Debut Musicals by Mamet & Brown Highlight Center Theatre Group Season
The Taper subscription season technically opens up with the Doubt tour, but that will be presented at the Ahmanson Theatre. The first offering at the Taper will be Nightingale, written and performed by Redgrave and running October 4 through November 19. Inspired by memories of the playwright's maternal grandmother, Beatrice Kempson, mother of the late Rachel Kempson also known as Lady Redgrave, Nightingale is the story of Mildred Asher, whose voice, like the song of the nightingale, can only be heard in the dark. Redgrave previously appeared in readings of the play and this winter directed Caroline John in the world premiere of Nightingale at the U.K.'s New End Theatre in Hampstead.
Next up is 13, a musical with music and lyrics by Brown and a book by Dan Elish. Featuring a teenaged rock band and 13 actors age 13, 13 takes place in a middle school in Indiana where a group of students is sorting through the barrage of contradictory messages thrown their way. Evan, in particular, is in a quandary. He's the newcomer and needs to figure out to get all the cool kids to his bar mitzvah. Todd Graff will direct the tuner, which will play from December 22, 2006 through February 18, 2007.
Hwang writes himself into the middle of his new play Yellow Face, which focuses on the backstage experience at an earlier Hwang play that flopped infamously on Broadway. It appears that a white actor had been unknowingly cast in the role of an Asian, which is especially embarrassing for Hwang who had led the Asian American protest when a Welsh actor was cast as a Eurasian in the 1991 Broadway opening of Miss Saigon. The show is a co-production of the Center Theatre Group and The Public Theater in association with East West Players. It is scheduled to run at the Taper from May 10 through July 1 and will move to the Public Theater in the fall of 2007.
Opening up the Kirk Douglas season is Nighthawks, running August 27 through September 24. In the play, restaurant owner and fading flower, Mae, regular customer Sam, and Mae's husband/waiter, Quig, ponder the identity of the diner's new regular—the mysterious man whose back is portrayed in Edward Hopper's 1942 work Nighthawks. As the two-dimensional world of Hopper's painting expands on the stage, complications arise.
The Kirk will next host the Primary Stages production of In the Continuum November 12 through December 10 and the play Dogeaters January 14, 2007 through February 11, 2007. Then it is onto Sleeping Beauty Wakes, the musical by Milburn, Sheinkin and Vigoda. The show will play March 13, 2007 through May 13, 2007 and be directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun. Sleeping Beauty Wakes will feature the indie pop/rock sensation GrooveLily which Milburn and Vigoda are members of onstage with both hearing and deaf actors in a tale of a beautiful young princess who, cursed by a spiteful fairy, pricks her finger on a spinning wheel needle on her 16th birthday and promptly falls asleep for a 100 years. Or does she? Maybe her problem is actually not sleeping.
A Waitress in Yellowstone, running June 12, 2007 through July 15, 2007, is the first musical written by Mamet. A modern-day fable, A Waitress in Yellowstone introduces us to Winnie, a waitress, and her son, Doug, who have been excitedly planning all year for a vacation to Yellowstone to celebrate Doug's 10th birthday. But on the night before the trip, Winnie catches a Congressman stealing her tips and reports him to the police. His subsequent political posturing puts her visit to Yellowstone and her very future in jeopardy.
Both the Taper and the Douglas still have to complete their 2005-2006 seasons. At the Taper, that includes presentations of Alfred Uhry's Without Walls with Laurence Fishburne playing June 1 through July 16 and Water & Power by Richard Montoya with Culture Clash scheduled for July 27 through September 17. The Douglas has only one season entry left—David Greig's Pyrenees, running July 2 through July 30.