New York’s outdoor summer theater Hudson Valley Shakespeare has unveiled its 2027 season, which will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Garrison company.
The theater, which offers primarily Shakespeare classics as well as a selection of non-Shakespearean (and generally non-musical) titles each summer, will present this rare musical production, starring Stephen Sondheim and Pulitzer Prize winner James Lapine. Sunday at the park with George From June 6 to September 4, 2027. Amanda Dehnert will direct.
Originally presented on Broadway in 1985, Sunday at the park with George draws inspiration from iconic pointillist painting A Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatteby focusing on its artist, Georges Seurat, and imagining the characters he painted there. In the second act of the musical, Seurat’s great-grandson, also an artist, struggles with his heritage and, as Sondheim so eloquently puts it, “the art of making art.” The work has become one of Sondheim’s most beloved titles, with a score that includes “Finishing the Hat,” “Putting it Together,” “We Do Not Belong Together” and other Sondheim mainstays.
Will also be offered that of Aaron Posner The Tortured Cherry, Or the Parable of the Great Takeoffwhich reimagines Chekhov’s 19th-century Russian tale to take place in today’s Hudson Valley. Artistic Director Davis McCallum will direct, with performances June 4 through July 31 (HVS’s season performs in repertory, with several overlapping titles).
But the company hasn’t given up on the Bard. The season will also include new stagings of A Midsummer Night’s Dreamdirected by Ryan Quinn and performed from June 2 to September 25; And Macbethdirected by Jenn Thompson and broadcast from August 7 to October 3.
“As we look ahead to our 40th anniversary, it feels like both a homecoming and a bold step into the future,” McCallum said in a statement. “From the enchanted forest of A Midsummer Night’s Dreamwhere the story of Hudson Valley Shakespeare began four decades ago, to the menacing shadows of Birnam Wood, these plays explore the wild terrain of human desire and the supernatural forces at work in the natural world. These are great, gloriously human stories, brought to life by an extraordinary ensemble of artists and an audience ready to support them. Forty years later, our belief in the alchemy of live theater remains unchanged, but the possibilities of what we can create together have never been more exciting. »
Sunday at the park with George will be presented through a special arrangement with Music Theater International.
Visit HVShakespeare.org.
Gn entert
