Trinity College is America's only top-25 liberal-arts college with an extensive musical-theater program. Participation in musical-theater productions -- which are presented entirely through the Department of Music -- is open to all students, regardless of their major or class affiliation. Even 1st-year students get cast in leading roles!

    In a typical year, there are three sets of productions:
* A Revue-style show in the Fall, in which scenes and excerpts from a large variety of shows are presented.

* The January Musicals, in which four different smaller-cast shows are presented -- in repertory over one long weekend in January -- in the College's intimate, black-box space.

* The Spring Musical, a full mounting of a large show in the main theater, with orchestra and with elaborate sets, costumes, and lighting.

    Trinity's musical-theater program has garnered significant national recognition both for the quality of its productions and for the imaginative repertoire that is produced. Trinity has been one of the foremost presenters, anywhere, of the works of Stephen Sondheim, and recent guests to the campus, in conjunction with productions of their works, have included Mr. Sondheim (composer-lyricist of "Sweeney Todd" and "Into the Woods," pictured above), Stephen Schwartz (composer-lyricist of "Godspell," "Pippin"), Charles Strouse (composer of "Annie," "Bye Bye Birdie"), and William Finn (composer-lyricist of the "Falsettos," "A New Brain"). Students met, and dined, with each of the above in discussions on a variety of aspects of musical theater.

    Musical theater at Trinity is a serious undertaking, one which presents students with manifold opportunities to perform, and presents audiences -- from Trinity, the greater Hartford area, and quite often beyond -- with equally manifold opportunities to see stylish productions of many of the classics of the repertoire as well as of seldom-produced-but-eminently-worthy works.