dullea, Lisa Emery, and Jonathan Hogan. BTF’s Unicorn Theatre season is currently presenting Patrick Meyers’ K2 (through July 3), starring Greg Keller and Tim McGeever. Samuel Beckett’s Endgame (July 6-24) will be headed by David Chandler and Randy Harrison. The musical Babes in Arms (July 27-August 28) and William Donnelly’s No Wake (September 1-October 24) will round out the season.

Obie Award winner John Douglas Thompson will play the title role in Richard III (July 2 -September 5) at Shakespeare & Company, with other highlights including Tina Packer’s Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays (through July 24); The Winter’s Tale (July 15 -September 6), featuring Elizabeth Aspenlieder as Hermione; and Joan Ackerman’s The Taster (July 28 -September 6), starring Rocco Sisto and Maureen O’Flynn.

CAPE COD

Howard McGillin is currently leading the cast of The Cape Playhouse production of The 39 Steps (through July 3). Next up will be Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings (July 5-17), starring Scott Barnhardt, Will Reynolds, Jared Gertner, and Scott Guthrie. Tony Award nominee Christopher Sieber will play Edna Turnblad in the musical Hairspray (July 19-August 7), with Liz Froito as Tracy, Jim Walton as Wilbur, and Jim Newman as Corny Collins. After that, Beth Fowler and Jacquelyn Piro Donovan will star in the award-winning musical Grey Gardens (August 9-21), and the season will conclude with Hunter Foster, Jennifer Cody, John Scherer, Cady Huffman, and Kathel Carlson in the comedy Boeing Boeing (August 23-September 4).

Wellfleet Harbor Actors’ Theatre’s summer programming on its Julie Harris Stage includes Born Yesterday, by Garson Kanin (July 1-31); Tingle!, starring Jimmy Tingle (July 5-August 30); and Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (August 5- September 11). WHAT’s Harbor Stage is now presenting Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s Colorado (through July 3), and will continue with Low Tide at the Harbor Stage, hosted by Brendan Hughes (June 25-August 28); Cyrano, adapted by Jo Roets (July 8-August 7); The Storytelling Ability of a Boy, by Carter W. Lewis (July 11-August 31); and Dead Ringer, by Gino DiIorio (August 12 – September 18).

Obie Award winner David Drake will direct David Parr’s exploration of contemporary gay sexuality, Slap & Tickle, at the Provincetown Theater.(July 6-August 14). Meanwhile, writer/performer Tom Judson — a.k.a. gay porn superstar Gus Mattox — is currently appearing in his new musical comedy Canned Ham at Provincetown’s Art House Theater (through September 6). Judson also plays a part in The Loose Chanteuse, starring Varla Jean Merman at the same venue (through September 4).

THE HAMPTONS & HUDSON VALLEY

Alec Baldwin and Sam Underwood star in Peter Shaffer’s Equus, at the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in the Hamptons (through July 3). The venue’s summer programming also includes cabaret performances by Andrea Marcovicci (July 10), Karen Akers (July 30), Christine Ebersole (July 31), Klea Blackhurst and Billy Stritch (August 8), and Steve Ross (August 22), as well as Heart to Hart, a musical salute to Rodgers and Hart, featuring Anna Bergman and Malcolm Gets (July 25). Other highlights include Today’s View: Conversation, Comedy, Coffee (and Mimosa Moments), featuring Joy Behar and Meredith Viera (July 11); and A Bipolar Evening with Friends, featuring Florence Henderson and Bruce Vilanch (July 24).

In addition to the aforementioned production of Lanford Wilson’s Fifth of July (July 6-August 1), The Bay Street Theatre will also present David Mamet’s Romance (August 10-September 5), featuring Chris Bauer, Darrell Hammond, Richard Kind, Matt McGrath, Reg Rogers, and Joey Slotnik. The Bay Street @ The Parrish series at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton will feature Brad Zimmerman’s My Son the Waiter, A Jewish Tragedy (July 23-31) and the new musical 3 Girls, 3 Guitars, 3 Chords: The Chalks (August 20-28).

André De Shields, Felicia Finley, and Austin Miller lead the cast of The John W. Engeman Theater’s production of Damn Yankees (July 8 – August 29). The Engeman’s Youth Theater series will feature Alice in Wonderland (July 17-August 29).

In the Hudson Valley, New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater season features a range of programming, starting with Tracy Thorne’s We Are Here (June 29 – July 11), which will star Adriane Lenox, de’Adra Aziza, Larry Pine, Adam Rothenberg, Uzo Aduba, and Michael Cummings. Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley will debut his latest work, Pirate ( July 21-August 1).

Colin Hanlon, Brian d’Arcy James, Kerry O’Malley, and Anika Noni Rose are among the cast members in a revised version of Alan Jay Lerner’s and Burton Lane’s musical, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, presented as a concert workshop at the Powerhouse, directed by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer (July 29-August 1). Also being workshopped is the new musical Bonfire Night, with the cast including John Ellison Conlee, Santino Fontana, Robert Petkoff, and Jonathan B. Wright (July 16-18).

The Powerhouse season also features various semi-staged workshops, including Brothers & Sisters star Luke MacFarlane in Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir (July 1-3), by Keith Bunin. There’s also a free reading series, with some of the highlights including a new work by Spring Awakening collaborators Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, as well as pieces by playwrights such as Bekah Brunstetter, Eve Ensler, Stephen Karam, and Richard Nelson.

ADDITIONAL CITIES

Patti LuPone and Patrick Cassidy will star in the Ravinia Festival’s staging of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun (August 13-15), directed by Lonny Price. LuPone will also join Michael Cerveris, George Hearn, and Audra McDonald in Ravinia’s Sondheim: 80 gala (July 31). Other highlights of the festival include Joshua Bell in concert (July 13); Sting accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra (July 17 and 18); selections from Candide (July 23), featuring Kim Criswell; three-time Tony nominee Kelli O’Hara (August 4), opera great Nathan Gunn in The Marriage of Figaro (August 6); and the legendary Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (August 18).

Tony Award winner Stew and his band The Negro Problem will perform pieces from Passing Strange and previews of Stew’s upcoming new work, Brooklyn Suite as part of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, which plays multiple venues in the City of Brotherly Love, September 3-18. Highlights will also include Elevator Repair Service’s theatrical version of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises; choreographer Lucinda Childs’ rarely performed 1979 piece Dance; Pig Iron Theatre Company’s Cankerblossom; and Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s Romeo and Juliet.

Maine State Music Theatre’s summer season includes a concert featuring Broadway star Euan Morton (August 16) and Kander and Ebb’s Chicago (July 21-August 7) with Nikki Snelson as Velma Kelly and Gregg Goodbrod as Billy Flynn, as well as productions of the musicals My Fair Lady (June 30 – July 17) and Monty Python’s Spamalot (August 11-28).

The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego is currently presenting its 2010 Shakespeare Festival (through September 26) with Robert Foxworth starring in the title role of King Lear, Jonno Roberts and Emily Swallow leading the cast of The Taming of the Shrew, and Miles Anderson in the title role of The Madness of George III. Also playing at the Old Globe this summer is the world premiere of the Broadway-bound musical Robin and the 7 Hoods – A New Musical, starring Eric Schneider and Will Chase.

Some of the highlights at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival include Tony nominee Anthony Heald starring as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (through October 10); Culture Clash members Richard Montoya and Herbert Siguenza in Montoya’s American Night, directed by Jo Bonney (June 29-October 31); and Ping Chong directing his adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 film Throne of Blood (July 21-October 31).

Finally, numerous fringe festivals are sprouting up all over the country. The fifth annual Capital Fringe in Washington, D.C. (July 8-25) features shows like Carrie Potter and the New Moon Prom, Illegal Sex Acts: Live On Stage!, and Give Them Vagina: Tips from Mom, Dad & COSMO. The Minnesota Fringe in Minneapolis (August 5-15) offers such titles as Skinny Dipping-Not Your Mama’s One Woman Show, Ten Reasons Why I Would be a Bad Porn Star, and Meth for Dummies. The Chicago Fringe (September 1-5) kicks off its inaugural year with offerings like The Texas Chainsaw Musical, Single Girl in a Gay Man’s World, and Rambo: The Missing Years.