2020-2021 Season 12: Plays & Musicals


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Our final production of the 2020-21 Season, INTO THE WOODS, is live on stage at Playhouse on Park through August 22nd. Masks for unvaccinated attendees are mandatory. Masks are strongly encouraged for all others.

Thank you,
The Playhouse on Park Staff




September 16 - October 4, 2020
Extended through October 11th!

KENNEDY: BOBBY'S LAST CRUSADE

by David Arrow
Directed by Eric Nightengale

This production will be stream only.

This solo play portrays Kennedy during his short, electrifying campaign for President of the United States. Told from Kennedy’s perspective, the play follows Bobby from his announcement to enter the race on March 16, 1968, to his last speech on June 4 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. You will see Kennedy’s most famous and impactful speeches, his private apprehensions, and well as the more personal events during those four exhilarating months of his ill-fated campaign.

Click to go to the Kennedy: Bobby's Last Crusade page.


December 16, 2020 - January 10, 2021
*Extended to January 10*

ALL IS CALM: THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914

by Peter Rothstein with musical arrangements by Erick Lichte
and Timothy C. Takach
Directed by Sasha Brätt

This production will be stream only.

A remarkable true story from the Western Front. All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 relives an astounding moment in history; in a silence amid the combat, a soldier steps into no man’s land singing “Silent Night.” Thus begins an extraordinary night of camaraderie between the Allied troops and German soldiers. They lay down their arms to celebrate the holiday, share food and drink, play soccer, and sing carols. This dramatic retelling weaves together firsthand accounts of World War I soldiers with patriotic tunes, trench songs, and Christmas carols.

Click to go to the All Is Calm page.


"... When [the voices] come together, the sensation is tremendous and the musical chill effect engulfing...The show is a lesson...in music as a vehicle for emotion."
The New York Times
"A heartbreaking tribute to the men, who, in defiance of their commanders
had the courage to affirm their common humanity."
The New Yorker

February 10 - 28, 2021
Extended through March 7th

ELYOT & AMANDA: ALL ALONE
from Noël Coward’s Private Lives

Note: the previously announced CHICAGO is being replaced with this show.


Noël Coward's second act of PRIVATE LIVES speaks to us in a new way with Elyot and Amanda sequestered from the outside world, and finding a lot of time to fill up together. In this very funny and moving adaptation developed by stars Veanne Cox and Ezra Barnes (specifically for Playhouse on Park), these two lovers grapple with hope and fear, memory and desire, song and dance, and love and hate in equal measure.

Valentine’s Day is always complicated. Add in some songs & a pandemic and you have the makings of a perfect Date Night.

Go to the Elyot & Amanda show page


March 20 - April 18, 2021

STOP/TIME: BEFORE TIME STOPPED
a documentary film

Directed and Choreographed by Darlene Zoller

*Subject to change

 

stop/time - before time stopped is a look back at how one person’s dream and one random act of kindness changed the lives of many. 

In 2004, a dream turned into a reality. 17 years later, stop/time dance theater is still going strong. It would take more than a global pandemic to keep this group of performers from pursuing their passion. They may not be together on stage but they’re still finding a way to bring their story to the Playhouse on Park audience.

Go to stop/time: before time stopped page


*Subject to change

Live Outdoor Performances
Performance Pavilion, Bushnell Park
Hartford, CT

June 22 - 24, 2021
Streaming Online
July 7 - August 1 (Broadway On Demand)

KILL MOVE PARADISE

by James Ijames
Directed by Dexter Singleton


James Ijames’ New York Times Critics Pick play KILL MOVE PARADISE tells the story of Isa, Daz, Grif and Tiny, four black men who find themselves stuck in a cosmic waiting room in the afterlife. This play, inspired by the ever-growing list of slain unarmed black men and women, is a portrait of those lost—not as statistics, but as heroes who deserve to be seen for the splendid beings they are, and as symbols of life and hope. Gone but never forgotten, Kill Move Paradise illustrates the possibilities of collective transformation and radical acts of joy.

Go to the Kill Move Paradise show page


"Bleak and beautiful… radiates an urgent and hypnotic theatrical energy."
The New York Times
"Theater is at its most effective when it brings people together, moves us, challenges us,
and makes us see the unseen. "Kill Move Paradise" [does] precisely that."
Chicago Tribune
"...KILL MOVE PARADISE is bold, conceptual, living theater, demanding to be heard. Ijames is a vital voice in our politically seditious and most perilous time. It is also profoundly
poetic in its dialogue and characters."
CultureVulture.net

*Subject to change

July 28 - August 22

INTO THE WOODS

Book by James Lapine
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Sean Harris
Music Direction by Melanie Guerin

A dark and humorous twist on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, this Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical interweaves everyone’s favorite storybook characters into a timeless, yet relevant, piece… and a rare modern classic.

Be careful what you wish for seems to be the ongoing theme in this comically dark musical, as actions have consequences and sacrifices must be paid.

Featuring the much loved songs Children Will Listen, Stay With Me and No One Is Alone, this enchanting and touching masterpiece was recently made into a smash-hit Disney feature film starring Meryl Streep, James Corden, Anna Kendrick and Johnny Depp.

Go to the Into The Woods show page at the Connecticut Shakespeare Festival.


"The giddy joy of the first act gives way to some thrilling emotion in the second.
If you’re wishing for inventive, joyous theatre, run to INTO THE WOODS!”
Entertainment Weekly