Boston Spotlight: September 2005

Boston’s culture mavens have cause to rejoice. It’s finally possible to get a theater fix without heading to the pastoral hinterlands. Not that travel is contraindicated this time of year — it’s still prime time for scenic weekend jaunts.

The city itself is abuzz with some big productions, starting with Carmen (previews begin September 3), another collaboration between Cambridge’s famed American Repertory Theatre and director Dominique Serrand of Minneapolis’s Theatre de La Jeune Lune (this year’s winner of the regional theater Tony Award). And stereotypes to the contrary, the British are equally susceptible to questionable obsessions, as Tom Stoppard so wittily proved in The Real Thing, which director Evan Yionoulis further polishes at The Huntington Theatre (previews begin September 9). Speaking of questionable obsessions, Boston’s Lyric Stage will be offering a homegrown rendition of the Broadway smash Urinetown (previews begin September 9).

Making the most of its temporary residence at the Shubert Theatre, the North Shore Music Theatre will follow up its revival of the gospel musical Abyssinia (ending September 11) with a no-holds-barred revival of the Broadway classic Camelot — including some promised nudity (previews begin September 20). And The Cutler Majestic Theater will host Broadway veterans Alice Ripley and George Dvorsky in Overture Productions’ orchestrated concert version of On the Twentieth Century (September 23-25), with half the proceeds helping to fund local youth arts programs.

At the Boston Center for the Arts, the Zeitgeist Stage Company presents the acclaimed drama The Story (previews begin September 2), in which an ambitious young African-American reporter (Nydia Calon, a standout in last spring’s Tooth and Claw) breaks — or is it makes up — the story of a sensational cross-racial murder. And starting on September 18, the edgy Pilgrim Theatre (a BCA resident company dedicated to the Grotowski tradition) tackles Napoleon, the man and the myth, foundering on St. Helena, in Laura Harrington’s new tragicomedy N (as in Bonaparte).

Expect a poignant and sidesplitting mix of memoir, comedy, and political commentary in Jimmy Tingle’s American Dream, starting an open run at Jimmy Tingle’s Off-Broadway Theatre in Somerville on September 8. Sharing the stage at JTOB is Carissa Halston’s quintet of one-acts about the vagaries of modern relationships, captivatingly titled Cleavage (September 10-17).

The Boston Playwrights’ Theatre hosts the A&P plus D (Actors and Playwright plus Director) Theatre Company’s premiere of Donna Sorbello’s The Educated about a tenuous friendship between two Middle Eastern young men in the wake of 9/11 (September 9-26), while the New Repertory Theatre breaks in its handsome new home at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown with Romeo and Juliet (previews begin September 18). The Stoneham Theatre kicks off its 2005-2006 season with the great Rodgers & Hart musical Pal Joey, featuring Leigh Barrett — easily one of Boston’s strongest singers — as Social Register sugar momma Vera Simpson. (September 15-October 7)

As Boston’s season is beginning, some other area theaters are heading into the closing stretch. Gloucester Stage caps off its summer season with Eugene O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey into Night, starring British-born Broadway veteran Sandra Shipley as the drug-addled Mary Tyrone (through September 18). On Cape Cod, the Cape Playhouse winds things up with former Tony nominee Dee Hoty in Marc Camoletti’s Don’t Dress for Dinner, a French farce that delighted London audiences for six years (through September 10), and the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre presents Stephen Belber’s Off-Broadway hit McReele, about an exonerated murderer turned Democratic dark horse. (Previews begin September 15)

Amanda Dehnert, acting artistic director of Providence’s Trinity Rep, will tackle the Tony Award-winning musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood (previews begin September 9), while in nearby Pawtucket, The Gamm Theatre presents a gripping three-character adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (previews begin September 8).

Over in Connecticut, Hartford Stage will be welcoming The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue, David Grimm’s Jazz Age update of Moliere’s Femmes Savantes (through October 2), as well as hosting the Brand:NEW Fall Festival of New Works. It includes readings of Exposed, a new drama by Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley set in Hollywood, and actress-turned-playwright Patricia Wettig’s My Andy, about Warhol’s bond with his mother. (Superstar Holly Woodlawn will be the featured guest at a September 17 party.)

For family fare, our money’s on Cavalia at Suffolk Downs (September 6-17). This grand spectacle — which includes 30 horses cavorting about a 160-foot stage — also has an educational aspect, in that it explores “the 5,000-year-old relationship between horses and humans.” If it’s truly impressive, you’d better be prepared to spring for that pony.