Summer Starlight Celebrates Cape Rep’s 40th Anniversary

 My first thought when I got Cape Rep Theatre’s invitation to its annual Summer Starlight benefit was how much Richard Costello, former owner of the Chatham Squire, a dear friend and major supporter of the Brewster theater, would have enjoyed this performer and her band. 

 “We are so excited to have Elizabeth Bougerol and Her Band” at the Aug. 3 fundraiser, said Paul Niles, a member of the event committee and vice president of the Cape Rep board of trustees. “It’s the first time we’ve had a full-scale band play a concert in the barn, and that just makes it even better.” 

 Cape Rep theatergoers saw the debut of renovated Crosby Barn as a venue with the opening production of this season, “Every Brilliant Thing.” Niles said the restored barn is a very welcoming space and “everything we hoped it would be.” 

Elizabeth Bougerol, co-founder and frontwoman of powerhouse jazz revivalists The Hot Sardines, is capping a decade of leading her “simply phenomenal” little big band with a sold-out 2024 Carnegie Hall debut and their 60th show at Birdland, according to the theater. “Expect an all-new evening of re-imagined NOLA-inspired jazz and blues…with classics from Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee and the Platters.”

 “This is also a celebration of our theater,” which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, added Niles. “A nod to the past and opening a window to the future of what we envision here.” Niles has been a trustee for three years, but his connection to the community aspect of the theater goes deeper. As former executive director of the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School, Niles utilized the space starting in 1995, when the theater allowed the middle school students to do productions there. 

 “The barn symbolizes how we want to open up Cape Rep even more so to the community,” he said. “As tenants of the Commonwealth, we feel we are curators of this beautiful space, and it was important to pay homage to the past by keeping the highlights of the architecture of the building.” See the stunning result for yourself at the benefit. 

 The evening will include a catered party with an oyster bar, hearty hors d'oeuvres and an open bar of wine, champagne and beer, spilling out onto the patio from the barn (weather permitting). An auction will be held in the barn before the music begins, and the prices include a walk-on role in a Cape Rep production, a lobster dinner in the barn, a week in a home on Prince Edward Island, and a week in an Italian villa. 

 The evening ends with champagne and chocolates “under the stars."