Vereen, Rivera et al. Set for Hartford Stage in 2010-2011 Season

Hartford Stage has announced a dynamic 2010-2011 season which includes Tony winners Ben Vereen and Chita Rivera in their SummerStage program.  Both will be presenting back to back solo shows each with one week runs at the Roberts Theatre just outside of Hartford. Rivera will play there June 22 to 27 and Vereen July 6 to 11.

Other season highlights include a July 22 - August 15 run of musical comedy Sheila's Day,  Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, the world premiere of Divine Rivalry, and August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean.

As a part of Bushnell's Broadway series, the Tony Award-winning Next to Normal, about a family dealing with a mother who has bipolar disorder, will play the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford a year from now. The national tour starts its run in Los Angeles Nov. 23 to Jan. 2 before arriving in Hartford next March 29 to April 3.  The musical won Tonys for best leading actress in a musical for Alice Ripley, best orchestrations and best score.

Other shows featured in the 2010-11 Broadway series incude: White Christmas (Nov. 16 to 21), Blue Man Group (Jan 18 to 23), Shrek (Feb 15 to 20, 2011), Hair (April 26 to May 1), and West Side Story (May 24 to 29, 2011).

For more details on Hartford Stage's 2010-2011 season, visit: http://www.hartfordstage.org/.

Hartford Stage is an award-winning non-profit professional theatre. Producing six major theatrical productions and one to two summer productions annually their shows range from the classics...like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Tartuffe...to provocative new works...like Necessary Targets, I Ain't Your Uncle, and Spunk.

Over the years, Hartford Stage productions have been recognized by the Tony Awards, the OBIEs, and the New York Critics Circle Awards. And, many highly acclaimed performers have graced our stage...like Jean Stapleton, Andrew McCarthy, Jesse L. Martin, Bradley Whitford, Ellen Burstyn, Angela Bassett, Ed O'Neill and Calista Flockhart.

Now in its 45th year, Hartford Stage is one of the leading resident theatres in the nation, known internationally for entertaining and enlightening audiences with a wide range of the best of world drama, from classics to provocative new plays and musicals and neglected works from the past.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.