The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Madison Lyric Stage offers all-outdoor season
Madison Lyric Stage, a professional theater company serving the Connecticut shoreline, is presenting its 2021 mainstage season entirely outdoors this year.
The season of shows includes “The Sun Sits Low: An Evening of Stephen Sondheim” in June; the landmark Mart Crowley play “The Boys in the Band” in July; and a double bill of Puccini’s “Suor Angelica” and Schoenberg’s “Erwartung” in September, according to a statement.
All three productions will be directed by artistic director Marc Deaton and will be held under a tent on the grounds of the Deacon John Grave House in Madison’s historic district. COVID-19 protocols will be in effect, including socially-distanced seating and face masks required for audience members.
MLS is offering money-saving subscriptions for its three mainstage shows. While individual tickets will be priced at $50, season ticket bundles are currently available for a limited time for $120 (a savings of $30 over the individual ticket price for all three shows) at madisonlyricstage.org or by calling 203-215-6329. Subscription purchasers will need to select their dates in advance, but will be able to change them. 2020 subscriptions that were not able to be used last year will rollover to 2021.
The season:
“The Sun Sits Low: An Evening of Stephen Sondheim”, June 11-13. The music of Stephen Sondheim, composer of “Into the Woods,” “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Company” and many others, has always been a favorite with Madison Lyric Stage. As we resume public performances after a year of being away, we return to the music we presented at our very first concert, with an evening of some of Sondheim’s most loved songs. This evening features a cast of 14 singers, interpreting the magical, urbane, funny and poignant songs from the canon of this prolific Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning composer.
“The Boys in the Band”, July 22–Aug. 1. Before Stonewall, before AIDS, before Marriage Equality – there was Mart Crowley’s landmark play “The Boys in the Band.” It premiered Off-Broadway in 1968 and was turned into a film the next year by the director William Friedkin. In 2018, it premiered on Broadway for its 50th anniversary, and was a celebrated Netflix film in 2020. The Tony Award-winning play revolves around a group of gay men who gather for a birthday party in New York City, and was groundbreaking for its humorous and poignant portrayal of gay life. The play has been called "a true theatrical game-changer, helping spark a revolution by putting gay men's lives onstage — unapologetically and without judgment — in a world that was not yet willing to fully accept them."
“Suor Angelica” and “Erwartung”, Sept. 9-19. Puccini’s beloved one-act opera Suor Angelica (“Sister Angelica”) contains moments of harrowing drama and unequaled redemptive beauty. Sister Angelica, a Florentine noblewoman, has been forced by her family to enter a convent after giving birth to a child out of wedlock — and for seven years has in vain waited for tidings from her family. Finally, Angelica’s aunt, the Princess, comes to visit to reveal the fate of the child she was forced to give away, and to cruelly ask her to sign away her rights to her inheritance. Schoenberg’s Erwartung (“Expectation”) is a one-act monodrama that follows a lone individual through the forest in search of a lost lover. Suor Angelica will be performed in Italian with English subtitles; Erwartung will be performed in English.
For more information about Madison Lyric Stage, visit madisonlyricstage.org.