LA Williams (c), director of “Skeleton Crew,” celebrates tonight with the cast at a reception following the opening night performance at the Westport Country Playhouse. The play,  based on a rumor that Detroit’s last export auto plant will soon close, showcases four factory workers who navigate opposing agendas and shifting power dynamics in their desperate attempts to survive whatever comes next. It runs through June 22. Pictured (l-r) Sean Nelson, Perri Gaffney, Williams, Toni Martin, and Leland Fowler. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Tony Award-winning Broadway star Kelli O’Hara and Sirius/XM radio personality Seth Rudetsky will headline Westport Country Playhouse’s 2019 Gala “Black & White Ball: A De-Lovely Evening,” on Saturday, Sept. 14, the Playhouse announced.

Kelli O’Hara, Tony-award winning actress and Westport mother of three, was also honored at the Playhouse at its 2015 gala. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

The gala will celebrate the music of Cole Porter, with a cocktail party at 5:15 p.m., dinner at 6:15 p.m., gala performance at 7:30 p.m., live and silent auctions, and an after-party at 9 p.m. with dancing and live music by Cutting Edge Dueling Pianos, an announcement said.

The Gala’s Cole Porter theme ties in with the O’Hara’s current role on Broadway in Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate.”

The gala performance will feature Rudetsky at the piano accompanying O’Hara as she sings Cole Porter classics and other Broadway tunes. In addition, the pair will share a spontaneous piano-side chat about O’Hara’s life and career.

Scenes from tonight’s BOOKED for the Evening event at the Westport Library honoring Frederic Chiu. Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

At tonight’s 21st annual BOOKED for the Evening event, honoree Frederic Chiu had to share the spotlight with an atypical co-star, the Westport Library itself.

Honoree Frederic Chiu accompanies himself on video during tonight’s performance. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The award bestowed on Chiu, a Westporter and internationally renowned classical pianist, coincided with the unveiling of the library’s $21 million renovation that surreally transformed the building without adding to its size.

Not only is the list of changes to the building long. Many of the more than 400 in attendance for the annual major fundraiser said they felt they were in an entirely different, and yes, greater place, albeit in the same structure.

Among the changes: a new entrance from Jesup Green; expansive windows offering views of the Saugatuck River and Jesup Green; nine conference rooms and seven meeting rooms; vaulted ceilings; a production suite; an audio studio; and the first floor auditorium, the Christian J. Trefz Forum, named for the revamped library’s biggest benefactor.

Frederic Chiu, Westport award-winning virtuoso pianist, collaborator, innovator, and entrepreneur, tonight shows off his 2019 BOOKED for the Evening Award presented at the newly transformed Westport Library. The event is the library’s signature fundraising effort. With him is Bill Harmer, the library’s executive director. The library officially opens Sunday, June 23. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Guests attending tonight’s BOOKED for the Evening honoring Frederic Chiu at the Westport Library will get a sneak preview of some of the changes resulting from the library’s $21 million transformation project. The library remains closed until the Sunday, June 23 grand reopening. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By Susan Granger

Make no mistake: the jukebox musical/quasi-biopic “Rocketman” offers little insight into the cryptic character of flamboyant Elton John.

But as a campy musical — one that’s probably destined for Broadway — it’s ambitious — with 20 familiar songs, cleverly interwoven to cleverly depict significant sequences in the life of Reginald Kenneth Dwight, a pudgy musical protégé from suburban Middlesex, England.

Mixing fantasy with R-rated reality, it begins in 1990 in rehab, where Elton (Taron Egerton) is struggling to come to grips with his self-absorbed mother, militaristic father and love-deprived childhood, along with repressed sexual orientation at a time when “homosexual” was a still a whispered word.

“I’m an alcoholic, a cocaine addict, a sex addict, a bulimic and a shopaholic,” he confesses. And the rest of the film serves to illustrate all of that. Nothing is sanitized, but it is somewhat romanticized.

“Skeleton Crew,” a drama written by 2018 MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow Dominique Morisseau and directed by LA Williams, previews at the Westport Country Playhouse beginning tonight with the opening on Saturday. The play, based on a rumor that Detroit’s last export auto plant will soon close, showcases four factory workers who navigate opposing agendas and shifting power dynamics in their desperate attempts to survive whatever comes next. Pictured: (l-r) Toni Martin, Leland Fowler, and Perri Gaffney. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com