Baseball season starts early at Playhouse

Tom Titus

It’s been barely two months since our Angels captured their first

World Series title, but the baseball season will be starting again in

Laguna Beach next week -- or, at least, at the Laguna Playhouse.

“Rounding Third,” Richard Dresser’s new play about a pair of dads

who coach a Little League baseball team, starts a preview run on New

Year’s Day and opens its five-week engagement Jan. 4.

This West Coast premiere will be only the second production of

Dresser’s play, which first hit the boards earlier this month at

Chicago’s Northlight Theater. Andrew Barnicle, the playhouse’s

artistic director, is staging the play.

“Rounding Third” focuses on two Little League coaches and their

markedly different personal circumstances and philosophies about the

game. One is a veteran coach whose motto is “Winning is everything,”

His younger new assistant leans toward the “It’s all about having

fun” approach.

They’ll be portrayed by Michael Mulheren, nominated for a 2000

Tony Award as one of the “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” gangsters in the

Broadway revival of “Kiss Me Kate,” and Kevin Symons, returning to

the playhouse after playing a caddish professor at an uptight New

England college last season in “Spinning Into Butter.”

Playwright Dresser is no stranger to Laguna. His “Gun Shy”

received its Southern California premiere in 2000 under the direction

of playhouse executive director Richard Stein, while Barnicle staged

Dresser’s “Wonderful World” in 2001.

Mulheren’s Broadway credits also include “Titanic” and “On the

Waterfront.” Off-Broadway he has performed in “Floyd Collins,” and

he’s currently working on NBC’s new drama series “Mr. Sterling,”

playing Congressman Bob Brennan. He’s also been seen on “The West

Wing” and “Law and Order” and in the movies “Curse of the Jade

Scorpion” and “Bringing Out the Dead.”

Symons starred opposite James Gammon in “New World” at the Met

Theater and appeared in “A Christmas Carol” with the late Steve Allen

and Harold Gould, “Come Baby, Cradle and All” with Lee Meriwether,

“Tallulah and Tennessee” with Jim Bailey and “The Trial of Othello”

at Theater West. His L.A. theater credits include “Death of a

Salesman” and “The Crucible.”

“Rounding Third” is the fourth entry in the Laguna Playhouse’s

2002-03 season, which will continue with “Lovers at Versailles” by

Bernard Farrell in its U.S. premiere Feb. 18 through March 23, the

world premiere of “Mr. Shaw Goes to Hollywood” April 1 through May 4

and “The Secret Order” May 27 through June 29.

The early baseball season will run through Feb. 2 in Laguna, with

performances Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8

p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. (no evening performance on closing

day). Previews will be offered next Wednesday and Thursday at 2 and 8

p.m. and Friday at 3 and 8 p.m. at the playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon

Road.

Call (949) 497-2787 for ticket information.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.