Alan Alda will star in the world premiere of a new Peter Parnell play, Tuva or Bust, to open at L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum April 26, 2000. Parnell's Cider House Rules, now playing Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theatre Company, was seen a year ago at the Taper.
Tuva or Bust was adapted by Parnell from Ralph Leighton's book of the same name. It deals with the adventures of the colorful, eccentric physics professor Richard Feynman, who will be portrayed by Alda.
Stage veteran Alda originated the role of Marc in the Broadway premiere of the Tony-winning play Art.
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The remainder of the 1999-2000 Taper season is as follows: The 1999-2000 season will commence Oct. 7 with Landau's Space, a play which follows a brilliant and famous neuro-surgeon who has suddenly become a magnet for patients claiming to be alien abductees.
When Space was produced in Chicago, it was hailed by most critics. Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun Times said it "happily sends the mind soaring far beyond the ozone layer" and is "a thoughtful, imaginative and highly theatrical journey into science and parapsychology, metaphysics, love and spirituality."
Simon's The Dinner Party will follow on Dec. 2. A comedy set in a chic restaurant in Paris, it deals with six guests who are confronted with strange surprises from their past. Simon has had 15 plays produced by either the Taper or its sister company, the Ahmanson.
The West Coast premiere of Wilson's Jitney will be presented Feb. 3, 2000. The story deals with cab drivers in Pittsburgh in the late 70s. The play had its premiere in that city two years ago.
Tuva or Bust will follow, and the fifth play in the season will be the world premiere of The Poison Tree by Robert Glaudini, which was commissioned by the Taper and developed in workshop productions. A company spokesperson described it as "a fascinating play of poetry and seduction that echoes real events in southern California." June 8.
Loomer, last seen at the Taper with The Waiting Room, will offer her latest play Expecting Isabel Aug. 3 in a West Coast premiere. The play recently won the American Theatre Critics Association best play award. It's a satire about a couple of yuppies trying to have a baby.
-- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent
and Robert Simonson
