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Westport Country Playhouse Extends Run Of 'Sing For Your Shakespeare'

WESTPORT, Conn. - Due to ticket demand, the Westport Country Playhouse has added extra performances of its current production, “Sing for Your Shakespeare,” a musical revue making its world premiere.

L-R: Laurie Wells, Karen Akers, and Britney Coleman in “Sing for Your Shakespeare,” directed by Mark Lamos, at Westport Country Playhouse.

L-R: Laurie Wells, Karen Akers, and Britney Coleman in “Sing for Your Shakespeare,” directed by Mark Lamos, at Westport Country Playhouse.

Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg

The new performances will be at 8 p.m. from Thursday, June 26, through Saturday, June 28.

In addition to positive audience response, critics are applauding the production, with Westport News saying, “Westport Country Playhouse has a hit, a palpable hit, on its hands...there are so many stellar moments that, as you leave the theater, you wish what you had just seen was a film that you could rent and immediately watch again ... and again.”

Featuring a six-member cast of Broadway talents and Playhouse favorites, the production explores how the American Songbook has been inspired by Shakespeare’s works. Music highlights include selections from Cole Porter's “Kiss Me, Kate,” based on Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's “West Side Story,” based on “Romeo and Juliet,” and Rodgers and Hart's “The Boys from Syracuse,” based on “The Comedy of Errors,” as well as songs by Duke Ellington, Frank Loesser, and others, all influenced by the words of Shakespeare.

Directed by Playhouse artistic director Mark Lamos, co-conceived by Wayne Barker, Lamos, and Deborah Grace Winer, with musical direction by Barker, and choreography by Dan Knechtges, the show is based on an original idea and production for the 92nd Street Y’s Lyrics & Lyricists in New York.

The cast includes Karen Akers, who appeared in Broadway’s “Nine,” for which she won a Theatre World Award, and “Grand Hotel,” and the films “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and “Heartburn.” Britney Coleman’s credits include Westport Country Playhouse’s “Into the Woods,” and New York’s “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” the original iteration of “Sing for Your Shakespeare” for 92Y’s Lyrics & Lyricists last year.

Darius de Haas performed in Westport Country Playhouse’s “Twelfth Night,” and Broadway’s “Kiss of the Spiderwoman” and “Rent.” He received an Obie Award for “Running Man.” Stephen DeRosa was in Broadway’s “Betrayal,” “The Nance,” “Hairspray,” “Twentieth Century,” “Henry IV,” and “Into the Woods.”

Constantine Germanacos’ credits include Broadway’s “Evita,” and TheatreWorks Palo Alto’s “The Light in the Piazza,” for which he earned a SFBATCC Award. Laurie Wells was in Broadway’s “Mamma Mia!,” and Off-Broadway/Regional’s “Swing!,” “City of Angels,” “42nd Street,” and “Ragtime.”

The musical revue’s running time is 90 minutes with no intermission.

“Sing for Your Shakespeare” performances are Tuesdays at 8 p.m., Wednesdays at 2 and 8 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.

For more information, call the box office at 203-227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport.

Tickets are also available online at www.westportplayhouse.org, or by using the new Playhouse App or mobile website. 

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