New year’s shows waiting in the wings

Tom Titus

Another year brings another round of theater to the local scene.

As usual, it’s fairly evenly divided between old favorites and

productions making a first appearance in the Newport-Mesa area.

South Coast Repertory will start the ball rolling next weekend

with “Proof,” which earned playwright David Auburn a Pulitzer Prize

and a Tony Award in 2001. It focuses on a young woman charged with

the care of her intermittently deranged father -- and wondering just

how much of his madness, or genius, she has inherited. Directed by

Michael Bloom, “Proof” opens Jan. 10 after a week of previews

beginning Friday at SCR’s Segerstrom Stage. Call (714) 708-5555 for ticket information.

No new arrivals are on tap the next week, but two await the

weekend of Jan. 23, starting that night with “Big Love” at UC

Irvine’s Winifred Smith Hall. Annie Loui is directing the play by

Charles Mee, which will be staged through Feb. 1. Tickets may be

ordered at (949) 824-2787.

Reginald Rose held 1950s TV audiences in thrall with his jury room

drama “Twelve Angry Men,” and it’s been revived periodically on

stages ever since. The latest incarnation opens Jan. 24 and plays

through Feb. 23 at the Newport Theater Arts Center, 2501 Cliff Drive,

Newport Beach. Call (949) 631-0288 to reserve tickets.

“Contact,” which swept the major awards on Broadway in 2001, comes

to the Orange County Performing Arts Center Jan. 28 for a brief

engagement through Feb. 2. Hailed as “positively revolutionary,” the

three-story, three-act show centers on the universal need for human

connection. Call (714) 556-2122 for ticket details.

Probably the most attention-grabbing play title of the upcoming

bunch is UCI’s “The Day Maggie Blew Her Head Off.” Teresa Pond will

be directing this play by Amy Bridges, which runs from Jan. 30

through Feb. 8 in the university’s Studio Theater.

SCR will be back in action Jan. 28 with the West Coast premiere of

Horton Foote’s “The Carpetbagger’s Children.” The play, by the author

of last season’s “Getting Frankie Married ... and Afterwards,” deals

with Southern family values. The show plays through Feb. 16 on the

Julianne Argyros Stage.

“Godspell” was one of SCR’s biggest hits back in the mid-1970s,

before the company moved uptown into the South Coast Town Center. The

Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse has the Bible-based musical by

John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz ticketed for performances

from Feb. 6 to March 2 under the direction of Megan Endicott. The

theater is at 611 Hamilton St. Tickets can be reserved at (949)

650-5269.

Two plays from Eugene Ionesco will provide Orange Coast College’s

Repertory Theater with ammunition for two weekends of absurdist

theater Feb. 15 to 23. The double bill will be directed by OCC

students in the college’s Studio Theater. Call (714) 432-5640 for information.

“Fiddler on the Roof” has become one of our most popular musicals.

The tuneful story of Tevye and his five daughters striving for a

meaningful life in a downtrodden Russian village will be presented by

Costa Mesa’s Vanguard University, 55 Fair Drive, from Feb. 20 to

March 2. Tickets may be ordered at (714) 668-6145.

Mounting a production of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” for only four

performances may seem like a good deal of work for little reward, but

that’s what UCI has in store starting Feb. 27. The epic tragedy will

play through March 1 in the Claire Trevor Theater on campus. Another

Shakespeare play, “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” will be offered by South

Coast Repertory starting Feb. 28 on the Segerstrom Stage. The comedy

plays through March 30.

“The Laramie Project,” a dramatization of the murder of a gay

student in Wyoming, will be presented at Orange Coast College for an

abbreviated March 19 to 23 engagement. SCR will mount the Alan

Ayckbourn comedy “Relatively Speaking” March 21 through April 6.

They’ll be playing with “Funny Money” from March 28 to April 27 at

the Newport Theater Arts Center.

Coming in April will be “Les Miserables” returning to the

Performing Arts Center; “Lips Together, Teeth Apart” at the Costa

Mesa Civic Playhouse; “Fools” at Vanguard University; “Intimate

Apparel” at SCR; and “Lady Windermere’s Fan” at UCI. All in all, a

richly varied diet of theater in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

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

Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.