Theater season off to a late start locally
Tom Titus
With the arrival of September comes the new seasons getting
underway at various local theaters -- usually. This year, however,
most local playhouses are waiting in the wings until October to
unveil their first productions of 2002-03 -- including South Coast
Repertory, which will reopen in October in a refurbished double
theater complex.
Not that the first weekend of September will be devoid of the
usual theatrical crush. Far from it.
The Orange County Performing Arts Center opened “The Full Monty”
Tuesday and follows with “Forbidden Hollywood,” cabaret-style, in the
Center’s Founders Hall on Friday. It’s the first time in memory that
both Center venues will be occupied at the same time.
Also going on the boards this weekend -- for a brief,
four-performance engagement -- is the return of “The Road Most
Traveled” at Vanguard University. This musical slice of life focusing
on the defining moments of coming of age was presented last year on
two occasions and is returning by the proverbial popular demand.
Theater department chairman Susan Berkompas is directing the show,
which traces the evolution of young people through kindergarten,
grade school, high school and college. The cast is comprised of Tammy
Coffin, Heaven Peabody, Paul Hanegan and Michael Mulligan.
Performances will be given at 8 p.m. tonight through Sunday with a
2 p.m. Saturday matinee in the college’s Lyceum Theater. Call (714)
668-6145 for ticket information.
Next Friday, the Newport Theater Arts Center will revive the
George Bernard Shaw comedy “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” which is
billed as “a witty and biting look at society’s hypocrisy.” The play
centers around Vivie Warren, an emancipated young woman whose
profession -- the world’s oldest -- has elevated her to an elegant
lifestyle.
The show plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and at 2:30
p.m. Sundays until Oct. 13 at the theater, 2501 Cliff Drive, Newport
Beach.
Reservations are taken at (949) 631-0288.
Orange Coast College launches its new season Sept. 14 with Jane
Martin’s “Jack and Jill,” described as a “treacherous and sometimes
explosive look at modern wedlock.” It’ll be staged by OCC’s Repertory
Theater Company in the Studio Theater.
The OCC show plays Saturdays and Sundays only, through Sept. 22,
with curtain at 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets
may be reserved by calling (714) 432-5640, Ext. 1.
After these two openings, we have two weeks of inactivity until
Oct. 4, when Costa Mesa’s Trilogy Playhouse raises the curtain on the
mystery spoof “Something’s Afoot.” This is a tongue-in-cheek
treatment of the mystery genre popularized by Agatha Christie and
features bodies falling in the most creative of manners.
Artistic director Alicia Butler will stage the musical comedy,
which will be on the boards through Oct. 27 at the Trilogy, 2930
Bristol St., Costa Mesa. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, at 5
and 7:30 Saturdays and at 5 p.m. Sundays. Call (714) 957-3347, Ext. 1
for ticket information.
South Coast Rep finally joins the greasepaint parade Oct. 19 with
a reprise production from the busiest playwright around this season
-- the late George Bernard Shaw. Martin Benson takes his third turn
at the helm of “Major Barbara,” which plays through Nov. 17 at the
newly christened Segerstrom Stage (formerly known as the main stage).
The Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse has chosen Steve Martin’s “Picasso
at the Lapin Agile” as its opening number, and will bring the comedy
-- in which Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein cross satirical swords
-- to the stage Oct. 25. That same weekend will see Vanguard
University revive England’s most popular mystery, “The Mousetrap,” by
the aforementioned Agatha Christie.
Finally, the brand-new Julianne Argyros Stage at South Coast
Repertory comes to life Nov. 8 with the world premiere of “The Violet
Hour” by Richard Greenberg, who’s had quite a few of his works
unveiled at SCR. The new show runs through Nov. 24.
CALLBOARD -- Orange Coast College will hold auditions Sept. 16 and
17 for the farcical comedy “Fortinbras” by Lee Blessing, which begins
where Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” leaves off. Alex Golson is directing the
play, which requires a cast of 12 men and eight women of all ages.
The show opens Nov. 21 for two weekends and additional information
is available at (714) 432-5640.
* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His
reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.
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