‘Lagunatics’ will be roasted in a bowl this year

Tom Titus

Since 1992, the unique community that is Laguna Beach has been

roasted annually in a popular celebration that celebrates the city’s

assorted fruits and nuts.

This year, it comes in a bowl.

“Lagunatics” -- created by Bree Burgess Rosen, who continues as

the creative guiding force behind the yearly benefit show -- has been

staged in the past in the Forum Theater on the Festival of Arts

grounds, but this time around the show makes an upscale move to the

adjacent Irvine Bowl, home of the annual Pageant of the Masters.

“The cast features local personalities, politicians and an amazing

array of talent with credits from Broadway to Las Vegas’ largest

showrooms to Southern California’s finest theaters,” Rosen declares.

“There also are a few talentless bums who sneak in but seem fit to

entertain all the same,” she adds, with a grin.

This year’s “Lagunatics” program has been ticketed for Oct. 16 and

17 in the outdoor arena. Seating will be “limited” to the bowl’s

front 1,000 seats.

The Laguna roast, in which any aspect of life in the Art Colony is

fair game, takes familiar music from Broadway shows and pop songs and

adds new, localized lyrics by such creative minds as Rosen, Chris

Quilter, Adam Hemming, Todd Payton Leach and Paul Leighton Nygro.

This year’s spoof fest includes such topics as the city’s parking

challenges with a song entitled “You Can’t Reach the Beach” from the

“Hairspray” tune “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” If that number doesn’t

strike a responsive chord, the musical “Hairspray” is opening at the

Orange County Performing Arts Center Oct. 12, just four days ahead of

“Lagunatics.”

Other subjects under satirical discussion will be reforesting,

with “Kelp” set to the music of the Beatles’ “Help” and a medley of

Bee Gees tunes reflecting on the high cost of local real estate.

There’s also a number titled “Ahnold and Maria,” celebrating our new

governator.

It’s all for fun, but the object is quite serious -- raising funds

for local charities. Throughout the years, “Lagunatics” has

contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to such organizations as

Laguna Shanti, the Laguna Community Clinic, the Laguna Playhouse,

Laguna Beach High School Artists’ Theater, Ballet Pacifica and the No

Square Theater.

The latter group, Laguna’s own community theater, is a particular

pet project of Rosen, who founded the group in 1997. No Square will

benefit from “Lagunatics ‘04” with $15 of each ticket from the final

performance going to the theater company.

Local talent for “Lagunatics” includes such luminaries as city

council members, the city treasurer and the chief of police -- who,

Rosen notes, has turned out to be “quite a criminal himself, stealing

the show two years running.” Performers hail from all over Orange

County, even a few from Hollywood and San Diego.

This year, audiences won’t have to worry about the show selling

out at the Forum, since seating is more than available in the Irvine

Bowl -- if you’re among the first 1,000 to reserve tickets. To learn

more about the wackiest show of the year, contact the organizers at

(949) 497-2584 or check out www.lagunatics.info.