Center expanding Broadway shows next season

Tom Titus

The Orange County Performing Arts Center will give its regards to

Broadway next season.

It’s always seemed a shame that the center’s Broadway Series of

touring musicals born in the Great White Way only stuck around for a

week -- unless the offering was a mega-hit like “Les Miserables” or

the upcoming three-week run of “The Producers.”

Those days are behind us. Starting in September, the Broadway

Series will expand to two weeks.

“This is something that we have been working toward for some time

now,” center President Jerry Mandel said. “With our new concert hall

and music theater under construction and scheduled to open in

September 2006 we can now commit the addition time in Segerstrom Hall

to expand our popular Broadway Series to two subscriber weeks.”

As a bonus, all but one of the musicals headed for Costa Mesa in

2004-’05 will be making their first appearances at the center. The

lone exception is “Rent,” which will be checking in for its third

visit Sept. 14. Unlike the others, “Rent” will be on stage for one

week only, playing through Sept. 19.

The next production on the new schedule, ticketed for Founders

Hall, is the musical tribute “Side by Side by Sondheim,” playing

Sept. 7 to 19. You could put a dozen such tributes together using

nothing but Sondheim material, since the composer has been doing his

thing since the 1950s, so it’ll be interesting to see which gems will

be featured in the upcoming production.

The center’s new two-week schedule in Segerstrom Hall will kick in

on Columbus Day with “Hairspray,” the show inspired by the John

Waters comedy film. It’s set in 1962 Baltimore and focuses on a

16-year-old girl whose mission is to dance on a popular TV show. The

show won eight Tony awards last year, including best musical, and

promises to turn back the clock to a time many of us cringe to

remember. The extended schedule takes it through Oct. 24.

“Oliver” certainly isn’t new -- the movie version of the British

musical won the Oscar in 1968 and has made the rounds of the local

community and college theater circuit. The revival of this Lionel

Bart reworking of Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” will hit the center

on Dec. 21 and run through Jan. 2.

Get ready for this one, kids. Disney’s “The Lion King” arrives at

the center on March 11, 2005, and will stick around through April 24.

This multi-honored musical features the Oscar-winning song “Can You

Feel the Love Tonight,” by Elton John and Tim Rice, and

director-choreographer Julie Taymor’s work has been heralded as “a

landmark event in entertainment” by Newsweek magazine.

Billy Joel, who’s won five Grammy awards, and legendary

director/choreographer Twyla Tharp, are the creative minds behind

“Movin’ Out,” coming to the center on June 28 and running through

July 10. It’s a dance-driven story of five lifelong friends over two

turbulent decades and was hailed by Time magazine as the top show of

the year.

Another oldie but goodie, well traveled in local theater, is

“Little Shop of Horrors.” Based on an old Roger Corman movie, the

musical spotlights a boy and girl falling in love in a Skid Row

flower show and the giant plant that devours just about everything --

and everyone -- in sight. It’s ticketed from Aug. 16 to 28.

“With twice as many seats available for our subscribers, we are

looking forward to introducing new audiences to the magic of live

performances at the center,” Mandel said.

And, judging by the upcoming productions, Mandel shouldn’t have

any trouble filling his Costa Mesa showplace for the extra week.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.