Cyrano

I don't know whose nose is more famous: Cyrano de Bergerac's or Rick Calamaro's. Sure, Cyrano had his day in the sun, and every so often someone retells his tale. But Calamaro--a club promoter in the Hollywood here and now--not only has a fabulously sharp proboscis (which he disdains), but a fine nose for business. The popular man about town now owns Cyrano, and not surprisingly, it's L.A.'s latest little gem.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle named the winners of its annual awards on Monday for stage productions that opened last year. Sharing the honors for best production were the national tour of "The Book of Mormon" at the Pantages Theatre; "Cyrano" at the Fountain Theatre; "Justin Love" at the Celebration Theatre; and the national tour of "War Horse" at the Ahmanson Theatre. The group gave its award for best revival production to " Waiting for Godot " at the Mark Taper Forum.

The producers of "Cyrano de Bergerac" announced that the Broadway play earned back its $3.5 million capitalization, the season's first show to make its investors whole. "Cyrano," which closed on Jan. 6 at New York's Richard Rodgers Theatre, paired television and movie star Jennifer Garner with Kevin Kline, featured in films and a dozen Broadway shows. The revival of the 1897 romantic drama was well reviewed and played to more than 90%-capacity crowds since opening Nov. 1, except during the 19-day stagehands strike that closed most of Broadway.

NEW YORK - Few people would think that Douglas Hodge's last two Broadway parts had anything to do with the other: Albin in "La Cage Aux Folles" and the title role in "Cyrano de Bergerac. " But the British actor says the drag queen and the disfigured romantic are actually opposite sides of the same character - people trying to create an identity hiding their true nature. "While they are two very different people, they do appear to be cousins," Hodge said. "They have constructed a personality - forged a life - that is bigger than their selves, a suit of armor to put on. " After his 2010 best actor in a musical Tony Award for "La Cage Aux Folles," Hodge returned to New York last month to star as Cyrano, the secret poet at the center of Edmond Rostand's 1897 tragedy.

Nearly a decade ago, an improbable dream came true for Deaf West Theatre and its founder, Ed Waterstreet. The small, L.A.-based company went to Broadway with its signed and spoken version of the musical "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. " Even as he savored their success, Waterstreet had another dream - creating an original musical inspired by Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac. " What better tale for his theater to tell than one that explores the universal desire to express oneself?

Bravo to the California Youth Theatre for exceeding expectations in its staging of one of the most lyrical plays ever written, Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac." Yes, the production and its cast of 8-to-21-year-olds have limitations, despite professional guidance from veteran director Malcolm Black and fight director B.H. Barry. The five acts of romance, earthy humor, tragedy and poetry begin with admirable momentum, then slow perceptibly. The three and a half hours do not fly by.

The last time Los Angeles saw John Cullum was with Elizabeth Taylor and the late Richard Burton in "Private Lives." That didn't work out so well. Before that, he appeared in the Broadway productions of "Shenandoah" and "On the 20th Century," and as far as Los Angeles' regard of Cullum is concerned, that didn't work out at all--he didn't come west with those productions. Cullum has taken matters into his own hands.

NEW YORK - Few people would think that Douglas Hodge's last two Broadway parts had anything to do with the other: Albin in "La Cage Aux Folles" and the title role in "Cyrano de Bergerac. " But the British actor says the drag queen and the disfigured romantic are actually opposite sides of the same character - people trying to create an identity hiding their true nature. "While they are two very different people, they do appear to be cousins," Hodge said. "They have constructed a personality - forged a life - that is bigger than their selves, a suit of armor to put on. " After his 2010 best actor in a musical Tony Award for "La Cage Aux Folles," Hodge returned to New York last month to star as Cyrano, the secret poet at the center of Edmond Rostand's 1897 tragedy.

In Michael Phillips' review of "Cyrano de Bergerac," he wrote that "Cyrano learns it's not he she loves" (" 'Cyrano' Woos, but Timidly," Sept. 20). Well, it's easy to see why she wouldn't love he. That would be ungrammatical and her is not that dumb. IRV ELMAN Pacific Palisades

Congratulations, America. You've finally elected a woman president, Peggy Noonan! It was her speech writing that made a kinder, gentler George Bush with a thousand points of light. The female Cyrano de Bergerac aside, Bush is now accountable to all the American citizens. How about 240 million points of light, George? JUNE FORAY DONAVAN Woodland Hills

Nearly a decade ago, an improbable dream came true for Deaf West Theatre and its founder, Ed Waterstreet. The small, L.A.-based company went to Broadway with its signed and spoken version of the musical "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. " Even as he savored their success, Waterstreet had another dream - creating an original musical inspired by Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac. " What better tale for his theater to tell than one that explores the universal desire to express oneself?

Texting and email may have replaced quill and ink in "Cyrano" -- Stephen Sachs' contemporary re-envisioning of Edmond Rostand's classic drama -- but the problematic nature of communication remains a constant. If anything, the theme gains new dimension and impact through the collision of hearing, deaf and online cultures in this inspired and inspiring adaptation's debut co-production from the Fountain Theatre and Deaf West Theatre companies. Performed simultaneously in spoken dialogue and American Sign Language by a mixed ensemble of hearing and deaf actors, Sachs' moving adaptation transposes Rostand's archetypal heroic outsider into a gifted coffeehouse poet whose inferiority complex is rooted in his deafness rather than his perfectly normal nose.

There may be prohibitive reasons, doubtless having to do with money, but in my perfect world every noteworthy or even more than halfway interesting theatrical production would be committed to film or tape or a digital hard drive and make its way to the wider world, by which I mean television. In my telescoped memory, it seems that this happened quite often when I was small, and at its best delivered an electric charge particular to live performance.

Not long ago, the blogosphere was smirking collectively about the news that a "busy" L.A. executive had placed an ad on Craigslist, seeking to hire a ghostwriter to compose "masculine but romantic" e-mails for him on online dating sites. Have a laugh, but should anyone be surprised? In an age when time-pressed urbanites can hire help to handle all manner of daily details such as walking the dogs and shopping for clothes, why not outsource your love life? It's much less messy when you can retain a pro to compose your Match.

The producers of "Cyrano de Bergerac" announced that the Broadway play earned back its $3.5 million capitalization, the season's first show to make its investors whole. "Cyrano," which closed on Jan. 6 at New York's Richard Rodgers Theatre, paired television and movie star Jennifer Garner with Kevin Kline, featured in films and a dozen Broadway shows. The revival of the 1897 romantic drama was well reviewed and played to more than 90%-capacity crowds since opening Nov. 1, except during the 19-day stagehands strike that closed most of Broadway.

Actress Mala Powers, who played Roxane to Jose Ferrer's "Cyrano de Bergerac" and starred in other films of the 1950s, has died. She was 75. Powers died Monday of complications from leukemia at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, according to actress Kim Barrett, who was Powers' protegee. She was born Mary Ellen Powers in 1931 in San Francisco to journalist parents who moved to Hollywood.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle named the winners of its annual awards on Monday for stage productions that opened last year. Sharing the honors for best production were the national tour of "The Book of Mormon" at the Pantages Theatre; "Cyrano" at the Fountain Theatre; "Justin Love" at the Celebration Theatre; and the national tour of "War Horse" at the Ahmanson Theatre. The group gave its award for best revival production to " Waiting for Godot " at the Mark Taper Forum.

The 1989 Grove Shakespeare Festival will include eight plays at the 550-seat outdoor Festival Amphitheatre and at the indoor, 178-seat Gem Theatre. "Even though we've shortened the schedule to six months, it will be our most ambitious season," Grove artistic director Thomas F. Bradac says. And the most expensive. The projected budget comes to $850,000, Bradac says--considerably more than last year's $570,000 and higher than the $660,000 projected for the season in January.

Top moviemaking talent enjoy a variety of hands-on helpers: personal assistants, drivers, chefs, hairstylists, costumers and even yoga coaches. Now there's an increasingly popular benefit for A-list actors and even some leading directors -- the personal screenwriter. When Will Ferrell was cast in "Bewitched," he brought along Adam McKay, who has been writing funny bits with the actor since their "Saturday Night Live" days.

The first words we encounter in Jennie Erdal's absorbing memoir, "Ghosting," are those of a tender love letter written by a rather erudite man to his wife. Only, as Erdal next informs us, the words weren't written by the man but for him by Erdal herself. "The letters mattered greatly to the man who put his name to them," she adds, "for they often expressed what he was not capable of articulating on his own....