Playhouse still looking spry at 40

Tom Titus

About this time next year, the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse will be

celebrating its 40th birthday. I know because I was present at the

creation.

Back in the spring of 1965, I’d just started reviewing local plays

and writing about the theater for the Daily Pilot, when it occurred

to me that my columns might be more informed if I had some practical

experience in the field. Besides, it looked like a lot of fun.

As it happened, both assumptions were correct. In May of that

year, the Civic Playhouse, under its founding director, the late Pati

Tambellini, announced plans for its first adult project, having put a

children’s play and a youth show on the boards. The maiden production

was the comedy “Send Me No Flowers.”

I auditioned, won the cameo role of the cemetery lot salesman

(played by Paul Lynde in the movie version) and got my feet wet in

community theater. And I experienced my first and last taste of

entrance applause.

I’d been a reporter, covering the city of Costa Mesa, for about a

year and a half, and many of the local city officials were in

attendance on opening night. When they responded to my first

appearance on stage, it nearly erased all 40 or so lines I’d

painstakingly committed to memory.

As the years went on, I appeared in several other shows for the

playhouse, the most memorable assignment being Ensign Pulver in “Mr.

Roberts,” as well as other local theater groups, before starting

directing in 1968.

For 31 years, I held down the position of artistic director of the

Irvine Community Theater, from which I finally retired last summer.

But the Civic Playhouse always held a warm spot for me as my first

theater home.

In 1985, Pati announced “Father of the Bride” as the theater’s

20th anniversary show. Feeling nostalgic, I auditioned and wound up

with the title role. By that time, the playhouse had relocated from

its vintage auditorium on the Orange County Fairgrounds to its

present location in the Rea School complex on Hamilton Avenue.

Now, 20 more than years have passed, and the playhouse is making

plans for its 40th anniversary season in 2004-05. And, in a sense,

it’s starting right where it left off.

When last visited, the playhouse was presenting the musical

“Cabaret,” which takes place in the early 1930s, prior to Adolf

Hitler’s rise to power. Leading off the new season will be “The Diary

of Anne Frank,” based on the 14-year-old girl’s true story of events

that transpired in Holland during the reign of the Nazi regime. That

show will open Sept. 9 and run through Oct. 3.

Another young girl is the focal point for “The Secret Garden,” a

musical version of a story that has captivated readers for decades.

The local production arrives Feb. 10 and plays through March 13. This

show won a 1991 Tony award for “best book of a musical” and was

nominated for a half-dozen other Tonys.

What would a special season be without Neil Simon? Especially a

Simon play that doesn’t come around that often. From April 7 through

May 1, the playhouse will present “Biloxi Blues,” the middle play in

the “BB” trilogy (between “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Broadway

Bound”) and focusing on Eugene Jerome -- a thinly disguised portrait

of Simon himself -- when he enlists in the Army during World War II.

Finally, another musical will close out the anniversary season and

offer a local premiere in the process. “Falsettos” involves members

of a “typical modern American nuclear family” which turns out to be

not so normal after all. The show won Tonys in 1992 for “best book of

a musical” and “best score.”

The Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse is looking pretty young and

strapping for a 40-year-old, judging by its current, edgy production

of “Cabaret.”

For those who have yet to discover it, the address is 661 Hamilton

St., Costa Mesa, and information on the new season is available at

(949) 650-5269.

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

appear Fridays.