THE CROWD:

“One day you will be walking through the theater district in New York or London and on a marquee you will see a play by Sarah Ruhl,” offered Martin Benson, artistic director and co-founder of South Coast Repertory Theatre.

Ruhl wrote a new work titled “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” which will debut on the Julianne Argyros Stage at South Coast Repertory on Sept. 21, running through Oct. 24 this season.

Benson joined his artistic partner David Emmes and South Coast Repertory board chairman Wylie Aitken on the stage of the grand ballroom Saturday at The St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach to celebrate the dawning of the 45th season of repertory theater in Orange County.

The 2008 SCR gala ball, called “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” raised $500,000 for the theater company and was a dream event heralding in the 2008-09 social season on the California Riviera.

Chaired by the uber-dedicated Jean Weiss, who, with husband, Tim Weiss, is a long-standing major benefactor of the repertory, the party was flawless fun in high gear.

Much loved by the community and recognized for her continuing efforts, Jean was dazzling at the party wearing a Donna Karan couture gown of nude silk emblazoned with sparkling faux diamonds strategically placed in all the right places.

Jean was an absolute show stopper, more dramatic than any star at the Oscars, and surely appropriate for this milestone gala event honoring 45 years of creative South Coast Repertory output, ever-evolving and cutting-edge.

Jean Weiss greeted the arriving black-tie crush as the crowd descended the grand stone staircase outside of The St. Regis ballroom to join in an alfresco pre-party reception in the hotel garden. It was a smashing Saturday evening soirée as the beautiful people mingled with actors attired in period costumes representing four decades of South Coast Repertory productions. Cocktails flowed and memories poured forth.

In a case of pure serendipity, the 45th South Coast Repertory event Sept. 6 was also the 45th wedding anniversary of Aitken and his wife, Bette. The happy couple reveled in the coincidence, which was applauded by countless friends in the crowd.

Toni and Steve Berlinger, Gail and Erne Doe, Jane and Richard Taylor, Linda and Bob Hovee and Helen and John Guiltinar were among the celebrants for both the repertory and the Aitkens.

Also front and center for the repertory were Julianne and George Argyros, Sue and Ralph Stern, South Coast’s executive Paula Tomei, Dee and Larry Higby, Olga and Fernando Nibla, Beth Sperling, Steve and Laurie Duncan, Patrick Cook-Degan and Heather Bohs.

Following the reception the ballroom doors were parted, revealing an exquisite party designed by Tom Buderwitz. Dinner prepared by chef Frederic Castan was superb, beginning with a trio of first courses including a mini Caesar salad, gazpacho soup topped with avocado cucumber mousse foam and an amazing smoked salmon and Dungeness crab purse.

The main entrée included beef tenderloin and tomato crusted sea bass. The very glamorous blond bombshell Danuta Schenke, wearing a low cut “lola”-red sheath offered, “We planned this menu for the gentlemen. They never get enough food at these affairs. Tonight, they will be fed properly!”

Schenke, who is both a South Coast Repertory devotee and an exclusive vintner who bottles a very select wine under the corporate banner Ocean Heights Company served only at Maestros and The Montage Resort, was indeed correct. The dinner was top drawer accompanied by the signature cocktail of the evening — the dreamtini.

Cocktails were not the only elixir. Donor and repertory fan John Tu, by day a major executive and by night the leader of a massive 31-piece band known as J.T. and California Dreamin’ had the crowd dancing till midnight.

The super high-energy Tu and his wife, Mary, were among the generous benefactors who made the evening a success. The hit of the night came when Jean Weiss joined former South Coast gala chairwomen Dee Higby and Betty Huang as band signers billed as “J.T.’s Dreamgirls.” The trio did a Supremes imitation singing “Stop in the Name of Love” and “I Hear A Symphony,” bringing down the house.

South Coast Repertory committee members deserving recognition include the fabulous and funny Olivia Johnson, Teri Kennady, Marlene Hammontree, Laurie Staude, Pam Muzzy, Valerie Fearns, Connie Spenuzza and Nancy Keller.

Also spotted in the crowd were Zee Allred and Drago Gligie, Pat and Richard Allen, Kathy and Bill Biava, DeDe and Howard Brink, Elliot and Janet Inchinose, Socorro and Ernesto Vasquez, Angela and Jim Hsu, Elaine Weinberg, Lynn and Bruce Silverman, Barbara and Bill Roberts, Gail and Ron Soderling and the new UCI Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and his wife, Catherine.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.