Los Angeles Spotlight: July 2006

Better late than never! Curtains is finally going up at the Ahmanson Theatre (July 25-September 10). This murder mystery musical hopes to follow in the footsteps of the Tony Award-winning hit The Drowsy Chaperone — which also began at the Ahmanson — and make it big on Broadway. And why shouldn’ it? The score is by one of Broadway’s most popular and acclaimed songwriting teams, composer John Kander and his late collaborator, lyricist Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago, and Kiss of the Spider Woman), and the book is by Tony winner Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), based on an earlier, un-produced version by the late Peter Stone. The stellar cast, directed by Scott Ellis and choreographed by Tony winner Rob Ashford, includes David Hyde Pierce, Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba, Jason Danieley, and Edward Hibbert (who’s taking the summer off from, of all things, The Drowsy Chaperone). Sounds like a hit to us.

Many additional musical classics promise to heat up the summer. Musical Theatre West offers the seafaring Cole Porter classic Anything Goes (July 8-23), starring Belle Callaway, Kevin Earley and TV favorite Allyce Beasley. Cabrillo Music Theatre revives the Meredith Willson slice of Americana, The Music Man (July 28-August 6). The Pasadena Playhouse cordially invites us to The Marriage Musicals (July 8-Aug. 6) featuring a couple of two-hander tuners in repertory: Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones’ I Do! I Do! and Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years. The Andrew Lloyd Weber-Tim Rice favorite Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Orange County Performing Arts Center, July 11-23) is back in town, top-lining Patrick Cassidy and American Idol‘s Amy Adams.

A show with a strong Broadway musical link is West Coast Jewish Theatre’s premiere of Jim Brochu’s solo drama Zero Hour (Hollywood’s Egyptian Arena Theatre, July 5-Aug. 13), a biographical portrait of legendary actor-singer Zero Mostel. Elsewhere around town, Frances Conroy and Tom Irwin star in Scottish playwright David Greig’s Pyrenees, about a man who appears to have lost his memory (Kirk Douglas Theatre, July 2-30). The zany Shear Madness (Laguna Playhouse, July 11-September 30) in its Orange County premiere, enlists the audience to help decide whodunit following a murder in a hair salon. The acclaimed Richard Montoya and his Culture Clash troupe unveil their new work, Water and Power (Mark Taper Forum, July 27-September 17), following the fate of Angelino twin brothers and their father, set against politics surrounding the LA Water and Power department.

Other premering plays include The Four Man Plan: A Romantic Science (Santa Monica’s Ruskin Group Theatre, July 14-September 2), Cindy Lu’s solo comedy about the world of dating; R. Hamilton Wright’s Greensward (Circus Theatricals at the Hudson, July 15-August 12), about a scientific breakthrough that sends the world into a frenzy; and Michael McFall’s Dirty White Tuxedo Pants and a Brown Plastic Bag (West Hollywood’s Globe Playhouse, July 13-August 12), a sardonic tale of a homeless veteran living on the L.A. streets.

Finally, family audiences will want to check out And Awaaay We Go to Wonderland (Santa Monica Playhouse, through July 9), an interactive production in which the audience helps decide the future of fairy tale characters, such as Hansel and Gretel.