Article by Dave Read

Williamstown Theatre Festival will open their 60th annicersary season on July 2, 2014 with June Moon, by Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman. Directed by Jessica Stone, June Moon runs through July 13, and will be followed by Living on Love, July 16 – July 26, 2014, which features soprano and Super Bowl star Renée Fleming. The final production of the 2014 Mainstage season is The Visit, July 31 – August 17, 2014, with the venerable Chita Rivera making her Williamstown Theatre Festival debut.

Updated April 19, 2014: Casting and special events for the 2014 Summer Season at Williamstown. On the Main Stage: Nate Corddry, Holley Fain, Christopher Fitzgerald and Nancy Opel join the cast of June Moon, directed by Jessica Stone, July 2- 13; Justin Long joins Renee Fleming in the World Premiere of Living on Love, July 16 – 26, and Judy Kuhn, Howard McGillin, Roger Rees, and more join Chita Rivera in The Visit, July 31 – August 17.

WTF’s 60th season will also include Just Call Me Nikos on July 7. It will be a star-studded tribute to one-time WTF artistic director Nikos Psacharopoulos, featuring Festival veterans Dylan Baker, Kate Burton, Olympia Dukakis. On July 21, there will be an evening of comedy with Lewis Black, and the outdoor Free Theatre production of Robin Hood directed by Stella Powell-Jones will run July 16 – 19; July 22 – 25, 2014, at Poker Flats Field at 7:30 PM.
By Larry Blamire; Directed by Stella Powell-Jones

LATE-NIGHT CABARET SERIES

WTF family, both established and emerging, sing, dance, and surprise you in these intimate and unforgettable evenings. Cabarets are held in Goodrich Hall, just a few blocks from the Main and Nikos Stages. WTF donors receive first access to these limited seating events.

WTF Mainstage – June Moon, July 2 – July 13, 2014

Earnest and gullible young lyricist Fred Stevens boards a train in Schenectady bound for New York City, determined to make a name for himself in the thriving Tin Pan Alley scene. However, the life he’s imagined is rife with seductive distractions — namely dames — that threaten to derail his dream of penning the next big ditty. Both bitterly funny and deliciously literate, legendary humorists Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman celebrate and skewer the perishable pop of yesteryear.

The cast of June Moon includes Nate Corddry (‘Fred’), Holley Fain (‘Eileen’), Christopher Fitzgerald (‘Benny Fox’), Kate MacCluggage (‘Lucille’), Nancy Opel (‘Goldie’) and David Turner (‘Maxie’).

WTF Mainstage – Living on Love, July 16 – July 26, 2014

Soprano Renée Fleming, who sang the national anthem at this year’s Super Bowl, takes the WTF stage as celebrated diva Rachel DeAngelis. When her husband, the fiery and egomaniacal Maestro Vito DeAngelis, becomes enamored with the lovely young lady hired to ghostwrite his long-delayed autobiography, Rachel retaliates by hiring her very own – and very handsome – ghostwriter to chronicle her life as an opera star. As the young writers try to keep themselves out of the story while churning out chapters, the high-energy – and high-maintenance – power duet threatens to fall out of tune for good. A sparkling new comedy from two-time Joe DiPietro, adapted from a work by Garson Kanin and directed by Kathleen Marshall.

Blake Hammond (‘Bruce’), Justin Long (‘Robert Samson’), and Scott Robertson (‘Eric’) will all join Ms. Fleming in the World Premiere of Living on Love.

WTF Mainstage – The Visit, July 31 – August 17, 2014

In her Festival debut, Broadway legend Chita Rivera embodies Claire Zachanassian, the oft-widowed richest woman in the world, who returns to the hardship-stricken town of her birth. The locals pray that her wealth will bring them a new lease on life, but the carefully plotted renewal she offers carries a dreadful price. Tony Award-winning director John Doyle helms this incendiary musical – one of the last collaborations between the incomparable John Kander and Fred Ebb, with a book by Tony Award winner Terrence McNally and choreography by Graciela Daniele.

In addition to Ms. Rivera, the cast of The Visit will include Matthew Deming (‘Lewis Perch’), David Garrison (‘Peter Dummermut’), Judy Kuhn (‘Matilde’), Howard McGillin (‘Frederich Kuhn’) Nancy Opel (‘Annie Dummermut’) and Roger Rees (‘Anton’).

Williamstown Theatre Festival tickets and Box office contacts

Special Discount Ticket Bundles are available for purchase until March 14, 2014 at www.wtfestival.org. Single tickets for the 2014 Williamstown Theatre Festival season will be available in April through the WTF website (www.wtfestival.org) and by mail order using WTF’s season brochure (call 413 597 3400 to join the mailing list). The WTF Box Office will open on June 3rd at which point tickets may be purchased online, by phone, or in person at the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance Box Office at 1000 Main St (Route 2), Williamstown, MA 02167.

• 1000 Main St. – Rt. 2
• Williamstown, MA 01267
• Box office – 413-597-3400
• web: wtfestival.org

Williamstown Theatre Festival driving directions

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