A FUNNY THING HAPPENING AT THE MARK TAPER FORUM: Straight from Seattle Repertory Theatre comes the Los Angeles premiere of John Patrick Shanley's new comedy Psychopathia Sexualis, directed by Daniel Sullivan.
On his wedding night, a man confesses that he can't make love without his father's argyle socks. The confession begins a farcical spin of events involving his wife, best man and psychiatrist as the mission to retrieve the magical pair begins.
Shanley is best known for his Academy Award-winning screenplay, Moonstruck. Some of his full-length stage plays include Four Dogs and A Bone (recently at the Geffen Playhouse), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and The Italian American Reconciliation.
Psychopathia Sexualis explores many delightful differences between the sexes, especially the issues of male vanity and female heroics.
Previews for Psychopathia Sexualis begin May 12, and it runs May 23 through June 30, Tues-Sat 8pm; Sat & Sun Mats: 2:30pm. Tickets are $22-35.50 and can be purchased by calling (213) 365-3500. IT'S ALL IN THE TIMING IN LA: Some say success is a combination of two vital items; being in the right place at the right time.
Ingredients to fit the recipe: All in the Timing, the critically acclaimed, comical collection of six "high-minded" one-acts by David Ives,' is having its Los Angeles premiere at the International City Theatre in Long Beach.
While enjoying a lengthy run at New York's Playwright's Horizons last year, the comedy received a Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Play, and playwright Ives received the Outer Critics' Circle's John Gassner Playwriting Award. In an article on the show, the New York Times billed Ives as "a master of verbal gymnastics."
The collection of plays reveals moments of life as seen from an ironic and bizarre perspective, all linked together by the theme of 'timing.' Some examples of skits are Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread, a spoof on avant-garde performance art, and Variations on the Death of Trotsky, which invents the several ways the Russian Revolutionary ended up dying with a mountain axe in his head.
All in the Timing runs at the Long Beach City theatre between Clark and Harvey Way from May 10-June 16. Performances are Friday and Saturday 8pm; Sun 2pm. Tickets are $18, and can be purchased by calling (310) 420-4128.
7 PLAYS IN MAY: Looking for weekend plans? For just $90, you can see 7 plays in a row, and enjoy two homemade dinners, at the Colony Theatre in the Silver Lake Area of LA.
Well known television actors will perform in a marathon of staged readings taking place May 4 & 5, beginning noon Saturday and ending with a show beginning on 7:30 Sunday evening. Actors such as Michael Gross ("Family Ties"); Howard Hesseman ("WKRP in Cincinnati"); Shirley Knight ("Thirtysomething"); and Cindy Williams ("Laverne and Shirley") are among several who will star in the following plays: Saturday: Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward, The Nerd by Larry Shue, Wrong Turn At Lungfish by Garry Marshall and Lowell Ganz; Getting Out by Marsha Norman and Sunday: I Ought to Be in Pictures by Neil Simon, Beyond Therapy by Christopher Durang, Love Letters by A.R. Gurney Jr.
Any three plays cost $39; individual plays are $15. Homemade's Dinners are $10. For reservations and more information, please (213) 655 3011.
SHAKESPEARE EXPANDS IN D.N.A. : The Dramatic New Arts Theatre Company (D.N.A.) and the Victory Theatre are presenting a contemporized version of Shakespeare's Richard III, May 18 through June 16. Director Gregory Gliedman is enhancing the classical text with video and multi-media elements in order to create an awareness of the similarities between the play and the political warfare occurring in eastern Europe today. Gliedman also intends to display the relationship between media and power, while bringing out the archetypal elements of Shakespeare's characters.
Richard III runs at the Little Victory Theatre in Burbank from May 18 through June 16, Thu-Sat 8pm. Tickets are $15, and reservations can be made by calling (818) 841-5421.
LA NOCHE DE HERNAN CORTES: The first English translation of Vicente Lenero's The Night of Hernan Cortes will be performed at the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts in Los Angeles, May 7 through June 16.
In 1992 the premiere of Cortes in four different Spanish speaking countries was hailed as a landmark play because it was the first to break away from traditional costume drama to portray the famous Spanish Conquistador. As the play reveals different stages and episodes of Hernan Cortes life, Lenero uses humor and irony to reveal a different perspective on the man and the conquest of Mexico.
The run of the play will alternate weekly from English to Spanish, running from May 7 through June 16. Performances are Thu-Sat 8pm; Sat and Sun 3pm. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased by calling (213) 225 4044.
LUKE'S GOT AN ITCH: Best known to audiences around the world as Luke Spencer, husband of Laura Baldwin on the ABC Daytime Drama "General Hospital," Anthony Geary will star in the world premiere of Human Scratchings written and directed by Rick Edelstein now playing at the Court Theatre in Los Angeles through June 2.
Edelstein and Geary worked together over two decades ago when Edelstein was head writer for the television series Geary was cast in, "Bright Promise." Now Geary plays a man who fragments in reaction to his wife's death. The play explores what happens to the human mind as it contemplates extreme behavior, and by following his inner journey the audience is able to gain perspective into headline current events and issues.
Human Scratchings plays at the Court Theatre Thu -Sun 8pm, through June 2. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased by call (213) 466 1767.
A REALLY GROUNDED WORLD PREMIERE: Award-winning Los Angeles playwright John Bunzel and director Ron Link have reunited to createGravity Shoes, beginning previews May 16 at the Hudson Avenue Theatre in Hollywood.
The two originally partnered on Bunzel's Delirious, which received a nomination from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle last year.
Gravity Shoes is a comedy that follows what happens to a work of art when it gets exposed to the cut throat deal-making and backstabbing behind the scenes in the process of trying to mount an off off-Broadway show.
The six-character play stars Dan Gerrity, currently in Twist of Fate at the Tiffany Theatre, and Elizabeth Reilly, last seen in the Fountain/Odyssey production of Park Your Car in Harvard Yard, and also successful television actors Thomas Calabro (Dr. Mancini on "Melrose Place") and Richard Kind ("Mad About You").
Gravity Shoes runs May 31 - July 14, Thu-Sat 8pm; Sun 7pm. Tickets are $18.50 and can be purchased by calling (213) 660-TKTS.
