Like this past season, there will be four musicals, one of them Christmas-themed. Two of the shows are well-known musical theater classics, one is a popular show from more recent times and the fourth is a brand new show having its world premiere. The Goodspeed campus will continue to serve as a thriving artist colony where the creative process informs the work on our stages and expanding educational programs. We aspire to serve as a safe haven where a singular commitment to discovery and innovation will enrich the field with the next generation of musical theatre artists.
South Pacific
The Arts Education Collaboration provides art-education programs for underserved Connecticut youth. The Festival of New Musicals features students from the Hartt School and the Boston Conservatory performing staged readings of three brand new musicals, industry-related seminars, a symposium and cabaret performances. Each winter, Goodspeed also hosts the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove that invites musical theatre writing teams to retreat from daily life for a four week residency and concentrate solely on writing new musicals. In addition, Goodspeed serves as a resource for the preservation of the art form through our Scherer Library of Musical Theatre, the second most extensive musical theatre research library in the United States. The first day, March 17, will feature a staged reading of Madeline Myers' musical Double Helix, which explores the life and struggles of scientist Rosalind Franklin, whose contributions to the discovery of DNA's structure were looked over by her male colleagues following her premature death.
Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish expected to leave the company
One story told around Goodspeed is that while loading in the scenery for Annie's original pre-Broadway run, a strong gust of wind took a large piece of scenery out of the hands of the loaders and blew it into the Connecticut River. Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish. Unless film or TV jobs interfere, Taylor and Bologna plan to appear in the production as the mother and father of characters they played in the movie.
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Goodspeed Musicals’ mission is to share the joy ofmusical theatre; to delight, inspire, and challenge audiences; to nurturecreators; and to build and support a broad, diverse, and inclusive community. The theater itself is actually located on the top two floors of the building, making for interesting and sometimes difficult scenery and show load-ins. Scenery is loaded-in from the dock area up a vacant elevator shaft that is now outfitted with a winch system to haul the scenery up to the stage level. Much care has to be taken in order to get the scenery up the shaft without scratching or ruining the scenery.
In our history, we have produced over 250 musicals, including over 70 world premieres, and exported 21 productions to Broadway. Goodspeed stands as the first regional theatre in America to earn two special Tony Awards, one in 1980 for outstanding contributions to the American musical and a second in 1995 for distinguished achievement for a regional theatre. "The Festival is a key part of Goodspeed’s new works development program and we invite all musical theatre fans to join us." Doing just three musicals per season at the Opera House, each running for two months or more, has been the standard for most of the theater’s 60-year history. But under Donna Lynn Hilton, who became the theater’s artistic director during the COVID shutdown, once the Goodspeed Opera House was able to do full seasons again there have been four-show seasons. The season begins with “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” from April 5 through June 2.
The second show in the season is Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “South Pacific,” which was scheduled for the 2020 season (with the sets already being constructed and rehearsals about to begin), then again for 2021 but was continually postponed due to COVID. The director at that point was Ruggiero, but now “South Pacific” (which contains the songs “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” and “One Enchanted Evening”) has been entrusted to Chay Yew. Please allow extra time when coming to the theatre, especially for matinees. Producer April Shenandoah said she hopes to open around Valentine’s Day, in keeping with the “lovers” theme, and rotate celebrities in and out of various roles in the play, a la “Love Letters,” during an open-ended run.
The Goodspeed Opera House, under the direction of Michael P. Price, is dedicated to the preservation of the heritage of the American musical and the development of new works. Still, L.A.’s big new musicals, “Grand Hotel” and “City of Angels,” weren’t doing as well. The former grossed only about one-third of its potential that week, while the latter grossed only about one-half of its potential. A collection of four one-acts by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna, “Lovers” played briefly on Broadway in 1968, but it became best known from the movie version released in 1970.
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The musical is based on an unfinished mystery novel by Charles Dickens. The show’s creator Rupert Holmes had fun with the “unfinished” concept by writing several different possible endings. The Goodspeed production will be directed by Rob Ruggiero, a frequent director there who is also the producing artistic director of TheaterWorks Hartford. Goodspeed’s beginnings date back to 1963 when we opened our doors as a professional musical theatre in an historic building on the banks of the Connecticut River in East Haddam.
The Opera House was originally built by a local merchant and banker, William Henry Goodspeed. Despite the name, it was not in fact an opera house, but rather a venue for presenting plays. After William Goodspeed's death in 1882, the opera house fell into disrepair, facing a series of less glamorous uses—from a militia base during World War I to a general store and a Department of Transportation storage facility.
The 2024 Goodspeed season ends Nov. 1 through Dec. 29 with the holiday show “A Christmas Story, The Musical.” The show has been around since 2009 and is based on the 1983 movie (based in turn on a short story by humorist Jean Shepherd) about a boy who wants a BB rifle for Christmas. The music and lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who later became famous for the Broadway hit “Dear Evan Hansen” and the movie “The Greatest Showman.” Paul grew up in Fairfield County, where he still lives. He served as artistic director of the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago from 2011 to 2020. A noteworthy absence from the list of directors is Jenn Thompson, who has directed six shows at the Goodspeed Opera House since 2016, including “Gypsy” this year. Ruggiero has directed a dozen shows previously at the venue, but “Drood” will be the first show he’s done there since “A Grand Night for Singing,” the Rodgers & Hammerstein revue that was the first show in the Opera House after COVID in 2021. The three day festival spotlights new works through seminars, cabarets, staged readings, and more.
Theater review: 'Drood' a mirthful musical mystery at Goodspeed - Hartford Courant
Theater review: 'Drood' a mirthful musical mystery at Goodspeed.
Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 13:47:20 GMT [source]
The new theater might represent one of the most substantial infusions of Hollywood money into Los Angeles theater. The building’s owner, Harmony Gold USA, a television miniseries production and distribution company, could spend as much as $2.2 million converting Preview House into a real theater. The owner of the former Preview House, at Sunset Boulevard and Stanley Avenue, plans to convert the facility--best known as a place where test audiences register their reactions to new commercials and pilots--into a 400-seat “legit” theater. Join us for this never-before-seen holiday show at The Goodspeed! Filled with humor, song and dance, it's bound to be a family event you'll remember for years to come. Watch as the cast of A Complicated Woman at Goodspeed Musicals discusses the show!
Under the direction of Michael Price from 1968 to 2014, Goodspeed transformed from a struggling entity into a non-profit arts organization with a mission. At first, Goodspeed’s commitment was to discover rarely produced musicals from the repertoire, reworking them and bringing them to life. We were also intent on adding to the repertoire by discovering and nurturing promising new musicals presented at both the Opera House and the Norma Terris Theatre in neighboring Chester. The Goodspeed Opera House has announced its 2024 season, which will run from May to December.
Over the past 61 years,Goodspeed has sent 21 shows to Broadway, launched 85 world premieres, anddelighted more than 5.3 million patrons. Our dedication to supporting new workand fostering voices at the forefront of the industry is a key part of ourmission. From our commissioning program, GoodWorks, to world premieres and allthe steps in-between, our commitment to the development of new musicals is oneof the strongest in the nation. One use foreseen for the theater would be as a different kind of preview house. “Our focus would be to use it as a tool to develop projects for film and TV,” said Robert Norton, Harmony Gold’s executive vice president of legal and business affairs, adding that stage productions are a “relatively inexpensive” way to test film and TV ideas.
Get ready to swing back in time as Ivoryton Playhouse has announced the upcoming production of Swingtime Canteen, the second show in its 2024 season. The Goodspeed Opera House was built in 1876 on the Connecticut River in East Haddam, Connecticut. Since it was restored and reopened in 1963, three musicals ave been produced each season, both revivals and new works. At its nearby Norma Terris Theatre, a unique season of four new musicals is presented each year.
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