Playhouse prepares for 41st season

Tom Titus

Having attained the ripe old age of 40, the Huntington Beach

Playhouse will plunge into its fifth decade with a 2004 season that’s

a blend of old favorites and new releases.

First, however, there’s the final show of 2003 to mount -- Agatha

Christie’s murder mystery “Ten Little Indians,” opening,

appropriately, on Halloween. (The Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse

apparently deemed it appropriate as well, since its own “Ten Little

Indians” will hit the boards the same weekend.)

Then, after a holiday respite, the playhouse will swing back in

action Jan. 9 with the first local production of “The Last of the

Honky Tonk Angels.” As the title suggests, the musical follows a

country-western theme, but the story line falls closer to Stephen

Sondheim’s “Follies,” about an old “opry house” scheduled for

demolition. Countrified comedy will prevail -- one number is entitled

“The DUI Blues.”

Another local newcomer, hitting the boards Feb. 20, is Neil

Simon’s new comedy “Proposals.” This one centers on a fellow

recovering with his daughter in the Poconos from a recent heart

attack, and making the mistake of inviting his ex-wife over to mend

fences with their daughter. A family fracas ensues, extending to the

family housekeeper and her estranged husband, who shows up after

seven years. All in all, a pretty interesting weekend.

A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room,” a favorite among high school

drama departments, settles into the playhouse April 23. In this

inventive dramatic comedy, characters of all ages flow in and out of

the title setting in various stages of emotional upheaval. Poignancy

and humor alternate as the actors inhabit multiple characters.

The playhouse intended to mark its 40th season this year by

reviving its very first play, “Harvey,” but the Laguna Playhouse, a

professional operation, trumped those plans with a “Harvey” of its

own. Next season the Huntington Beach thespians will try again,

penciling in a comedy originally mounted by the group in 1964.

That would be “The Desk Set,” which inspired one of the many

Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn movie vehicles of a half-century ago

(Shirley Booth occupied the Hepburn role on Broadway even earlier).

This comedy about human researchers facing the threat of being

replaced by computers was a bit ahead of its time. It’ll open at the

playhouse May 28.

“Shakespeare in the Park” has occupied the warmer months in the

wooded area adjacent to the playhouse’s Library Theater for the past

dozen years. Next year, the Bard’s final work will be on view when

“The Tempest” opens July 10 and plays weekend afternoons through July

28.

Gilbert and Sullivan tickled British fancies (and a few on this

side of the Atlantic) a century ago with their satirical operettas,

probably the most significant of which was “The Pirates of Penzance.”

It’ll return to Huntington Beach (not long after its production at

Golden West College) July 23 for an extended engagement through Aug.

15.

Agatha Christie will be represented again in 2004 with “The

Spider’s Web,” opening Oct. 2. This whodunit centers on a diplomat’s

wife who spins tall tales for her husband’s friends, but finds the

real thing more challenging, especially when it happens in her living

room and her young stepdaughter is a prime suspect.

Old country attitudes vs. modern ideas clash in “Over the River

and Through the Woods,” a new (1998) comedy about a Italian-American

young man who strives to make Americanized choices in his career

while remaining part of an Italian family. This one arrives on the

playhouse stage Nov. 12 and will be the play’s first local staging.

All productions (except for “The Tempest”) will be presented at

the Central Library Theater, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach.

Information on reservations and auditions may be obtained by calling

(714) 375-0696.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.