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Playhouse on Park’s 2023-24 season features Jane Austen, a female Sherlock Holmes and a ’50s baseball groundbreaker

christopher arnott, hartford courant
·4 min read

Playhouse on Park is cracking the books for its just-announced 2023-24 season as Jane Austen, Alexander (of No Good, Very Bad Day fame) and a female Sherlock Holmes will find their way from the page to a stage in West Hartford.

Also on the books: a play about groundbreaking baseball star Toni Stone, a tribute to the pin-up models who boosted morale during World War II and the popular LGBTQ+ themed musical “The Prom.”

This is the theater’s 15th anniversary. Playhouse on Park, located at 244 Park Road, was founded in 2008 by the same three people who are still running it: co-artistic directors Sean Harris (who has directed numerous shows there and acted in a few) and Darlene Zoller (who choreographs, runs the resident dance troupe) and executive director Tracy Flater.

The upcoming season lineup includes:

“The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Abridged)” by Jessica Bedford, Kathryn MacMillan, Charlotte Northeast, & Meghan Winch, Sept. 27 through Oct. 22. This three-person comic revue blends the romantic world created by novelist Jane Austen with the chaotic concision of shows like “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).” Austen has been a very popular subject for theater shows in recent years. An adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” is being done by Little Theatre of Manchester in June and a different one (the Kate Hammill one, which Playhouse on Park did a few seasons back) will get a new production at Hartford Stage this fall.

“The Pin-Up Girls: A Musical Love Letter” by James Hindman and Jeffrey Lodin, Nov. 29 through Dec. 23. A jukebox musical with a framework of some friends at a VFW discovering a cache of correspondence between members of the armed forces and their loved ones. The songs, and the memories, span several generations of songs (from “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” to “Single Ladies”) and wars (from WW2 to Afghanistan).

“Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson — Apt. 2B” by Kate Hammill, Jan. 24 through Feb. 18, 2024. This is the playwright who did the popular adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” that both Playhouse on Park and Long Wharf Theatre staged in the 2019-20 season. Hers was a modern-sounding, though respectful, version with a strong female empowerment theme. Now, she brings that same attitude to “Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson,” which makes Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters women in today’s world who are roommates in an apartment building solving crimes.

stop/time dance theater, March 13-24, 2024. This is the annual performance by the playhouse’s resident dance troupe overseen by Zoller. There’s always a theme. This season’s has not been announced yet.

“Toni Stone” by Lydia R. Diamond, May 29 through June 16, 2024. This 2019 bio-drama, from the playwright whose adaptation of Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” played both Hartford Stage and the Long Wharf in 2008, is about the African-American sports hero who was the first woman to play for a big-league baseball team, the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953.

“The Prom” by Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar, July 10 through Aug. 11, 2024. The Broadway hit (which was made into a Netflix film starring James Corden, Meryl Streep and Ariana DeBose) concerns some over-the-top thespians fighting homophobia at a midwestern high school.

In addition to the main lineup, the playhouse’s Theatre for Young Audiences series will present “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” from April 16 through May 5, 2024. It is a musical take on the classic children’s book. The show’s book and lyrics are by the same person who wrote the original book and its sequels, Judith Viorst. The music is by Shelly Markham.

Playhouse on Park is also setting up a touring company for “Polkadots: The Cool Kid Musical,” which it first produced in 2018. “Polkadots” is a children’s show about segregation and bullying, charting the adventures of 8-year-old Lily Polkadot in a school otherwise populated by “Squares Only.” It was conceived by New Haven native Douglas Lyons, who also wrote the lyrics and co-composed the score. Lyons is also a Broadway performer who made his Broadway debut as a playwright with “Chicken & Biscuits” last year. “Polkadots”’ book is by Greg Borowsky with the musical by Melvin Tunstall III. The tour will last about a month, from Feb. 21 through March 17, 2024.

Besides the main season and the children’s series, the theater hosts a multi-week run for its stop/time dance theatre troupe, regular standup comedy nights, readings, concerts and special events. There are also theater classes and educational programs.

New subscription packages for the Playhouse on Park went on sale this month. Subscriptions are to the main season, with the stop/time dance show offered at a discount as a bonus item. More information can be found on the theater’s website at www.playhouseonpark.org.