LEGALLY BLONDE, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING & More Set for CRT's 2013-14 Season

The Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) announces its 2013 - 2014 season which will include theatrical productions focused on the simplicity and beauty, as well as the awesome complexity, of love. For detailed information and tickets call the box office at 860-486-2113 or visit www.crt.uconn.edu.

Artistic Director Vincent J. Cardinal has chosen six plays that will provide insights into many forms of love and romance, and its attendant conflict and strife. Form the sublime to the scary, each of the shows in the 2013 - 2014 season will offer audience members a glimpse into the beauty and sometimes pain of life's most fascinating emotion.

THE MAIN STAGE SERIES

Big Love October 3 - October 13, 2013

By Charles Mee Nafe Katter Theatre

Directed by Helene Kvale

Classical drama collides with modern-day excess in Charles Mee's Big Love, a fiercely extravagant adaptation of Aeschylus' The Suppliant Maidens that The New York Times described as "an MGM musical in Technicolor, a circus and, believe it, a Greek tragedy." Big Love is a luxurious, riotous, wild romp in which 50 brides - all sisters - vow to escape their 50 fiancés on their wedding night. Seeking to get away from the old country, where marriage is contracted and love is unheard of, the sisters leave their betrothed standing at the altar as they hop a boat for better times and a little equality. As the brides seek asylum at the villa of a family man who is unwilling to take sides, the grooms catch up - by helicopter. With no one to stand up for them, the women decide to stand up for themselves by any means necessary. Big Love gives the term "battle of the sexes" a whole new meaning!

The Three Musketeers November 21- December 8, 2013

Adapted by Linda Alpert, Douglas Langworthy & Penny Metropulos Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre

Directed by Tony Simotes

Alexandre Dumas' classic novel gets an adventurous staging as this tale of friendship and romance follows young d'Artagnan upon his arrival in Paris in search of fame, fortune, and a place among the King's Musketeers. Befriended by the three legendary swordsmen: Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, he is immediately put to the test. His acts of bravery catch the eye of the French King Louis XIII, but ensnare d'Artagnan in the deadly schemes of Cardinal Richelieu and the villainous Milady Clarik. The young d'Artagnan must weigh his loyalties and question the meaning of honor in a gilded age of moral ambiguity. Loaded with dazzling swordplay, intrigue and swash-buckling comedy, this adaptation of Dumas' brilliant novel will be directed by Shakespeare & Company Artistic Director Tony Simotes.

Much Ado About Nothing February 27 - March 9, 2014

By William Shakespeare Nafe Katter Theatre

Directed by Paul Mullins

This remarkably modern Shakespearean comedy revolves around two intertwined love stories: one caustically funny, between Beatrice and Benedick, and, the other, between Claudio and Hero, poignantly sweet. These loves play out with an explosion of witty banter as victorious soldiers returning from war set their sights on the peacetime pleasures of merrymaking and romance in a jaunty world of aristocratic artifice. However, when false information leads one proud nobleman to cruelly denounce his beloved on their wedding day, the verbal sparring sours into private warfare. In this powerful comedy, Shakespeare makes you laugh, but also breaks your heart - and then magically puts it back together again as if it were all "much ado about nothing."

Legally Blonde, The Musical April 24 - May 4, 2014

Book by Heather Hach, Music and Lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre

Based on the Novel by Amanda Brown and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Motion Picture

OMIGOD, You Guys! The international award-winning hit Legally Blonde The Musical is coming to Connecticut Repertory Theatre. College sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods can handle anything. So when her boyfriend, Warner, dumps her for someone "serious" she decides to follow him to Harvard Law School and win him back. Case closed. With some help from newfound friends and her Chihuahua Bruiser, Elle proves that being true to yourself never goes out of style. This all singing, all dancing romantic comedy is about knowing who you are and celebrating what you've got! Legally Blonde The Musical, based on the hit film starring Reese Witherspoon, will be directed and choreographed by Gerry McIntyre, winner of the 2013 Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Best Choreography for CRT's production of Hairspray. Legally Blonde The Musical is the most fabulous musical around. The verdict? This much fun shouldn't be legal!

THE STUDIO WORKS SERIES

Dead Heavy Fantastic October 24 - November 3, 2013

By Robert Farquhar Studio Theatre

Directed by Scott Ripley

It's always been mad in Liverpool, England on a Friday night - you leave the house feeling like a million dollars and return your own poor relation. And that's how it is for the motley crew in Robert Farquhar's contemporary comedy Dead Heavy Fantastic as they lurch their way from tentative first drinks to an apocalyptic sunrise, sure in the knowledge that they're pretty likely to do it all again next week. Critic Laura Davis observed, "A thoroughly entertaining piece of theatre populated by memorable characters, Dead Heavy Fantastic encapsulates the energy and eager anticipation of a Friday night out without the disappointment

Goblin Market March 27- April 6, 2014

A Puppet Arts Production Studio Theatre

Adapted by Penny Benson from the Poem by Christina Rossetti

Directed by Penny Benson

The full exhilarating, creative power of the University of Connecticut's Puppetry program will bring Christina Rossetti's entrancingly atmospheric narrative poemGoblin Market to our studio stage. Two proper Victorian sisters are tempted by the world beyond their home, which is peopled by seductive goblins who entice them with luscious fruits and promises of unimagined ecstasies. One of the sisters partakes of the forbidden offerings, while her sibling bargains desperately with the supernatural creatures to save her from inexorably falling under their spell. With imaginative puppetry and surprising theatrics, Goblin Marketpromises to weave an enchanting spell that will stay with you all the way to the safety of your own home.

Artistic Director Vincent Cardinal said, "Last season dealt with the pressures our youth face when coming of age in a political landscape of hyper polarized rhetoric. It was challenging, tragically prophetic, and ultimately uplifting, but about half way through the season one of our subscribers asked, "Can't we see a play about something simple like love?" "

This season we bring you six stories that are about the wonderful simplicity - and the awesome complexity - of love.

Helene Kvale, the director of CRT's popular Pride and Prejudice, will helm Charles Mee's Big Love - a boldly theatrical and surprisingly funny contemporary retelling of Aeschylus's The Suppliants. As in the original work, 50 brides vow to assassinate their grooms, but one bride rebels. Mee asks why and how and audaciously attempts to figure out the true nature of love.

Love takes an intensely idealized romantic form in The Three Musketeers. Shakespeare & Company Artistic Director Tony Simotes will join us to direct and serve as fight choreographer for this swash buckling, entertaining stage adaptation. Mr. Simotes has been with Shakespeare & Company since 1995. He served as Associate Director and Fight Director on many of Tina Packer's shows over the years and together they have created some of Shakespeare & Company's most inspired productions.

Paul Mullin's, the brilliant director of last season's Hairspray, will direct Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing - a comic play that looks at love as the inadvertent result of other goals, foibles, and follies. One of Shakespeare's most constantly "current" comedies, it promises to heat up our winter months with lightning fast wit and warm-heartedness.

Finally, on our main stage Gerry McIntyre, the award-winning choreographer of last season's Hairspray, will direct and choreograph the Olivier Award winning musical, Legally Blonde. Based on the hit movie, Elle heads to Law School in pursuit of her first love and learns to love herself. It's a frothy, fun and joyous silly love song.

Scott Ripley, best known to our audiences as Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray and Adolpho in The Drowsy Chaperone, will direct Dead Heavy Fantastic for our autumn Studio Series production. It follows a group out on a wild night in Liverpool in search of love or a good substitute for it. In the spring we will premier MFA Puppetry student Penny Benson's adaptation of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market a tale of the dangers of erotic appetites and the dangers of love.

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Current CRT subscribers have been sent a subscription renewal form. New subscriptions are on sale now. Please call 860-486-2113 for information on subscribing and general ticket information. The CRT Box Office is now located at the Nafe Katter Theatre, 820 Bolton Road, on the Storrs campus. The Box Office is open Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m.

Performances are usually Wednesdays through Sundays. Wed. & Thu. evening performances start at 7:30 p.m., Fri. and Sat. evening performances start at 8 p.m., Sat. and Sun. matinee performances start at 2 p.m. There are occasional Tues. evening performances at 7:30 p.m.

Ticket prices range from $7 to $36, and subscribers receive a discount of up to 25 percent off regular ticket prices.