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If you love the Beatles, remember to visit the Downtown Cabaret Theatre in Bridgeport weekends until Sept. 21 to catch the return engagement of "She Loves You!" Go back in time and have a love fest with Alan LeBoeuf, David Leon, John Brosnan and Carmine Grippo as they bring to life Paul, John, George and Ringo Friday and Saturday nights at 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 and 5:30 p.m.
For tickets ($45), call the Cabaret, 263 Golden Hill St., Bridgeport, (Exit 27A off Interstate 95 to Exit 2) at (203) 576-1636 or online at www.DowntownCabaret.org. Remember to bring a picnic to enjoy before the show.
Last call for the Wild Wine Safari to benefit Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo. The watering hole and oasis will be open Friday from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at the zoo, 1875 Noble Ave., Bridgeport, with Congressman Christopher Shays and Bridgeport mayor Bill Finch as honorary co-chairmen. Come hungry and thirsty. For tickets ($85), call (203) 394-6569 or go online at www.beardsleyzoo.org.
"If music be the food of love, then come to the cabaret," invites cabaret singer Megan Owen about her new one-woman show "Food of Love and Vice Versa," a fundraiser for the Connecticut Food Bank Friday at 8 p.m. at the Playhouse on the Green in Bridgeport. The evening will feature character sketches of "Chefs I Have Known" with the music of Cole Porter, Kander and Ebb, Leonard Bernstein and others. For tickets ($40), call (866) 811-1111 or see www.theatermania.com. The Playhouse is located at 177 State St., Bridgeport, (Exit 27 off Interstate 95) with free, secure parking one block from the theater.
Save Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. for Free Art Day at Middletown's Green Street Arts Center. Take the family and enjoy mini-classes in drawing, music making, salsa and ballroom dancing, theater, Web design and guitar. Space is limited, so call (860) 685-7871 to sign up. The center is located at 51 Green St. Go online to www.greenstreetartscenter.org for a peek at the exciting fall lineup.
If you are into feathers, sequins and singing, the Connecticut Gay Men's Chorus is waiting for you. To audition to be part of their incredible musical comedy shows staged several times a year from New Haven's Shubert Theater to the Hartford's Bushnell and other venues, come to auditions Tuesday and Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. in New Haven. Experienced male singers 18 and older should call (800) 644-2462 or go online at info@ctgmc.org or ctgmc.org for information.
The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts is alerting all theater lovers that tickets are now on sale for its exciting season. Now is the time to book your seats for Monty Python's "Spamalot" tonight to Sunday, "Hot Chocolate Soul" Sept. 12 and Oct. 10, B.B. King Sept. 26, Peter, Paul and Mary Sept. 28, "Girls Night: The Musical" Oct¨. 2 to 5, Howie Mandel Oct. 11,The Jimmies Oct. 18, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" Oct. 14 to 19, "At This Performance" Nov. 17, "Avenue Q" Jan. 13 to 18, 2009, "Jersey Boys" Feb. 4 to 22, 2009, "A Chorus Line" March 24 to 29, 2009, and "The Color Purple" June 9 to 14, 2009. For tickets, call or visit The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford, at (860) 987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org.
Calling all budding actors and Equity actors for auditions at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven Sept. 17 and 22 from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m and 2:30 to 6 p.m. for Equity actors and Sept. 18 and 19 for non-Equity actors. Resumes, headshots and one classical and one contemporary monologue or 16 bars of a song with a combined length of three minutes should be prepared. Call (203) 787-4282 for an appointment.
Young local African-American actors, female agede 6 to 9 and male, aged 5 to 8 and 8 to 10, are needed for upcoming productions. Auditions are Sept. 20 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Send a photo and information to: Casting: Civil War Christmas and Coming Home, Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven, CT, 06511, or e-mail casting@longwharf.org or call T. Paul Lowry, associate producer, at (203) 772-8212.
There's a lot of hamming going on in "Spamalot"
If you're looking for serious drama about King Arthur and his legendary Knights of the Round Table, historically accurate and brimming with authenticity, then "Spamalot" is definitely not the show for you. If, however, you're a fan of Monty Python and you enjoy spoof and farce and laughter, then get in line at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts for some super silly stuff about killer rabbits, flying cows, the feet of God, showgirls and a quest for the Holy Grail.
Monty Python is not a person but a troupe of six comedians, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliamo and Eric Idle, who in the late 1960s and early 1970s had a popular TV show in Britain and did comic sketches. "Spamalot" was made into a musical from the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," with a book by Eric Idle, score by Eric Idle and John Du Prez and direction by Mike Nichols.
Characters of note in the play include King Arthur, the Lady of the Lake, Sir Dennis, Sir Lancelot, Patsy, Sir Robin, Prince Herbert and Sir Bedvedere. Legendary tunes include "Not Dead Yet," "Knights of the Round Table," "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," "Brave Sir Robin," "The Song That Goes Like This" and "Find Your Grail." Overacting becomes an art form in this 2005 Tony Award-winning show for Best Musical. If you are aspiring to be one of King Arthur's courageous knights, then don't pay any attention to what you see on stage.
The great adventure leads the merry lot to the taunting of the French at a castle and a giant wooden rabbit, to the dangers of the forest and the need for new shrubbery, to the unusual chambers of Prince Herbert and an encounter will a killer rabbit who guards the secret of the Holy Grail's location. Through it all, the infectious merriment will enchant you.
For tickets ($16.50 to $72), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at (860) 987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Performances are tonight at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Gallop along with King Arthur and his merry band of followers as they mischievously set off on their classic quest for fun, fortune and fame.
Tough-love teaching in "No Child"
As the school year begins and parents eagerly pack students off with new Hannah Montana back packs and dinosaur lunch boxes, the question of the quality of education raises its multi-faceted head once again. What legacy are we giving our youth, a concrete foundation of learning or a quagmire of inconsistencies and mixed messages? Are we emphasizing the basic tools of academic success as well as instilling a good value system of ethics and morals?
Playwright Nilaja Sun, a teaching artist for a decade in the Bronx public schools, is tackling many of these issues and concerns in her compelling new work "No Child" currently holding class at the TheaterWorks in Hartford through Oct. 5, in its Connecticut premiere. This is a must-see for every parent, educator, school administrator and any one who cares about the state and future of our education process.
The picture is not pretty at Malcolm X High School in the Bronx as Ms. Sun, an energized Donnetta Lavinia Grays, approaches her first class of students, students who are unmotivated, sassy, disrespectful and lost in the system that devalues them. Enthusiastically, Sun offers these young rejects of society the chance to prove themselves and develop a modicum of self-esteem in the process, by putting on a play about convicts in Australia, "Our Country's Good."
Lizan Mitchell, Portia and Anthony Mark Stockard are excellent as they portray the philosophical custodian, a variety of multi-cultural students, the supportive principal and a grieving grandparent, exposing their backgrounds and prejudices, their shortcomings and dreams, in this comic and dramatic tale of inner city schools. The messages of child abuse, gang warfare, teen pregnancy, dropout statistics and criminal potential ring all too true under the fine direction of Rob Ruggiero, associate artistic director.
For tickets ($37, $47 and $58), call TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl St., Hartford, at (860) 527-7838 or see www.theaterworkshartford.org. Shows are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Gain new respect and insights about the career of teaching as you gather in the classroom with an eager, novice, innovative teaching artist as she faces her first class of academically challenged and disadvantaged inner city youth. Learn how touching lives can be a miraculous experience.
