Hartford Stage Presents BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE, 4/5

The Tony Award®-winning Hartford Stage, under the leadership of Darko Tresnjak, Artistic Director, and Michael Stotts, Managing Director, is pleased to present John Van Druten's bewitching romantic comedy Bell, Book and Candle, directed by Darko Tresnjak, playing April 5 through 29, 2012.

Bell, Book and Candle is presented in association with Long Wharf Theatre where the production is running in New Haven, CT, now through April 1.

Before there was the popular TV sitcom Bewitched, there was the stylish and funny romantic comedy, Bell, Book and Candle. Shepherd Henderson has the right job. He is engaged to the right girl. Everything in his life is, in fact, right on schedule. Until the night he meets Gillian, a smart and sexy witch. And things go deliciously, uproariously wrong. The mundane meets the miraculous in a bewitching romantic comedy set against the stylish backdrop of mid-1950s Manhattan.

The cast of Bell, Book and Candle includes Kate MacCluggage in her Hartford Stage debut (Elliot Norton Award for 'Portia' in The Merchant of Venice; directed by Darko Tresnjak) as Gillian Holroyd, Michael Keyloun (Goodspeed's City of Angels) as Nicky Holroyd, Robert Eli (Lincoln Center Theater's Saturn Returns; Hartford Stage's The 39 Steps) as Shep Henderson, Gregor Paslawsky (Goodspeed's City of Angels/Long Wharf's Travesties) as Sidney Redlitch and character actress Ruth Williamson (Broadway: Irving Berlin's White Christmas, La Cage aux Folles, The Music Man) as Aunt Queenie.

The production team includes Tony nominee (for Roundabout's Present Laughter) Alexander Dodge, scenic design; Fabio Toblini, costume design; Matt Richards, lighting design; Lindsay Jones, sound design; and Susie Cordon, production stage manager.

John Van Druten's Bell, Book and Candle opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre November 14, 1950 and ran through the 1950-51 season with 233 performances. Staged by van Druten, the production starred Rex Harrison and (his then wife) Lilli Palmer, Jean Adair, Scott McKay and Larry Gates. Columbia Pictures 1958 film version starred Kim Novak, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermoine Gingold, Elsa Lancaster, and Janice Rule.

Tickets for Bell, Book and Candle are on sale now and can be purchased by calling 860-527-5151 or by visiting hartfordstage.org.

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