Bay Street Sets Summer Lineup
The Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor has announced its full slate of 2016 Mainstage summer productions. The season will begin with the world premiere of “The Forgotten Woman,” a new play by Jonathan Tolins that will be directed by Noah Himmelstein and run from May 31 through June 19.
“The Forgotten Woman” is Margaret Meier, a gifted soprano on the verge of an important operatic career who must face her less-than-passionate marriage, her child, her ambition, her weight, and the price of aspiring to stardom.
No stranger to divas as subject matter, Mr. Tolins is the author of “Buyer and Cellar,” a 2013 off-Broadway comedy hit about a struggling actor who lands a job working in Barbra Streisand’s basement, where she has created a mall of old-time shops. That play, according to Ben Brantley of The New York Times, “manages to keep you laughing as hard as any first-rate celebrity spoof.”
“The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” a play by Alfred Uhry, will open June 28 and run through July 24. Directed by Will Pomerantz, Bay Street’s associate artistic director, the play is set in Atlanta in 1939, when “Gone With the Wind” is about to premiere and Hitler has just conquered Poland.
The second play in the author’s “Atlanta Trilogy,” which began with “Driving Miss Daisy,” it follows the Freitag family as it looks forward to Ballyhoo, the lavish German-Jewish country club ball. When Joe Farkas, an employee of Mr. Freitag and an Eastern European Jew, arrives on the scene, the highly assimilated family members must face their beliefs, prejudices, and desires. “Ballyhoo” won the 1997 Tony Award for best play.
“My Fair Lady” will conclude the summer season with a run from Aug. 2 through Aug. 28. The classic musical, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion” and Gabriel Pascal’s 1938 film of the same name, has book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Michael Arden, an actor, singer, and composer who recently directed the acclaimed revival of “Spring Awakening” on Broadway, will direct the Bay Street production.
The 1956 Broadway hit, which starred Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, established the record at the time for the longest run of any major musical theater production in history. Bay Street’s production will feature a two-piano arrangement of the score and, with its more intimate theater, will emphasize the humanity and complexity of the characters and their relationships.