It never rains but it pours in local theater

Tom Titus

There are three major performing venues in Huntington Beach: Golden

West College, the Academy of Performing Arts and the Huntington Beach

Playhouse. And all three will be raising the curtains on their new

productions during the next two weekends, taking playgoers to such exotic

locales as rural Ireland, the Caribbean and that place where W.C. Fields

would have preferred to his final destination.

Golden West and APA share this weekend’s opening night, Friday, as the

college mounts its version of the Tony Award winner “Dancing at Lughnasa”

and the high schoolers present a little-known musical, “Once on This

Island.” Next weekend the playhouse will follow with a revival of a

septuagenarian comedy “The Philadelphia Story.”

“Dancing at Lughnasa” turns back the calendar to 1936 and shifts the

spotlight to the Irish countryside for Brian Friehl’s dramatic comedy

about six spinster sisters who share a life of hardship and privation,

interrupted by one memorable summer that changes their lives forever.

Directed by Tom Amen, the show features an ensemble cast including

Michael Bielitz, Christa Mathis, Mark Bedard, Brenda Kenworthy, Brenda

Harris, Mary Good, Kris Kelly and Stephen Silva.

Performances will be given Friday, Saturday and Oct. 25-27 at 8 p.m.,

with one Sunday matinee this Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Mainstage Theater on

the Golden West campus. Tickets are $10.50 and $8.50, with additional

information available at (714) 895-8150.

The musical “Once on This Island,” a folk tale set in the Caribbean,

is described as a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little

Mermaid.” It focuses on a girl testing the strength of her love against

the power of death on an island of two different worlds.

Katherine McLaughlin plays the central role of Ti Moune, with major

supporting assignments taken by Kelly Nitkin, “D” Pull, Brandon

Durringer, Ashley Luth, Jesse Gonzales and Melissa Mitchell. Tim Nelson

directs the show, with choreography by Diane Makas-Colwell and the

orchestra directed by Gregg Gilboe.

Performances are 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Oct. 27, and 2 p.m.

Oct. 21 and 28 in the auditorium of Huntington Beach High School.

Admission is $10 and $8, and the number for further information is

(714) 536-2514.

“The Philadelphia Story,” opening Oct. 26 at the playhouse, is a

classic Philip Barry comedy from the early 1940s that featured Katharine

Hepburn both on stage and screen. Her character was Tracy Lord, a wealthy

divorcee about to tie the knot for a second time butencountering a few

difficulties on her way to the altar.

In the local production, Sophie Areno assumes this role, with Thom

Gilbert as her ex-husband and Greg Stich as the reluctant journalist (the

role that won Jimmy Stewart his only Oscar). Others in the cast are

Valorie Curry, Cleta Cohen, Ramsey Michaels-Schlissel, Dennis Dean Hart,

Phil Powers, Gordon Marhoefer and Adelina Peck.

Michael Ross is directing the show, which will play Thursdays through

Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. until Nov. 18 at the playhouse,

in the Huntington Beach Library building, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington

Beach. Tickets are $7 to $15 and more information is available at (714)

375-0696.* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.