Recap of Bushnell Season Announcement

Photos by Karen Schrempp

Hartford, CT - The Bushnell Theatre in Hartford presented their annual season announcement before the storm hit on Monday evening. I combed the various weather sources to convince myself that I could make it to the state capitol and back before a single snowflake fell, and joined a full house of patrons to learn the names of the shows in the new season.

When the lights went down, Ric Waldman, Assistant VP and Senior Director of Programs, thanked the evening’s sponsor Webster Bank. He also introduced two of the Ensign-Darling Vocal Fellowship fellows that could be heard performing in the lobby so that they could come out and take a well-deserved bow. He then introduced the evening’s host, the incomparable Seth Rudetsky, one of the Dueling Divas on Sirius/XM Satelllite Radio’s On Broadway. He currently is the host of ‘Seth’s Big Fat Broadway’ and ‘Seth Speaks’ and knows everything about THE Broadway. He proved on this evening that “he’s still got it.”

Mr. Rudestky gave clues so that the packed audience could infer the shows coming to the Bushnell for the 2017-2018 Broadway series and beyond. He clued us in that the thread that runs through most of the shows in the season is that there are children and animals to upstage everyone else.

First up was a musical cue for ‘Peter Pan’ which led us to the show’s backstory, ‘Finding Neverland’ is scheduled for August 1-6, 2017. The host introduced a show reel about the production featuring director Diane Paulus and pointed out that the musical features a combination of old school theatre effects and current technical magic. He dished on the Broadway animal trainer Bill Berloni who got his start at Goodspeed Opera House, and shared that his mother would not like seeing the actors climbing the seemingly unsafe pirate rigging on the set. I hope to be able to see this touring company of the show that starred Matthew Morrison on B’way.

Next is the rockin’ show by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, ‘School of Rock’ scheduled for October 24-29, 2017. Because I reviewed the fabulous production by NewArts last summer, I could sing along with the show reel. Mr. Rudetsky pointed out that the young actors play their own instruments in this show and then shared an audio clip that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt why a young Seth Rudetsky could not possibly have played the keyboard player in ‘School of Rock’ had the show been available when he was the correct age. This was preceded by a musical director’s take on the flaws in this rendition of “Tomorrow” from ‘Annie’ where he fancied himself a young Ella Fitzgerald and it was hysterical. An audience member who arrived earlier than me took a video of this bit. I guessed that the West End production of SOR required three complete casts due to child labor laws and I was correct; God bless that choreographer.

‘The Color Purple’ will come to the Bushnell December 5-10, 2017 and I hope that it doesn’t snow on press night. The show is based upon the novel, that became a film, then went to Broadway and then had a spectacular revival. The revival cast recording produced by Van Dean of Broadway Records just won a Grammy. After the show reel, the talented Adrianna Hicks came onstage to sing “I’m Here,” a number from the show. It was beautiful.

As soon as Mr. Rudetsky gave the clue about an homage to musical theatre, I knew the next show was ‘Something Rotten’ which is scheduled for January 30-February 4, 2018. I loved catching all the references to other shows when I saw this on Broadway, and the host showed a video clip that labeled just a small portion of the nods to other musicals that all go by very quickly. Then he headed to the grand piano on the stage to play a “Name That Tune” game. With just a few notes from a classic Broadway tune, audience members shouted out the name of the show to win Bushnell swag. I TOTALLY knew the note and chord from ‘Wicked,’ but I was literally seated in the last row of the orchestra. Mr. Rudetsky response to my semi-whiny post to that video of the evening was “#project.” (Trying to figure out how I was supposed to secure a copy of the season announcement press release prevented me from getting a seat close enough to the stage to take a photo.)

The next show was something that I didn’t know was a thing. ‘The Bodyguard’ has only run in London and will hit the Bushnell February 20-25, 2018. Based upon the movie starring Whitney Houston, the tour will feature the fabulous Deborah Cox and lots of Whitney Houston’s hits.

A sequel to another B’way show is unusual. ‘Phantom of the Opera’ is in its 30th year and Mr. Rudetsky claimed to have played in the pit for 15 of them. The Andrew Lloyd Webber sequel is titled ‘Love Never Dies’ and will run at the Bushnell May 29 - June 3, 2018. Jasmine Rawlins, who played Christine in the German production of ‘Love Never Dies,’ waited through a very long introduction to sing the title song for us. This will be the first North American tour of’ ‘Love Never Dies.’

Off season offerings will include the beloved ‘Les Miserables,’(October 3-8, 2017) and the quite adorable ‘Christmas Story The Musical’ (featuring more upstaging young dancers) set for November 24-26. ‘Charlie Brown Christmas Live on Stage’ will hit the stage just before Christmas December 1-3 and my son’s favorite ‘STOMP’ will thump its way onto the Bushnell stage January 12-14. The host conjectured aloud how difficult it must be to be the understudy for “cigarette lighter number 4” in a number from this production, but I know that my young percussionist would love to try.

‘The Wizard of Oz’ comes April 6-8, 2018. ‘Disenchanted’ will be on this stage April 13-15, 2018 and ‘The Illusionists’ will return May 4-6, 2018.

‘On Your Feet! The Musical The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan’ will take over the Bushnell stage June 19-24, 2019 and yes, features lots of young dancers that upstage the adults.

After recapping all the shows in the series, the host let slip one of the shows scheduled for the 2018-2019 Bushnell season. I knew the first few notes to be from ‘Hamilton’ but for a split second, I thought he was joking. When the familiar gold and black logo came up on the screen, I realized he was serious.

Coming up this season at the Bushnell:
Jersey Boys March 22-26
Carol Burnett April 6
Celtic Woman: Voices of Angels April 7
Bianca del Rio April 20
Men are from Mars - Women are from Venus LIVE! April 21-22
Circus 1903 The Golden Age April 28-30
Tony Bennett May 10
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I May 30-June 4
Diana Krall June 13
Fun Home June 20-25

2017-2018 Broadway Series!
FINDING NEVERLAND - August 1-6, 2017
SCHOOL OF ROCK - October 24-29, 2017
THE COLOR PURPLE - December 5-10, 2017
SOMETHING ROTTEN - January 30, 2018 - February 4, 2018
THE BODYGUARD - February 20-25, 2018
LOVE NEVER DIES - May 29 - June 3, 2018
ON YOUR FEET - June 19-24, 2018
And coming in the 2018-2019 Broadway Season: HAMILTON!

Click here to see the official press release that was e-mailed immediately following this event.