TheatreWorks New Milford Announces 2008 Season

NEW MILFORD — After an outstanding 40th anniversary season, TheatreWorks New Milford has selected five main stage productions for its 2008 season. The shows selected build on the theater’s commitment to presenting the most unique and polished dramas, musicals and comedies to its audiences that reach from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts.

“Our 40th anniversary aeason was a great success. We hope that the 2008 season will draw even more interest among theatergoers,” said TheatreWorks President Richard Pettibone. “We’ve done our best to choose a variety of productions that will appeal to a broad range of audiences, from the comic irreverence of Christopher Durang [and] the searing drama of Tennessee Williams to the melodious harmonies of Stephen Sondheim, our goal remains to provide our patrons with a great night out for far less than a trip and ticket to Broadway.”

Building on the success of the current TheatreWorks’ production of The Philadelphia Story, a play written for Katharine Hepburn, TheatreWorks New Milford will launch its 2008 season on January 25 with a one-woman show “as told by” Katharine Hepburn: Matthew Lombardo’s Tea At Five.

The play captures the fiery spirit of the well-heeled Yankee redhead as she recounts her life-long journey from her beloved home in Old Saybrook. Ms Hepburn reflects on all the dizzying highs and emotional lows of her upbringing and career, from being labeled “box office poison” in 1938 to her heartbreaking romance with Spencer Tracy.

Mr Lombardo’s play unveils to audiences a previously unpainted portrait of one of the great legends of the silver screen that is intuitive, provocative, and downright funny.

In April comes the funny and fast-paced comedy Moonlight And Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson. Set against the backdrop of the 1939 screen classic Gone With The Wind, movie mogul David O. Selznick has just shut down production on his epic film and locked himself in his office with screenwriter Ben Hecht and director Victor Fleming to rewrite the script, simply because no script exists.

This hilarious and fascinating behind-the-scenes story of cinematic history comes to life as the three creative forces clash and compromise for five days straight, all on a diet of peanuts and bananas.                   

In July, Suddenly Last Summer, a rarely seen theatrical gem by American stage icon Tennessee Williams, will grace the stage. The gripping drama follows the events surrounding Sebastian, the son of wealthy Violet Venable, who died the previous summer.

Mother and son had been inseparable until that summer, when Sebastian replaced his mother with young, sensual cousin Catharine as his traveling companion. It was on Catharine’s watch that Sebastian died and she cannot forget how — and why — it happened. In a fierce attempt to keep the light of truth from exposing a mother’s illusions and losing her son yet again, Violet has summoned a young neurosurgeon to erase Catharine’s memory of what may well have been the shocking actuality of last summer.

In September, TheatreWorks will present the romantic and achingly beautiful musical A Little Night Music, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler.

The tale deals with the universal subject of love in all its wondrous, humorous and ironic forms. The play is set in turn-of-the-century Sweden and surrounds several couples in love and in lust with each other.

The truth of their liaisons comes to a head when the lovers are ensconced together for a weekend at a country estate. Here, beneath the mysterious summer night, the characters’ loves and desires reach a heartfelt climax. Sondheim’s breathtaking score features his most popular song, “Send in the Clowns.”

In December, Mrs Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge by the award-winning playwright Christopher Durang, will round out the season. In this outrageously funny parody of A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit’s wife Gladys has had enough. One day she flips, takes to drink, and tries to throw herself off a bridge.

Meanwhile, the same Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future that are supposed to be guiding Ebenezer Scrooge get their signals crossed and put this unlikely pair on a hilarious collision course with other Christmas classics such as It’s A Wonderful Life and The Gift Of The Magi. In spite of the mayhem, the play is safe for the whole family, while taking on some of the holiday’s most sacred cows.

For more information, tickets and subscriptions, visit TheatreWorks.us or call the box office at 860-350-6863. TheatreWorks New Milford is an award-winning, volunteer non-Equity theatre company at 5 Brookside Avenue, just off Route 202 (next to the CVS) in New Milford.