Westport will soon have a new Broadway star.
Staples High School Class of 2021 graduate Jamie Mann makes his Great White Way debut this spring in the new show “Stranger Things: The First Shadow.”
The prequel to the popular Netflix show is set 24 years before the TV show’s first season. Jamie plays the teenage version of Ted Wheeler, Mike Wheeler’s jock dad, and understudies James Hopper, Jr.
Alison Jay plays Joyce Maldonado (the Winona Ryder character). She and Jamie became friends in 2022, while working on the workshop for the play at Netflix in Los Angeles.
Jamie had been on the Netflix set before. He starred as Brody in “Country Comfort,”during part of his junior and senior year at Staples High School.
Westporters know Jamie from his roles with Staples Players, and as a longtime student of Cynthia Gibb’s Triple Threat Academy. (Jamie now teaches dance classes and offers private dance and acting coaching).
During Bedford Middle School, Jamie played Billy Elliot in theaters throughout the East Coast. He will graduate remotely, with a BFA from the University of Michigan’s musical theater program this spring.
“Stranger Things” opens on April 22. Previews begin March 28. For tickets and more information, click here.
Jamie Mann (Photo/Michael Kushner)
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Speaking of theater: “Broadway’s Bad Boys” opened at the Westport Country Playhouse last night. The 4-night run ends Sunday.
Performed by 3 Broadway actors — Sam Gravitte (“Wicked”), Kevin Massey (“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”) and Julius Thomas III (“Hamilton”) — who played villains in musicals, the production includes “Phantom of the Opera,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and Professor Harold Hill of “Music Man.”
Curtain call at the Westport Country Playhouse last night. (Hat tip and photo/Dave Matlow)
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Speaking still of entertainment: It’s only January, but the Levitt Pavilion has announced its first acts of the season.
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and The Infamous Stringdusters — those are bands — will be joined by New York’s Melt, on June 1.
The funk/bluegrass/indie soul tour will play just 5 venues across the Northeast. Ours is one of them.
It won’t be the Levitt’s opener, though. The 2025 season runs from may through October, with a combination of paid-ticket shows and 50 free dates. More shows will be announced soon.
Tickets go on sale today (Friday), at 10 a.m. Click here to purchase, and for informatio on the “enchanced concert experience” package.
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A capacity crowd filled the Westport Library’s Trefz Forum last on Sunday, for our town’s 19th annual Martin Luther King Day celebration.
The event included a wide-ranging discussion with noted producer Shonda Rhimes, and novelist/playwright/professor Trey Ellis. Both are Westport residents.
If you missed it — or if you were there, and want to see it again (along with a pair of great performances by gospel singer Christian Servance) — click below:
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Earlier this week, “06880” reported on Lynda Bluestein’s 2 wind phones, at the Westport Library.
We followed up by noting that a third wind phone — a disconnected rotary telephone, through which users can stay connected with loved ones who have died — was just installed at Greenfield Congregational Church.
Now there’s more news about Lynda, a longtime Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport member and staunch advocate for medical aid in dying legislation.
This is a story about choice, not death.
Lynda Bluestein would not take ‘no’ for an answer. Because Medical Aid in Dying is not legal in Connecticut, Lynda is forced to find another way to die peacefully.
This is an intimate and gripping look into what it takes to legally die on one’s own terms in the United States. Other Side delves into the systemic, familial and emotional complexities of navigating an untrodden medical landscape while terminally ill.
A 90-minute documentary about her life and death — “Other Side” — has just been accepted by South by Southwest.
Its world premiere is scheduled for the prestigious film festival in March.
Lynda Bluestein, in a scene from “Other Side.”
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Yesterday, Westport Police received a report from a friend that William Hill has not been seen since Monday.
He is homeless, avoiding shelters, but visits friends at Sasco Creek Village daily. Given the extreme cold this past week, friends and the Police are extremely concerned for his welfare.
Hill is 62, between 5-7 and 5-11 tall, medium build, with salt and pepper hair, and a moustache. He was last seen wearing a black jacket and pushing a gray Trek bicycle with a rack, carrying bags and a knapsack on his back.
Anyone with information that can help locate William Hill should call the Police Department: 203-341-6000.
William Hill, in a younger photograph.
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Congratulations to Jo Ann Miller!
Her third novella in the “Abbey Lane” fiction series, “Deadly Donations,” has just been published.
Here, the former investigative reporter turned private detective encounters the effect of huge donations by foreign countries to American universities.
The Network Contagion Research Institute reports that over $47 billion has been donated, much of it not reported, and coming from authoritarian Middle East countries.
Meanwhile, hate crimes and antisemitic acts increased over 200% on campuses. When Abbey’s activist client is murdered, she delves into those corrupt donations. Click here to purchase on Amazon.
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The Westport Library is cozy and welcoming. One of the many wart employees is Heli Stagg.
This week, she ventured out from the Library café — which she runs — to photograph the nearby Saugatuck River.
Today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo is a great reason to appreciate our local beauty.
And then get something nice and warm, served by Heli at the café.
(Photo/Heli Stagg)
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And finally … Never heard of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong — the band that will headline the June 1 Levitt Pavilion concert (story above)?
Click below!
(Every day, the Roundup highlights future events, recaps past ones, and covers everything else in between. If you enjoy our hyper-local coverage, please click here to support our work. Thannk you!)
Awesome Jamie! I know you’ll knock this out of the park!
Thank you but my books are mostly singles. The big deal about the book is that it is based on real data. Five countries are contributing billions with seemingly no regulation, to our universities.