Longtime collector Dan Madsen has accumulated a vast Mark Twain collection for nearly four decades and is auctioning off hundreds of historic items later this month online through Heritage Auctions. The auction is ongoing and finishes on March 18.

Madsen, 64, said he grew up interested in the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises and his heroes were fictional characters. As a 17-year-old he headed the licensed Star Trek Official Fan Club and later the Star Wars Official Fan Club. But it was Twain that became an inspiration as a young adult.

“He became one of my heroes. I was fascinated by his satire, his wit and his boldness,” Madsen said.

Madsen’s Denver home began filling with books, letters, autographs and ephemera involving Twain. He said his favorite Twain memorabilia piece is “Mark Twain’s business calling card.”

“It was so rare, so hard to find and I got that through another collector many, many years ago,” Madsen said. “On the front side of the card, it says ‘Samuel Clemens, Hartford, Connecticut’ and you flip the card over, and he’s autographed it, ‘Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain’ in his own handwriting, and that was one of my prize possessions because that, you just don’t see those every day.”

Another prized possession is a book from Twain’s personal library.

“Mark Twain has signed it inside and there was actually a little envelope stuck in the side of the book,” Madsen said. “He’s handwritten an address of somebody and was planning to send a letter. It was brokered to me through a dealer and it’s one of my prized possessions.”

Madsen said he also has an entire page of manuscript written entirely in Twain’s hand from the Gilded Age and first edition of Twain’s books Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and “the best bust sculpture of Mark Twain he’s ever seen.” Madsen said Greek artist Zenos Frudakis sculpted the bust and this was one of toughest items to sell.

“It’s so lifelike when you see it in person, it’s like he’s looking at you,” Madsen said. “These were all tough to get rid of but I’m looking at retirement in a year or two and we are planning to move.”

“I decided to hand over my collection to other collectors and share the joy that I’ve built here. Our house is starting to look like a Mark Twain museum. I kid you not. There is Twain on every wall,” Madsen said.

“Right now, the world didn’t necessarily get to see my collection. People who came over to my home, my friends, my family got to see it and would be wowed by everything I had for Twain and (Abraham) Lincoln. But the beauty of the auction, is that with the catalog that’s gone out, with the online auctions, now the world gets to see everything that I collected over the last 40 years. I’m finally getting to show the world. This is what I built over 40 years.”

Madsen said he’s always had a great respect for Twain and has visited the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford several times.

“That’s one of my favorite places. I’ve spent hours in that house. It’s such a beautiful home,” Madsen said. “The fact that Twain lived there, wrote his books there and had his best family memories there – it’s always been a very special place in my heart.”

Madsen’s Lincoln collection is equally as expansive, highlighted by an original flag from Lincoln’s 1860 campaign. The item was listed at $29,000 as of Sunday morning.

Opinion: We all need to keep reading Mark Twain

“It was so early in his campaign, they didn’t spell his name correctly,” Madsen said. “That’s why on the flag it says Abram and that’s what makes it so valuable.”

His collection also includes Lincoln pins, buttons and ribbons from the 1860 campaign.

Madsen also highlighted a “Wide Awake Rail-Splitter Fence Parade Standard” as historically important folk art that was associated with Lincoln’s “Rail-Splitter” in his campaign. Madsen said it’s a rare three-dimensional, hand-carved artifact.

“It was carried in one of the wide-awake campaign rallies in New York for Lincoln,” Madsen said. “It’s a one-of-a-kind piece.”

“There are just so many fabulous pieces that it was really hard to part with them. I mean, I can’t deny it. It was. I’ve loved them for 40 years,” he added.

Madsen kept one item each from his Twain and Lincoln collections.

The Twain item he couldn’t part with was a menu from Twain’s 77th birthday. It’s a hand drawn with a picture of Twain in the middle with his characters from his books illustrated around him. Dishes served included the names of his characters like Huckleberry Pie and Pudd’nhead Wilson Pudding. The menu is signed by Twain and other prominent businessmen of the day like Andrew Carnegie and Stanley Rogers.

The Lincoln piece he kept was a handwritten letter from Lincoln to General Joseph Hooker in 1863.

“In the note, he says they could hear the cannons from the battle over in Virginia. He told him where and what direction they were coming from. And the value and the importance of that note is that I think most Americans don’t realize how close the Civil War came to the White House. And it came so close that Lincoln could stand in his office and could hear the cannons firing in the battle that was not that far away from the White House. That’s what makes that, that, that notice so incredibly important,” Madsen said.

Madsen said he accumulated these items over the years out of his love for Twain and Lincoln. But he added that they have been a good investment because the value of these items go up each year.

He chose this year to do the auction because it’s the country’s 250th anniversary and the auction is 98% of the 390 items are of Twain and Lincoln. However, he has some other items from America’s Founding Fathers. He is auctioning off George Washington’s signed military discharge papers, a signed letter from Thomas Jefferson and a Theodore Roosevelt signed portrait.

Madsen said he began considering auctioning off his collection about two years ago. He said “it’s a glorious burden” to have artifacts of two of the giants of the 19th century.

“I started thinking about what if my house catches on fire. What happens if somebody breaks in? They’re insured but if one of those things happens, they’re lost forever,” Madsen said. “So, I contacted Heritage Auctions, the largest auction house in the world and they specialize in historical Americana auctions.”

Madsen said he contacted Heritage in October and came to his home and went through his entire collection. The items were packed and shipped to Heritage headquarters in Dallas.

Madsen said every single room in his house, even the bathroom, had items from Twain and Lincoln.

“I had bookcases upon bookcases filled with antiquarian books,” Madsen said. “Walls covered with special items, autograph letters, artwork, statues all over that. I think my wife complained one time and said ‘I’ve lived with Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain for 24 years now and now it’s time to have something different in our house.’ She loves it but she doesn’t love it like I do.”

Madsen has been married to wife Karen, a retired nurse, for nearly 24 years. He said his collection predated their marriage.

“She saw the house before we were married and I told her she knew what she was getting into,” Madsen said with a chuckle. “She saw the giant busts of Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain right in the front window. If you don’t like Twain and Lincoln, this was not the place to be.”

Madsen said he doesn’t have a specific goal for the March 18 auction.

“Whatever people find the value of these things is what I’m willing to accept,” Madsen said. “I just want them to go to good homes where other collectors can enjoy them or other institutions can show them to other people.”

He said he turned down an invitation to watch the proceedings at the Heritage headquarters but wanted to monitor from his home in case it becomes “too painful” to watch and will be able to step away from the computer to stop watching. Instead, he will be watching from home.

“It’s a bittersweet thing on the one hand, I’m happy that I made this amazing collection, it’s going to go out to others now. But on the other hand, I’m sad that it’s no longer going to be mine, and I won’t have the pleasure of owning it and quite frankly being able to brag about it.  It’s a bittersweet thing for me,” Madsen said.

Two of the stars of the musical’s pre-Broadway run at Hartford Stage in 2016 will be appearing at the March 10 concert: Christy Altomare, who played Anya (aka Anastasia) and John Bolton, who played the con artist Vlad who tries to pass off Anya as the surviving member of the Russian royal family. Jake Levy, who was not part of the Hartford production but played Anya’s love interest Dmitry on the musical’s first national tour, will also be at the concert, as well as the show’s director, Darko Tresnjak, who was artistic director of Hartford Stage when “Anastasia” was produced there.

The concert is a fundraiser for Hartford Stage’s artistic and educational programs. Besides performances of songs from the show and anecdotes about the beginnings of “Anastasia” in Hartford, the evening features a dessert and champagne reception in the theater lobby.

The “Anastasia” musical was an adaptation of two Hollywood properties based on the (largely debunked) legend of a Russian princess who survived the revolution in which the entire royal family was slain. The stage show’s primary source was the animated film “Anastasia” from 1997, which is often mistaken for a Disney film but was in fact directed by independent animator Don Bluth and produced by 20th Century Fox. (Adding to the confusion, this “Anastasia” now streams on the Disney Plus channel.) Some elements were also lifted from a 1956 movie that starred Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner.

Most of the songs, including the Oscar-nominated “Journey to the Past,” came from the animated movie, but songwriters Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens — the team behind the Broadway shows “Once on This Island,” “Seussical the Musical” and “Ragtime” — also wrote new material for the stage show. Playwright Terrence McNally, who also worked on “Ragtime” and whose many hit stage plays included “Love! Valour! Compassion!” and “Master Class,” thoroughly revamped the story, jettisoning key characters from the movies such as the villain Rasputin and a cartoon bat.

McNally died in 2020, and “Anastasia” was the final musical he completed. Among the other musicals McNally wrote the books for were “Kiss of the Spiderwoman,” “The Fully Monty” and “Catch Me If You Can.”

Hartford Stage got to develop “Anastasia” for Broadway for a number of reasons. Among them was that Tresnjak, the theater’s artistic director at the time, had been hired to direct the musical. Tresnjak’s breakthrough hit, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” had also been worked on at Hartford Stage prior to its Broadway success. Hartford Stage had a long history of sending shows to Broadway, though before Tresnjak’s tenure very few of them were musicals. Tresnjak left Hartford Stage in 2018.

The Hartford Stage run of the show was a genuine pre-Broadway tryout of the sort Connecticut was famous for in the 1940s and ‘50s. During the Hartford run, new songs were tested, the order of songs were changed, songs and scenes were cut or trimmed and whole numbers were rethought and restaged. Other changes were evident when the show opened on Broadway a year after the Hartford Stage run. Most notably, the song “Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart),” which was staged in Hartford to mimic the scene in the animated film, was completely redone in a sparser, sharper manner just days before the Broadway opening. The closing songs for both acts were also different on Broadway than they were in Hartford, and there were numerous smaller changes. Many more changes were made when “Anastasia” went on tour, including a significant shortening of the show’s length and a revised version of the turntable, which sped up the scene transitions on Broadway.

“Anastasia” ran for a solid two years on Broadway but it’s the show’s post-Broadway life that’s truly impressive. It toured in various forms for years. In Connecticut alone, the show visited The Bushnell, the Shubert Theatre, the Waterbury Palace and Foxwoods Resort Casino. There were either standing companies or lengthy tours in Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Denmark, Italy and Australia, many of them happening in the last three or four years.

There are many shows that ran longer on Broadway or had more name recognition than “Anastasia” that have not had the same staying power.

Rights to perform the show have now trickled down to community theaters. One of the largest community theater operations in the state, Curtain Call in Stamford, has a production of “Anastasia” running from March 27 through April 18. The Opera House Players in Enfield did their own production last May. An hour-long “Youth Version” of the show, for schools to perform, is also available.

“‘Anastasia’ 10th Anniversary Concert: A Fundraiser for Hartford Stage” will take place on March 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. $100-$250. hartfordstage.org.

The Courant spoke to three theater organizations in the state — Hartford Stage, TheaterWorks Hartford and Goodspeed Musicals — about how they each cast shows. Their stories have been enhanced with some of the countless tales recounted by actors and directors that have been shared over the years.

For its current production of the breakfast diner drama “The Counter,” TheaterWorks Hartford was looking for another project they could do with Tim DeKay, who co-starred in last season’s hit production of “Fever Dreams.” DeKay wasn’t sure the role was for him, so an informal reading of the script was held at the theater. TheaterWorks’ producing artistic director Rob Ruggiero asked Justis Bolding, who had recently moved to the Hartford area and served on the TheaterWorks board, to read the other main role in the script. There’s a third character in the play who appears for just one scene, so Ruggiero asked Erika Rolfsrud, who has been in half a dozen shows at the theater over its long history, to read the role.

The reading was a success. DeKay was able to hear himself in the role, and “The Counter” was confidently scheduled for the 2025-26 TheaterWorks season. When it came time to cast it, Ruggiero and DeKay had admired Bolding’s work in the reading so much that she was offered the part in the full production. Rolfsrud was asked to take part as well, as Ruggiero particularly liked that someone who had been in so many past shows at the theater could return during TheaterWorks Hartford’s 40th anniversary season. “The Counter,” which opened Feb. 12, has been extremely well received and its run has been extended through March 22.

For Hartford Stage’s long-awaited production of “Death of a Salesman,” director Melia Bensussen (who is also the theater’s artistic director) had some special themes she wanted to explore, so she reached out to an actor she remembered as a fellow student during her student days at Brown University, Peter Jacobson, to play Willy Loman. Jacobson has had a wealth of experience as an actor in the four decades since he was in school, including a regular role in the series “House,” but the connection with Bensussen was a big part of what got him this job. As Loman’s wife Linda, Bensussen enlisted someone she’d worked with numerous times before, Adrianne Krstansky. Her familiarity with Jacobson and Krstansky allowed Bensussen to leap into rehearsals more readily than if she were just getting to know her cast. Several other members of the cast, however, were new to her, drawn from open call auditions.

Open calls for actors

Open auditions, known in the regional theater realm as Equity Principal Auditions, are a reality of being a professional theater. EPAs are governed by the Actors’ Equity Union.

Zoe Golub-Sass, the associate artistic director of Hartford Stage, was the director of “The Cottage,” “Hurricane Diane” and “2.5 Minute Ride” in recent seasons. Tellingly, the casts for those three shows all came about in different ways. She had done a production of the one-person show “2.5 Minute Ride” in New York state with the same actor who was suggested to her by a colleague. When the opportunity to reprise the show in Hartford came about, she was eager to revisit it with the same performer at a different phase in their careers. With “Hurricane Diane,” its lead performer had reached out to Hartford Stage when they heard the theater was doing the play. The actor was unable to audition in person due to another project but “radiated a charm through the Zoom screen” that won them the role.

Golub-Sass said Hartford Stage’s casting process is dictated by the specific union agreement it has as a member of League Of Resident Theatres. The Equity rules can vary based on the size, potential or location of a given theater.

At Hartford Stage, Golub-Sass said, “First we write character descriptions, in collaboration with the show’s directors, about what the production will be like. We audition the whole season at once, then start on the individual shows.”

After the EPAs, Hartford Stage looks at actors who were submitted by agents. TheaterWorks Hartford’s Rob Ruggiero said “if you’re an actor, having an agent can give you a bit of a leg up. Agents submit ideas to the casting directors we work with.”

Casting directors are part of the process all along. Most regional theaters have maintained decades-long relationships with casting directors, who are duly credited in the theater playbills. One example of an agent submission that netted an actor a starring role was when the accomplished stage and screen actor Michael Gaston informed his agent that he would like to play the role of Joe Keller in Arthur Miller’s drama “All My Sons.” When Hartford Stage announced it was doing the play, Gaston’s agent got in touch and the theater offered him the role, having already arranged for the movie star Marsha Mason to play to Keller’s wife Kate.

“We sit through 1,500 auditions a season,” said Adam Souza, the music director of Goodspeed Musicals. “We had 800 to 900 just for ‘Ragtime,” the season-opening show at the Goodspeed Opera House this past May. The Goodspeed’s variation on the EPAs is the ECC, or Equity Chorus Call, which specifically looks for performers for the chorus or ensemble in a musical.

Souza said at the ECCs, basically “whoever shows up, we have to see.” If an Equity union member does not appear for their scheduled slot at the ECCs or EPAs, the theater holding the auditions is asked if it is willing to see a non-Equity member at that time. Ruggiero said TheaterWorks always agrees to that and that everyone benefits from widening the process and seeing more actors.

Even when a theater already has a cast in mind, as with TheaterWorks’ “The Counter” or Hartford Stage’s “2.5 Minute Ride,” it still holds auditions, partly due to Equity’s insistence and partly to be prepared for emergency cast changes.

At some casting sessions, a wide range of people from the theater do the casting, plus casting directors and others might be there. “Who’s in the room depends on the call,” Souza said. “If it’s a musical call, to see how well they sing, the only person required to be there is me.”

Golub-Sass, Souza and Ruggiero all said that these “cattle call” auditions can be immensely helpful and that while they tend to be most helpful in filling small roles (or in Goodspeed’s case chorus or ensemble parts), lead roles have gotten cast from these auditions. The star of the Goodspeed revival of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” came from these auditions.

“The union requires us to do these calls, but they can be the most fun days,” Souza said. While there is often not a strict requirement to hold in-person auditions, Zoom calls and video submissions have become the primary way actors can get seen by those doing the casting, though all of the theaters the Courant spoke to insisted that live in-person encounters can be crucial. “Tapes allow us to see more people,” Golub-Sass said, “but it’s always good to have people in the room.”

Ruggiero agreed. “In person tells you a lot,” he said.

Theaters also hold local auditions for professional actors based in Connecticut. As a style concept, early in the development of the original piece “Circus Fire,” which will be staged later this year, TheaterWorks Hartford decided that it wanted to cast this story, based on a real-life tragedy that happened in Hartford, entirely with local actors. “We wanted to honor our connection to this community,” Ruggiero said. “I made the decision that I wanted everyone in that show to be Connecticut-based.”

In the regional theater where a whole season of shows can be announced at once, those involved in casting one show can have other shows in mind as well. This can be a boon to the auditioners. “People who come to that audition might not be right for that show but they may be right for a different show in the season,” Souza said. “We make a note of that.”

Nathan Darrow, who starred in Hartford Stage’s “Doctor Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” last year, came to the theater’s attention when he auditioned for William Shakespeare’s “A Winter’s Tale.”

Needs can change from show to show. Goodspeed Musicals does new works but also reverent revivals of theater classics and re-workings of shows that need to be updated for modern times. “Ragtime” the first show of last season, “needed to be delivered in a full-voiced way,” Souza said. The first show of this season, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” needs “an appropriate rock sensibility.”

Directing the castings

Directors, who generally have the final say in casting, can work differently from each other, and their personal work methods may affect casting decisions. Souza said the famous New York director John Doyle, who directed the world premiere of “The 12” at Goodspeed two seasons ago, “treats auditions like job interviews. He’ll have long quiet conversations with the people auditioning for him. He wants to sniff out a vibe.” Some directors may build a show around certain key performers, while others will encourage an ensemble feel where everyone is of equal performance.

“As a director who’s worked at many theaters, I’d say it’s rare that an artistic director will insist that show’s director has to use someone,” Ruggiero said. “They make suggestions, and there are occasions where I’ve taken a job where a role is pre-cast, but generally I’m the one who decides the cast.”

Michael Wordly, the actor who played the key role of Coalhouse Walker in the Goodspeed production of “Ragtime,” had been wanting to play that role since he was a child. “Ragtime” was one of the first musicals he knew and made him want to be an actor. The show’s director, Christopher Betts, had worked with Wordly before and knew of his passion. “Finding someone who’s pre-loaded like that, or where there’s a pre-existing relationship with the director, can save time in rehearsals,” Souza said.

Theaters may also be thinking about whether cast members will get along with each other or are aware of the special nature of each theater. “Here at Goodspeed, you’ve got to come and live with us for three months,” Souza said. The theater is located in a small town a good distance from a major city and owns the properties where it houses its actors.

“We’re always asking ‘How do all these people fit together with this director?,’” Golub-Sass said.

Souza noted that when doing musicals with relatively small casts, all the performers have to be “true triple threats,” capable of acting, singing and dancing equally well. “In the past 30 years, the weight placed on the performer is pretty great.”

Goodspeed typically starts its casting process in December for all the shows in the season, which starts in April and runs through December. This year, the process started a little later because the director of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Tatiana Pandiani, was having a child in December.

One of the shows in the season, an adaptation of the Paul Gallico novella “The Snow Goose,” is a world premiere. This can make a difference at auditions since the performers won’t be familiar with new work. But there are other variables working in the favor of new work. In the case of “The Snow Goose,” Goodspeed has been deeply involved in the show’s development for years. Souza said he has been part of three presentations of it. There’s also a type of performer who embraces new works and knows how to approach such challenges.

Sometimes the people auditioning may have the wrong idea about a show. Those who saw audition notices for Goodspeed’s “Anne of Green Gables” a few years ago couldn’t be expected to know that this was a modern youthful take on the classic children’s book with LGBTQ overtones. When auditioning for the play “Hurricane Diane,” which Hartford Stage staged last year, it may not help to know that the play is loosely based based on Euripides’ “The Bacchae,” since it’s a frantic farce set in the 21st century, far from its Greek tragedy origins. When actors may be heading in the wrong direction stylistically in their auditions, theaters have an opportunity to suggest a change in approach.

The people doing the casting can also learn from unexpected interpretations. “There are times when we say ‘That’s not how it normally is, but why can’t it be that way?,’” Souza said. “Actors are endlessly surprising.”

As for star casting, it happens but often in unexpected ways. Ruggiero said situations like this are a good reason for budding directors to learn their trade at graduate school programs, because of the number of actors they meet and work with there.

Golub-Sass said that some established TV or movie or Broadway actors work in regional theaters because those theaters do shows “that are not being done in New York.” Ruggiero said TheaterWorks got Richard Dreyfuss to star in the play “Relativity” because the famed actor was “obsessed with Albert Einstein” and was specifically looking to play him.

In any case, Golub-Sass suggested that a celebrity name may not carry the weight it once did. “There’s a lot more media out there. I’ll mention what I think of as a famous name to someone else at the theater and they might have never heard of them.”

After the auditions happen, deep discussions begin. “My favorite part of the process is when you clear the floor, spread all the headshots on the floor and talk about it,” Souza says. “I might comment on the musicality. I sometimes offer a letter grade. But the final decision is the director’s.”

Each type of theater has its own special needs and processes and advantages. The Yale Repertory Theatre and the University of Connecticut’s Connecticut Repertory Theatre are both professional theaters affiliated with graduate theater programs at large universities. When casting shows, they like to make room for both student actors and illustrious alumni. The current Yale Rep production of “Rhinoceros” stars three accomplished Yale School of Drama grads: Reg Rogers, Elizabeth Stahlmann and Tony Manna, several current students in the drama school and several actors without a direct Yale connection. Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s current production of “Three Musketeers: 1941” is cast entirely with current students in UConn’s graduate and undergraduate acting programs.

Even when a cast appears to all set, the process may not be over. “You may lose someone to another job in the middle of a project,” Ruggiero said. “Or we may have been very clear about the money, but then they want more money and we can’t do it. Or you think you’ve got them and they suddenly say ‘no.’

“But everything happens for a reason,” Ruggiero said. “The universe usually has a way of working it out.”

Since St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Tuesday this year, this week and weekend is where the bulk of the acts can be found.

Hartford had its St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 7, but New Haven’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade takes place on March 15 at 1:30 p.m. along Chapel and Church Streets in downtown New Haven.

Indoor celebrations of Irish and Celtic spirit can be found throughout the state this week. One of the grander shows is “Celtic Woman: A New Era,” March 12 at 8 p.m. at the Stamford Palace at 61 Atlantic St in Stamford ($71.55-$107.95). This group of female vocalists has been around, with changing lineups, for decades. Celtic Woman will be back in the state on April 25 at 8 p.m. at the Oakdale Theatre at 95 S. Turnpike Road in Wallingford ($41-25-$336.90).

Celtic Woman is one of the internationally touring acts that owes a debt to the game-changing Irish stage spectacle “Riverdance,” the incredibly influential blend of Irish traditions and contemporary creative design and staging techniques that altered the pop culture landscape in the 1990s. Another post-“Riverdance” sensation is “Rhythm of the Dance,” a music/dance blend created by the National Dance Company of Ireland, coming March 12 at 7:30 p.m. to the Garde Arts Center at 325 State St. in New London ($39-$69).

Another high-end vocal group, The Irish Tenors, came up during the wave of “tenors” acts of the 1990s, starting with the operatic Three Tenors but later including Three Mo’ Tenors, Three Country Tenors, Three Redneck Tenors, etc. The Irish Tenors — currently Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan and Declan Kelly — perform on March 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Sacred Heart Community Theater at 1420 Post Road in Fairfield ($66.50-$86.50).

A “Riverdance”-style Irish dance/music/storytelling event on a smaller, more intimate scale, is “Dancing With the Celts” on March 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center at 300 Main St. in Old Saybrook ($65).

One of the rowdier acts to hit Connecticut this time of year, one that’s more on the Scottish side of the Celtic style than the Irish one, is the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, who play Irish-tinged rock music on bagpipes and more conventional instruments. The Pipers pipe twice this week: March 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Warner Theatre at 68 Main St. in Torrington ($42.50-$74.50) and March 15 at 7 p.m. at the Sacred Heart University Community Theatre in Fairfield ($46.50-$56.50).

The Red Hot Chili Pipers isn’t the only Celtic band that rocks out. Celtica Nova, formed in the U.S. 15 years ago, has performed at both international Celtic music festivals and major metal rock festivals. Celtica Nova plays on March 14 at 8 p.m. at Infinity Music Hall Hartford at 32 Front St. in Hartford ($42.27-$58.25).

One of the most celebrated Irish rock stars, Van Morrison, whose career has stretched from the garage rock of his early band Them to the his jazzy psychedelic solo phase of the ‘70s, gets a special tribute on March 15 at 6:30 p.m. at Park City Music Hall at 2926 Fairfield Ave. in Bridgeport ($20, $15 advance). “Van Morrison Night” features a band made up of Rob Maresca, Jake Habegger, Alex Swift, Chris Strange, Dave Savitsky, Brian Borrelli and Mike Strange plus special guests Nathaniel Hintz, Stephanie Harrison, Liz Ashkins and Kristin Lattin.

For more traditional Irish stylings, there are a number of St. Patrick’s season stalwarts who visit Connecticut just about every year around this time.

The High Kings, who play on March 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Garde Arts Center in New London ($44-$79) had a particularly good year, landing two of their songs — “The Rocky Road to Dublin” and “Go Lassie Go” — on the soundtrack to the movie “Sinners.”

The sweet and lovely yet also boisterous and funny female ensemble Cherish the Ladies return to The Kate in Old Saybrook on March 10 at 7:30 p.m. ($54). Cherish the Ladies was founded in the 1980s by a group of Irish-American women, mostly from the New York area, but came to include many players and singers from Ireland.

A Celtic band hailing from Scotland rather than Ireland, Tannahill Weavers has been around since the late 1960s and still boast two founding members, guitarist/vocalist Roy Gullane and flute/tin whistle/bodhrán player Phil Smillie. On March 14 at 8 p.m., Tannahill Weavers are at The Kate in Old Saybrook ($39).

Altan, the band from County Donegal that’s been around for 40 years and is led by vocalist Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, also comes to The Kate on March 18 at 7:30 p.m. ($48). And another traditional Irish band from Country Sligo, Dervish, is coming to The Kate on March 19 at 7:30 p.m. ($52).

Beyond all the usual theater concerts and dance shows, there are a couple of other events that will get your Irish spirit going.

There’s a free family-friendly matinee “St. Patrick’s Day at FTC” event on March 14 at 2 p.m. at Fairfield Theatre Company at 70 Sanford St. in Fairfield featuring two Irish acts: singer/songwriter Bobby Morrill and the five-piece band The Night Visitors.

And what’s an Irish celebration without comedy? Sea Tea Comedy Theater at 15 Asylum St. in Hartford is holding an event it’s inclusively calling “Everybody’s Irish: A St. Patrick’s Day Variety Show” on March 14 at 7 p.m. ($10). Sea Tea specializes in improv comedy sketches, but this show promises more than that.

Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western family drama series “The Madison” debuting on Paramount+ and the animated smash “Zootopia 2” landing on Disney+ are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: The Academy Awards streaming on Hulu, Nicole Kidman bringing crime writer Patricia Cornwell’s famed forensic pathologist character Kay Scarpetta to life in a new series and Kim Gordon’s third solo album, “Play Me.”

New movies to stream from March 9-15

— After collecting $1.85 billion in box office, the Disney animated smash hit “Zootopia 2” comes to Disney+ on Wednesday. The film, a sequel to 2016’s “Zootopia,” follows the continuing adventures of rabbit police officer Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and her partner fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman). In their new case, the arrival of a mysterious viper (Key Huy Quan) leads to new revelations about the animal metropolis. In my review, I called it “a more timid and tame movie that leans largely on the (still winning) duo of Hopps and Wilde.”

— For the first time, the Oscars will be streamed. In addition to the live broadcast on ABC beginning at 7 p.m. EDT Sunday, March 15, the 97th Academy Awards will be streamed on Hulu. The show will be available to all subscribers, and not require a cable subscription. (The Oscars are moving to YouTube, but not until 2029.) That also means this week is your last chance to catch up on the nominees, most of which are streaming. That includes: “Sinners,” “One Battle After Another,” “Weapons” and “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” on HBO Max; “Frankenstein,” “Train Dreams,” “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Blue Moon” on Netflix; “Bugonia,” “Hamnet” and “Song Sung Blue” on Peacock; “F1” on Apple TV+; and “The Secret Agent” and “It Was Just an Accident” on Hulu.

— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

New music to stream on March 13

— On Friday, Kim Gordon — a revolutionary force in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, the ’80s New York no wave scene and the space between art and noise — will release her third solo album, “Play Me,” as The Associated Press exclusively announced back in January. It follows the Grammy nominated “The Collective,” her beat-heavy 2024 album that surprised and delighted audiences with its oddball trap blasts. “Play Me” shares in that spirit. It’s full of propulsive production and confrontational songs that possess a keen ability to process and reflect the world. Start with the castigation of convenience culture and passive listening on its title track. Stay for “Subcon,” an examination of the world’s growing billionaire class and their fascination with space colonialization in a period of economic insecurity.

— To call them veterans almost feels like too slight a word. Giants of the American heavy metal Lamb of God will release their tenth studio album, “Into Oblivion” on Friday. The title is a reflection of how frontman Randy Blythe sees the current state of the affairs — an appropriate launchpad for 10-tracks of ferocity.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

New series to stream from March 9-15

— “Sesame Street” drops four new episodes Monday on Netflix. The legacy preschool show found a new home on the streamer ahead of its current 56th season.

— Netflix’s live-action adventure series “One Piece” returns for its second season on Tuesday. It’s based on a massively popular Japanese manga series by Eiichiro Oda. The show follows a young man named Monkey D. Luffy whose dream in life is to be a pirate. In Season One, Luffy recruited his fellow pirates called the Straw Hats. In Season Two, Luffy and his crew set out to find treasure in a dangerous stretch of water called the Grand Line. There are eight episodes in “One Piece: Into the Grand Line.”

— Nicole Kidman brings crime writer Patricia Cornwell’s famed forensic pathologist character Kay Scarpetta to life in a new series out Wednesday. The story unfolds over two timelines: Scarpetta as a younger woman played by Rosy McEwen and in present day, played by Kidman. Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale, Simon Baker, Ariana DeBose, Jake Cannavale and Hunter Parrish also star.

— Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western family drama “The Madison” debuts on Paramount+ on Saturday, March 14. At its center is the Clyburn family of New York, led by matriarch Stacy Clyburn ( Michelle Pfeiffer ) who moves her family to Montana after a tragedy. Kurt Russell, Patrick J. Adams, Matthew Fox and Beau Garrett also have roles. A second season has already filmed.

— Alicia Rancilio

New video games to play from March 9-15

— When you want to hunt monsters, there’s Monster Hunter. When you want to team up with monsters, there’s Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, the new chapter in Capcom’s spinoff series. Once you join forces with a beast, you can fly around on it and fight other creatures — though you might want to think twice before tackling the “Calamitous Elder Dragons.” The story itself revolves around two warring kingdoms on the verge of apocalypse, and the gameplay is the kind of turn-based combat you’d expect in a classic role-playing adventure. Take flight Friday, March 13, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch 2 or PC.

— Lou Kesten

PARIS (AP) — Sparkling dust drifted across the runway inside the Carrousel du Louvre on Friday as Issey Miyake asked a question few fashion houses dare voice: When should a designer stop designing?

Satoshi Kondo’s answer was a fall-winter collection of rare stillness and force.

Titled “Creating, Allowing,” it pulled at the tension between shaping a garment and letting cloth and body do the work alone.

That tension sits at the core of the house Miyake founded in 1970 and that Kondo has led since 2019. Miyake, who died in 2022, always started with a single piece of cloth.

He believed the space between fabric and body — what the Japanese call “ma” — mattered as much as the garment itself.

Kondo has honored that philosophy while carving a quieter, more contemplative path of his own.

Pared-down vocals hung in the darkened space. Models moved slowly.

The clothes spoke in hushed tones that demanded you lean in.

A stone in an empty room

The collection opened in muted restraint.

Oversize sweaters in off-white had elongated shoulders that sloped like soft architecture, white shirt cuffs extending past the sleeves in a surreal, almost preppy touch.

Dark suits featured asymmetrical front panels that folded across the body like an unfinished thought.

Voluminous black trenches came belted with bands that evoked martial arts.

Fabric headpieces—wrapped tight around the skull—were a defining feature, lending the models a monastic quality.

Black parkas sat beneath square-shouldered suits, while puffball skirts billowed like clouds, built to hold their shape in midair.

The palette stayed deliberately muted. The house notes put it this way: a stone placed in a space speaks through its silence.

That was the mood. Kondo was designing the absence as much as the presence.

Controlled explosions

The restraint broke in carefully chosen moments, when ancient Japanese craft collided with modern technology.

A bright yellow pleated wrap cut through the monochrome like a crack of light.

The pleats were hand-wrung then machine-set, giving them a lively, almost primitive energy that rippled with the body’s movement.

But the most striking pieces were rigid bodices and peplums in solid red, made of lacquered washi paper — layers of hand-torn sheets set on 3D-printed molds by craftspeople in the Echizen region of Fukui Prefecture, then sent to artisans in Kyoto for multiple coats of lacquer.

The result was a shell-like form that contoured the body with the quiet authority of armor.

The house calls the technique Urushi Body, rooted in the concept of the obi sash and the bustier.

In a season full of noise across Paris, Issey Miyake offered something rarer: the discipline to leave things unfinished, and the confidence to call that beautiful.

NEW YORK (AP) — Romantasy favorite Sarah J. Maas has given her millions of fans a plot twist they had long been waiting for — two more books over the next 11 months in her blockbuster “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series.

Bloomsbury announced this week that Book 6 will come out Oct. 27, and Book 7 on Jan. 12, 2027. Neither novel is currently titled. Maas’ last installment in the saga of protagonist Feyre Archeron, “A Court of Silver Flames,” came out more than five years ago, in February 2021.

The author herself, who turned 40 this week, first revealed the news on the podcast “Call Her Daddy.”

“It took me a while to find the right story and find the right head space,” she said. “And then what poured out of me was this, and it poured out very quickly.”

Maas’ other series include “Throne of Glass” and “Crescent City.” Her books have sold more than 75 million copies worldwide, according to Bloomsbury.

Hardcore shows have always been a crowded affair. Multi-band bills are standard. Shows that can last eight hours or more, with maybe a dozen bands playing aren’t uncommon. Considering the extreme energy and ultrafast tempo the music requires, hardcore shows can be exhausting for all involved — and transformative.

Hardcore is such an all-consuming live experience that it’s rare that bands in the genre become known for their recordings. Terror and Deadguy are among the exceptions. Terror, a West Coast mainstay that tours incessantly, is poised to release its first album in four years, “Still Suffer.” It will be the band’s ninth studio album, the most popular releases being “Live by the Code” in 2013 and “The 25th Hour” in 2015. There have also been five live albums, six EPs and a few compilations or split EPs. Terror has played The Webster seven times, but that’s in a 22-year span with the most recent Hartford show being nearly five years ago.

Deadguy were East Coast heroes, hailing from New Jersey. Before this recent reunion, the band was only together for three years, from 1994 to 1997, and that’s with a couple of major lineup changes that divided its fan base. In that brief period they may have visited Connecticut a dozen times or more. In a fascinating 2021 documentary about the band, “Deadguy: Killing Music,” the members recall a New Haven area show when a naked man joined them onstage before stage diving away. At least as memorable was a New Year’s Eve show at the Tune Inn in downtown New Haven where the band blazed brightly. Guitarist Chris “Crispy” Corvino had the ability to swing his guitar around his neck by its strap as if it was a hula hoop rather than a heavy jagged musical instrument.

Musically, Deadguy was in a hardcore league all their own. They messed with rhythms and lyrical tempos and abrupt chord changes that not only suited the pell-mell world of hardcore but inspired key bands in the mathcore scene, a persnickety subgenre whose guitar heroes were known for the complexity of their crushingly loud playing. Deadguy’s 1994 three-song vinyl EP “White Meat” (and its six-song CD variant “Work Ethic”), then its debut album “Fixation on a Co-Worker”in 1995 were staggeringly influential in the hardcore community and a later lineup kept up the high standards with 1996’s “Screamin’ with the Deadguy Quintet.”

In 2021 Deadguy reunited its unmatched original lineup of Corvino, lead guitarist Keith Huckins (who defined the band’s original sound), vocalist Tim Singer and drummer Dave Rosenberg. Tim Naumann, the band’s founding bassist and later its vocalist, is not part of the reunion, but the band’s bassist from 1996-97, Jim Baglino, is. The current lineup released a new album, “Near-Death Travel Services,” just last year, featuring songs such as “Kill Fee,” “War With Strangers,” “The Long Search for Perfect Timing” and “All Stick and No Carrot.” The album stands with their classic output of over 20 years ago.

Connecticut has been known for its tightknit and long-lasting hardcore scene, which began in the 1980s and had developed a solid core community by the early ‘90s. The circular “CTHC” graffiti symbol from those days still persists. Edict, a younger hardcore band that appears as an opening act on both the Deadguy and Terror bills this week, happens to hail from Rhode Island but recorded their debut album in Connecticut and own a sonic debt to the legendary New Haven band Hatebreed.

Reik
Foxwoods Resort Casino, 350 Trolley Line Blvd., Mashantucket

The California-based Latin pop trio Reik, who is coming to Foxwoods’ Premier Theatre, has had a string of hit records over the past two decades and released its latest album “TQ+” at the end of 2025. March 8 at 7 p.m. $48-$113.60. foxwoods.com.

Zachariah Porter
Foxwoods Resort Casino, 350 Trolley Line Blvd., Mashantucket

Zachariah Porter, the TikTok comedian who likes to joke about food, is on a live tour coming to Foxwoods’ Great Cedar Showroom on March 8 at 7 p.m. $48-$113.60. foxwoods.com.

Jonathan Richman
Space Ballroom, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden

Living legend Jonathan Richman, whose first album with his band The Modern Lovers gave us “Roadrunner” and “Pablo Picasso” and who was the singing narrator of the hit movie “There’s Something About Mary,” has a troubadour lifestyle now where he travels by himself and does solo shows for generations of fans. Richman is at Space Ballroom for two nights, March 10 and 11, at 8 p.m. $43.14, $37.99 in advance. collegestreetmusichall.com.

‘The Simon and Garfunkel Story’
Warner Theatre, 68 Main St., Torrington
Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic St., Stamford

The long-touring theater show/tribute concert “The Simon and Garfunkel Story,” about the popular 1960s duo that brought us “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Mrs. Robinson” and “The Sound of Silence,” has two shows in Connecticut this week: March 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Warner Theatre in Torrington ($46.50-$200.50; warnertheatre.org) and March 11 at 7 p.m. at the Stamford Palace ($61.85-$213.60; palacestamford.org).

Be Like Blippi
Shubert Theatre, 247 College St., New Haven

The national tour based on the popular YouTube kids channel comes to New Haven with songs and fun. March 12 at 6 p.m. $44.70-$116.10. shubert.com.

Metal Fest
Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven

Nearly a dozen bands take the stage for an all-ages metal fest that begins at 6 p.m. on March 12 . Acts include 6five6, Ironrift, Seventh Hour, Syfon, Toxic Paralysis and Trench CT on the mainstage plus Added Color, Corvus, Pablo X and Splatterhead on a second stage in the club’s Lilly’s Pad area. $15, $12 in advance. toadsplace.com.

Terror
The Webster Underground, 31 Webster St., Hartford

Another great hardcore bill is coming to Hartford featuring the L.A.-based Terror, which has been active since 2002 and still retains founding vocalist Scott Vogel and founding drummer Nick Jett, plus opening acts Combust, Soulless and Edict. A new Terror album is due in April. March 12 at 7 p.m. $33.25. thewebsterct.com.

Orbit Culture
Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven

The Swedish death metal band Orbit Culture is at Toad’s Place on its “Death Above Life” world tour. March 13 at 7:30 p.m. OV Sulfur and Atlas are the opening acts. $48.25, $35.50 in advance. toadsplace.com.

Rod Stewart
Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville

Rod Stewart’s gravelly voice has interpreted rock songs, ballads, disco and the American Songbook. His “One Last Time” farewell tour got expanded so he’s saying goodbye a while longer. March 13 at 7:30 p.m. $180-$950.80. mohegansun.com.

‘Jurassic Park in Concert’
Palace Theatre, 100 East Main St., Waterbury

Symphony orchestras love playing John Williams soundtracks. Usually, it’s his “Star Wars” or “Harry Potter” soundtracks, but here’s a different one. The Waterbury Symphony Orchestra is accompanying a screening of the original “Jurassic Park” movie. March 14 at 2 p.m. $49-$95. palacetheaterct.org.

Vir Das
College Street Music Hall, 248 College St., New Haven

Stand-up comedian Vir Das, who has just written a memoir, will be performing in New Haven on March 14 at 8 p.m. $59.62. collegestreetmusichall.com.

LOS ANGELES — Bruce Johnston, a six-decade member of the Beach Boys’ live band, announced he will step away from the group.

The 82-year-old Johnston told Rolling Stone that “It’s time for part three of my lengthy musical career! I can write songs forever and wait until you hear what’s coming! As my major talent beyond singing is songwriting, now is the time to get serious again.”

The Beach Boys’ Mike Love also said in a statement that “Bruce Johnston is one of the greatest songwriters, vocalists, and keyboardists of our time. We’ve had the honor of his performance and participation for many many years with the Beach Boys. Change is always promised in life; today we find ourselves in a chapter of change, but not an end.”

Johnston originally joined the group in 1965, filling in as a live vocalist in place of frontman Brian Wilson, and earning a vocal credit on “California Girls.” He left the band in 1972 to pursue solo work, and penned Barry Manilow’s hit “I Write The Songs.”

Johnston returned to the Beach Boys in 1978, and continued to tour as the only member besides Love from the band’s original era. He also wrote several songs for the group, including “Disney Girls (1957),” “Deirdre” and “Tears in the Morning.” Johnston will be replaced by Chris Cron, vocalist for the Beach Boys tribute band Pet Sounds Live.

After Wilson’s death last year, Beach Boys fans still have several occasions to hear the catalog live. Love’s long-running edition of the Beach Boys will play three nights at the Hollywood Bowl over July 4 weekend (which Johnston said he’ll sit in on). Founding member Al Jardine is touring with Brian Wilson’s former backing ensemble, now called the Pet Sounds Band, with a set focused on the1977 LP “The Beach Boys Love You.”

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Imagine dining on “edible plastic” made from algae and collagen from fish skins. While you ingest the dish, ocean-borne plastic pollution seemingly floats above you, projected across the restaurant’s huge domed ceiling. It’s an experience — and dish — inspired by large garbage patches found in our seas.

In Denmark, chef Rasmus Munk doesn’t offer dishes at the Alchemist restaurant. Instead, he whisks guests on an “immersive dining experience” combining performance, music, projections in its planetarium-like domed dining room, and, of course, food.

Opened in 2019 at the site of a former industrial harbor area in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, Alchemist was named the world’s fifth-best restaurant in 2025. It has two Michelin stars, signifying excellence in cuisine, out of a maximum three possible for one establishment.

Guests at this restaurant can experience 50 “impressions,” most of them edible. Dining there means trying various foods — a large eyeball dish featuring caviar and codfish eye gel, nettle butterflies served atop cheese and artichoke leaves — over many hours, in a slow process that invites reflection on the food and surrounding projections.

“We convey messages through our food, our food is our medium of expressing ourselves,” said Munk, whose dishes also explore issues such as state surveillance and animal welfare.

Gastronomy as art

Once known for bacon, herring, and rye bread, the Scandinavian country’s cuisine has been in ascendancy since 2003 when René Redzepi’s world-beating Noma first burst onto the scene, preaching a “New Nordic” philosophy that celebrated foraging, fermenting and Scandinavia’s seasonal larder.

Emboldened by the success of the New Nordic movement, Denmark’s Michelin-starred restaurants are now asking a new question: Can gastronomy be art?

Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said in January that Denmark would explore whether gastronomy could be formally recognized as an art form. If realized, it could become the first nation to legally place cooking — or at least the highest versions of it — on a similar pedestal to painting.

It’s not clear how the culture ministry’s plans will be impacted by the country’s March 24 general election.

Munk, 34, who says he spent almost a decade honing his “artistic practices,” has been a driving force behind the move and described it as a “big milestone.”

“I don’t think all food is art … I think the craftsmanship needs to be on the highest level,” he said, noting that ultimately it’s a political decision what gets called art and what not and that, for now, “this is a closed society for chefs.”

The change, still in its exploratory phase, would eventually require a vote in Denmark’s 179-seat parliament to reclassify gastronomy from craft to art.

It could also make the country’s chefs eligible for state subsidies and funding from private foundations — like writers and musicians — to get their projects off the ground.

A dining destination

Other nations with famed food cultures, including France and Japan, haven’t made similar moves. Last year, UNESCO granted Italian cooking cultural heritage status.

Denmark has previously expanded what constitutes art and culture, for example by awarding a lifetime national arts honor to heavy metal act King Diamond. Last year, the Sonning Prize, Denmark’s largest cultural award, was awarded to French gastronomic artist and chemist Hervé This.

The Nordic nation of 6 million people has become a dining destination, home to 37 Michelin-starred restaurants, including Copenhagen’s two-star Kadeau, which was opened in 2011 by head chef and creative director Nicolai Nørregaard.

“I approach it like I would approach making a piece of art, like an artwork or a piece of writing,” Nørregaard said. “It’s about getting sort of an experience.”

The 46-year-old head chef, whose recipes reference the seasonal flavors of Danish island Bornholm, said that such recognition would be a “big step.”

“To acknowledge that this can also be looked upon as art … that’s what’s important for me,” he said.

‘It doesn’t make any sense’

But not everyone, even some within the industry, are toasting the idea.

Nick Curtin, the American executive chef and owner of Copenhagen’s Michelin-starred Alouette restaurant, argues that art and gastronomy are fundamentally different.

“Art’s sole purpose is expression. It’s to evoke emotion. Food must be consumed,” he said. “(Art) can evoke disgust or disappointment or pain or sorrow or joy or longing. Food actually can’t express all of those things. It can, but it shouldn’t.”

Some in Denmark’s art scene also have expressed concern that such a change might see greater competition for funding between chefs and more traditional artists like painters.

Holger Dahl, the architecture and art critic at Denmark’s 277-year-old Berlingske newspaper, is more blunt: “I think it’s quite silly, there’s no use, it doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s a little bit like a bicycle and a car — they have round wheels, they’ll take you from one point to another point, but it’s not like a very good bicycle all of a sudden turns into a car,” he said. “It doesn’t happen.”