Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, and Scott Schwartz, its artistic director, is especially upbeat about its upcoming shows. “We really wanted to knock it out of the park this summer, and I think we just might,” he said last week, citing two world premieres and two spirited musicals.
He mentioned two important components of the season ahead: “First of all, it’s really entertaining and really fun. The world is tough right now and people are struggling, and whatever side of the political divide you’re on, things are complicated. So we wanted Bay Street to be a place where we can tell stories that will be transporting, and uplifting, and joyful, and moving, and about the human experience.”
The season’s second essential piece has been part of the theater throughout its history: the intimacy and immediacy of its stage. “You’re feeling these amazing actors so close to you, and you’re feeling the emotions and you’re seeing the sweat as they’re tap-dancing and you can see the emotion in their eyes. It’s the most up-close-and-personal experience in theater a person can have.”
The summer will launch on June 2 with the world premiere of “Mister Halston,” a one-man play written by Raffaele Pacitti, directed by Michael Wilson, and co-produced by Bruce Robert Harris and Donna Karan. Matt McGrath plays the title role. “Halston was part of our New Works Festival last year,” Schwartz said, “so we’re proud that a show we were part of developing is having its premiere here.”
“Mister Halston” is set in the living room of the Upper East Side apartment of the famed American fashion designer. The play, a fictionalized version of an interview that led to an important New York Times piece, offers an unguarded look at the man behind the myth, tracing his meteoric rise, stunning fame, and ultimate fall.
McGrath is best known for his work onstage, including Broadway’s “Cabaret” and such Off Broadway productions as “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Bay Street audiences will remember him from “Japes,” “The Lady in Question,” “Beyond Therapy,” and “Bell, Book, and Candle”; he also directed its production of “My Brilliant Divorce.”
“I’m beyond thrilled to step into the role of Halston,” McGrath said. “It’s not every day you’re asked to portray a titan of industry, and revisiting the energy of the 1980s through the lens of his genius feels especially meaningful right now. In times of turmoil, great art rises, and Halston’s story reminds us how powerful that can be.”
Karan saw last year’s workshop staging of the play at Bay Street. “I liked it so much I wanted to get involved,” she said. “Halston defined modern American fashion. Clean lines, pure shapes, liquid fabrics, a sexy attitude. He paved the way for what was to come.”
The production will run through June 21.
“Mister Halston” may be a tough act to follow, but “Cagney the Musical” — which bills itself as being about “Hollywood’s tough guy in tap shoes” — looks equal to the challenge.
The high-energy musical traces James Cagney’s rise from the streets of New York to Hollywood legend through tap, storytelling, and a score that blends original songs with tunes by George M. Cohan, whom Cagney brought to the big screen in “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” That film earned him an Academy Award for best actor in a leading role.
In addition to being a rags-to-riches story, “the show is kind of a love letter to the Golden Age of Hollywood, and part of that is through dance,” said Schwartz. “It’s a big, big dance show, there’s incredible tap dancing and all forms of dance.”The title role is played by Robert Creighton, who co-wrote the music and lyrics with Christopher McGovern. Peter Colley wrote the book, and Will Pomerantz, Bay Street’s associate artistic director, will direct. Melissa Manchester, the Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and actress, will play Ma Cagney.
“Cagney” will open on June 30 and run through July 26. It’s no accident that it will be onstage over the Fourth of July weekend during the nation’s 250th anniversary, said Schwartz. The theater wanted to do something that “celebrates the best of America. It has a patriotic heart. But not political, I want to make that clear.”
The first big dance show at Bay Street in years, “Cagney the Musical” was created specifically for the theater.
It will be followed by a different kind of musical, the multiple Tony Award-winning “Dear Evan Hansen.” A co-production with A Contemporary Theatre of Connecticut, it will open here on Aug. 4. Schwartz is directing both shows, in Sag Harbor and in Ridgefield.
With book by Steven Levensen and lyrics and music by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, “Dear Evan Hansen” is a powerful and moving story about high schoolers and their parents seeking connection in a world that desperately needs it.
In his New York Times review of the play’s 2016 Broadway production, Charles Isherwood called it “a gorgeous heartbreaker of a musical” that “finds endless nuances in the relationships among its characters, and makes room for some leavening humor, too.”
“I saw the show on Broadway,” said Schwartz, “I loved it on Broadway, I cried and cried and cried. It was a very moving show, very emotional. One of the reasons I was drawn to it was the opportunity to really approach the show in a fresh way.” The projections and video technology in the Broadway production have been scaled down, but are still part of the production, he said, noting that social media is an important aspect of the musical.
“But at Bay Street and A.C.T. (where it opens May 14), I was really interested in focusing on the people and utilizing the fact that we work in much more intimate theaters than the show had been done in before. It’s about kids struggling with how to connect, kids struggling with social anxiety in high school, it’s about the struggle of high schoolers and these kids’ relationships to their parents and how the parents struggle to connect with their children. It’s for anyone who has been a teenager, is a teenager, or has a teenager.”
At the same time, “Evan Hansen” “has a phenomenal pop score,” which earned it Tony Awards for best musical and best score. The play will run through Aug. 29.
What better way to conclude the summer season than with the world premiere of “Bonkers in the Boroughs,” a comedy by Joy Behar consisting of five short comedies, each of which takes place in a different borough. It will run from Sept. 1 through Sept. 6.
The production takes a candid look at relationships and the everyday absurdities of New York life. Starring Behar and a number of her friends, including some boldfaced names that can’t yet be announced, “It kind of arches back to Neil Simon and that kind of comedy, and I think it will be a great cherry on the top of our summer,” said Schwartz.
