Bay Street Theater Announces Its Summer 2020 Line-Up

This week, Bay Street Theater announced its 2020 Summer Mainstage Season. The three productions will be: “Windfall” (May 26 to June 14), a new comedy by Scooter Pietsch; “Dancing at Lughnasa” (June 23 to July 19) by Brian Friel; and the musical “Ragtime” (August 4 to September 6), with book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow. The cast and creative teams will be announced soon. Subscriptions are available at 631-725-9500 or baystreet.org.

In the comedy “Windfall,” five office workers in Columbus, Ohio, toil under the heavy hand of a maniacal boss and dream of a better life. When the boss’s antics become too much to bear, they bet their every last cent on a one billion dollar lottery jackpot. But the prospect of winning brings out the worst in these best friends. A dark, hilarious comedy that delves into how far any of us would go in our desire to have it all and live the American Dream. “Windfall” is produced by special arrangement with John Yonover and Ken Davenport.

When it premiered in 1990, “Dancing at Lughnasa” took the world by storm, winning both the Tony and Olivier awards for Outstanding Play. Brian Friel’s haunting masterpiece is a memory play about family. It tells the story of five unmarried sisters in a small village in Ireland in August 1936. During the Festival of Lugh, which celebrates the pagan god of the harvest with drunken revelry and dancing, their lives become filled with music and they make new discoveries that start a process that will change this family forever.

Rediscover America with “Ragtime,” the epic musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s classic novel that captures the American experience at the turn of the 20th century. The worlds of a wealthy white couple, a Jewish immigrant father and his daughter, and an African-American ragtime musician intertwine in this sweeping musical about America’s Golden Age when the nation was mixing, boiling, and changing. Will Pomerantz, Bay Street Theater’s associate artistic director, will bring together the team with which he created Bay Street’s extraordinary production of “Evita” to create a visionary new production of this Tony Award-winning contemporary classic to the East End.

“I am delighted to announce Bay Street’s 2020 Mainstage Summer Season,” says Scott Schwartz, Bay Street Theater’s artistic director, “These plays and musicals are about people living in times of change, families looking for a better life, and the things that pull us apart and bring us together. From a hilarious and wild new play to one of the most beloved works of one of Ireland’s greatest playwrights to a musical with a thrilling, Tony Award-winning score that offers us a glimpse of what made America the nation we now are, Bay Street has it all in 2020. We will offer our audiences a broad range of powerful productions that will touch the heart, inspire the spirit, and tickle the funny bone, and that I know will be the talk of the East End all summer long!”