LOS ANGELES -- David Beaird's black comedy 900 Oneonta, nominated last year for London's Laurence Olivier Award for "Best Play," ends its extended Los Angeles engagement July 3. The show, which opened May 1 at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, was originally scheduled to run through June 20.

A humorous yet painful depiction of a spectacularly dysfunctional Deep South family, the play features three award-winning leading performers from the original London company: Leland Crooke, Jon Cryer and Ben Daniels. Beaird directs his own work.

Other cast members include Terrence Beasor, Peggy Ann Blow, Kadijah Karriem, Peggy McCay, John W. Morgan, Stephanie Nash, Missi Pyle and Kenneth Tigar. (Actor Tigar isn't taking his free nights off, by the way. He's running I Must Be Mr. Boswell in rep with Oneonta, on Sunday and Monday nights. That show, about biographer James Boswell, was recently extended to July 5.)

Beaird produced and directed 900 Oneonta at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London. The production then transferred to the Old Vic. After several months, the play again moved to London's West End. The play also had a brief run at NYC's Circle Repertory just before that theater shut its doors.

Beaird wrote and directed Scorchers, which ran for two years at the White Fire Theatre in L.A., and then directed the film version with Faye Dunaway and James Earl Jones. He created and produced the TV series "Key West" for the Fox network. The Odyssey Theatre is at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Call (310) 477 2055.

-- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent
and David Lefkowitz