Swoosie Kurtz and Alan Alda will star in L.A. Theatre Works' "The Play's the Thing" live radio series' production of John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, Oct. 21-25. Kurtz, who took over the role of New York socialite Ouisa from Stockard Channing in the Broadway staging of the Guare play, will repeat that role. Alda, recently on Broadway and bound for L.A. (in January) in Art, will play her husband, Flan. Chuma Hunter Gault will the play the con artists who infiltrates their rarified lives by passing himself off as Sidney Portier's son.
All performances are recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center for future broadcast on KCRW 89.9FM. For information, call (310) 827-0889.
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The L.A. Theatre Works season will also include a new work by Jon Robin Baitz. The Three Hotels author returns to the travel and accommodations industry with A Small Hotel, which concerns an apolitical American couple whose Riviera hotel is taken over by a deposed dictator. Nathan Lane and Julie Kavner will play roles written specifically for them. The play, an LATW commission, will run Jan. 20-24, 1999, at the Skirball Cultural Center.
Baitz is the author of The Substance of Fire, The End of the Day and House, a collaboration with Terrence McNally which is being given its premiere this summer at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, Long Island. Both Lane and Kavner appeared in the LATW premiere of Baitz's Mizlansky/Zilinsky last year. Linda Lavin, Harris Yulin and Jonathan Kaplan will recreate their performances in the recent Broadway revival of The Diary of Anne Frank (Nov. 18-22) when LATW performs that Goodrich-Hackett drama. Jane Kaczmarek and Paul Sand will also star.
Next on the roster is the Shaw classic The Doctor's Dilemma (Dec. 2-5). Rosalind Ayres will direct a cast of British actors including Roy Dotrice, Martin Jarvis, Alfred Molina, Douglas Weston and Paxton Whitehead.
Following A Small Hotel will be George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum (Feb. 17-21, 1999). The show will feature Loretta Devine and Vickilyn Reynolds, veterans of the Off-Broadway production. Charlie Robinson and Charlayne Woodward will also star. Reggie Montgomery directs.
Working (Mar. 3-7), the musical based on Studs Terkel's book, will complete the season. The LATW staging will include Jason Alexander, Nell Carter, Joe Mantegna and JoBeth Williams.
-- By Robert Simonson
