2,240 stories by "Christopher Arnott"
'Two Kings and a Queen" is a touring trio of stand-up comedians from New York. The queen is Cocoa Brown, who's ruled on BET's "Comic View" and "One Mic Stand," Comedy Central's "Comic Groove…
The Ivoryton Playhouse has done four musicals so far this summer of four distinct styles. First was the fantasy "The Fantasticks," then the biographical tribute "A Night With Janis Joplin," …
Kids scramble up ladders and across bridges. Muttering, mutton-chopped authority figures wave their staffs (or even their spoons) menacingly. There are drinking songs and horseplay and expre…
Pilobolus sees things differently than others do. When the internationally renowned dance/movement troupe decided to start an arts festival in its Connecticut hometown of Washington, it wasn…
Jesus Christ is super stressed out, man. Connecticut Repertory Theatre has restored Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's raucous religious rock opera to its 1970s origins, with a chorus of hip…
'I had the most wonderful mother." Now there's a statement you rarely hear in the American theater. It's how Mona Golabek opens "The Pianist of Willesden Lane," which she has brought back to…
Four "Saturday Night Live" veterans, including one of the show's longest-serving members, are at Mohegan Sun Arena at 8 p.m. July 28. Jon Lovitz, active on "SNL" from 1985-90, was best known…
Eight extra performances have been added to the run of the new musical "Cyrano" at Godspeed Musicals' Norma Terris Theatre in Chester. The show, which opens Aug. 3 and was originally schedul…
'Hand to God" is a harrowing, hilarious, hand-wringing comedy with tragic elements about a young man whose life is changed " and endangered " by an unhinged, demonically possessed hand puppe…
'The Lion King" still rules. The circle of life brings Julie Taymor's acclaimed stage version of the 1994 animated Disney feature back to The Bushnell for a two-and-a-half-week engagement Au…
Theaters know something about second acts. The Palace Theater in Waterbury is giving the stage to Connecticut residents who have created second acts in their own lives. The inaugural Second …
Folks used to mock ventriloquists mercilessly as outdated, unfunny relics of comedy as it was a century ago. Then came Jeff Dunham. He's made the ancient art of voice-throwing contemporary a…
Yes, Shakespeare has lurked in more than a few castles and dungeons. But most of the bard's plays celebrate the outdoors " and in the summertime, that's where you're most likely to find them…
From demon barber to son of God. Fresh from his triumph in the title role of "Sweeney Todd" for Connecticut Repertory Theatre's Nutmeg Summer Series, Terrence Mann now disappears backstage a…
New England natives dominate the comedy clubs this week. Emma Willmann, who's from Maine, has become a New York fixture, performing at clubs throughout the city and making her late-night TV …
The Kids Company at Goodspeed Musicals may be new, but the youngsters already " as a particular set of lyrics from "Oliver!" goes " "consider themselves one of the family." The new program, …
In Connecticut, Mona Golabek has become a familiar face thanks to her one-woman show "The Pianist of Willesden Lane." But that face really belongs to her mother. Golabek dons a red wig to po…
The Ivoryton Playhouse, in a bucolic village of Essex, has cornered the market on musicalized urban teen angst. In recent summers, the theater has staged "Rent," "West Side Story" and "Satur…
Stars of two groundbreaking TV comedy shows are in Connecticut this week " on the same night, at competing casino theaters. It's been 20 years since the "Seinfeld" sitcom ended its nine-seas…
Within a few notes of the orchestra starting up, and a deep-voiced chorus member exhorting me to "attend the tale of Sweeney Todd," I knew I was safe. Which is a funny word to use regarding …
'Please sir, I want some more." That's the phrase that sets "Oliver Twist" in motion. It proclaims the title character's innocence, his politeness, his meekness, his forthrightness and, not …
Gary "G-Thang Johnson" has an intriguing name, an intriguing film resume ("Moneyball" and "Disaster Movie"), and last year he starred in the TV series "Grown Folks." He does his stand-up Jun…
Mark Morris laughs when asked if he enjoys coming to the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven because it's not so close to the Brooklyn headquarters of his internationally ren…
'You saw me onstage at the Tonys, didn't you?" Thomas Perakos says gleefully during a phone interview between late-night airplane flights Wednesday. Last weekend was a whirlwind for Perakos.…
Internationally renowned post-modern theater artist Karin Coonrod says she knows "there's no ghetto in this play. It's something people rush to tell me, that I know already." Yet Coonrod, in…