La Jolla Playhouse

Athol Fugard's choice of the La Jolla Playhouse for the first West Coast presentation of his latest play, "My Children! My Africa!," may come as something of a surprise to the theater community. Given both his and the Market Theatre's many previous associations with Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum and its artistic director, Gordon Davidson, La Jolla's announcement last week that it had wooed the play to its stage in July is a testament to tenacity and the powers of direct contact.

The recent stage adaptation of the bestselling novel "Sideways" that debuted in May in Santa Monica is moving up in the world. The La Jolla Playhouse said it will produce the play starting in July, with former artistic director Des McAnuff at the helm. Rex Pickett adapted his own novel for the stage. The plot follows two middle-aged male friends as they make their way through California wine country and meet two women who become possible romantic interests. The 2004 movie version of the novel, directed by Alexander Payne, was a critical and commercial success.

The recent stage adaptation of the bestselling novel "Sideways" that debuted in May in Santa Monica is moving up in the world. The La Jolla Playhouse said it will produce the play starting in July, with former artistic director Des McAnuff at the helm. Rex Pickett adapted his own novel for the stage. The plot follows two middle-aged male friends as they make their way through California wine country and meet two women who become possible romantic interests. The 2004 movie version of the novel, directed by Alexander Payne, was a critical and commercial success.

What do David Mamet and Kathie Lee Gifford have in common? Both have flops on Broadway this season. Mamet's new play "The Anarchist," which just opened on Sunday at the John Golden Theatre in New York, announced late Tuesday that it will close on Dec. 16. The play, starring Patti LuPone and Debra Winger, received lukewarm to negative reviews. Many critics noted that the play's structure -- an extended philosophical conversation lasting a little more than one hour -- would be rough going for audiences.

LA JOLLA - The controversy over the casting of a new musical set in China with mostly non-Asians provoked a series of heated exchanges at a public forum arranged by the La Jolla Playhouse. The casting of “The Nightingale,” written by Tony-winning “Spring Awakening” collaborators Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, has drawn sharp criticism. The musical, adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen story and set in ancient China, features a multicultural cast of 12, with two actors of Asian descent in supporting roles.

The La Jolla Playhouse has been receiving a barrage of negative criticism from members of the Asian American community over its casting choices for the new musical "The Nightingale," featuring songs by the "Spring Awakening" team of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater. "The Nightingale" is adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen story and is set in ancient China. The workshop staging for the La Jolla Playhouse, which began performances earlier this month, features a mostly non-Asian cast, with the lead role of a Chinese monarch played by a white actor.

The Geffen Playhouse and the La Jolla Playhouse are reaching out to military families as part of a new, nationwide program offering discounted or complimentary tickets to active-duty military personnel, veterans and their families. Blue Star Theatres is a nationwide program that officially will be launched Friday. The program is organized by Theatre Communications Group, the nonprofit organization that promotes theater around the country, and Blue Star Families, a support organization for military families.

La Jolla Playhouse announced Sunday that it would mount six productions as a part of its main 2010-11 season, including two world premieres and Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Ruined." The season begins in June with "Surf Report," a new work by San Diego playwright Annie Weisman. The drama tells the story of Judith, a Southern California wife and mother whose ambitions clash with the needs of her boss, husband and daughter. Artistic director Christopher Ashley will stage a new production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which opens in July.

The La Jolla Playhouse, which has been making a name for itself largely on the strength of its innovations, has announced a fifth season that may astonish many. With one exception, artistic director Des McAnuff has planned a summer of wall-to-wall classics--ancient and modern, American and not--whose greater surprises come in the artists he's chosen to involve. While one wouldn't call this the year of living dangerously at La Jolla, the season does begin with--ready for this?

"Memphis," which took home the Tony for best musical Sunday, is the latest awards juggernaut to emerge from the La Jolla Playhouse, the San Diego County theater company that has had an enviable track record of turning out Tony-winning (and -nominated) hits. A crowd-pleaser about race relations and '50s-era R&B, "Memphis" opened at La Jolla in 2008 in a production directed by Christopher Ashley, the company's artistic director. (The musical was previously co-produced by the North Shore Music Theatre and TheatreWorks in 2003-04.

LA JOLLA - Futuristic theatrical effects are deployed like a hypnotist's pocket watch in "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. " But the real mesmerizing aspect of this new musical at La Jolla Playhouse, inspired by the music of the psychedelic rock band the Flaming Lips, is the way it sounds. Our ears are delighted at a higher level than our eyes - or our minds, for that matter. The show's sophistication lies in the floating lyricism of its score, which can be categorized in that Tower Records-era indie catch-all known as "alternative rock.

David Mamet's political satire, "November," may be getting mixed reviews in L.A, but his Broadway revival of "Glengarry Glen Ross" is raking it in in previews. Starring Al Pacino and Bobby Cannavale, the play's first four preview performances at New York's Schoenfeld Theatre last week brought in $703,775, or a gross of about $176,000 for each performance, according to the trade association Broadway League. One reason: Producers of the show have not been shy in pricing tickets.

Leaders from some of the largest theater companies in Southern California are scheduled to take part in a forum this month to discuss the issue of racial diversity and the inclusion (or lack thereof) of Asian Americans in stage productions. The forum is to be held at the David Henry Hwang Theater in downtown L.A. on Oct. 22 at 2 p.m. The forum, which is invitation-only, is to include participation by Michael Ritchie, the artistic director of Center Theatre Group; Christopher Ashley, artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse; Sheldon Epps, artistic director of the Pasadena Playhouse; and Marc Masterson, artistic director of South Coast Repertory.

"Hands on a Hardbody," the new musical that debuted earlier this year at the La Jolla Playhouse, has set a March opening on Broadway. The folksy production, about a group of people competing to win a new truck, is set to officially open at the Brooks Atkinson Theater on March 21. The Brooks Atkinson is currently home to another show associated with the La Jolla company -- "Peter and the Starcatcher," which recently announced that it will close...

The Geffen Playhouse and the La Jolla Playhouse are reaching out to military families as part of a new, nationwide program offering discounted or complimentary tickets to active-duty military personnel, veterans and their families. Blue Star Theatres is a nationwide program that officially will be launched Friday. The program is organized by Theatre Communications Group, the nonprofit organization that promotes theater around the country, and Blue Star Families, a support organization for military families.

As long as America is America, land of opportunity as well as desperate opportunism, David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross" will have a special place in our repertory. The drama, now in a crackling production at La Jolla Playhouse directed by artistic director Christopher Ashley, can be seen as a reworking of Arthur Miller's "Death of Salesman," with Willy Loman's sad-sack tale transformed into a kind of revenge story. The forces rallying against the little guy are as formidable as ever, but Mamet gives his team of salesmen working out of a dicey storefront real estate operation the same blood-coveting ferocity of a school of sharks.

In a nationwide competition in which 35 theaters proposed entries for the funding of new plays, San Diego theaters have been awarded two of the four grants provided by AT&T. The announcement was made Monday at press conferences in New York and San Diego. The La Jolla Playhouse will receive $40,000 and the Old Globe Theatre $50,000. Each theater will also receive a national publicity campaign and marketing support as part of the year-old "The AT&T New Plays for the Nineties Project."

UC San Diego officials announced plans Wednesday for a $4.8-million theater complex that could put the university in competition with Yale University among the nation's top-rated dramatic arts training programs. The planned 400-seat theater and adjacent rehearsal, teaching and office space, will join an existing 492-seat state-of-the-art theater and another "flexible-seating" studio theater that is also planned for the complex.

The original Jersey Boy is coming to Broadway. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons are set for a weeklong engagement at the Broadway Theatre in New York, from Oct. 19 to 27, in celebration of group's 50th anniversary. Valli is to perform many of his signature songs, including "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man" and "Rag Doll. " He no longer performs with the original Four Seasons members but with a new group of backup singers under the same name. The original group's first album was released in 1962.

LA JOLLA - The controversy over the casting of a new musical set in China with mostly non-Asians provoked a series of heated exchanges at a public forum arranged by the La Jolla Playhouse. The casting of “The Nightingale,” written by Tony-winning “Spring Awakening” collaborators Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, has drawn sharp criticism. The musical, adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen story and set in ancient China, features a multicultural cast of 12, with two actors of Asian descent in supporting roles.