The L.A. restaging of the Tony Award-winning production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman will journey to Boston following its Ahmanson Theatre run. After closing in L.A. on Nov. 5, it will reopen at the Shubert Theatre in Boston Nov. 28 for a run through Dec. 10.
As at Chicago's Goodman Theatre (where the Robert Falls mounting began) and on Broadway and in L.A., the classic drama will star Brian Dennehy and Elizabeth Franz as Willy and Linda Loman. Both actors won Tonys for their work.
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Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre's season 2000 began Sept. 12 with Death of a Salesman.
The Tony-nominated Broadway musical revue, Swing!, follows Salesman on the Ahmanson stage with a run Nov. 20-Jan. 14. Directed and choreographed by Tony nominee Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Swing! features a mix of swing dance styles from Lindy Hop to Latin to West Coast to Country, all set to a selection of classic and new dance tunes sung by a vocal ensemble and played by an onstage neo-swing band. Jerry Zaks (Smokey Joe's Cafe) serves as production supervisor.
In a new staging, Hall brings William Shakespeare's tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, to the Ahmanson Feb. 8-April 1. The British director recently helmed productions of Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Broadway revival of Amadeus, which ran first in America at the Ahmanson.
Hwang (M. Butterfly, Golden Child) revises the classic musical Flower Drum Song with an updated vision of Chinese heritage and the struggle for its preservation in America, while making no alterations to the well-known score, which includes "I Enjoy Being a Girl," "Love, Look Away" and "A Hundred Million Miracles." The Ahmanson production, running April 19-June 24, will be the first major revival of the musical since its 1958 Broadway run and 1961 Academy Award-nominated film.
The 2000-01 season ends on with a swing -- quite literally. While the swing dance section of Contact (called "Contact" and featuring the now famous "girl in the yellow dress") is the most famous part of the three piece "dance play," the Tony Award winner for Best Musical features two other sections:"The Swing," an acrobatic dance between an aristocrat, girl and a servant, and "Did You Move?", the Italian restaurant set piece that won Karen Ziemba a 2000 Tony Award for playing an abused woman who escapes into fantasy. Tony Award winner Susan Stroman directs a cast of more than 20 actor/dancers. Contact runs June 29-Aug. 26.
Subscriptions are $333 to $96. For ticket information, call (213) 628 2772. The Ahmanson Theatre on the web at http://www.TaperAhmanson.com.
--By Robert Simonson
and Christine Ehren
