Vanguard theater has variety this season

Tom Titus

Variety, they say, is the spice of life -- and the same holds true

for theater groups scheduling their new seasons.

Costa Mesa’s Vanguard University is lifting the curtain on its

2004-05 season, and the subject matter is varied indeed -- everything

from Chekhov to Sondheim, with a little musical comedy and an Agatha

Christie whodunit in between.

It all begins tonight as Vanguard kicks off the new slate with

“Starting Here, Starting Now,” a musical revue focusing on the trials

and confusions of love and friendship from composer David Shire and

lyricist Richard Maltby Jr. Maria Cominis Glaudini is in the

director’s chair for the tuneful exercise, which will play for two

weekends in the university’s Lyceum Theater, closing Sept. 19.

The vintage comedy “Life With Father” is next on the Vanguard

agenda. A long-running show on Broadway in its time, Clarence Day’s

lighthearted memoir of old-time family life was adapted for the stage

by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

Directed by Andrew Levy, this memory piece from more than a

century ago -- at the height of the Victorian era -- will be staged

Oct. 15 to 17 and Oct. 21 to 24. There will be no performance Oct.

16.

Most playgoers love a mystery, especially one they haven’t sat

through a dozen times. Thus, Vanguard is resurrecting Agatha

Christie’s “A Murder is Announced,” which isn’t nearly as familiar as

Christie’s “The Mousetrap” or “Ten Little Indians,” which many

whodunit fans know by heart.

Theater department chairwoman Susan K. Berkompas will be staging

the Christie mystery, which begins with a newspaper announcement of a

murder about to take place. The venerable Miss Marple will be on the

case, and the show runs Nov. 12 to 21, except for a dark night on

Nov. 13.

The spotlight shifts briefly to Vanguard’s dance department from

Feb. 3 to 6 for “Scheherazade,” a retelling of the Arabian Nights

legend of the beautiful storyteller who risks her own live to save

her people. Deborah Marley has adapted the Rimsky-Korsakov piece for

the stage and will direct the production.

Anton Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters” is next on the Vanguard

schedule, a moody comedy focusing on a trio of siblings yearning to

trade their provincial drudgery for a better life in Moscow. Desire

and frustration intertwine in this “might have been” dramatic comedy.

Marianne Savell, who staged “The Lion in Winter” at the college

last season, will direct “The Three Sisters,” which plays March 4 to

6 and March 10 to 13, but it will be dark March 5.

Finally, Stephen Sondheim’s popular fairy tale musical “Into the

Woods” arrives to close out the Vanguard season April 15 to 17 and

April 21 to 24. Here, characters from various Grimm brothers

fantasies intertwine with some others created by James Lapine, who

wrote the book to accompany Sondheim’s score.

Amick Byram, who directed the superior “Brigadoon” at Vanguard

earlier this year, returns to mount “Into the Woods,” one of the

better Sondheim offerings in a four-decade career replete with them.

Playgoers may purchase season tickets to the Vanguard program at

$38 to $42 each -- which certainly sounds like a bargain, considering

some venues in Costa Mesa charge more than that for one performance.

Further information may be obtained by calling the college’s box

office at (714) 668-6145.

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

appear Fridays.