Marilu Henner Heads to Bucks County, Glass Menagerie Gets Smashed & More Cross-Country Highlights

Broadway.com is going on a cross-country road trip! We're exploring the week’s most exciting theatrical events from Westport, CT, all the way to Pasadena, CA, with a stopover in Chicago. Our Countrywide Guide highlights a reimagined Tennessee Williams classic, a new dramedy from Carly Mensch, Tony winner Boyd Gaines' take on The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and more.


PASADENA, CA
Vanessa Bell Calloway Shares Letters From Zora
Broadway vet Vanessa Bell Calloway (Dreamgirls) is taking the stage as Zora Neale Hurston, the African-American writer, anthropologist and voodoo priestess whose life was filled with artistic triumphs as well as poverty and self-doubt. Gabrielle Pina's Letters From Zora, playing at Pasadena Playhouse August 15-18, explores Hurston's controversial views on segregation and social justice, incorporating archival images and music by Ron McCurdy.


CHICAGO, IL
The Windy City Shatters Williams' Glass Menagerie
Director and star Hans Fleischmann's revolutionary staging of The Glass Menagerie, running through August 25 at Chicago's Theater Wit, unfolds in unpredictable and eerie ways. Fleischmann’s interpretation of Tom Wingfield as an alcoholic homeless man cloaked in tattered clothing and consumed by his troubles creates an inspired and thought-provoking reimagining of Tennessee Williams' semi-autobiographical classic.


WESTPORT, CT
Enter the Oblivion of Modern Parenthood
Oblivion, a new comedy/drama by Weeds and Nurse Jackie writer Carly Mensch, gets a world premiere at Westport Country Playhouse August 20 through September 8. Directed by Mark Brokaw (Cinderella), Oblivion centers on a progressive Park Slope couple (Tony nominees Reg Rogers and Johanna Day) who discover that their 16-year-old daughter is keeping secrets. Sounds like a provocative look at every parent's nightmare!


NEW HOPE, PA
Boyd Gaines Steps Offstage
Four-time Tony Award winner Boyd Gaines makes his directing debut with Charles Busch's Tony-nominated The Tale of the Allergist's Wife at Bucks County Playhouse. Starring Marilu Henner (a vet of the Broadway production), Oscar nominee Marsha Mason, David Garrison, Lynn Cohen and Ryan Shams, the whip-smart comedy (running August 15 through September 1) follows Marjorie Taub, a Upper West Side doctor’s wife plunged into a midlife crisis when a childhood friend reappears.


STOCKBRIDGE, MA
Anna Christie Docks in the Berkshires
Eugene O'Neill's classic drama of doomed love is headed to Berkshire Theatre Group, directed by Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn (Proof). Starring Rebecca Brooksher and Tony nominees Jonathan Hogan and Alison Fraser, Anna Christie is a harrowing look at a young woman who has fallen on desperate times and her relationship with her estranged father and sailor who falls in love with her. See it at The Fitzpatrick Main Stage August 20-31.