The southern California company's artistic director Des McAnuff will direct Jersey Boys, a new musical that centers on the musical group The Four Seasons. The show explores how four blue-collar guys — Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi — grew to become the singing sensation behind such hits as "Sherry," "Big Girls Don’t Cry," "Rag Doll," "Oh What a Night" and "Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You."
Book writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice along with composer Bob Gaudio create Jersey Boys with director McAnuff. The musical runs Sept. 28-Nov. 14 with an official opening Oct. 10.
Gibson's Suitcase is slated to run July 6-Aug. 8 with an opening set for July 11. Soho Rep artistic director Daniel Aukin — who directed the world premiere for his New York stage — will return to helm the show again.
The urban comedy centers on two young women toiling away at their dissertations while shutting out their boyfriends. The play is penned by the author of the Obie Award-winning [sic] — which was also directed by Aukin.
The newly added stagings join the previously announced David Edgar's two-play cycle Continental Divide and Carlo Gozzi's classic comedy The Love of Three Oranges. The lauded election drama Continental Divide will play at the southern California stage, May 25-Aug. 1, while the Gozzi work is set to run Sept. 14-Oct. 17. The final play of the new season — which will inaugurate the new Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre (in the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse) in the fall — is yet to be announced.
Tony Taccone — who directed the world premiere co-production at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Berkeley Repertory Theatre — will once again direct the work for La Jolla audiences. The work comprises the two plays, Daughters of the Revolution and Mothers Against, which can be seen in either order.
British playwright Edgar (Pentecost, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby) explores American politics through both sides of a gubernatorial race — a subject not lost on California audiences.
Daughters of the Revolution concerns Democrat Michael Bern, a former radical, who learns that the political collective he once belonged to has come under the scrutiny of the FBI. The development threatens to affect his career and marriage.
Mothers Against focuses on Republican candidate Sheldon Vine, who prepares for the big debate in the heated election. A leaning libertarian, he struggles with his advisors, his family and himself over how to run his campaign.
Romanian director Nona Ciobanu will direct the commedia dell'arte fairy tale The Love of Three Oranges penned by Gozzi in 1761. In the work, hypochondriac Prince Tartaglia needs a lifesaving good laugh but his cousin and her lover are plotting against him with an evil witch. The wicked Fata Morgana accidentally makes the prince laugh, then casts a curse upon him, making him fall in love with three oranges.
Italian playwright Gozzi’s plays include Turandot, The Green Bird and The King Stag. La Jolla previously produced Gozzi’s The Green Bird, directed by Tony Award winner Julie Taymor, in its 1996 season.
Also available to subscribers is the Page To Stage workshop production of Paris Commune, set to play July 20-Aug. 3. The developing work "tells the story of the 1871 Parisian uprising, the first socialist revolution in Europe," a release explains. The work conceived by Steven Cosson and Michael Friedman combines text from historical materials and songs from the period. Cosson directs.
Subscriptions are available by calling (858) 550-1010. Single tickets will go on sale on May 2. For more information, visit the La Jolla website at www.lajollaplayhouse.com.
