Civic Playhouse $5,000 richer, plans new season

Tom Titus

With a newly banked $5,000 in proceeds from its annual benefit

show, the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse is gearing up for its 38th

season.

The playhouse’s fourth annual “Spirit of Broadway” benefit show

July 26-27 -- sold out for both performances -- paid tribute to the

first 100 years of Broadway with a medley of songs. It also included

some of the audience’s favorite numbers from the past few seasons at

the Civic Playhouse, along with a preview of musical moments from the

upcoming season.

“The silent auction Friday evening, plus the two performances,

raised $5,000 for the playhouse’s children’s summer program,”

reported theater board member Steve Endicott. “The funds also will

provide for some much-needed improvements to the playhouse’s lobby

and other theater improvements for the 2002-03 season.”

That season will get underway Oct. 24 with “Picasso at the Lapin

Agile,” a wild and crazy comedy by playwright-comedian Steve Martin

(whose roots, by the way, are in Orange County). The play depicts an

imagined meeting of Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein in 1904, when

both were in their 20s.

As the two men engage in a battle of ideas about probability,

lust, artistic integrity and the future, the play “moves with ease

between the breezy and the profound,” according to playhouse

publicists. The show will run through Nov. 17, and auditions will be

Sept. 16-17.

One of the better musicals based on the Bible is “Godspell,” which

arrives Feb. 6 and plays through March 2. This rock opera, based on

the Gospel according to St. Matthew with a rousing score by Stephen

Schwartz, contains numbers such as “Day by Day,” “All Good Gifts” and

“By My Side.”

“Godspell” is described as “groundbreaking and unique, with a

message of kindness, tenderness and love.” Auditions for the musical

are scheduled for Dec. 16-17.

Terrence McNally’s “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” the playhouse’s

third show, plants two straight couples in a gay community in New

York’s Fire Island -- and all appear to have serious personal issues

with one another.

Sally has inherited the cottage from her brother, who died of

AIDS, and is sharing a Fourth of July weekend with her contractor

husband, Sam; his hyperkinetic sister, Chloe; and Chloe’s smug,

aristocratic husband, John. This clash among the middle class plays

April 3-27, and auditions will be March 3-4.

“Once on This Island,” the season closer, is a Caribbean-themed

adaptation of the popular fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” and centers

on a peasant girl who rescues -- and falls in love with -- a young

man from a wealthy family. It is, by the way, a musical. Auditions

for the colorful fantasy by Lynn Abrens will be held April 21-22. The

show opens May 29 and plays through June 22.

Season tickets are available for the 2002-03 lineup and may be

ordered, as well as tickets for individual performances, by calling

(949) 650-5269. The playhouse is at 611 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa, in

the Rea Community Center.

* TOM TITUS writes about and reviews local theater for the Daily

Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.