By Tom Nissley, for the Ridgelea Reports on Theatre.
The most important number that you can see this week is Curtain Call’s splendid production of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.” It’s an amazing show with vibrant and just plain excellent dancing. Once you see it you’ll be tap dancing in your head for days.
It’s playing through April 26 at the Kweskin Theatre on the campus known as Sterling Farms and you can ask for tickets by calling 203-461-6358. I guarantee that if you do get to this show you’ll continue to be glad you did. Anne Cavaliere plays Reno Sweeney. Chris Balestiere plays Billy Crocker. And Samantha Van Nostrand plays Hope Harcourt, who is newly engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakley (David Anctil). The direction and choreography is by a team: Gordon and Karen Casagrande, and Matt Stolfi.
Several other nearby productions have just closed and they were good ones. The beautifully done “Agnes of God” that was playing at the Westport Community Theater and directed by Tom Holehan for one. It starred Priscilla Squiers, Lucy Babbitt, and Celine Montaudy.
“La Cage aux Folles,” at the Music Theatre of Connecticut is another show that was very nicely produced and a delight for anyone who was able to see it. Probably you remember it from some other season. It’s not new. The story takes place on the French Riviera and involves a politician copying our current Mr. Musk who has made a campaign promise to destroy the flagrant lifestyle of the homosexuals who entertain tourists along the strip by singing and dancing in drag. Right now his daughter is in love with and engaged to the son of two men who live together and run the infamous La Cage. It has a delightful ending, and Lou Ursone, who is otherwise the Producer of all the works at Curtain Call, stars in this production as the nasty politician.
“Theatre People” just closed at the Westport Country Playhouse. It was a fun romp about several actors wanting to produce a new play and also introduce a lovelorn sponsor to his muse, who was about to sing in a concert with another love interest. There will be more programs at the Playhouse, including a showing of the movie “JAWS,” and then a production about the filming of it, called “The Shark is Broken.” Watch for it.
I love that all of these productions came so close to the Spring Holidays. Some overlapping with either Passover or Easter, which are the real and super-dramatic basis for the entire Judeo-Christian traditions.
And don’t forget that on April 24 and 25, the New Canaan Gridiron Club will be doing it’s own “drag” production of a tribute to Wendy Coleman Dixon Hilbolt. For tickets: www.gridironclubofnc.org.
