Veteran actor Harold Gould stars as veteran music teacher Josef Mashkan in Old Wicked Songs returning to Los Angeles April 13-May 19 in a production by the Rubicon Theatre Company at the Laurel. Frequent Williamstown helmer Jenny Sullivan (Defying Gravity, The Baby Dance) directs the drama set to travel on to Santa Fe Stages in June.

Gould performed on Broadway in House of Blue Leaves, Artist Descending a Staircase and Neil Simon's Fools. After moving to Los Angeles, he took on film and television roles, garnering a Cable ACE Award ("To the Chicago Abyss") and five Emmy nominations ("Rhoda," "The Golden Girls"). Gould is featured in "The Sting," "Love and Death" and "Silent Movie."

Co-starring with Gould is Joseph Fuqua (Stephen Hoffman). A regular with the Rubicon (Murder in the First, The Rainmaker, Little Foxes), he played New York in Brighton Beach Memoirs, 110 in the Shade, Raft of the Medusa and Yours, Anne. Fuqua will soon reprise his role as Jeb Stuart in "Gods and Generals," the prequel to the film "Gettysburg."

In Old Wicked Songs, an American piano prodigy falls out of love with music and goes to Vienna to rekindle his passion for his art. He comes under the tutelage of the eccentric Josef Mashkan, who teaches his foreign student Schumann's music. While the Holocaust looms, both men learn to trust and finally save one another.

Jon Marans was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Old Wicked Songs. He is also the author of Child Child and penned the lyrics to Legacy, Searching for Y and Dance on the Rooftops. Old Wicked Songs plays Santa Fe Stages June 21-July 14. For information, call (505) 882-6682.

For tickets and information in Los Angeles, call (805) 667-2900. Rubicon Theatre Company is on the web at http://www.rubicontheatre.org.

— By Christine Ehren