A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', and More Set For Barrington Stage Company's 2022 Season

Barrington Stage Company will produce a 2022 season that will feature two Tony Award-winning musicals, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, four world premieres and one of the true absurdist masterpieces of 20th Century Theatre.

The Boyd-Quinson Stage will open with a new production of Ain't Misbehavin', The Fats Waller Musical Show (June 16-July 9), the beloved 1978 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, which will be choreographed and directed by BSC Associate Artist Jeffrey L. Page (BSC's Company and Broadway Bounty Hunter; Broadway's Violet). The musical celebration of the irrepressible songwriter-performer Fats Waller features such songs as "Honeysuckle Rose," "This Joint is Jumpin'," and "Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do."

Next up will be the 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Anna in the Tropics (July 16-30), by Nilo Cruz and directed by Elena Araoz (Havana Music Hall, The Manic Monologues). Cuban American playwright Cruz was the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his wonderfully sensual and evocative play. Anna in the Tropics was on the 2020 season schedule but was cancelled due to the pandemic. BSC is thrilled to be producing this award-winning play after a two-year delay.

BSC will celebrate the extraordinary life and career of the late Stephen Sondheim with a revival of his exquisite 1973 Tony Award-winning musical, A Little Night Music, with a book by Hugh Wheeler. The production will be choreographed by Robert La Fosse, musically directed by Darren R. Cohen and directed by Ms. Boyd, who previously collaborated on BSC's acclaimed 2018 production of West Side Story.

The Boyd-Quinson season concludes with the world premiere of All of Me (September 21-October 9), a new play by Laura Winters, directed by Ashley Brooke Monroe (Assistant Director for Broadway's Indecent; resident director for Hamilton's first national tour). Winters won the Burman New Play Award for this work, under its former title, Just the Melody. She was also a Burman semi-finalist for her earlier work, Gonzo. All of Me is a romantic coming of age story about a boy and girl, both people who use wheelchairs, and use text-to-speech devices to communicate, and whose love brings them together while others attempt to pull them apart.

The St. Germain Stage will finally reopen its doors after two seasons of silence following the pandemic. The season opens with the world premiere of Andy Warhol in Iran (June 2-25), a new play by Brent Askari (BSC's American Underground) that features a fictionalized account of artist Andy Warhol's famed 1976 visit to Tehran.

ABCD (July 1-23) is a world premiere play by May Treuhaft-Ali and directed by Daniel Bryant (St. Louis Rep's Feeding Beatrice) that examines the inequities in our public school system, as it follows an underserved school on the verge of shutdown, and an elite magnet program in the same city.

The Youth Theatre takes to the stage in the long-awaited world premiere staging of the new musical (after a two-year delay because of COVID), The Supadupa Kid (July 29-August 13), following the adventures of a Black teenage superhero. With book and lyrics by Sukari Jones (The River Is Me, Ain't Far from Home) and music by Joel Waggoner (BSC/Off-Broadway: Broadway Bounty Hunter) and direction by NJ Agwuna (Glimmerglass Festival's The Magic Flute), The Supadupa Kid is based on local Pittsfield author Ty Allan Jackson's popular children's book series.

The season will conclude with a revival of Waiting for Godot (August 19-September 4), one of the great absurdist classics of 20th Century Theatre by Samuel Beckett, in a new atmospheric production directed by Joe Calarco (BSC's Sister Sorry; A Doll's House, Part 2; Breaking the Code).

Additional details on the 2022 BSC season, including gala, concerts and streamed and staged readings, will be announced in coming weeks.

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The Barrington Stage 2022 Season

Ain't Misbehavin'

The Fats Waller Musical Show

Conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Murray Horwitz

Choreographed and Directed by Jeffrey L. Page

June 16-July 9

"The Joint is Jumpin'!" Join us for an evening of rowdy, raunchy and humorous songs that capture the love, longing and zest for life of 1920s Harlem. Directed and choreographed by Emmy Award nominee and BSC Associate Artist Jeffrey L. Page, Ain't Misbehavin', the 1978 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, includes the songs "Honeysuckle Rose," "Your Feet's Too Big" and "Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do," to name a few.

Anna in the Tropics

By Nilo Cruz

Directed by Elena Araoz

July 16-30

In 1929, a handsome lector arrives at one of the last Cuban cigar factories in Tampa to entertain the workers while they hand-roll cigars. But when the lector begins reading Anna Karenina, the passionate, frustrated lives of the characters in the book begin to parallel those of the listeners, leading to jealousy, betrayal and sexual awakening.

A Little Night Music

Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by Hugh Wheeler

Musical Direction by Darren R. Cohen

Choreographed by Robert La Fosse

Directed by Julianne Boyd

August 6-28

A tangle of love affairs leads to a magical weekend in the country where confusion rules, jealousies flair and sexual passions reign. Join us for Stephen Sondheim's witty, brilliant masterpiece that won six Tony Awards and features the classic "Send in the Clowns."

All of Me

By Laura Winters

Directed by Ashley Brooke Monroe

September 21-October 9

Boy meets girl. Boy uses wheelchair, girl uses wheelchair. Boy and girl use text-to-speech to connect to each other and the world around them. Love is holding them together even when the people in their lives want to pull them apart. It's a romantic coming-of-age story that hasn't been seen before. All of Me is a hilarious and candid portrayal of disability and class in present-day America.

Andy Warhol in Iran

By Brent Askari

June 2-25

In 1976, Andy Warhol, the portrait painter of the rich and famous, travels to Tehran to take Polaroids of the Shah's wife. While there, Warhol encounters a young revolutionary who throws his plans into turmoil and makes him realize there is a world beyond himself. In this stunning new comedy, Brent Askari (American Underground, 2019) returns to Barrington Stage with a fictionalized portrait of the artist's famed visit to Iran.

ABCD

By May Treuhaft-Ali

Directed by Daniel Bryant

July 1-23

At two very different public schools in the same city - an underserved school on the verge of shutdown, and an elite magnet program nearby - pressure to perform well on standardized tests drives students and teachers to compromise their integrity. ABCD is a brutal dissection of the inequities in our public school system. When the joys and challenges of learning are reduced to a multiple-choice test, is cheating the only option?

The Supadupa Kid

Book & Lyrics by Sukari Jones

Music by Joel Waggoner

Based on the novel by Ty Allan Jackson

Directed by NJ Agwuna

July 29-August 13

Javon Williams was just a normal kid until a freak accident gave him amazing superpowers. The only problem? The neighborhood bully, Hoody, acquired superpowers of his own - and is using them to terrorize the city! Javon must work to save the city by becoming... The Supadupa Kid! Ty Allan Jackson's book comes alive on stage in this new musical featuring one of the first-ever teenage Black superheroes in America!

Waiting for Godot

By Samuel Beckett

Directed by Joe Calarco

August 19-September 4

Vladimir and Estragon wait on a deserted country road to meet a person named Godot. Killing time with hat tricks and half-remembered stories, they dawdle through one of the greatest dramas of the 20th century. In Beckett's absurd, anarchic world, life is vaudeville and tragedy, philosophy and confusion, all seamlessly woven together with the playwright's masterful blend of poetry and humor.