KISS ME KATE opens at the SUMMER THEATRE OF NEW CANAAN to rave reviews!! by Allegra Libonati

One more summer under the tent in New Canaan, CT!  Kiss me Kate was a huge hit in the town!  Congratulations to the incredible production team and Cast! 

Below - Mary McNulty as Kate 

James V. Ruocco - Take 2 Entertainment Blog "It comes from what's typically known as the Golden Age of Broadway musicals.But there is nothing old, dated or dusty about Summer Theatre of New Canaan's glorious and sunny revival of Cole Porter's t…

James V. Ruocco - Take 2 Entertainment Blog
"It comes from what's typically known as the Golden Age of Broadway musicals.
But there is nothing old, dated or dusty about Summer Theatre of New Canaan's glorious and sunny revival of Cole Porter's timeless musical classic "Kiss, Me Kate."
It sings. 
It soars.
It dazzles.
It excites.
It tingles.
It contains moments of tenderness, warmth and dizzying joie-de-vire.
It bursts with wit and invention.
It unfolds with the magic and usurp of a three-dimensional, pop-up musical vintage songbook.
There's even a playful dancing donkey.
In short, what's not to like?
Everything about this production, which is staged inside a pristine-perfect tent in the great outdoors of New Canaan High School's Dunning Field back lot, is exactly right: the casting; the direction; the music; the dancing; the conducting; the orchestra; the costumes; the set design; the lighting design; the story; the dialogue."
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Marlene S. Gaylinn - Freelance Theatre Critic, CT Critics Circle
SUMMER THEATRE OF NEW CANAAN (STONC) is serving up one of the most delicious productions of Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me Kate” seen in recent years.
Heading the cast of stars at STONC is Mary McNulty as Lilli/Kate and David Sattler as Fred/Petruchio. Their expressive voices compare nicely to recordings of the show’s original stars, Alfred Drake and Patricia Morison. The furniture flies as McNulty gives full energy to her solo, “I Hate Men” while Sattler delivers the witty, “Where is the Life I Led” with charming finesse. The music, sensitively orchestrated and directed by Kenneth Gartman is packed full of melodious, operetta-style songs. Among the favorites are “Wunderbar” and “So In Love,” magnificently rendered by the leads.  Read More

 

Bonnie Goldberg - Middletown Press, CT Critics Circle
SIT UNDER THE STARS FOR “KISS ME KATE”
"You can’t help being bowled over by this spectacular “wunderbar” performance. It’s too darn hot not to sizzle."
"Summer Theatre of New Canaan is offering up a dilly of a seasonal treat with Cole Porter’s lively and lyrical :Kiss Me Kate,” a highly entertaining play within a play, all set to music. From now until Sunday, July 29, Waveny Park in New Canaan under the big white tent will be bursting with song and kicking up its dancing heels as a divorced and still angry couple of actors are forced to interact on stage and behind the curtain. This is a revered Shakespeare comedy “The Taming of the Shrew” set in Baltimore in the late 1940’s and you’re invited to join the fun.  Read More

 

Catherine Gorey - NewCanaanite.Com
Summer Theatre of New Canaan Wows with ‘Kiss Me, Kate’
Excited chatter filled the warm summer air Saturday night as more than 200 crowded under Summer Theatre of New Canaan’s large tent at Waveny for the opening night of ‘Kiss Me, Kate’. In its 15th season, the company founded by New Canaan’s Ed and Melody Libonati consistently delivers well-staged, professionally produced show that keeps audiences... Read More

Romeo and Juliet Reviews are IN!! by Allegra Libonati

ROMEO AND JULIET

COMMONWEALTH SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, JULY 2017 - Reviews

Directed by Allegra Libonati

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In Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's fleet, free-flowing "Romeo and Juliet" on Boston Common, director Allegra Libonati adroitly blends shadow and light to tell a story that is as much about young death as young love... Spectral figures wander the stage as the play progresses. At the end of Act 1, Libonati crafts a striking tableau that starkly juxtaposes the competing strains of love and death... Earlier, Libonati deftly conjures the swirling pageant of the masked ball, and she brings the action into the audience at times by sending her actors on periodic excursions up the aisles. https://tinyurl.com/yabct7l5

WBUR Review

If Romeo were to be cut into little stars, as Juliet envisions in the iconic tragedy bearing her and her paramour’s names, we’d be looking right up at him in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s staging of “Romeo and Juliet” (through Aug. 6) on Boston Common...
Here, American Repertory Theater resident director Allegra Libonati helms a “Romeo and Juliet” that is straightforward, fast-moving and just plain moving. https://tinyurl.com/ ydcqrxpo

Edge Media Network Review

Director Allegra Libonati furnishes this rendition with so many smart, lyrical touches you sometimes wonder if you've seen the play before. Her cast members don't intone, recite, or enunciate the Shakespearean lines so much as channel them, with an ebullience that's as physically potent as verbally pleasurable. http://www.edgemedianetwork.com/218906

Slow Muse Review

... there was something ritual-like and life-affirming for all of us to gather on the lawn on a summer night, to let the 400 year old syntax and meter of a master take us somewhere else. This year’s production made it easy to step out of 2017 and its many, many sorrows. Directed by Allegra Libonati, the pacing and flow of the production is very strong. (I was also very impressed by the clarity of the diction employed by EVERY performer. It made the experience of Shakespeare’s language much more satisfying to not have to strain to hear.) http://www.slowmuse.com/tag/wallace-stevens/

Joyce's Choices Review

This year’s free outdoor Commonwealth Shakespeare Company production on Boston Common is simply ravishing: “Romeo & Juliet.” This rapturous production held us completely in thrall under a crescent moon in the middle of the city with even the nearby church bells eerily in synch with pivotal moments, ringing the heartbreak to come.... Director Allegra Libonati also bewitches us with her choices. She leaves us cliff hanging just as Juliet’s nurse holds a bloody handkerchief aloft and a bell tolls, and our hearts sink, because we know the action of the play– and Juliet’s heart– is about to split in two. At the beginning of the second half, Libonati recaptures this dramatic momentum by delivering a recap of pivotal lines and moments in a whirl of action, a brilliant stroke, modern and effective... My heart was in my mouth. SEE THIS. Prepare to be intoxicated. http://joyceschoices.com/theater-romeo-juliet-american-moor/

CLOWNTOWN - Musical Concert in LAS VEGAS by Allegra Libonati

Please join us as we proudly debut CLOWNTOWN: a benefit musical concert for the Nevada Conservatory Theater. Set in a world where humanity is forced to deal with the existence of natural-born clowns, one clown must return to the city he abandoned to find his lost love and solve a diabolical murder that may destroy his kind forever. Directed by Allegra Libonati (ART Boston), book, music & lyrics by Michael Brennan and John Massé and featuring an all Las Vegas cast of actors, singers, musicians and clowns - Step inside the stupendously improbable world of CLOWNTOWN.