‘South Pacific’ to Kick Off Barrington Stage 2020 Season

Visionary artist Camille A. Brown will direct and choreograph a totally reconceived version of ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’

(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – The Rodgers & Hammerstein classic South Pacific, one of the most celebrated musicals of all time, will kick off the mainstage 2020 season at Barrington Stage Company, running from June 24 through July 18.

Based on James A. Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific, the musical won 10 Tony Awards in 1950, including Best Musical, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The production will be directed by Julianne Boyd and choreographed by Shea Sullivan.

Tony Award-winning playwright Richard Greenberg, represented on Broadway this season with a revival of Take Me Out, will be featured on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage with a new production of his 2013 Tony-nominated The Assembled Parties (July 24-August 8).

The final Boyd-Quinson Mainstage production of the summer will be the ‘Fats’ Waller musical revue, Ain’t Misbehavin’, winner of the 1978 Tony Award for Best Musical, in a completely reconceived production directed and choreographed by the visionary Camille A. Brown (2019 Tony nominee for Best Choreography, Choir Boy). Ms. Brown has been hailed by the New York Times as “one of the most expressive, genuine and deeply felt choreographers working today.”

Launching the St. Germain Stage (36 Linden St., downtown Pittsfield) season will be The Great Leap by award-winning playwright Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band, The Tiger Among Us) and directed by Jesca Prudencio (Vietgone, Actually).

Next up will be the 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, directed by Elena Araoz (Original Sound).

The St. Germain season continues with Chester Bailey, by Emmy Award-winner Joseph Dougherty (“thirtysomething”), directed by Ron Lagomarsino (Driving Miss Daisy), and starring real-life father and son, Tony Award-winner Reed Birney (The Humans) and Ephraim Birney (“Gotham”).

The St. Germain season concludes with a BSC commission, the world pemiere of A Crossing, a new dance musical co-conceived by BSC associate artist Joshua Bergasse (BSC: The Royal Family of Broadway, On the Town; Broadway: On the Town) and BSC associate artist Mark St. Germain (BSC and Off Broadway: Freud’s Last Session), with book by St. Germain, music & lyrics by award-winning songwriter Zoe Sarnak (Secret Soldiers, Empire Records), created in association with Calpulli Mexican Dance Company and directed & choreographed by Bergasse.

The 2020 Youth Theatre Production will be another BSC commission, the world premiere musical The Supadupa Kid, with book by Melvin Tunstall III (actor in Broadway’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; author of Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical), music by Joel Waggoner (BSC: Presto Change-o), lyrics by Sukari Jones (The River Is Me, Ain’t Far from Home), based on the novel by award-winning children’s book author, literacy advocate and motivational speaker Ty Allan Jackson, and directed by Signe Harriday (How Black Mothers Say I Love You). The production will be presented outdoors and for free at The Common (100 1st St., Pittsfield).

This year’s Barrington Stage lineup features eight productions, including two world-premiere musicals. The season is dedicated to “examining the American experience,” according to a press release.

“Many of us are thinking about what it means to be an American,” commented founder/artistic director Julianne Boyd. “We’re also considering that question on our stages this season, with works full of joy, passion and substance – from a musical classic decrying racism, to a play about the after-effects of war, to a world premiere musical about migrants on a perilous journey to freedom. We’re also presenting plays by Chinese-American, Cuban-American and Jewish authors, and an exuberant musical revue that conjures up African-American life in 1920s/’30s Harlem. We’ll also be performing outdoors and for free for the first time with a World Premiere musical featuring our Youth Theatre. We cannot wait to share these productions with BSC audiences.”

 

 

 

THE 2020 ST. GERMAIN STAGE PRODUCTIONS INCLUDE:

 

THE GREAT LEAP

By Lauren Yee

Directed by Jesca Prudencio

Previews begin May 27, 2020

Opening night May 30, 2020

Runs through June 13, 2020

 

When an American college basketball team travels to Beijing for an exhibition game in the 1980s, the tension on the court mirrors the strain between their countries. For two men with a shared past and one teen with a future in jeopardy, it’s a chance to stake their moment in history and claim personal victories off the scoreboard. New York Magazine says “Yee has crafted a moving fiction around pieces of real history — her own, and that of China in the years after the Cultural Revolution, leading up to the protests in Tiananmen Square.”

 

ANNA IN THE TROPICS

By Nilo Cruz

Directed by Elena Araoz

Previews begin June 18, 2020

Opens June 21, 2020

Runs through July 11, 2020

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Anna in the Tropics is set in Ybor City (Tampa) in 1929 in a Cuban-American factory where cigars are still rolled by hand. The factory owner’s family awaits the arrival of a new “lector,” who is hired to read to the workers for their education and entertainment. His arrival is cause for celebration, 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.

 

CHESTER BAILEY

By Joseph Dougherty

Starring Reed Birney and Ephraim Birney

Directed by Ron Lagomarsino

Previews begin July 16, 2020

Opens July 19, 2020

Runs through August 7, 2020

 

In a hospital on Long Island at the close of World War II, a young man is recovering from catastrophic injuries…or so the doctors struggle to convince him. Because Chester Bailey denies what’s happened to him has actually happened, he is put under the care of Dr. Philip Cotton, who is charged with guiding Chester from his imaginary world back to reality. The journey is not what either man expected.

 

 

The World Premiere of

A CROSSING

Co-conceived by Joshua Bergasse and Mark St. Germain

Book by Mark St. Germain

Music & Lyrics by Zoe Sarnak

Created in association with Calpulli Mexican Dance Company

Directed & Choreographed by Joshua Bergasse

Previews begin August 15, 2020

Opens August 20, 2020

Runs through September 6, 2020

Commissioned by Sydelle and Lee Blatt & Pamela Cooper

 

Pulsing with energy and emotional intensity, this story about a group of migrants crossing the southern border is raw, visceral and electrifying – demonstrating the personal impact of crossing an invisible line. The group faces many dangers, even from the “coyote” hired to smuggle them across the border. This new dance musical ingeniously combines compelling lyrics, athletic choreography and elements of Mexican folk music to tell a remarkable tale of courage, fear and struggle.

 

2020 YOUTH THEATRE PRODUCTION

The World Premiere of

THE SUPADUPA KID

Book by Melvin Tunstall III

Music by Joel Waggoner

Lyrics by Sukari Jones

Based on the novel by Ty Allan Jackson

Directed by Signe Harriday

Presented for free July 30, 2020 to August 9, 2020 at The Common (100 1st Street).

Commissioned by Jodi and Paul Tartell

Javon Williams was just a normal kid until a freak accident gave him amazing superpowers. The only problem? The neighborhood bully, Hoody, acquired his own superpowers and is using them to terrorize the city! Javon attempts to save the city by becoming…The Supadupa Kid!

 

 

 

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