Highlights from Fall 2019 - Spring 2020
Clubbed Thumb presents
TUMACHO
a play with songs
Written by Ethan Lipton
Directed by Leigh Silverman
With: Bill Buell, John Ellison Conlee, Randy Danson, Gibson Frazier, Andrew Garman, Andy Grotelueschen, Layla Khoshnoudi and Phillipa Soo
February 17th - March 14th, 2020
Once again, the citizens of a frontier outpost are looking for someone to rescue them from the terrors of the local villain. Have they met their salvation--or an even bigger tyrant--when a fiend from the past comes to town?
“Directed with a cantering wit by Leigh Silverman... this impeccably inane horse opera...plays dizzily with historical notions of American manliness in a willfully absurdist key.”
Clubbed Thumb commissions, develops and produces funny, strange and provocative new plays by living American writers. Clubbed Thumb is a groundbreaker, with a precise curatorial vision and a remarkable track record for launching artists’ careers; and an incubator, nurturing plays, collaborations, and above all artists, through thoughtfully deployed resources, opportunities, mentorship and hospitality. At the Connelly, Clubbed Thumb produced Will Arbery’s Plano. In 23 seasons, the company has produced the NYC or professional premieres of Sarah Ruhl, Gina Gionfriddo, Tanya Saracho, Jordan Harrison, Lisa D'Amour and Clare Barron, among many others.
Bedlam in association with The Nora presents
The Crucible
Written by Arthur Miller
Directed by Eric Tucker
November 8th - December 29th, 2019
The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.
Committed to the immediacy of the relationship between the actor and the audience, Bedlam creates works of theatre that reinvigorate traditional forms in a flexible, raw space, collapsing aesthetic distance and bringing its viewers into direct contact with the dangers and delicacies of life. In this new, fresh, active environment storytelling becomes paramount and the result is a kinetic experience of shared empathy.
Bedlam’s shows have been noted as Ben Brantley’s “Critics’ Picks” for The New York Times six times, noted on The New York Times and New York Magazine’s “Top Ten Best Show Lists” two times, as well as those of The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine respectively. The Wall Street Journal also noted Eric Tucker as “Director of the Year” in 2014. Bedlam has won two Irne Awards, two Off Broadway Alliance Awards and an Obie Grant. Bedlam has also been nominated for two Lucille Lortel awards, a Drama League award, and four Elliot Norton awards, winning for Best Visiting Production and Best Ensemble for Saint Joan, and six Elliot Norton awards, winning for Best Visiting Production and Best Ensemble for Bedlam’s Saint Joan, Best Visiting Production for Bedlam’s Twelfth Night/What You Will and Best Visiting Performer for Vaishnavi Sharma in Bedlam’s Pygmalion.
“★★★★ Bedlam’s characteristically smart, stripped-down production pulses with an electric current and lays bare the play’s bitter truths. It is as gripping and revelatory a Miller production as New York has seen in years.”
All Hallow’s Eve
Written & Directed by Martin P. Robinson
Music by Paul Rudolph
October 18th - November 2nd, 2019
Eve and Evan are twins roped into yet another desperately dull Halloween by their parents. Managing to break free, they maraud, pumpkin smash and toilet paper, inadvertently crossing the thin line between worlds on this night of all nights. Enter a house and a demoness who has been lying in wait for just such a pair. A harrowing cat and mouse game ensues with the stakes nothing less than their immortal souls. A tale wrapped up in horror, comedy and blood…and definitely not for young children.
About the Artist
Martin P. Robinson has been a featured performer on Sesame Street since 1981, learning at the right hand (literally) of the greats including Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Jerry Nelson, and has performed in numerous feature films, including five Muppet movies. He’s best known for his work on the original 1982 production of Little Shop of Horrors and the Broadway revival in 2003 in which he designed, coordinated construction and performed the carnivorous plant Audrey II. He created the signature frog for Susan Stroman and Stephen Sondheim’s production of Nathan Lane’s Frogs at Lincoln Center. He has also created and directed puppets for three productions at Carnegie Hall. Martin has also been a master teacher for Sesame Street International helping cast and train puppeteers in co-productions around the world. www.martinprobinson.com
Highlights from Fall 2018 - Spring 2019
Clubbed Thumb presents
PLANO
By Will Arbery
Directed by Taylor Reynolds
April 8th - May 11th
A return of Summerworks 2018's sold-out run! Tonight, and later, and earlier, three sisters (no, not those ones) are stricken with a series of strange plagues. Let’s talk about family nightmares. I mean, uh, memories.
With: Crystal Finn, Susannah Flood, Miriam Silverman, Cesar J. Rosado, Ryan King, Brendan Dalton and Mary Shultz
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY
Taylor Reynolds
OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN IN A PLAY
Tyler Kieffer
“[W]onderfully unsettling... the taut, wily PLANO... is a fiercely smart contemporary dream play.”
“PLANO is so goshdanged good... Go go go, this is not a drill.”
“Will Arbery’s sly, elusive, off-kilter comedy “Plano”... toys with language, form and expectations, and the excellent cast savors its elisions and tonal fluxes.”
Noche Flamenca presents
ENTRE TÚ y YO
(Between You and Me)
Soledad Barrio & Martín Santangelo
March 8th - 31st
The renowned company Noche Flamenca comes to the Connelly Theater with Entre T y Yo (Between You and Me), an evening-length program of duets, solos, and ensemble works exploring the constraints imposed and the possibilities afforded by human relationships.
In “La Ronde,” inspired by Max Orphul’s 1954 film, Martín Santangelo uses a series of duets to explore love, hate, jealousy, and death. Soledad Barrio's signature “Sole” exemplifies the catharsis at the heart of flamenco. Barrio is joined by some of Spain's most celebrated flamenco artists, including dancers Antonio Rodriguez, Marina Elana, and Jasiel Nahim; musicians Eugenio Iglesias, Salva de Maria, and David Rodriguez; and singers Manuel Gago, Emilio Florido, and Carmina Cortes.
About the Company
Under the direction of Martín Santangelo, the award-winning Noche Flamenca has become one of the world's most successful touring companies. Formed in 1993 by Santangelo and his Bessie award-winning wife, Soledad Barrio, the company performs regularly in New York City and tours worldwide. Hailed by critics for its transcendent and deeply emotional performances, Noche Flamenca is recognized as the most authentic flamenco touring company in the field today, expressing the rigorous, spell-binding aesthetic of one of the world's most complex and mysterious art forms. All aspects of flamenco dance, song, and music are interrelated and given equal weight creating a true communal spirit within the company: the very heart and soul of flamenco.
“What woman could hold a candle to Soledad Barrio? In modern dance, Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham. In ballet, maybe Nora Kaye, in her Tudor roles. Certainly no one we can go and see today has Barrio’s transformative power.”
“[Noche Flamenca]’s new show expertly uses the talents of headliner Soledad Barrio... [This is] flamenco puro — the Spanish art stripped to its flammable core. ★★★★★ ”
“Soledad Barrio [is] a flamenco star... This, of course, is the moment everyone has been waiting for.”
New York Theatre Workshop presents
MANDY PATINKIN IN CONCERT: DIARIES 2018
By Mandy Patinkin
with Adam Ben-David on piano
October 10th - 28th
Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Diaries 2018 is a marriage of some of Mandy’s favorite Broadway and classic American tunes, along with selections from his newest recordings, Mandy Patinkin Diary January 2018 and Mandy Patinkin Diary April/May 2018 (Nonesuch).
“Mandy Patinkin is in the business of showstopping,” raves The New Yorker, and that's exactly what he does in this powerful, passionate evening of popular song. From Randy Newman to Stephen Sondheim, from Rufus Wainwright to Harry Chapin, Mandy Patinkin takes you on a musical journey you'll never forget.
Geraldine Hughes, in association with Firefly Theater & Films, presents
BELFAST BLUES
Written & Performed by Geraldine Hughes
Directed by Carole Kane
October 22nd & 23rd
One wee girl’s story about family, war, Jesus, and Hollywood, Geraldine Hughes’ (McGonnagall in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway)' one-woman show is a tapestry of true stories told from Hughes’ perspective as a little girl coming of age in the war-torn Belfast of the 1980s. After award-winning runs in Los Angeles, West Belfast, Belfast, Chicago, Off-West End London, and Off-Broadway, the Belfast Blues plays the Connelly for two shows only.
“Outstanding”
“A bravura performance”
“Takes your breath away”
Highlights from Fall 2017 - Summer 2018
Ars Nova, piece by piece productions & Z Space present
THE LUCKY ONES
A world premiere new musical
Book by The Bengsons & Sarah Gancher
Music & Lyrics by The Bengsons
Choreographed by Sonya Tayeh
Directed by Anne Kauffman
March 19 - April 28, 2018
Indie-music duo The Bengsons spin a memory-tale of teenaged passion, ideals lived to the limits, family shattered and faith lost — all in hope of finding a way home again. Through soulful electro-folk songs, this driving, semi-autobiographical story grabs joy and grief with the same hand and holds them tightly, in a radical affirmation of being alive.
See the next world premiere musical commissioned and developed by “one of the most adventurous off-broadway companies” (NY Times) Ars Nova (KPOP, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), and created by the team behind the “luminous” (NY Times) Hundred Days: musical duo The Bengsons, Sarah Gancher, Emmy-nominee Sonya Tayeh, and Obie Award-winning Anne Kaufman.
“★★★★ The lucky ones, the show suggests, are those who, born into damage, can still “open up.” Abigail Bengson, with her extraordinarily expressive musical and authorial voice, does so magnificently.”
LUCILLE LORTEL NOMINATIONS:
Outstanding Choreographer – Sonya Tayeh
Outstanding Actor in a Musical – Damon Daunno
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical – Maryann Plunkett
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical – Myra Lucretia Taylor
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical – Adina Verson
DRAMA DESK NOMINATIONS:
Outstanding Featured Actor – Damon Daunno
Outstanding Music – The Bengsons
Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical – Amit Chandrashaker
Highlights from Fall 2016 - Summer 2017
Sinking Ship Productions presents
A HUNGER ARTIST
Based on the story by Franz Kafka
Created by:
Performer Jonathan Levin
Playwright Josh Luxenberg
Director Joshua William Gelb
June 1 - 27, 2017 & January 10 - 16, 2018
“Are you still starving? When are you going to stop…?”
A man sits alone in a cage, starving himself for your entertainment. Sinking Ship Productions’ acclaimed, visually-striking adaptation of the Franz Kafka short story uses physical theater, Victorian miniatures, puppetry, and a set of simple props to support a powerhouse solo performance.
Once cheered by thousands, the Hunger Artist is now forgotten by everyone except his one-time manager. What begins as a simple nostalgic story transforms into a startlingly inventive, darkly comic trip into the nature of memory, art, performance, and spectatorship, as told by the only person who remembers an artist whose act was simply... to hunger.
Winner of Summerhall's Lustrum Award for Excellence at the Edinburgh Fringe, and nominated for two Drama Desk Awards (Outstanding Solo Performance, and Outstanding Puppet Design).
OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE
Jonathan Levin
OUTSTANDING PUPPET DESIGN
Charlie Kanev, Sarah Nolen, Jonathan Levin
“★★★★★ A bravura display of theatrical skill... the best, most complete work I’ve seen this year. If I had a sixth star, it would get one.”
“★★★★ CRITICS PICK! Surprisingly lovable... full of jokes and sudden sympathy... The artist starves but we leave sated.”
“Directed by Joshua William Gelb from an elegant script by Josh Luxenberg, this visually arresting ‘Hunger Artist’ leads with enchantment... [Jonathan Levin] holds the audience in the palm of his hand.””
The Tank presents
STREEPSHOW!
By Jay Stull
Directed by Andrew Neisler
June 1 - June 24
As part of the Save & Print series
This is the true story of nine characters, once played by Meryl Streep, picked to live in a house, and have their lives taped to find out what happens when people stop being, oh I don't know, direct and start getting, well, breathy. The characters in STREEPSHOW! have no knowledge of the actress Meryl Streep and think of themselves as real people with uncannily similar, tragic biographies. But when the winner of STREEPSHOW! is promised the opportunity to rewrite her tragedy, it's every Streep for her exquisitely poised self. This is theater in reality TV drag, actors in Meryl drag, and America's pop music canon in cabaret drag.
Soho Rep. presents
Jomama Jones in
DUAT
October 11 - November 6, 2016
WORLD PREMIERE
“FIVE STARS! ...a luxury of theatrical overabundance... we are stunned by the talents before us!”
By Daniel Alexander Jones
Directed by Will Davis
With new music by Samora Pinderhughes, Bobby Halvorson, and Jomama Jones
In the darkest hour of the night, surrender your heart to call the light.
Two halves of a soul hunt through a hall of records.
A librarian breaks the seal of a mysterious archive.
A teacher and her class prepare the pageant to end all pageants.
Duat conjures a spell of disintegration, transformation and regeneration through an incandescent performance in three parts. A little bit vaudeville, a little bit rock and soul.
Featuring Jacques Colimon, Tenzin Gund-Morrow, Toussaint Jeanlouis, Daniel Alexander Jones, Jomama Jones, Stacey Karen Robinson, Kaneza Schaal and more
Photo by Julieta Cervantes
Highlights from Fall 2015 - Spring 2016
Matt Walters, Matt Roper, Noah Diamond, and Seth Shelden are Zeppo, Chico, Groucho, and Harpo. Photo by Mark X. Hopkins
“[D]elightful... an approximation of the original that is utterly convincing, and darned entertaining as well!”
“The new Brothers execute the scene with uncanny perfection... [A]part from still being extremely funny, it has the edge of randomness, the pure absurdity, that made the Marx Brothers seem, on that opening night as ever after, so modern.”
“[A] gang of chorines, clowns and pit players has raised the antic, anarchic spirit of the Marx Brothers in a splendidly daffy revival of I’LL SAY SHE IS... Nostalgic yet fresh, any whiff of mothball about the material is wafted away on gales of laughter.”
I'LL SAY SHE IS
The Lost Marx Brothers Musical
May 28 - July 3, 2016
Original book and lyrics by Will B. Johnstone
Adapted and expanded by Noah Diamond
Music by Tom Johnstone
Musical direction by Sabrina Chap
Choreography by Shea Sullivan
Directed by Amanda Sisk
In 1924, I'll Say She Is established the Marx Brothers as the darlings of the New York smart set and the preeminent jesters of the Jazz Age. But unlike their other Broadway hits, it was never filmed or revived. It was lost to history, until writer, performer, and Groucho Marxist Noah Diamond researched, restored, and adapted the work for its historic return to the stage. It was a smash hit of the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival. In 2016, I'll Say She Is comes to the Connelly Theater for its first fully-realized production since the original closed ninety years ago.
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus presents
A CARDBOARD & DUCT TAPE SPECTACULAR
WORLD PREMIERE
May 5 - 8, 2016
“It’s fantastic. There are certain things that make New York City so incredibly special. And this is one of them.”
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus presents a return to the basics in its latest production, A Cardboard and Duct Tape Spectacular. Bindlestiff’s cast of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, sideshow marvels, musicians, and vaudevillians tackle the challenge of arriving at a theater to present a show... but finding their trunks have been delivered empty. The solution to this dilemma proves as simple as Cardboard and Duct Tape—like a child playing with the box that once contained a fancy toy, Bindlestiff’s cast finds delight and shares the joy with the audience. Stripping away the ultra-mediated modern experience of entertainment, Bindlestiff celebrates a DIY tradition made with the raw elements of passion, play, and circus skill.
The Tank presents
The Offending Gesture
by Mac Wellman
Directed by Meghan Finn
Original Music composed by Alaina Ferris
WORLD PREMIERE
Part of The Tank's Flint & Tinder series
January 5 - 24, 2016
The Offending Gesture is a hilarious and poetic indictment of American foreign policy in Iraq, told through the true story of Hitler and his dog, Blondie. Acclaimed playwright Wellman takes as his subject a political incident that occurred in 1941 just before Germany invaded the Soviet Union, when Tor Borg, a Finnish businessman infamously taught his own dog Jackie to do the Nazi Party Salute in response to the command, “Heil Hitler."
Produced by The Tank in association with 3-Legged Dog.
“THE OFFENDING GESTURE at the Connelly Theater... is particularly enjoyable... Meghan Finn, the director, has gotten the most out of this one, aided by haunting music composed by Alaina Ferris.”
“Seasoned Wellman watchers will luxuriate in the coded language games and philosophical puzzles in Meghan Finn’s very funny and well-acted production; newcomers should be dazzled.”
A SHOW FOR CHRISTMAS
Written & Performed by Daniel Kitson
NEW YORK PREMIERE
December 8 - 18, 2015
Daniel says:
Last year, I wrote and performed a Christmas Show called – quite brilliantly – A Show For Christmas. I didn’t know what it was going to be when I agreed to do it but I ended up really liking how it turned out and having only booked a five night run at the Battersea Arts Centre in the now defunct Grand Hall, I was always keen to do it again this year and So, as you may have guessed by now, I am bringing it to New York this Christmas.
The show itself is a pretty simple storytelling affair that is, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, rather lovely and deals, amongst other things, with the traditional seasonal concerns of loneliness, a brief scuffle in a newsagents, mobile phones, magic, the past and a long journey in a mid sized motorhome.
I mean. It's long been my vibe to charmingly undersell things, as you doubtless know, but I reread it last week to see if I needed to change anything and I actually REALLY enjoyed it.
I think it's really good.
So. There you go.
“[Daniel Kitson is a] monologuist extraordinaire—unconditionally enraged and engaging.”
2016 Lucille Lortel Award Winner: Outstanding Musical
“Some of the most lovely and inventive music you can hear on a New York stage right now… How refreshing to meet a musical that has too much on its mind, rather than too little. FUTURITY can only help advance an art form that often seems unable to imagine itself a new future.”
Soho Rep. & Ars Nova present
FUTURITY
NEW YORK PREMIERE
October 6 - November 22, 2015
Music by César Alvarez with The Lisps
Lyrics & Book by César Alvarez
Directed by Sarah Benson
in association with Carole Shorenstein Hays
Two people try to imagine their way out of impossible circumstances in FUTURITY – an avant-Americana musical by indie band The Lisps. Julian is a Civil War soldier dreaming of a technological utopia. Ada is a mathematical genius thousands of miles away. Together, they’re going to invent a machine to end one of the darkest periods in our history. An electrifying concert-story featuring an army of musicians.
Highlights from 2014 - 15
Photo: David Greenspan. Credit: Aaron Epstein
Target Margin Theater presents
COMPOSITION…MASTER-PIECES…IDENTITY
May 25 - June 28, 2015
A new work conceived and performed by Obie Award-winner and TMT Associated Artist David Greenspan, Composition...Master-Pieces...Identity brings to life two “lectures” and a “play” by Gertrude Stein.
“[A] fascinating new exploration of this singular writer’s work… listening to Mr. Greenspan read Stein’s words gives them a buoyancy and, yes, lucidity that lets them dance happily inside your head.”
Stein lab: When you see this remember me
May 27 - June 27, 2015
Target Margin Theater’s season-long exploration of all things Stein culminates at the Connelly Theater with The TMT Stein Lab. Artists include Jessica Brater, John Del Gaudio, Jesse Freedman, Sarah Lurie, Handan Ozbilgin, Natalie Robin, Noah Scalin and Patrick Scheid.
“Lypsinka, the greatest chanteuse who never sung a note... brilliantly assesses the toll taken on women by their facades... That has always been the strength — and the high art — of this performer, and it is on virtuoso display.”
Tweed TheaterWorks presents
Lypsinka: the trilogy
November 5, 2014 - January 3, 2015
“Is it a drag show? No. It is above and beyond: part Dalí, part Cocteau. It is the most remarkable thing—yes, thing—I have ever seen.”
Lypsinka! The Boxed Set
Directed by Kevin Malony
Not seen in New York since 2001, this full-length 'traditional Lypsinka' concert show is the award-winning revue of Lyp's greatest bits that has toured the world, flabbergasting audiences from Los Angeles to Sydney to Glasgow. Using a soundtrack created from films, musicals, and concert recordings, the supreme archivist of irony showcases the modern woman's challenge of being over-blessed with femininity and celebrity.
The Passion of the Crawford
Directed by Kevin Malony
The Lyp's tour de force embodiment of towering screen queen Joan Crawford—featuring a re-enactment of Crawford's onstage interview from 1973—is a fantasia of fame and insecurity, grandness and identity. Last presented in New York in 2005, this tribute to Hollywood and ego crisis has since been mounted from San Francisco to Sarasota. Featuring Scott Wittman and Steve Cuiffo as the Interviewer.
Show Trash
Directed by Barry Kleinbort
An autobiographical multi-media pastiche, starring Epperson - unmasked and in street clothes - tinkling the ivories and spinning yarns of Mississippi, Manhattan, and Hollywood. Now making its New York City theatrical premiere, the anecdotal SHOW TRASH reveals the man behind the madness.