Los Angeles Spotlight: June 2005

There’s hot stuff in L.A. — scorching hot as a matter of fact — as June busts out all over with a wealth of sizzling blockbusters. Heading the list are two Tony-winning Broadway hits in their L.A. debuts. On June 22, we’ll be off to see Wicked, the Wizard of Oz prequel by composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz and librettist Winnie Holzman, at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre. This Broadway sensation, directed by Joe Mantello, and starring Stephanie J. Block, Kendra Kassebaum, and Carol Kane, is based on the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire. Netting a Grammy and three Tonys, it’s the story of two girls who meet in the merry old land of Oz, long before Dorothy got zonked on the head during a hurricane. They become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch and become unlikely friends, warbling to the beat of Schwartz’s rousing and inventive music and lyrics. Word is that the six-week run, prior to a San Francisco engagement, is virtually sold-out.

There’s a huge “dying-to-see” factor surrounding another local premiere, also in a very limited run. It’s Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife, still toplining the acclaimed original star, Jefferson Mays, and helmed by director Moises Kaufman. Wright recently told us this touring edition is a virtual replica of the Tony-winning Broadway production. The show has picked up every major theatre award known to man–from the Pulitzer to the Drama Desk. A seemingly unlikely vehicle for Broadway, it confounded the naysayers. Wright’s fact-based solo drama stars Mays as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a German transvestite, who miraculously survived both the terrifying Nazi regime and the subsequent Communist government. Few plays arrive in L.A. with as much anticipation as this one. Tickets should be secured immediately.

Two other productions promise to be major events. The groundbreaking Cornerstone Theatre Company, famous for its multicultural projects and site-specific productions offers the world premiere of James Still’s A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters, (Hollywood’s Ford Amphitheatre, opening June 4) directed by Bill Rauch. It’s described an expansive panoramic epic that stages an interlocking chain of unexpected encounters between communities of faith in contemporary L.A. More than 50 professional and community artists are featured in the show, which has elements of Arthur Schnitzler’s classic play La Ronde. It’s a culmination of the company’s multi-year series of plays called the Faith-Based Cycle.

At the impressive new Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, writer/director Nancy Keystones’ Apollo–Part I: Lebensraum debuts June 12. The play reveals startling facts about America’s space race, following space pioneers Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph, the darlings of Nazi Germany’s rocket program who became American rocketeers. It’s a multi-disciplinary performance piece told in a collage of text, image, movement and music.

Beyond the obvious allure of Wicked, several other musicals suggest wide interest. The up-and-coming Open at the Productions, housed at the NoHo Arts Center, offers a world premiere musical, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (opening June 3). Based on the vintage novel, film and TV series, the show is written and directed by James J, Mellon, with music and lyrics by Scott DeTurk and Bill Francoeur, and stars James Barbour, Lynne Wintersteller, Brooks Almy, and Kevin Bailey. Up the street from the Arts Center, there’s likely to much toe-tapping at The Melody Lingers On, The Songs of Irving Berlin (North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre, June 23). No book writer is cited, but the new show is based on the biography Irving Berlin, A Daughter’s Memoir, by Mary Ellin Barrett. Jamie Rocco directs and choreographs, and the stellar cast includes Kathryn Crosby, Todd Murray, Melina Marie Kalamos, and David Engel.

Among other tuners: Performance Riverside’s Sondheim classic A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Landis Auditorium in Riverside, opening June 3), and the world premiere of Atalanta (Santa Monica’s Powerhouse Theatre, opening June 4), with music by David O, book and lyrics by Karen Hardcastle, and based on Marlo Thomas’ vintage Free to Be You and Me TV special and album. Orange County Performing Arts Center serves up two tantalizing offerings: Tommy Tune & The Manhattan Rhythm Kings: Taps, Tunes + Tails (June 11 only), and the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel dance musical Movin’ Out (opening June 28). And for two nights only (June 10 and 11), Jason Robert Brown at the El Portal features the Tony Award-winning musical theater composer and lyricist playing and singing his own music, accompanied by his two-man band, The Caucasian Rhythm Kings.

There are also some new and revived comedies and dramas on tap, offering an eclectic mix. The revisits include Dale Wasserman’s venerable One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Hollywood’s Theatre District, opening June 10), Abby Mann’s stage version of the film and television classic Judgment at Nuremberg (Long Beach’s International City Theatre, opening June 17), Charles Markowitz’s comic whodunit Sherlock’s Last Case (Burbank’s Colony Theatre, opening June 11), plus two Shakespeare classics in the repertory season at the outdoors Theatricum Bontanicum in Topanga Canyon: Othello (opening June 5) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (opening June 11).

Making its West Coast bow is Jamie Pachino’s Waving Goodbye (downtown’s Los Angeles Theatre Center, opening June 10), originally produced at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, about a 17-year old girl who loses her father and must adjust to living with the mother who abandoned her. Another West Coast premiere is John Corwin’s Navy Pier (Victory Theatre, opening June 11), directed by Howard Fine, about four college friends who are separated geographically but not spiritually. Ending our roundup on a light note — a possible panacea to beat the sweltering heat – -is West Coast Ensemble’s production of Jim Geoghan’s Two Gentlemen of Corona (opening June 24), directed by Henry Polic II. This breezy romp is about the misadventures of low-level mobsters in 1963 New York. Call it Martin Scorsese meets Mel Brooks.