Where are they now?
Heidi Schreck, whose office comedy “The Consultant” premiered at Long Wharf Theatre in 2014, has gotten herself an off-Broadway hit with “What the Constitution Means to Me.” The play, which Schreck also stars in, is based on her experiences giving speeches about the U.S. government when she was a teenager. The show ran from mid-September through Nov. 4 at New York Theatre Workshop, which brought it back Nov. 27 for an extended run through Dec. 30. Details at nytw.org.
The show’s director, Oliver Butler, is also known to Long Wharf audiences; he directed “Bad Jews” there in 2015. Butler also did “An Opening in Time” at Hartford Stage in 2015; his mother is the actress Pamela Payton-Wright, herself a veteran of half a dozen Hartford Stage productions.
The new production of “Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn” running through Dec. 30 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey has a lot in common with the show’s premiere production at Connecticut’s Goodspeed Opera House in 2014. Gordon Greenberg is directing again, Denis Jones is choreographing, Alejo Vietti designed the costumes, Jeff Croiter did the lights and Hayley Podschun is once again playing a major role — except this time she’s the romantic lead Linda Mason instead of the comic relief Lila. There are even a couple of returning ensemble members, Karl Skyler Urban and Amy Van Norstrand. Most of these folks were also involved with “Holiday Inn” when it was on Broadway in late 2016. Details at papermill.org.
“Familiar,” the political family drama by Danai Gurira which premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2014 and was also staged in New
York in 2016, can now be seen at Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theatre through Jan. 13.