‘Hamlet’ to headline season at South Coast Repertory

In its first 41 years, South Coast Repertory has brought to the stage some of the world’s best-known classic plays, some of its most obscure and a plethora of world premieres.

Yet the most celebrated script in the English language somehow has eluded the Costa Mesa company.

That oversight will be corrected early next year when Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” mounts the Segerstrom Stage as the focal point of the theater’s 2006-07 season ? and the title role already has been cast.

Hamish Linklater ? currently appearing in the CBS sitcom “The New Adventures of Old Christine” ? will play the brooding prince of Denmark under the direction of Daniel Sullivan. It’ll be Linklater’s second visit to South Coast Rep: He was featured in the world premiere of Richard Greenberg’s “The Violet Hour” back in 2002.

As has been customary at the South Coast Rep, just a few of the slots on the Segerstrom Stage and the adjacent Julianne Argyros Stage have been filled, leaving room for new projects as they develop. Thus, only two other plays have been announced to join “Hamlet” on the Segerstrom Stage, something old and something new.

The oldie is George Walker’s “Nothing Sacred,” which has nothing to do with the vintage Carole Lombard movie. An adaptation of 19th century Russian novel “Fathers and Sons,” it’s described as a “serious comedy” and will open the new season in September.

Perennial South Coast Rep favorite Beth Henley returns with the West Coast premiere of “Ridiculous Fraud,” a quirky comedy set in Henley’s familiar Old South territory. In this one, a father can’t make it to his son’s wedding because he’s in jail, but it may not matter because the groom has gone missing.

Additionally, the Segerstrom Stage will play host to a world premiere scheduled for May 2007, during the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Also under consideration are “Life is a Dream” by a playwright identified only as Calderon and Alan Ayckbourn’s “Season’s Greetings,” which was a highlight of last season’s Laguna Playhouse slate.

The Argyros Stage schedule will get under way with “Bach at Leipzig,” a new play by Itamar Moses and based on a historical incident. It focuses on the search to replace the organ master at Leipzig’s Thomas Church in 1722 ? a position that eventually went to Bach but involved seven scheming also-rans.

“Pig Farm,” by Tony-winner Greg Kotis (“Urinetown”), also is ticketed for the Argyros. It’s billed as a darkly comic exploration of pork and the people who produce it. The play was developed at the South Coast Rep.

Also under consideration at the Argyros are “Leitmotif” by Victoria Stewart, “The Piano Teacher’ by Julia Cho and “System Wonderland” by David Wiener.

The new season also will include new incarnations of “A Christmas Carol” and “La Posada Magica,” which South Coast Rep has been offering each holiday season since 1980 and 1994, respectively. The company’s Theater for Young Audiences will stage three professional productions.