An old-fashioned, yet entirely new, musical comedy set on an ocean liner is setting sail for a developmental production at Goodspeed Musicals’ Norma Terris Theatre this month, and it’s being captained by a theater artist that Connecticut audiences entrusted with everything from Shakespeare to “Anastasia” for over a decade. Darko Tresnjak left his position as artistic director of Hartford Stage in 2019 so he could return to being a freelance director of plays, musicals and operas at theaters around the country. But he still lives in Connecticut and has longtime connections to other theaters in the state.
Tresnjak’s latest project is the original musical “Ask for the Moon,” which he is not just directing but wrote the book and lyrics for. The show, still a work in progress, is getting a nearly month-long run at the Normal Terris Theatre in Chester from July 19 through Aug. 11.
The show’s score is by Israeli composer Oran Eldor, whose show “Mythic” was staged in London and Montreal. Eldor, who studied at Boston’s Berklee School of Music, has written songs for the Israeli version of “Sesame Street” and provided orchestrations for the concert or cabaret acts of such artists as John Legend, Kristin Chenoweth and Andrea Bocelli. “Ask for the Moon” is a full-bodied, fully musicalized piece of entertainment, but it is also intriguingly economical in its style and structure.
The cast is limited to just three people. Ali Ewoldt (a Yale graduate whose Broadw.
