While some leaves still stubbornly cling to their trees, the turkey is roasting in the oven, and it finally seems appropriate for Christmas decorations and music, Bay Street Theater reminds us that it is never too early to think about summer.
Last week, the Sag Harbor performance space and community center announced its theatrical lineup for next year’s high season. It includes a premiere comedy, a classic drama, and an epic musical.
“Windfall” is a dark comedy about five office workers in Columbus, Ohio, with an archetypal bad boss and fantasies of better lives elsewhere. A billion-dollar lottery prompts them to pool all of their savings for a chance at the jackpot. Yet even the mere prospect of winning begins to change their personalities for the worse. The play will run from May 26 to June 14.
Brian Friel’s Tony and Olivier Award-winning play “Dancing at Lughnasa,” originally produced in 1990, has had several revivals and a 1998 film adaptation starring Meryl Streep. Inspired by Friel’s own family in Ireland, it tells of five unmarried sisters living quiet lives in a small village in 1936. Set during the summer and the Festival of Lugh, a bacchanal with the power to change lives and alter the fabric of a family, the play will run from June 23 to July 19.
The musical based on E.L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime” will be produced by Will Pomerantz, Bay Street’s associate artistic director, who brought “Evita” to the stage there last year. The story takes place at the turn of the 20th century in America, capturing the experiences of a wealthy white couple, a Jewish immigrant father and daughter, and an African-American ragtime musician. Mr. Pomerantz received rave reviews for squeezing a large-scale musical into an intimate setting. It is intriguing to imagine what he will do with this story, based on a book by one of Sag Harbor’s own. The production will run from Aug. 4 to Sept. 6.
Subscriptions are on sale now on the Bay Street website or the box office from Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Individual ticket sales will be announced at a future date.
