Sing For Your Shakespeare – Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, CT, USA

Conceived by Wayne Barker, Mark Lamos, and Deborah Grace Winer, and directed by Mark Lamos, Sing For Your Shakespeare, was based on an original idea and production for the 92nd Street Y’s Lyrics and Lyricists TM, New York City, New York.

We attended opening night on June 7, 2014, and from the reaction of the audience, the play was an immediate success. The year 2014 is the 450^th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616), and it is indeed remarkable when one reflects on how this man has influenced, and continues to influence, so many through his impressive body of work.

The Cast
Sing For Your Shakespeare

Sing For Your Shakespeare is a delightful, rollicking romp through the sonnets, quotations, and plays of William Shakespeare, and includes present day interpretations of his plays through the music of Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers (The Boys From Syracuse), Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim (music from West Side Story), Frank Loesser (Hamlet), Kurt Weil and Odgen Nash (Speak Low), and Cole Porter (Kiss Me Kate), to name but a few. William Shakespeare influencing some of the greatest songs in the American Songbook; who would have thought it possible?

The talented cast features Karen Akers, Britney Coleman, Darius de Haas, Stephen DeRosa, Constantine Germanacos, and Laurie Wells, all Broadway veterans with the exception of Britney Coleman whose voice and talent will clearly carry her far.

Laurie Wells, Karen Akers, Britney Coleman

There were many memorable performances throughout including the song, Sing For Your Supper written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, from the 1938 Broadway musical, The Boys from Syracuse. When the trio, Karen Akers, Britney Coleman, and Laurie Wells, sung the lyrics, "Sing for your supper, and you’ll get breakfast, songbirds always eat, if their song is sweet…" they brought the house down with cheers and applause.

 
Stephen DeRosa, Constantine Germanacos, Darius de Haas

Also notable was the Cole Porter song, Too Darn Hot, performed by the Company, Star Crossed Lovers written by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn and performed by Darius de Hass and Britney Coleman, and Ariel performed by Constantine Germanacos and Stephen DeRosa. However, it was Stephen DeRosa as the Bard appearing on stage in period costume, interpreted as a Las Vegas club act, complete with drink in hand, who stole the show with Shakespearean Song written by Richie Webb and David Cohen, and performed by Stephen DeRosa with Britney Coleman, Karen Akers, and Laurie Wells.

Britney Coleman, Constantine Germanacos

Sing For Your Shakespeare is the second play in the 2014 season at the Westport Country Playhouse, which opened with the well-cast Noël Coward play, A Song at Twilight. With three more upcoming plays, Nora by Ingmar Bergman, adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House (July 15 – August 2, 2014), Things We Do For Love by Alan Ayckbourn (August 19 – September 6, 2014) and Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage (October 7 – November 3, 2014) the Westport Country Playhouse is going to have a most memorable and winning season, and certainly one that you will not want to miss.

The Cast

Sing For Your Shakespeare

The Cast

The Orchestra

Who’s Who

Sing For Your Shakespeare runs until June 28, 2014. Performances are held on Tuesdays at 8:00 pm, Wednesdays at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm, Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 pm, Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm, and Sundays at 3:00 pm.

Karen Akers, Darius de Haas

For information on the play or to purchase tickets, please call the box office at 203-227-4177 or call the toll-free number at 888-927-7529, or visit them on the website at www.WestportPlayhouse.org.

The Westport Country Playhouse Box Office is open during Performance Days Tuesday through Friday from 12:00 pm until 8:30 pm, Saturday from 11:00 am until 8:30 pm, Sunday from 11:00 am until 3:30 pm, and is closed on Monday. Non-Performance Days, the Box Office is open Tuesday through Friday from 12:00 pm until 6:00 pm, and is closed on Monday.

The Westport Country Playhouse named as "Theatre Company of the Year" in December 2013 by The Wall Street Journal, opened in the 1930s in a transformed 1835 cow barn, which has, and continues to attract, a "who’s who" of prominent actors. Looking at the framed posters of past shows that line the lobby walls was like entering an encyclopedia of the arts. A few of the many renowned actors who have appeared on the stage there include Ethyl Barrymore, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, Tallulah Bankhead, Gloria Swanson, Don Ameche, Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy, Jane Fonda, Danny Aiello, Blythe Danner, Jill Clayburgh, Richard Dreyfus, Whoopi Goldberg, Liza Minnelli, Bernadette Peters, Lynn Redgrave, Gene Wilder, and Westport residents Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman.

"Westport Country Playhouse, a not-for-profit theater, serves as a cultural nexus for patrons, artists and students and is a treasured resource for the State of Connecticut.  There are no boundaries to the creative thinking for future seasons or the kinds of audiences and excitement for theater that Westport Country Playhouse can build."

For information on upcoming events and other performances, please visit the website: www.WestportPlayhouse.org.

Upcoming Performances

Westport Country Playhouse  
25 Powers Court
Westport, Connecticut  06880
United States
Box Office:     +1-203-227-4177
Toll-Free:       +1-888-927-7529
Fax:                 +1-203-454-3239
Box Office:     +1-203-227-4177
Website:         www.WestportPlayhouse.org
Facebook:       www.Facebook/WestportCountryPlayhouse

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