Fall Theatre Round-Up: Productions & Discounts Around Hartford

Savannah Brooks ’26

Editor-in-Chief

As fall begins, theatres around Hartford are starting their 2025-26 seasons. The Tripod has you covered with what you can see and how students can find discounts. 

Perhaps the most cost-effective option this season is TheaterWorks Hartford’s “English,” running from Oct. 2 through Nov. 2. TheaterWorks offers $5 student tickets when patrons book over the phone and free tickets for students who visit the box office on the day of any performance. While no reviews will be in until opening night, “English” is a Pulitzer-Prize winning play which saw major success on Broadway in the spring. The play follows a group of Iranian adults and their English teacher as they grapple with the demands and political connotations of learning English. TheaterWorks provides a smaller black-box setting which lends itself well to small-cast plays. This is an excellent opportunity for students to see an acclaimed modern play for little to no cost.

Hartford Stage, which is generally considered to be Hartford’s premiere regional theatre, is presenting the world premiere of Jeffery Hatcher’s “Rope” from Oct. 10 through Nov. 2. “Rope” is a new adaptation of the 1929 play “Rope’s End” by Patrick Hamilton which inspired the 1948 Alfred Hitchcock film, “Rope.” “Rope” is a crime thriller which follows two murderers who host a dinner party in the room where they hid the body of their victim. Be on the look out for free tickets from Trinity, but if you can spare $20, use the promo code “COLLEGE” on Hartford Stage’s website to grab heavily discounted tickets anywhere in the house.

If you do not feel like leaving campus, HartBeat Ensemble is presenting the long form poem “Where We Stand” in Garmany Theater in the Austin Arts Center from Oct. 9 to Oct. 14. Tickets are free, but you must register in advance online. HartBeat is known for community-oriented, evocative productions. In “Where We Stand,” they promise, “the outcome is in your hands.”

The Bushnell, Hartford’s performing arts center which hosts regular events and national tours is seeing two theatrical productions come through its doors for the rest of the fall. From Oct. 24-26, the Bushnell will host “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again],” a comedic take on Shakespeare’s works where six actors perform all of Shakespeare’s plays in under two hours. Tickets are general admission and priced at $48.50. The North American tour of the hit musical “Hamilton” will be stopping in the Bushnell from Nov. 4-16. This will be the highest price point of the fall, with the cheapest seats in the 2,500+ seat theatre priced at $60.  For those who are willing to venture over to West Hartford, Playhouse on Park will be housing “Million Dollar Quartet” until Oct. 19. The Tony-nominated musical is a true story of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins meeting for a jam session in 1956. Tickets are priced from $38.50 to $58.50.