‘Harvey’ will inaugurate the Playhouse season

Tom Titus

That big, imaginary rabbit who’s hopped through most local theaters

over the years will visit the Laguna Playhouse next season -- on his

way to Broadway.

Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1944 comedy “Harvey” is being

assembled for a New York revival later in the year. But first, it

will open the playhouse’s 2003-04 season July 12 season under the

direction of Charles Nelson Reilly.

The central role of Harvey’s pal, Elwood P. Dowd, hasn’t been cast

yet, but veteran stage and screen actor Charles Durning has been

announced for the role of Dr. Chumley. The show will enjoy an

extended run through Aug. 31.

Following “Harvey” will be a play with a decidedly different

flavor. Moises Kaufman’s “The Laramie Project” (Sept. 13 to Oct. 12)

examines the effect of a gay student’s fatal beating on a Wyoming

college town. The docudrama about the death of Matthew Shepard was

performed earlier this year at Orange Coast College.

“The Romance of Mangno Rubio” by Lonnie Carter, a new play

centering on a love struck Filipino farm laborer, will offer its West

Coast premiere from Nov. 8 to Dec. 7. Then comes the California

premiere of “The Last Five Years,” a musical story of marital strife

by Jason Robert Brown, who won a Tony for his Broadway debut,

“Parade.” “The Last Five Years” opens Jan. 3 and continues through

Feb. 1.

A revival of W. Somerset Maugham’s 1926 comedy “The Constant Wife”

will occupy the April 3-May 2 slot at the playhouse, followed by

“What the Night is For,” an American premiere of a new Michael Weller

play centering on ex-lovers who meet again after 10 years, now both

married with children. The final slow, from May 29 through June 27,

2004, is yet to be announced.

The playhouse also has announced its Youth Theater season, which

will kick off with a world premiere. “Romeo and Juliet Together (and

Alive) at Last” by Sandra Fenichel Asher will be presented from Oct.

17- to 26.

“The Quiltmaker’s Gift” -- a musical by Alan J. Prewett, Craig

Bohmler and Steven Mark Kohn -- will be a Southern California

premiere and will play from Dec. 12-21. Youth Theater director Joe

Lauderdale will present his adaptation of “Cut” from the book by

Patricia McCormick in a brief world premiere from March 19 to 21.

Winding up the Youth Theater schedule will be “Ramona Quimby” by

Len Jenkin, ticketed for May 7 to 16, 2004. Currently, the playhouse

is offering a hilarious comedy in its world premiere, “Mr. Shaw Goes

to Hollywood.” The play based on George Bernard Shaw’s visit to MGM

Studios one day in 1933 will run through May 4.

*

The playhouse honored famed actress Julie Harris at a black tie

gala benefit dinner Saturday at Laguna’s new Montage Resort & Spa.

The charity event attracted 370 people and raised $200,000 to support

the playhouse’s artistic and educational programs.

Harris was joined by Charles Nelson Reilly, who directed her in

“The Belle of Amherst” at the playhouse in 2000, and actor Charles

Durning, who starred with Harris in “The Gin Game” on Broadway -- and

will perform in the playhouse’s revival of “Harvey” next season.

Also honored was Joe Lauderdale on the occasion of his 15th year

as director of the playhouse’s Youth Theater. Lauderdale has produced

more than 50 productions for young audiences at the playhouse,

directing more than 30 of them.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.