NEW YORK, NY.- Summer used to be when playgoing in the city came to a full stop. With no air-conditioning, most shows closed, at least until fall.
But now that urban theater is a year-round sport, Memorial Day is more like a comma than a period. Notable productions play straight through the hot months some even opening in August, even on Broadway.
So what has happened to the regional festivals, straw-hat theaters and avant-garde outposts that once flourished as the city languished? Many are struggling. Yet others are surging.
Regardless, theyre worth visiting.
Theres something different about summer theater outside the city. Subways are rarely involved, though a train ride or overnight stay at a lovely inn might be. Dress is casual by which I mean more casual than usual because Ive seen people at Shakespeare in the Park in pajamas. And the fare is more varied, including not just the prestige and tourist-bait extremes of the spectrum but also the hokey, offbeat and silly stuff in between.
Another plus: what you spend on that inn, youll save on the tickets.
So heres a selection of theater that will help you get out of the city or at least make you feel like you did.
The Big Magnets
Formerly the jewel of the summer theater circuit, famous for classics and knotty new works, the Williamstown Theater Festival, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, is regrouping after its production model, dependent on unpaid labor, collapsed. This season includes just one fully staged production: David Ives detective drama, Pamela Palmer (starting July 23). But much more is going on, including a multigenre, multistage event called WTF Is Next (Aug. 1-4). Think of it not as crisis management but as a tasting platter of ideas for the future.
A different formula mixing popular musicals with thoughtful contemporary work has helped Barrington Stage Company, just 20 miles down the road in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, thrive where others have struggled. This season is no different, including the musicals La Cage Aux Folles (through Saturday) and Next to Normal (starting Aug. 13) but also the raucous comedy Boeing Boeing (starting July 17).
With programming thats all over the map plays, musicals, concerts, standup it makes sense that the Berkshire Theater Group is all over the map as well, with two theaters in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and one in nearby Pittsfield. For traditional theatergoers, this seasons best prospects include a pair of rare revivals, apt for a presidential election year: Abe Lincoln in Illinois, directed by the playwright David Auburn (through July 14) and Rodgers and Hammersteins Pipe Dream (starting July 26).
Goodspeed Musicals has a split personality. At its main stage along the banks of the Connecticut River in East Haddam, Connecticut a 19th-century jewel called the Opera House it produces revivals of much-loved war horses. At its modern Terris Theater, 10 minutes away in Chester, it fosters original works. South Pacific, directed by Chay Yew, looks to be the highlight in East Haddam (through Aug. 11); at the Terris, it might well be Ask for the Moon, a farcical new ocean-liner comedy from director Darko Tresnjak (starting July 19).
Shakespeare, Approximately
Though Shakespeare & Company, in Lenox, Massachusetts, produces all kinds of plays in its five performance spaces, why not experience its namesake author? This summer includes Shake It Up, a cabaret setting the poets verse to rock music (through Sunday), and a vaudeville-themed version of The Comedy of Errors (starting July 13). The vaudeville is in the companys 540-seat amphitheater, so bring bug spray.
The same goes for performances under the big top at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, in Garrison, New York. In a season of reimaginings a beautiful new hilltop tent theater is scheduled to open in 2026 the festival this season (through Sept. 2) offers a re-versed Medea, an adaptation of Agatha Christie and By the Queen, Whitney Whites take on the Henriad tetralogy, as seen by the fascinatingly complex Queen Margaret.
Hats Not Required
The old straw-hat circuit named for the informal headgear men wore in summer brought stars to the sticks. Thats not so common these hatless days, but one of the oldest straw-hat theaters, Ogunquit Playhouse, in Ogunquit, Maine, will present some stars worth flipping a lid for: Kathleen Turner and Julia Murney in A Little Night Music (starting July 18).
The Cape Playhouse, in Dennis, Massachusetts, has been a destination for theatergoers en route to Provincetown since 1927. If its flags, gingerbread and parklike setting make it seem like a set for The Music Man, thats good advertising; it specializes in upbeat stagings of hit Broadway musicals, this summer including Beautiful (July 10-Aug. 3) and Waitress (Aug. 7-24).
With its weathered barn and woodsy Catskill setting, the Forestburgh Playhouse in Forestburgh, New York, feels like a throwback to the unpretentious days of lets-put-on-a-show summer theater and indeed, its the oldest continuously running professional playhouse in New York. But the rich combo of thoughtful dramas and lightweight musicals including The Prom (July 16-28) and Rock of Ages (Aug. 13-25) means that the fare, if familiar, isnt musty.
Three musicals The Prom, Beautiful, Rock of Ages seem to dominate this straw-hat season. You could compare productions invidiously by adding the Sharon Playhouse, in Sharon, Connecticut, to your tour. It is staging two of them: Rock of Ages (through July 7) and an especially promising Prom, starring Kate Baldwin as a diva down on her luck (starting July 26). That musical is just six years old but already as classic as the playhouses big red barns.
Out There
Summer festivals that focus on nurturing new talent and new ideas feel especially at home on campuses. Nestled among the dorms of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, Powerhouse Theater produces short runs of developmental work. Two that look to be highlights of the season are about queer life: the lesbian musical thriller Absolute Zero (July 12-14) and Drew Droeges Messy White Gays (July 19-21).
Just 5 miles away, where Poughkeepsie meets the Hudson make reservations for lunch at the Culinary Institute of America nearby is New York Stage and Film, on the Marist College campus. This incubators runs are even shorter, usually just one performance each, but thats part of the fun; some of what you catch on the fly will wind up off-Broadway in years to come. Among the options this season (July 16-Aug. 4) are Amber Ruffins musical Bigfoot, Kate Douglas Tulipa and Stacy Osei-Kuffours Basement, IL.
Farther upstate, in Annandale-on-Hudson, Bard Summerscapes annual festival of the arts, on the Bard College campus, typically programs at least one genre-bending theatrical novelty among its dance and classical music explorations. Last year, it was Illinoise, which soon made its way to Broadway; this year its Elevator Repair Services moving take on James Joyces Ulysses (through July 14).
Nothing from PS21, the Center for Contemporary Performance in Chatham, New York, is likely to end up on Broadway. The companys sweet spot is the international avant-garde, this summer including a Hamlet from Peru (July 19 and July 20). Amid the beauty of its 100-acre hilltop setting, once an apple orchard, PS21 makes its challenging work feel as welcoming as a new kind of nursery.
Its not so much regional as hyperlocal, but Little Island, on a pier off West 13th Street in the meatpacking district of Manhattan, is a refuge anyway, surrounded by big sky and the Hudson. Typifying its adventurous mix of genres and styles this summer is Henry Hokes Open Throat (July 10-14), in which dance, music, puppets and human actors (including Chris Perfetti) tell the story of a queer mountain lion in Hollywood. Sometimes the way to get farthest from the city is by heading right to its heart.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.