Thanksgiving week at Guild Hall on Main Street in East Hampton belongs to the East End's young performers and to one Broadway leading lady. Students from South Fork Performing Arts put on the musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone for three performances from November 20 to 22, and on Saturday, November 28, Tony nominee Betsy Wolfe brings her holiday concert to the same stage.

November 20 to 22: The Drowsy Chaperone

The show is built around a man alone in his apartment who puts on the cast album of an invented 1928 Broadway musical, and the show-within-the-show comes to life around his armchair. On stage are a couple about to be married, a best man who keeps getting things wrong, a producer in trouble, a hostess who is not quick on the uptake, two gangsters disguised as pastry chefs, a would-be ladies' man and the chaperone of the title, who has had a few.

Performances are:

  • Friday, November 20, at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, November 21, at 7 p.m.
  • Sunday, November 22, at 2 p.m.

Tickets are sold through the group's online box office. South Fork Performing Arts teaches theater and music to young people on the South Fork with working artists and teachers from the area, in small classes, private lessons and ensemble work, and it describes its mission as giving every student a place to succeed, including those who have not found one among their peers.

November 21: a free Family Day

The afternoon between the two Saturday performances is Guild Hall's Family Day, from 1 to 3 p.m. It is free. Families can take part in hands-on art workshops, follow gallery tours for children led by members of the Guild Hall Teen Arts Council, and work through activity guides in the galleries. Museum admission at Guild Hall is free.

November 28: Betsy Wolfe, The Most Wonderful Time

Two days after Thanksgiving, Betsy Wolfe performs her holiday concert, The Most Wonderful Time, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wolfe recently played Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, earned a Tony nomination for playing Anne Hathaway in & Juliet and originated the title role in the musical Joy. She is also a co-founder of BroadwayEvolved, a training program for theater students. The concert mixes holiday standards, newer seasonal songs, some Broadway material and comedy.

Tickets are sold through Guild Hall's box office. For programs Guild Hall produces itself, a limited number of $25 rush tickets may be released in person 20 minutes before curtain.

Also on the calendar

  • Sunday, November 15, noon: Poetry and the American Conversation, with poets Philip Schultz and Jill Bialosky in conversation with David Rattray.
  • Saturday, November 28, 1 p.m.: The Met: Live in HD marks twenty years of Metropolitan Opera broadcasts in movie theaters, earlier the same day as the Wolfe concert.

Getting there

  • Where: Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, East Hampton
  • Family Day: free, drop in or reserve on Guild Hall's site
  • Drowsy Chaperone and Wolfe concert: ticketed; see each event page for seats

Sources