Los Angeles Spotlight: October 2005

Edginess and Halloween seem to go hand in hand, so it’s altogether fitting that the biggest L.A. theater news this month is the return of EdgeFest, now all housed at Los Angeles Theatre Center (Oct. 6-23). This seventh annual event encompasses the work of L.A.’s risk-taking established small companies as well as audacious newcomers. Besides the usual array of offbeat comedies, dramas, and genre-stretching shows that defy categorization, there will be interesting workshops and panel discussions, including one on the rampant problems of theatres losing their performance spaces, and one on the drastic cutback in new play productions at Center Theatre Group.

Speaking of CTG, it will host the West Coast premiere of David Mamet’s farce Romance (Mark Taper Forum, opening Oct. 9). This scathing sendup of society’s foibles is directed by Neil Pepe, the artistic director of New York’s Atlantic Theater Company (which first staged the play). Set in a New York courtroom where the defendant and his attorney test the boundaries of truth and ethics, the show stars Larry Bryggman, who reprises his award-winning role as a pill-popping judge, and Ed Begley, Jr.

Laughs are also to be had in Christopher Durang’s Betty’s Summer Vacation (Electric Lodge, opening Oct. 21) about a woman whose vacation at a beach house goes sour when she has to deal with unsavory housemates. The wonderful cross-dressing diva Lypsinka returns to LaLa land as the divine Joan Crawford in The Passion of the Crawford (Renberg Theatre at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, opening Oct. 6), directed by Kevin Maloney. Meadows Basement presents Kid-Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh (Theatre/Theater, Oct. 14), Jordan Harrison’s award-winning comedy about a child prodigy who creates a unique invention. Maria E. Jenson’s Shrinks (Hudson Backstage Theatre, opening Oct. 15) is about a couple who experiences some bumpy communication issues — set on a revolving stage, complete with a carnival atmosphere.

Those seeking musical entertainment will be heading over to Fullerton Civic Light Opera’s staging of Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida (opening Oct. 14) starring Jamila Adjibade of the Fifth Dimension. Rappers Jeremy Sable and Eli Batalion, in collaboration with Joe Barrucco, retell the Old Testament story of Job as an allegory of the contemporary music business in the world premiere tuner, J.O.B., the Hip-Hopera (Hollywood’s Stella Adler Theatre, opening Oct. 27).

The month’s dramatic fare includes some promising-sounding offerings. Celtic Arts Center revisits the show it debuted with 20 years ago, Sidney Michael’s Dylan (opening Oct. 7), set in the 1950s in Wales and America and focusing on iconic poet Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin. The new Unknown Theatre in Hollywood bows with J.B. Priestley’s Johnson Over Jordan (opening Oct. 13). Inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the play begins with the death of its hero at age 51 of pneumonia, and follows the character into another realm.

John Fortson’s solo play Loveswell (Two Roads Theatre, opening Oct. 14) is about a surfer who falls in love and has trouble keeping his head above water. Bruce Goldsmith’s When It Comes to Women (Odyssey Theatre, opening Oct. 15), directed by Asaad Kelada, follows a man through three decades as he tries hard to find a legitimate place in a competitive, brutal community. And Lodestone Theatre Ensemble’s American Monsters 2 (GTC Burbank, opening Oct. 29) presents five-one act plays from this Asian- American troupe, all loosely based on Grimm’s fairy tales but with contemporary themes.

On the family front, Glendale Centre Theatre continues its ongoing Saturday morning showings of the classic King Arthur story, The Sword in the Stone, adapted by Craig Sabin, with music by Chris P. Bacon. Santa Monica Playhouse ushers in the witches-and-goblins season with Absolutely Halloween (Saturday and Sunday matinees, through October 30), a world premiere musical by Evelyn Rudie in which a young girl learns valuable lessons about life, love, and laughter from her cat, who takes her on a magical adventure.

Finally, for kids of all ages, that seemingly indefatigable and endlessly optimistic orphan is back again in a new tour of Martin Charnin and Charles Strouse’s Annie (Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre, opening Oct. 4), starring Conrad John Schuck, Alene Robertson, Marissa O’Donnell, and showbiz survivor Mackenzie Phillips as Lily St. Regis.