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Bening, Lahti and Metcalf Slated to Star in New Season at L.A.'s Geffen Playhouse
By Ernio Hernandez
04 Jun 2007
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Annette Bening will be part of the Geffen Playhouse season.
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Annette Bening, Christine Lahti and Laurie Metcalf will be part of the Geffen Playhouse season, which will include two world-premiere plays, a new musical and an American premiere, among others.
Five works have been announced for the California stage in addition to the previously reported season opener, Wendy Wasserstein's Third (starring Lahti).
The planned world premiere of The Best is Yet to Come — a musical conceived by Larry Gelbart and David Zippel featuring songs by the late Cy Coleman — has been postponed and replaced by the world premiere of Atlanta, by singer-songwriter Marcus Hummon and actor-director Adrian Pasdar ("Heroes").
Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays, which will be a special non-subscription event for the company, kicks off the week of Sept. 10 under the direction of Michael Hackett.
The Geffen Playhouse 2007-2008 season (subject to change) follows:
(All works play the main stage, unless noted as the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater.)
Third by Wendy Wasserstein (Sept. 11-Oct. 21)
Maria Mileaf directs Christine Lahti in the West Coast premiere of the final work by the late playwright. "Set in the uncertain months surrounding America's launch of the second Gulf War in Iraq, the work follows a professor (Lahti) at a prestigious New England university who is convinced her third generation, jock student has plagiarized a brilliant paper." The work debuted at Lincoln Center Theater in 2005.
Quality of Life by Jane Anderson (Oct. 2-Nov. 18) - Skirball Kenis Theater
Anderson directs her own world premiere commissioned by Geffen. Laurie Metcalf stars. The work centers on "Dinah and Bill, a conservative Christian Midwest couple, still recovering from the loss of their daughter, who have decided to visit their left-leaning cousins, Jeannette (Metcalf) and Neil who've lost their house and everything they owned in a wildfire."
Atlanta (Nov. 20-Dec. 30)
by Marcus Hummon (music, book) and Adrian Pasdar (book)
Grammy Award-winning Nashville songwriter Hummon — who has penned hits for Dixie Chicks, Rascal Flatts, Wynonna, Tim McGraw and more — teams with actor, writer and director Pasdar on this musical, which mixes select prose by William Shakespeare with original bluegrass music and country tunes. Set "toward the end of the Civil War, in the waning days of the Confederacy, a young Yankee, Paul, assumes the persona of a Confederate soldier in order to keep alive behind enemy lines."
The Female of the Species by Joanna Murray-Smith (Feb. 5-March 16, 2008)
Annette Bening stars in the American premiere of this play as Margot Mason, "a feminist literary giant at home in her country haven who is having uncharacteristic trouble with her next masterpiece. The unexpected arrival of a young female fan lights a fuse that is destined to blow Margot's world apart." The work debuted last August in a Melbourne Theatre Company production at Australia's Arts Centre Playhouse. The Geffen run is produced in association with David Richenthal.
Play TBD (April 15-May 25, 2008)
The Elephant in the Room by Donald Margulies (June 17-July 27, 2008)
Geffen commissioned this world premiere work from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Dinner With Friends that "focuses on Sarah Goodwin, a seasoned photojournalist seriously wounded while covering a war, as she tries to resume a normal life at home. Her attitudes toward love and work suddenly called into question, Sarah struggles to make sense of her relationship with her longtime lover, James, her role as a photographer as exploited by her editor, Richard, and her place in the world."
Emergence-See! by Daniel Beaty (Dates TBD) - Skirball Kenis Theater
Beaty performs his own solo work — which begins as "a slave ship rises out of the Hudson River in front of the Statue of Liberty sending the nation into a whirlwind of emotion and exploration" — and features "slam poetry, multi-character transformation and song." The work was previously seen at New York's Public Theater under the direction of Kenny Leon.
Subscriptions to the 2007-2008 season at Geffen, 10886 Le Conte Ave. in Los Angeles, CA, are available by calling (310) 209-1328. Single tickets go on sale July 1 and may be purchased at the Geffen box office, by phone at (310) 208-5454 or online at GeffenPlayhouse.com.
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