Jeff Calhoun

Jeff Calhoun has choreographed and directed big Broadway musicals for much of the last decade, even earning a Tony nomination. So why is his latest production, "Big River," playing at the 65-seat Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood? Calhoun asked himself similar questions--"Has my career come to this? Musicals for the deaf?"--when offered the chance last year to direct Deaf West's first musical in its 10-year history, "Oliver!"

Jeff Calhoun has choreographed and directed big Broadway musicals for much of the last decade, even earning a Tony nomination. So why is his latest production, "Big River," playing at the 65-seat Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood? Calhoun asked himself similar questions--"Has my career come to this? Musicals for the deaf?"--when offered the chance last year to direct Deaf West's first musical in its 10-year history, "Oliver!"

The rehearsal had overtones of a family reunion. After a three-week layoff, cast members of "My One and Only" gathered in sweats and tap shoes on the stage at the Harlequin Dinner Playhouse in Santa Ana, where the spirited musical will open Friday after three nights of previews. The show has moved intact from its original home at Southampton, the San Clemente dinner theater acquired last summer by Al and Barbara Hampton, who also own the Harlequin.

The rehearsal had overtones of a family reunion. After a three-week layoff, cast members of "My One and Only" gathered in sweats and tap shoes on the stage at the Harlequin Dinner Playhouse in Santa Ana, where the spirited musical will open Friday after three nights of previews. The show has moved intact from its original home at Southampton, the San Clemente dinner theater acquired last summer by Al and Barbara Hampton, who also own the Harlequin.

Jeff Calhoun is understandably anxious about "My One and Only," the Tony Award-winning musical that opens this evening at the new Southampton Dinner Theater in San Clemente. After all, the production represents the 26-year-old Calhoun's directing debut and heralds the opening of Southampton, known formerly as Sebastian's West Dinner Playhouse. Once popular on the dinner theater circuit, Sebastian's was forced five months ago to close its doors following bankruptcy proceedings.

Hollywood Boulevard is home to both the Pantages Theatre and Madame Tussauds, and there were times during the new production of "Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical" that I wondered if the two institutions had arranged a secret merger. This pre-Broadway touring production, which opened Tuesday at the Pantages, combines power singing and theatrical waxworks to retell the Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a doctor with a damnable dark side. The experience of the show, never a critic's darling, can only be compared to watching "American Idol" from inside an amusement park gallery showcasing the fiendish modus operandi of infamous murderers.

Before dying at age 25 in a hail of lawmen's bullets, Clyde Barrow had achieved the fame he sought -- and he had killed 14 men, directly or indirectly. His loyal moll, Bonnie Parker, may never have shot anyone. But as one of their cohorts in the Barrow gang said, "She was one hell of a loader." The notorious 1930s bank robbers were transformed into mythical outlaw lovers by director Arthur Penn, actor-producer Warren Beatty and screenwriters David Newman and Robert Benton in the 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde."

* Big River (Deaf West Theatre, 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, [818] 762-2773). Jeff Calhoun's staging of the Roger Miller-William Hauptman adaptation of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" makes the action intimate, crisp and simmering with energy. Among the cast are James Black, above left, as Jim and Tyrone Giordano as Huck Finn. Thu.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. Ends Jan. 27. $18-$25.

Small theaters dominate the nominations for the 2001 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards. But the larger South Coast Repertory led the pack in total nominations for a single company (nine) and in the special awards that were announced with the nominations Tuesday. Four productions that were in sub-100-seat theaters garnered the most nominations for individual shows. "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

AFTER "Open Window," Deaf West Theatre's next project will be a quirky update of the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty," a collaboration with the rock band GrooveLily and librettist Rachel Sheinkin, who won a 2005 Tony for "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." The as-yet-untitled show will tell the story of a princess who awakens in 20th century America, a thousand years and thousands of miles away from the castle in which she fell asleep.

Jeff Calhoun is understandably anxious about "My One and Only," the Tony Award-winning musical that opens this evening at the new Southampton Dinner Theater in San Clemente. After all, the production represents the 26-year-old Calhoun's directing debut and heralds the opening of Southampton, known formerly as Sebastian's West Dinner Playhouse. Once popular on the dinner theater circuit, Sebastian's was forced five months ago to close its doors following bankruptcy proceedings.

* Pop/Music. The multi-platinum-selling San Diego punk trio Blink-182 wraps up its widely separated Southern California appearances with shows at 7:30 tonight at the Long Beach Convention Center, and 3:15 p.m. Sunday at the Universal Amphitheatre, Universal City. $25 to $27.50. (213) 480-3232. * Theater.

New York critics have given the thumbs up to the innovative, L.A.-bred Broadway revival of "Big River," Roger Miller's musical based on Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Originated in 2001 at North Hollywood's Deaf West Theatre and mounted last fall at the Mark Taper Forum, director Jeff Calhoun's production uses deaf actors performing in American Sign Language alongside hearing cast members who sing and speak their roles.