it980900.htm

THEATRE PREVIEW

SEPTEMBER 1998

Published in In Theater

In this land of surf and sand, we’re fond of saying, ‘When the sun goes down, the curtain goes up.’ And this season, the curtain rises on some mighty interesting fare, including three world premieres and a U.S. debut.

Fresh from its beautiful, funny 50th anniversary production of Moss Hart’s “Light Up the Sky” (which was attended by Hart’s son Chris and widow Kitty Carlisle Hart, and which harked back to the 1949 production with theater co-founder Gregory Peck), the La Jolla Playhouse ends its summer season with its first commission in seven years: “Dogeaters,” Jessica Hagedorn’s stage version of her wry, sprawling, nonlinear personal/political 1990 Philippines novel, which was nominated for the National Book Award. Playhouse artistic director Michael Greif (“Rent”) directs (9/13- 10/11; see review in In Theater).

For next summer, the Playhouse just announced the American premiere of “Jane Eyre,” a musical version of that grand old Gothic romance (workshopped in New York and Wichita; opened in Toronto, 1996). The much-revised Playhouse production (“more emotional, less epic... more a book musical”) reunites director John Caird (“Nicholas Nickleby”) with his award-winning RSC “Les Miz” design team: John Napier (sets) and Andreane Neofitou (costumes). Chris Parry designs the lighting. Music and lyrics are by L.A.-based songwriter Paul Gordon. Caird also serves as librettist and co-lyricist; Scott Schwartz (son of Stephen) co-directs.

Across town at the Old Globe Theatre, Neil Patrick Harris (TV’s “Doogie Howser” and “Rent’s” Mark) makes his Shakespeare debut as Romeo (through October 10), next door to the world premiere of “Paramour” (9/26-10/31), a new musical based on Jean Anouilh’s “Waltz of the Toreadors.” Book and lyrics are by Joe Masteroff (librettist for “Cabaret,” “She Loves Me”). He calls the piece “a serious French farce with five attempted suicides and one attempted murder.” Len Cariou stars as the blustery general (a role originated on Broadway in 1956 by Ralph Richardson).

The Globe ends the year in the holiday spirit, with a brand new book musical of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The late, great Dr. Seuss, you may be aware, lived in San Diego, and his widow, philanthropist Audrey Geisel, is giving this gift to her hometown. Globe artistic director Jack O’Brien collaborates with choreographer Kathleen Marshall, as well as John Lee Beatty (sets), Robert Morgan (costumes), Pat Collins (lighting). Book and lyrics are by Timothy Mason, music by Mel Marvin.

Elsewhere around town:

• “It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues” (created by Randal Myler et al.), which kicks off a 9-month national tour at the San Diego Repertory Theatre (9/25-10/25), is followed by this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner, Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive” (11/6-29)

• The fringe-living, in-your-face bad-boys of Sledgehammer Theatre take a chance on a musical: “Sweet Charity” (11/1-29)

• Rob Nash (recently profiled in American Theatre) brings “Sophomore Slump,” his world premiere follow-up to “Freshman Year Sucks” (part two of his evolving one-man, high school remembrance, “Holy Cross Quadrilogy”) to 6 @ Penn Studio (9/10-28), followed by Guillermo Reyes’ “Men on the Verge of a Hispanic Breakdown” (10/1-18) and Sherry Glaser’s reprise of her wildly hilarious “Family Secrets” (the longest-running solo woman’s show in Off Broadway history; 11/4-22). Her somewhat less hilarious “Oh My Goddess!” premiered here last May

• Sushi Performance and Visual Art presents “Love and Marriage” (11/8-31), a month-long festival of performance pieces focused on same-sex relationships, featuring Keegan and Lloyd (“The Last Queer Taboo”), Sara Felder (“June Bride”), David Mills (“The Wedding Banned”) and the Stephen Pelton Dance Theatre with dance/theatre/comedy company, SQUAD.

Sounds like something for everyone: old, new, borrowed (or revamped) and blue.

The Write Stuff: Our Town is fast becoming a haven for writers. In addition to the Fritz Theater’s annual Fritz Blitz of New Plays and the yearly Actors Festival (actors act as writers and directors, too), there’s the Fritz Theater’s “On the Map: Writers from America’s Finest City,” Parts I and II (10/29-11/29 and 5/6-6/6/99, featuring local playwrights Michael Hemmingson, Melanie Marnich, Judith Montague and Tim West), and the 14th annual statewide Young Playwrights Festival, which mounts contest-winning productions by high school/college writers at the Old Globe (11/12-22). Latest addition: The Irvine Playwrights-in-Residence Program was just established at the La Jolla Playhouse, thanks to a $480,000 multi-year grant from the James Irvine Foundation, earmarked to support the development of new plays and musicals.

Impressive Post Script: According to the latest report from the City’s Commission for Arts and Culture, the arts are Big Business in San Diego, creating nearly 5,000 jobs and pumping $70 million into the community. Furthermore, students with arts in the curriculum were found to perform better on standardized tests than those without. Show THAT to your local powers that be!