Summer Arts Preview

Dylan, Sweeney, Wynton and an Idol or two play on Connecticut stages 

By Frank Rizzo

Ah, summer, the season of beaches, picnics, backyard barbecues, and all kinds of outdoor fun. But Connecticut also offers a rich abundance of arts and entertainment events to further heat you and brighten the season.

We present a few—quite a few—of performing arts temptations throughout the state: 

One of the major events that kicks off the season in a grand way is New Haven’s International Festival; of Arts & Ideas that continues in June at various locations, neighborhoods and venues across the city. A festival highlight will be on June 18 at the Shubert Theatre with a performance by the modern dance company Pilobolus. The Connecticut-based group will present Other Worlds, a collaboration with theatre, music and dance artists, including award-winning playwright and director Aaron Posner, multi-instrumentalist and composer Stuart Bogie.

What do you do when you’ve just turned 90? If you’re Buddy Guy, the rock and blues legend, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and nine-time Grammy winner, you go on tour. The pioneer of Chicago’s explosive West Side sound plays Waterbury’s Palace Theatre on Aug. 7. Oh yes, he’s also received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, 38 Blues Music Awards, the Billboard Century Award, and the Presidential National Medal of Arts, and the Kennedy Center Honor.

Brace yourself for the mid-term, elections in the fall, then buckle your seatbelt and head to Hartford’s The Bushnell where comedian Jon Stewart is sure to have a few pointed remarks, comic zingers and smart commentary on the state of the nation on June 19. 

Speaking of funny men, now that he is wrapping up his popular podcast “WTF with Marc Maron” after 16 years, the comedian arrives at the Ridgefield Playhouse June 20. His confessional, introspective and acerbic brand of humor is also showcased in a string of HBO comedy specials. 

The one-two punch of great comedians happens mid-July at Foxwoods Resorts and Casino with Seth Meyers performing July 10 and Jerry Seinfeld on July 18. 

She was a smash in NBC’s “Smash” as triple-threat Ivy Lynn, she was one of the greater Glindas in Wicked, and she was a Tony Award nominee as glamorous Madeline Ashton in the hit musical Death Becomes Her. Broadway fans in search of a new generation of diva goddesses can catch Megan Hilty in concert at New Haven’s Shubert Theatre June 12. 

But Hilton isn’t the only Broadway star in concert this summer. Tony Award winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone and a hoot in The Prom) will perform at Branford’s intimate Legacy Theatre on Aug. 16. In a Broadway career that spans back to 1975—including celebrated revivals of My Fair Lady, Oklahoma! and On Your Toes—Christine Andres will be performing at Norwalk’s Music Theatre of Connecticut on July 18.

Want to take a backstage look at one of the iconic rock bands on the ‘80s? If you can’t call The Police, you can at least go to The Kate (aka The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook) on July 6 and 7 where Stewart Copeland, founder and drummer of that multi Grammy winner and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will share his take on the band, its music and the industry. This is the first American spoken-word tour by Copeland, who is also a filmmaker, and composer of film scores, video games, and operas. 

Even at 70, Billy Idol still has that rebel yell. The famously spiky-haired rocker will be in concert Aug. 8 at the Mohegan Sun. Idol began as front man for the British punk band Generation X before he launched his successful solo career in the new wave ‘80s. He became a staple of the then-new television channel MTV with the wildly popular music videos for his singles “Dancing with Myself,” White Wedding,” “Hot in the City” and, of course, “Rebel Yell.”

Wu Tang Clan, the groundbreaking American rap collective known for its sharp lyricism, old-school rap influence, and gritty production will shake things up at the Meadows Music Theatre in Hartford Aug. 29.

It would be hard to choose just one concert to highlight at the Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater in Bridgeport from a summer line-up that includes James Taylor on June 22, Sarah McLachlin on July 8, and Rod Stewart on Aug 7, just to name a few. But then there’s the mike drop: Bob Dylan with Jimmie Vaughan and The Tilt-A-Whirl Band on July 19.

There’s yet another gathering of greats—and the crowd will no doubt be celebrating all night long—when Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind and Fire perform at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford on July 10.

Jon Batise will be the highlight of the summer series at the Westville Music Bowl in New Haven. The Oscar- and Grammy-winning musician, composer, singer and television personality will perform his joyous and eclectic style of genre-bending fusion of jazz, soul, gospel, blues, and classical on Aug. 13.

The lineup hadn’t been announced at press time, but circle the dates July 17  to 19 on your calendar for the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz, now in its 35th year. Free in Bushnell Park.

Another jazz highlight is certainly Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis performing at the Garde Arts Center in New London June 27. The event is part of the lead-up to Wynton Marsalis’ final season as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and music director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Lead vocalists and songwriters Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the acclaimed indie band Lucius—best known for their sinuous harmonies and highly-original, pop-noir musical artistry—will play June 20 at the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts in Westport.

The most exciting theater event of the summer is a first-ever, joint production by Hartford Stage and TheaterWorks Hartford of the Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. The show will play June 5 to July 5 and presented as an intimate chamber production at Hartford Stage.

In need of an old-fashioned, first-class musical that will tap your troubles away? Goodspeed Musicals is presenting Crazy for You, The show is loaded with Gershwin classics (“I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “Someone To Watch Over Me” and many more) and will play June 19 to Aug. 9 at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam. 

What better way to celebrate USA’s Semiquincentennial than with a musical reminding us of our democratic heritage? 1776 plays the Ivoryton Playhouse in Essex June 25 to July 28.

There’s The Wild Party—the off-Broadway version with music by Andrew Lippa, both depicting the roaring 1920s “where jazz, lust, and danger collide.” It will play  West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park from July 8 to Aug. 9.

There will be two outdoor summer productions of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing. First up is a production from Shakespeare on the Sound at Pinkney Park from June 10 to 28. Then comes the annual free Shakespearean production by New Haven’s Elm City Shakespeare at Edgerton Park that attract thousands every season. That company’s version, set in 1945, will run Aug. 20 to Sept 6.

If indoor theater is more to your taste, then Westport Country Playhouse will be presenting Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The suspenseful mystery drama which artistic director Mark Shanahan has adapted for the stage runs July 14 to Aug. 1.

The Warner Theater in Torrington will present Toto Kisaku’s one-man play, Requiem for an Electric Chair, which tells the harrowing true story of his persecution, imprisonment, and near execution in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where his musical comedies exposing child exploitation and government complicity put him on death row. The show will be presented June 20.

A generation of theater fans have embraced the teen-centric story in the musical Dear Evan Hansen. Ridgefield’s A.C.T. of CT (A Contemporary Theater of Connecticut) ends its season with the show which will complete its run June 21.

Finally, a cornerstone of American theater development, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford hosts its National Puppetry Conference (June 6 to 14), its Playwrights Conference (June 15 to July 5), the Music Theater Conference (July 6 to 18) and the Cabaret and Performance Conference (July 22 to August. 1). While many events are developmental, select readings and performances are open to the public and often feature future Broadway-bound works.