HARTFORD, CT — April 26, 2017 — Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced today the creative team and cast for George Bernard Shaw’s comic and caustic masterwork Heartbreak House, directed by Tresnjak. The show plays May 11 to June 11.

Heartbreak House features the venerable Captain Shotover, his daughters – one liberal, the other conservative – and a household full of bickering guests in a home that's like a ship, or a country, charting uncertain waters. When the beautiful but impoverished Ellie Dunn arrives, she gets a lesson in romance, politics, and the art of navigation.

Shaw’s most ambitious and prophetic achievement, Heartbreak House is set in England in 1914, but its themes and concerns reach across the twentieth century well into our own age. Other works by Shaw include Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Saint Joan, Major Barbara and Arms and the Man.

Tresnjak’s Hartford Stage credits include the musical Anastasia, currently on Broadway; A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (winner of four 2014 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical for Tresnjak); The Comedy of Errors; Rear Window; Romeo & Juliet; and Hamlet. Other recent credits include The Killer (2014 Obie Award for Direction) at Theatre for a New Audience and The Ghosts of Versailles and Macbeth at LA Opera.

Internationally acclaimed actor Miles Anderson will play the role of eccentric patriarch Captain Shotover. His West End roles include The Weir, The Bullet, Before the Party, Oliver! and The Rehearsal, and his numerous Royal Shakespeare Company credits include Macbeth, Twelfth Night and The Witch of Edmonton. In England he is well-known for the TV series “Ultimate Force,” “House of Cards” and “Soldier, Soldier.” Film credits include Cry Freedom, The 39 Steps and most recently, La La Land.

In addition to Anderson, the cast includes  Tessa Auberjonois (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Yale Rep; Trainspotting, Player’s Theatre Off-Broadway) as Lady Utterword; Dani De Waal (Mamma Mia, London’s West End; Once, US National Tour) as Ellie Dunn; Grant Goodman (Macbeth, Hartford Stage; The Merchant of Venice, Theatre for a New Audience) as Randall Utterword; Andrew Long (Hamlet, Hartford Stage; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Broadway) as Boss Mangan; Charlotte Parry (The Real Thing and Coram Boy, Broadway) as Hesione Hushabye; Keith Reddin (The Play’s the Thing and A Taste of Honey, both on Broadway, as an actor; Rear Window, Hartford Stage, as playwright) as Mazzini Dunn; Stephen Barker Turner (All My Sons, Roundabout Theatre Company; Dead Poets Society, Classic Stage Company) as Hector Hushabye; and Mary VanArsdel  (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, First National Tour; Mary Poppins, First National Tour) as Nurse Guinness.

In addition to Tresnjak, the creative team includes: Set Designer Colin McGurk (assistant designer for Anastasia and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at Hartford Stage and on Broadway); Costume Designer Ilona Somogyi (Romeo & Juliet and Cloud 9 at Hartford Stage); Lighting Designer Matthew Richards (The Comedy of Errors and Romeo & Juliet at Hartford Stage); and Sound Designer Jane Shaw (The Comedy of Errors and Romeo & Juliet at Hartford Stage). Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson, Dramaturg for Anastasia and Romeo & Juliet, will serve as Dramaturg.

Robyn M. Zalewski (The Comedy of Errors and Romeo & Juliet at Hartford Stage) will serve as Production Stage Manager with Stephanie Holmes as Assistant Stage Manager (Having Our Say – The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years at Hartford Stage; Witness Uganda at American Repertory Theatre).

Sponsors
The Principal Sponsors are The John & Kelly Hartman Foundation and The Radisson. 

The Producer for Heartbreak House is Sue Ann Collins. The Assisting Production Sponsor is The Katharine K. McLane & Henry R. McLane Charitable Trust.

The 2016-17 Season also is sponsored by the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development.

Special Dates
Previews begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11
Opening Night: 8 p.m. Friday, May 19
Closes: 2 p.m. Sunday, June 11

Tickets & Performances
Tue, Wed, Thu, Sun at 7:30 p.m.—Fri, Sat at 8 p.m.—Sat, Sun at 2 p.m.
Wed matinee at 2 p.m. on May 24 only
Weekly schedules vary. For details, visit www.hartfordstage.org. 

Tickets for all shows start at $25. Student tickets: $20.

For group discounts (10 or more), contact Theresa MacNaughton at 860-520-7114.

For all other tickets, please call the Hartford Stage box office at 860-527-5151 or visit www.hartfordstage.org.

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Special Events

• Sunday Afternoon Discussion, May 21 Enjoy a lecture from artists and scholars connected with the production immediately following the 2 p.m. matinee. Free
  
• AfterWords Discussion—Tuesday, May 23 and May 30 & Wednesday, May 24 Join members of the cast and our Artistic staff for a free discussion, immediately following select 7:30 p.m. performances on Tuesday or the 2 p.m. Wednesday matinee.
  
• Open Captioned Performances—Sunday, May 28, 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. For patrons who are deaf or have hearing loss — free service with admission
  
• Audio Described Performance—Saturday, June 3, 2 p.m. For patrons who are blind or have low vision — free service with admission