Fall 2016-2017
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Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, the inspiration for Sunday in the Park with George. HUNTINGTON ON HUNTINGTON P.3 SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE P.4 TIGER STYLE! P.10 BEDROOM FARCE P.14 SPOTLIGHT SPECTACULAR P.20 EDUCATION P.22 UPCOMING EVENTS P.26 PERFORMANCE CALENDARS P.27 FALL 2016-2017 SPOTLIGHT GREAT THEATRE — PRODUCED BY YOU WELCOME TO OUR 35TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON— YOUR TICKET IS WAITING! SUBLIME PULITZER EXPERIENCE THE BEST THEATRE PRIZE-WINNING MUSICAL SUNDAY IN THE BOSTON HAS TO OFFER. JOIN US PARK WITH GEORGE SEPT. 9 – OCT. 16 FOR THE 2016-2017 SEASON! Only Huntington subscribers get the best plays, the best seats & WILD GLOBETROTTING COMEDY the best prices. 7-play packages start at just $154. Subscribe now and guarantee yourself a great year of theatre, no matter how busy TIGER STYLE! the rest of your schedule becomes. OCT. 14 – NOV. 13 Join us for all 7 shows (our best deal!) or select a smaller package — either way you get access to the best seats at the best prices and lock-in your seats for a WICKEDLY FUNNY ROMP can’t-miss season, including masterpieces from both Sondheim and Ibsen, three hot new plays, and much more. Plus, you’ll get all our other exclusive subscriber BEDROOM FARCE benefits: free & easy ticket exchanges, missed performance insurance, and special NOV. 11 – DEC. 11 discounts on local restaurants and parking. WE’RE SAVING GREAT SEATS JUST FOR SUBSCRIBERS — SUBSCRIBE TODAY! ICONIC CLASSIC DRAMA A DOLL’S HOUSE HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG/SUBSCRIBE JAN. 6 – FEB. 5 617 266 0800 EXPLOSIVE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER TOPDOG/UNDERDOG MAR. 10 – APR. 9 PROVOCATIVE & MOVING DRAMA THE WHO & THE WHAT MAR. 31 – APR. 30 UPROARIOUS COMEDY RIPCORD MAY 26 – JUN. 25 2 BOX OFFICE 617 266 0800 THE HUNTINGTON WILL STAY IN ITS HOME ON HUNTINGTON AVENUE NILE HAWVER Mayor Martin J. Walsh onstage with Carol G. Deane, Julie Burros, David Epstein, and Peter DuBois We are delighted to share the news that the Huntington Theatre Company’s place on Huntington Avenue is secure, and that we have successfully negotiated an agreement-in-principle to remain in the BU Theatre, our mainstage home for over three decades, on a long-term basis. As Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced from the BU Theatre stage at a June 9 press conference, PAUL “The Huntington Theatre Company is here to stay, on Huntington Avenue, where it belongs. This MAROTTA announcement sets the stage for the theatre to grow and to gain control of this historic venue where it’s been for over three decades. This is an exciting day for the entire city of Boston.” As you may recall, in October 2015 Boston University and the Huntington announced that they “The Huntington would dissolve our partnership, and BU put the BU Theatre complex up for sale on the open market. Theatre Company A local development company, QMG Huntington LLC, purchased the building in May. Thanks to the direct support of Mayor Walsh and his administration, the Huntington and QMG have is here to stay, on reached an agreement that will give the Huntington exclusive, long-term control of the historic theatre Huntington Avenue, and the service wing to its west, which we will fully renovate at our own expense. We will also be able to expand our lobbies and other public spaces to better serve our audience and our community. where it belongs.... We welcome this opportunity to revitalize our beautiful theatre, expand our public space, and This is an exciting continue to produce ambitious, large-scale works at this location in a way that enhances our services to audience members, young people, our neighbors, and the theatre community of Boston. Having day for the entire exclusive, long-term control of our mainstage space allows us to grow and puts us in a position of city of Boston.” strength, guaranteeing that we will continue to produce world-class theatre and serve the city of Boston for generations to come. There is still much work to do and many details to come as we move through the design and review process of this development, and in order to succeed the Huntington will embark on a major new capital fundraising campaign. This critical moment would not have been possible without our deep and loyal community of supporters, and we promise to keep you informed as future plans develop. We are excited about the opportunity that awaits, and look forward to taking this next leg of our collective journey with you. For the latest news and up-to-date information, visit the frequently asked questions page of our website at huntingtontheatre.org/FAQ. HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 3 Stephen Sondheim’s BOOK BY JAMES stunning masterpiece centers LAPINE on enigmatic painter Georges YRICS BY Seurat and his search for love, inspiration, and “the art of MUSIC & L making art.” One of the most STEPHEN acclaimed musicals ever, this SONDHEIM DIRECTED BY Pulitzer Prize winner features PETER a glorious score, with the DUBOIS songs “Finishing the Hat,” “Putting it Together,” and SUBLIME PULITZER “Move On,” and is directed by PRIZE-WINNING MUSICAL Artistic Director Peter DuBois (A Little Night Music), and features rising stars Adam Chanler-Berat (Broadway’s Peter and the Starcatcher and Next to Normal) and Jenni Barber (Wicked). SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE “An audacious and touching work with AVENUE OFa lovely, THE wildly ARTS BU THEATRE inventive score” – THE NEW YORK TIMES SEPT.9-Braille OCT.l6 “Sunday in the Park with George is a Sondheim masterpiece. And personally, working on a musical about artistic creation is dizzying and profound. Introducing Boston audiences to rising stars Adam Chanler-Berat and Jenni Barber is a thrill for me, as well as reuniting the world-class team of designers — and much of the fabulous Boston talent — from A Little Night Music.” – ARTISTIC DIRECTOR PETER DUBOIS Composer and lyricist Director Peter DuBois Stephen Sondheim EVERY LITTLE DETAIL: SONDHEIM ON MAKING ART IN SUNDAY “Just when we think we know what Stephen Sondheim does, he As an organizing principle, instead of an overarching musical does something else,” writes critic Sandor Goodhart. “Stephen pattern, Sondheim and the bookwriter James Lapine created a Sondheim has continually eschewed repetition, continually mirrored structure between the first and second acts. The acts sought to remake himself, to reinvent his style.” Each musical that take place 100 years apart — the first follows Seurat as he paints Sondheim has written across his six-decade career breaks new A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, the second ground, not only for the artist himself but for the musical theatre follows his great-grandson as he tries to find inspiration for his form. He brings a constant sense of surprise and reinvention to his next contemporary art creation — and the acts share only a single work through two twin principles: artistic rigor and ingenuity. These character between them. “In Into the Woods, which has a similar key traits can be seen deep in the fabric of his most acclaimed structure, there’s a story, a real plot, which is a result of the first work, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sunday in the Park with George. act,” Sondheim writes. “But in Sunday, the second act is an entirely separate entity — it’s another ship — so the way to link them When Sondheim began work on the musical in the early 1980s, he together, it seemed to me, was to make it a parallel structure.” In considered making it into an aural representation of pointillism. an impressive trick, the two best known songs from the musical The art technique, in which tiny dots of pure color are arranged in — “Finishing the Hat” and “Putting it Together” — share the same patterns to create a larger image, made the central character of tune. (Original star Mandy Patinkin did not realize Sondheim’s Sunday, the French artist Georges Seurat, into a legend. Sondheim sleight of hand until more than a year into performing the show.) often begins musicals with this kind of strong concept; for A Little Night Music, seen at the Huntington last season, he based all the Structural underpinnings of the intricacy that Sondheim creates may songs off the same time signature — the triple beat of a waltz. be barely perceptible to an audience, especially on the first viewing; however, the rigor and ingenuity of all those small choices, when For Sunday, Sondheim had the notion to mirror Seurat’s work by seen together, take on their own sense of movement and life. As drawing on the artist’s strict reliance on pure colors. “I thought, Sondheim says of Seurat’s original painting, “Of course, this is the isn’t it interesting that Seurat had, on his palate, eleven colors and perfect painting for someone like me to musicalize, because it is all white,” Sondheim said in an interview with scholar Mark Horowitz. about design. It’s all about echo. It’s all about the effect of this next “Eleven and one make twelve. And how many notes are there in a to that, or this apart from that. The more I got to know the painting, scale? Twelve. I thought I would utilize that […] the way he never the more musical I felt.” mixed a color with a color that wasn’t next to it on the color wheel. Like Seurat’s painting, Sunday’s breathtaking beauty comes from He would mix yellow and yellow-orange, or blue with blue-violet; stepping back and looking at the whole effect of the piece.