CRT Presents HAIR 4/23-5/2 At Jorgensen Theater

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) will present the smash-hit Broadway musical Hair, April 23 - May 2, 2009 in the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre on the Storrs campus. For tickets and information, call 860-486-4226 or visit www.jorgensen.uconn.edu.

Hair
Book and Lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni
Music by Galt MacDermot

This 60's tribal love-rock musical is a classic of American musical theatre that features unforgettable songs such as "Aquarius," "Hair" and "Good Morning Starshine." This extraordinary show follows an ensemble of peace-loving hippies through their personal experiences from Vietnam to Central Park and features some of Broadway's most memorable music.

Hair is currently enjoying a popular revival on Broadway. The show follows a "tribe" of young political and social activists in the 1960's rebelling against the Vietnam War, racism, sexism and injustice while maintaining their bohemian lifestyle. They seek to balance life, love, and their developing social consciousness in a period of intense social upheaval that included demonstrations, drug use, sexual exploration and a redefinition of personal identity.

Hair was the first rock musical and its music best captures and expresses the youth movement in 1960s America. Featuring a live band, the cast will perform some of Broadway's most memorable songs.

Gabe Barre (Director): directed CRT's production of Love's Labor Lost last season and has just returned from Prague where he directed the world premiere of the new Frank Wildhorn musical, Carmen. He directed and choreographed American Musical Theatre of San Jose's production of Little Shop of Horrors earlier this year and has just mounted a production of Flower Drum Song there. His off-Broadway credits include the Manhattan Theatre Club's production of The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa (nominated for 13 Drama Desk Awards and five Outer Critics Circle awards, both including Best Director and for which he won the Calloway Award), Summer of '42, Stars in Your Eyes, Honky-Tonk Highway, john & jen and Almost,

Maine. He directed the recent national tour of Pippin which started at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, as well as the national tour of Rodger Hammerstein's Cinderella, starring Eartha Kitt, which was on the road over a three year period including stops at Madison Square Garden and a production at the North Shore Music Theatre in Boston (the latter, also at Theatreworks), Sweeney Todd, Finian's Rainbow, Houdini and many other new musicals at Goodspeed; Stand By Your Man at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville; and Hay Fever and Pericles at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. As an actor he has been nominated for a Tony Award and appears often in film and on TV.
Musical Director (Ken Clark): has been associated with the Drama Department at UConn
since 1979 and the Music Department since 1981. Recent work for CRT includes The Arabian Nights, Cabaret and Shakespeare in Hollywood; also Our Town and A Christmas Carol for Hartford Stage Company.

Choreographer (Mark Dendy): Artistic Director, Mark Dendy Dance and Theater, (1983-2000) performing at festivals internationally and in NYC at The Joyce Theatre, Lincoln Center, PS 122, Dance Theate Workshop, Jacob's Pillow and regular appearances and commissions at The American Dance Festival. The company performed throughout the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, England and France and Korea. In 1999 he wrote, choreographed, directed and performed in Dream Analysis which opened at the Joyce Theater to rave reviews and reopened later that year at Dance Theater Workshop for a sold out five week run. The following year he followed up with I'm Going To My Room To Be Cool Now And I Don't Want To Be Disturbed at The Joyce, touring nationally and at the American Dance Festival before pursuing a career in musical theater. Dendy is a recipient of the prestigious Alpert Award in the Arts, an OBIE for the Wild Party. Numerous NEA, NYSCA and Jerome Foundation grants, a NY Dance and Performance Award, "The Bessie" for sustained career acheivement. BROADWAY: Taboo, and The Pirate Queen. Off-Broadway: Jaques Brell Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris (Nominated for Outer Critic Circle, Drama Desk Awards for Best Revival), and Drama League Awards for The Wild Party (Drama Desk Nomination), Camille Claudell (Goodspeed Opera) Miracle Brothers (Tina Landau,Vineyard Theater.

The cast will feature Equity actors, Stephanie Umoh as Sheila, and Fabio Monteiro as Berger. It will also feature graduate acting student Brian Patrick Williams as Claude.

Stephanie Umoh, (Sheila) Previous NYC credits include: Tin Pan Alley Rag (Freddie/Treemonisha) "workshop" at Roundabout Theater Co., Bonnie and Clyde (Mona) at the 2008 NYMF. REGIONAL: Ragtime (Sarah) at The New Repertory Theater, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Viveca) at Speak Easy Stage Co., Zanna, Don't! (Kate) at Speak

Easy Stage Co., Make Them Hear You: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty (Featured Soloist) at The New Repertory Theater, The Life (Queen) at The Boston Conservatory. Stephanie has also appeared as a Featured Soloist with The Boston Pops Orchestra and has just received her BFA in Musical Theater at The Boston Conservatory.
Fabio Monteiro (Berger) Hailing from Brazil, he was most recently seen as Enjolras at the New Bedford Theater's production of Les Miserables. Previous credits include regional productions of Cinderella (The Prince), My Fair Lady (Freddy), AIDA (Radames), West Side Story (Tony) as well as the European and Japanese tours of The Who's Tommy (Lover/Hawker). Fabio is a graduate of The Atlantic Theater Company in NYC.

Brian Patrick Williams, (Claude) recently played Helicanus in CRT's production of Pericles. He is a first year MFA actor at UCONN. Last fall he appeared in the graduate acting project The Winter's Tale as Polixenes. Past credits include: Out of Order (George Pidgen), Equus (Alan Strang/Nugget) and The Cider House Rules-Parts One and Two (Wally Worthington).

The ensemble cast will also feature MFA actors: Brooks Brantly, Kevin Coubal, Caroline Gombe, Ryan Guess, Christina Sanchez, Philip AJ Smithey, and Robert Thompson, Jr.; BFA actors: Grace Alpert, Ali Barton, Carolyn Cumming, Brittany Green, Jordan Jones, Zak Kamin, Arron Lloyd, Dan O'Brien, Meghan O'Leary, Rebecca Ricker-Gilber, Rachel Rosado, Dan Seigerman, Brittaney Talbot, Noah Weintraub, and Catherine Yudain; as well as faculty member Bob McDonald as Older Berger.

The Design team includes, Jenny Corcoran, Scenic Designer; Brad Seymour, Lighting Designer; Lucy Brown, Costume Designer; Wilson Tennermann, Sound Design; Mark Dendy, Choreography; Tom Getchell, Puppetry; Brittany Hart, Dramaturg; and Greg Webster, Movement.

INFORMATION
Please call 860-486-4226 for tickets or for more information. Please call or visit the box office for specific show dates and times because performance schedules vary and are subject to change. Tickets available online at www.crt.uconn.edu.

Weeknight evening performances start at 7:30 p.m. Weekend evening performances start at 8 p.m. Matinee performances start at 2 p.m.

Ticket prices range from $13- $35.
For more information or press tickets contact Frank Mack at 860-486-4799.

 

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