Goodspeed Announces 2023 Lineup for Annual Festival of New Musicals

Table Of Content

• Goodspeed announces 2024 season with a mix of familiar and brand-new musicals
• Review: ‘Illinoise,’ based on Sufjan Stevens’ concept album, clears a fresh Broadway path
• Review: 42ND STREET at Goodspeed Opera House
• After scandal, movie producer Randall Emmett is flying under the radar with a new name
• CLICK TO VIEW A LIST OF PAST GOODSPEED PRODUCTIONS
• The differences — and similarities — between the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals
• - Connecticut

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.

Goodspeed announces 2024 season with a mix of familiar and brand-new musicals

Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House has announced the lineup for their 17th annual Festival of New Musicals. Join 'r kids Family Center as they present THE GOOD ADOPTEE at Cabaret on Main in East Haven. April 5 - June 2You’re invited to solve a crime in the crafty and cunning musical comedy whodunit filled with murder, motives and melody.

Review: ‘Illinoise,’ based on Sufjan Stevens’ concept album, clears a fresh Broadway path

Goodspeed Adds 3 New Musicals to Upcoming Season at the Terris Theatre - Playbill

Goodspeed Adds 3 New Musicals to Upcoming Season at the Terris Theatre.

Posted: Fri, 16 Feb 2024 14:40:35 GMT [source]

Twin favorable reviews by the daily and Sunday critics of the New York Times prompted talks about taking it to Broadway, sometime next spring, via Los Angeles in the fall. The Goodspeed has curated another dream team that brings new life to this classic musical. Featuring epic tap numbers beyond compare, beautiful, bright-colored sets, opulent costumes, and phenomenal talent, you don't want to miss 42nd Street. Only seven productions reported figures to Variety; among the holdouts who never report are Los Angeles Theatre Center, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Westwood Playhouse and South Coast Repertory. Harmony Gold has already cultivated contacts that could help pave the way for its project. In recent months, the company has co-sponsored seminars, with Theatre LA and Mayor Tom Bradley, about media coverage of theater.

Review: 42ND STREET at Goodspeed Opera House

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.

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.

After scandal, movie producer Randall Emmett is flying under the radar with a new name

March 18 will center on a staged reading of another new musical based on true events, The Great Emu War, with a book by Cal Silberstein and music and lyrics by Paul Hodge. The festival will come to a close March 19 with Little Miss Perfect, including the viral song of the same name, with book, music, and lyrics by Joriah Kwamé. Additional festival events, including seminars, symposiums, and cabarets, will be announced at a later date. In 1984, Goodspeed Musicals added a second performance venue—the Norma Terris Theatre—in nearby Chester, Connecticut, occasionally referred to as the Goodspeed-At-Chester. While the main stage presents a mixture of revivals and new musicals as part of its 3 production season, The Norma Terris presents exclusively new musicals each season. Several original musicals debuted there or at the opera house before going on to Broadway and winning Tony Awards.

CLICK TO VIEW A LIST OF PAST GOODSPEED PRODUCTIONS

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 differences — and similarities — between the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals

Theater Review: Powerhouse Vocals? Goodspeed's 'Dreamgirls' Has Them, And So Much More - The Newtown Bee

Theater Review: Powerhouse Vocals? Goodspeed's 'Dreamgirls' Has Them, And So Much More.

Posted: Fri, 08 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

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.

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!

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.

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.