Connecticut Critics Circle

08/10/2025

Review by Bonnie Goldberg The Ivoryton Playhouse

A perfect summertime family treat, a dessert as light and frothy and rich and creamy as a strawberry parfait complete with a cherry on top, is the current magnificent production of Lerner and Loewe's classic musical comedy "My Fair Lady" originally penned more than five decades ago. The Ivoryton Playhouse's offering is perfection in its loverly way and should not be missed. Hurry to Ivoryton by Sunday, September 7 for a delicious summertime surprise.

The transformation of Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who sells violets for a tuppence in Covent Gardens, into a polished princess who is mistaken for Hungarian royalty, is a delightful tale. Claire Marie Spencer’s Eliza is superbly engaging and charming as the irrepressible Eliza, determined to improve herself under the tutelage of the demanding and controlling master of languages, Professor Henry Higgins. Higgins is played by an impressive and arrogant Trevor Martin, who takes Eliza on as a challenge, after his friend and colleague Colonel Pickering, a courtly and admirable Joseph Dellger, bets him he cannot make a lady out of a “guttersnipe."


Higgins proceeds to take this “squashed cabbage leaf” and “prisoner of the gutter” who is “condemned by every syllable she utters” and teach her to speak, act and dress properly, so perfectly that he can pass her off as a Duchess. With her opportunistic rapscallion of a father (Scott Mikita) pushing her from the rear and the professor pulling her from the front, and Eliza’s own inner determination to succeed motivating her from within, the “delicious proposal” seems assured.


Based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” this Lerner-Loewe version is stuffed with wonderful tunes, from “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” to “I Could Have Danced All Night” to “On the Street Where You Live” sung by Eliza’s suitor Freddie (Ben S. Daniel). Eliza’s dad charms us “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time” while the professor reveals his chauvinistic tendencies in “I’m an Ordinary Man” and his tenderness in “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”


Also in the outstanding cast are two women who boost Eliza’s spirits with their support, Stacia Fernandez as Henry’s mother who doesn’t approve of her son’s manners or modes of behavior and Johanna Regan Milani as his loyal housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce. Director and choreographer Brian Feehan takes us back to London at the turn of the twentieth century in this highly entertaining musical, with a fashion parade of costumes designed by Elizabeth Saylor.


For tickets ($60 adults, seniors $55, students $25 with discount tickets for $30 if available on Thursdays at the box office) call the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street, Ivoryton at 860-767-7318 or online at Ivorytonplayhouse.org. Performances are Wednesday at 2 p.m, Thursday 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Now is the time to make a reservation for the Summer Season AfterParty on September 13 by visiting Ivorytonplayhouse.org.

Cheer for Eliza to pick herself up out of the London gutters and polish her personality until she is the “toast” of the town, with a fine drizzle of orange marmalade on top. Don’t forget to bring her a box of chocolates!

08/09/2025

Tina M. Manus has posted her review of GAME ON! at Hole in the Wall Theater

Review of original musical

08/09/2025

Review by Bonnie Goldberg of SWEENEY TODD at Legacy Theatre CT

Swanson and Pillsbury and Betty Crocker are highly unlikely to be fighting over the rights to use Mrs. Lovett’s secret recipe. Mrs. Lovett’s pie business was once a flaky failure until she teamed up with a certain mad barber in London’s Fleet Street to create a sensational savory of unusual and peculiar flavor.

The Legacyy Theatre in Branford is mixing up a batch of tasty treats as it offers for your culinary and theatrical pleasure the Stephen Sondheim musical, with book by Hugh Wheeler, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" until Sunday, August 24.

The barber becomes a barbarian in this passionate tale of revenge. Sweeney Todd is the alias assumed by a barber who was transported to Australia on trumped up charges almost two decades before. He blames Judge Turpin (Eric Santagata) and his liege The Beadle (Thomas Beebe) for the treachery which led his wife Lucy to kill herself and the Judge to claim their infant daughter Johanna (Ava Broneer) as his ward.

Now Todd, played with a steely determination and macabre manner by Karl Gasteyer, has returned to the scene of the crime to right the wrongs his family has suffered. With the aid of the l***y Mrs. Lovett, played delightfully by Stephanie Stiefel Williams, who runs s failed meat pie shop and a naval man Anthony (Charles Romano) who has saved Todd’s life, Todd sets his diabolical scheme in place.

Complications in the form of an old beggar woman (Sarah Anne Hughes), a blackmailer Pirelli (Amron Salgado) and a wide eyed lad Tobias (Brayden Esler) threaten his plans. Colin Sheehan directs this involving dark tale plagued with the “chill of ghostly shadows.” The musical form features an orchestra of four led by Mark Ceppetelli, magical lighting and set by Jamie Burnett, choreography by Paola Rarick and period costumes designed by Jimmy Johansmeyer. The more than thirty tunes drive the action beautifully, led by the incredible performances of the cast, led by the magical pairing of Gasteyer and Williams.

For tickets ($50.50 and $56.50) call the Legacy Theatre, 128
Thimble Islands Road, Branford at 203-315-1901 or online at
[email protected] or www.LegacyTheatreCT.org.

Performances are Thursday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Friday at 7
p.m., Saturday at at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Return to nineteenth century London, if you dare, but be careful to have witnesses if you go to a local barbershop for a trim or a shave or a neighborhood pub for a succulent shepherd’s pie, a savory sweet treat of dubious origin.

08/08/2025

Review of LITTLE WOMEN by Bonnie Goldberg

You are cordially invited to enter the Victorian Age of Literature, courtesy of Louisa May Alcott and the Old Stone Playhouse from Friday, August 8 to Sunday, August 10. The Old Stone Congregational Church at 251 Main Street in East Haven will be festively attired, air conditioned, with cabaret seating for a meal, wheelchair accessible, with ample parking, perfect to entertain you and your family.

The heartbreak and hope of the Civil War years will be displayed with laughter and tears by Jo Marsh, the writer of the family, who has been advised by her publishers to write about what she knows and to include the stories of her sisters Beth, Meg, and Amy to add realism and romance.

In "Little Women the Musical,” with book by Allen Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and music by Jason Howland, you will find a story based on Alcott’s 1868-69 semi-autobiographical two-volume novel. The play revolves around the traditional minded Meg, the hope-to-be-successful novelist Jo, the shy and retiring Beth and the romantically inclined Amy and their home in Concord, Massassachusetts that includes their beloved mother Marmee and reflects the sad absence of their father who is serving as a chaplain in the Union Army.

Jo weaves vignettes about her melodramatic sisters into the musical telling of her publishing rejection letters, her original play “An Operatic Tragedy” she wishes to produce for Christmas joy, the difficulties Marnee has running the house in wartime, a proposed trip to Europe with Aunt March (Michelle Rocheford Johnston), romantic entanglements for Laurie (Jack Vann) and his tutor Mr. Brooke (Luke Soja) with March sisters, situations with Mr. Laurence (George McTyre), a skating race and a dance ball, Beth's tragic death and a new marriage proposal, all set to music.

WISP (Wagner Iovanna Studio Performances) will star McKensie Doebrick as Amy, Denise Wray as Meg, Heather Bazinet as Marmee, Allison Bradshaw as Jo and Lexi Kinniburgh as Beth. Producer Karen Wagner-Iovanna and director Martin Scott Marchitto are responsible for this dramatic family production stuffed with dreams, love, kindness, hope and promise for the future.

With equal friction and foolishness and fondness, the sisters exhibit a whole plethora of emotions as they grow up in a difficult time for our country, without a father near at hand and with a mother unsure of how to react to the problems of the day.

Performances are Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.. Come watch how a quartet of siblings find their voices and proclaim to the world that they are worthy of dreams coming true, finding the loves of their life and holding out for a much desired promise for tomorrow.

07/31/2025

Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer's review of LITTLE WOMEN at Castle Craig Players in Meriden

One of your neighbors posted in Arts & Entertainment. Click through to read what they have to say. (The views expressed in this post are the author’s own.)

07/31/2025

Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer has shared her review of DISNEY'S THE LITTLE MERMAID at Musicals at Richter (MAR)

One of your neighbors posted in Arts & Entertainment. Click through to read what they have to say. (The views expressed in this post are the author’s own.)

07/26/2025

Karen Isaacs has posted her review of SINGIN IN THE RAIN at Playhouse on Park Theatre

All photos by Meredith Longo By Karen Isaacs Can you take one of the best movie musicals of all time and reduce the cast to just eight people and still capture the brilliance of the original? Playh…

07/23/2025

Karen Isaacs has shared her review of ALL SHOOK UP at Goodspeed Musicals

All photos by Diane Sobolewski All photos by Diane Sobolewski By Karen Isaacs If you don’t tap your toes or dance in the aisle at the Goodspeed production of All Shook Up through Sunday, August 24,…

07/23/2025

Review by Bonnie Goldberg
Center Stage Theatre

If you're unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the definitely worst time and witness a murder, there may not be a good spot to hide. Just ask that wannabe cabaret lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier, spunky in the hands of Milki Ejara, who finds herself in just that dill pickle and predicament. Now her boyfriend Curtis and his gang , Nolan Young, with Harry Rosenay, Marquis Evans and Jose (JR) Resto, is after her and the best place for the police to hide her is just what William Shakespeare might have suggested. Deloris is told to "get thee to a nunnery.”

Until Sunday, July 27, the Youth CONNection of Center Stage in Shelton will be chasing Deloris as she seeks a safe place to hide. The good sisters will have the rosary beads ready for their newest novitiate as "Sister Act" comes to town. Just what Mother Superior (Mia Bekech) thinks of her latest charge is immediately evident. She's suspicious and deeply unhappy about her new uninvited guest. Thankfully Deloris’s old childhood friend Eddie (Larry Williams) is now a policeman and can help her transition to safety.

At the Queen of Angels Church, Deloris has become Sister Mary Clarence and reluctantly gives up her vices like smoking, drinking, dancing and suggestive clothing. With the help of perky and peppy Sister Mary Patrick (Isabella Mercado), Sister Mary Robert (Kate McPadden) and Sister Mary Lazarus (Grace Kennedy), Deloris gets indoctrinated into her new life and uses her previous life as a disco singer to inject the order's anemic sounding choir with new vigor and vitality. Boy, can she make those vocal cords turn heavenly.

This lively musical written by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner and Douglas Carter Beane, with lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Alan Menken is based on the hit 1992 film comedy of the same name. Of course, eventually the gang traces Deloris down and invades her solemn hiding place. Glorious songs like "Take Me to Heaven," "Spread the Love Around" and "Raise Your Voice" send melodies straight to Cloud 9.

For tickets ($20-39), call Center Stage, 54 Grove Street, Shelton at 203-225-6079 or online at centerstageshelton.org. Performances are Wednesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Kudos to co-director Rob Esposito, co-director and choreographer Katie Wedlock and music director John Morrow for jobs well done. Center Stage theatre features budding actors 12-23 in this their 20th anniversary. Next up is Little Women September 19-28.

Let Deloris and the Good Sisters entertain you with their angelic voices as chaos invades the religious order and friendship and justice are at stake. Hear the rafters ring with joy.

07/22/2025

Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer has shared her review of SISTER ACT at Center Stage Theatre

One of your neighbors posted in Arts & Entertainment. Click through to read what they have to say. (The views expressed in this post are the author’s own.)

07/19/2025

Review by Bonnie Goldberg of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN at Playhouse on Park Theatre

Snap on your yellow plastic slicker, don your shiny red rain boots, pop on a cute rain bonnet and inflate your sunny umbrella for West Hartford's Playhouse on Park’s truly delightful rain sparkled production of "Singin' in the Rain" until Sunday, August 17.This smash 1952 movie originally starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor was first brought to the stage in 1985 and continues to be a saccharine sweet crowd pleaser. Credits go to Betty Comden and Adolph Green for the screenplay and to Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed for the music.

The time is 1927 and Monumental Pictures has just released another silent movie hit, “The Royal Rascal,” starring that classic romantic couple Don Lockwood, a dashing Daniel Plimpton, and Lina Lamont, a lovely looking Carolyn Burke. But the old-fashioned heyday of silent films is suddenly taking a back seat to the new kid on the block, the talkies. Can Monumental and its two favorites make the transition? Only if Lina Lamont never opens her uncultured and raspy mouth. But who is going to tell her she sounds like a mad cat in heat, on her good days?

Enter the savior of the day in the personage of peppy and pretty, perky and polished Kathy Selden, a darling Lindsay Gloriana Bohon who has a voice song birds would envy. Don Lockwood’s good friend Cosmo, an ever clowning Robert Mintz has a solution lovely Lina never suspects: using Kathy’s voice to dub in all the words and melodies.

The choreography is non stop super, both wet and dry, thanks to the talents of Robert Mintz and the clever footwork of Mintz and Plimpton, The romantic songs like “All I Do Is Dream of You,” and “You Are My Lucky Star” are balanced by cheery ones like “Good Morning” and the silly ones like “Moses Supposes” and “Make ‘Em Laugh,” with the help of music director Melanie Guerin. Evan Hoffmann directs this puddle jumping joy without getting his own feet wet.

For tickets ($45-55), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford at 860-523-5900, ext. 10 or online at www.playhouseonpark.org. Performances are Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.,Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.,and Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Discounted morning performances are $25.00 on Thursday July 31st at 10:30 a.m. and Friday, August 8th at 10:30 a.m.

It’s umbrellas and thumbs way up for “Singin’ in the Rain.” Lucky stars shine in the sky in West Hartford and we’re not “Supposing"
anything!

07/17/2025

DISNEY'S "THE LITTLE MERMAID" AT SUMMER THEATRE OF NEW CANAAN ENCHANTED AND ENCHANTING

Preview by Bonnie Goldberg

Prepare to dive into a shimmering sea to splash and swim with the adorable and delightful maiden of the deep Ariel, brought to life in all her quintessential cuteness by Laura Renee Mehl. Summer Theatre of New Canaan has assembled a delicious tale, that dates back to 1837 and a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, that will surely please the entire family, from little ones all the way to grandma and grandpa, until Sunday, July 27 at the air conditioned New Canaan High School, 11 Farm Road, New Canaan in all its musical and magical splendor.

Jump into the deep end of the ocean with Ariel as she bravely rescues the dazzling Prince Eric, a handsome and slightly confused Aiden Cole who must soon select a bride, with the help of his aide Grimsby (Jason Guy). yet doesn’t know how to decide. For her part, Ariel takes one look at his glorious face and kind eyes and sees hearts and orange blossoms. How can a mermaid with a tail of a fish for legs find happiness living on land, abandoning her watery home under the sea?

In this tale with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater, and book by Doug Wright, anything is possible. To prove it, Ariel cleverly trades her beautiful siren-like singing voice for a pair of sturdy human legs to win the prince’s heart. She makes a deal with a conniving sea urchin Ursula (Keisha T. Fraser). For a long time, Ariel has been unhappy with her life as the youngest of her six older sisters, living under the sea in Atlantica, and has been fascinated by the life she cannot have as a human, She even collects treasures of the world she craves to join.

Ursula seeks revenge against Ariel’s father the commanding King Triton, her brother, in the leadership role of Joseph Torello. With her minions Flotsam (Gary Mortier) and Jetsam (Logan Mortier) she watches Ariel’s every move hoping to get Triton’s crown and trident for herself. With Ariel's trusty sidekicks at her back, she lets Sebastian (Jason Williams), Flounder (Carlos V. Escamilla and Miles Langrick), Scuttle (Mike Katz) and Chef Louis (Christopher Isolano) help her win the day. Stellar direction is provided by Arbender J. Robinson, with choreography by Isaiah Tyrelle Boyd and tap choreography by Doug Shankman as well as stunning costumes supervised and designed by Lauren Nicole Sherwood..

For tickets ($33-93, with senior and children’s tickets), call Summer Theatre of New Canaan at 203-966-4634 or online at STONC.org or [email protected]. Performances are Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Come see flying seagulls and a beloved romantic story courtesy of Summer Theatre of New Canaan to clearly be the highlight of your summer family fun.