Here are some exciting productions not to be missed.
Fucking Men
Celebration Theatre in Hollywood started the year with a bang by bringing back their hit show, “Fucking Men” by Joe DiPietro. A gay male reworking of La Ronde, the play added depth to many of the encounters really turning them into relationships, especially between the long-time married guys Leo (Sean Galuszka) and Jack (David Pevsner), and also the closeted entertainment journalist Donald (Gregory Franklin) and the young escort John (Brian Dare), who also encounters the questioning soldier Steve (John Michael Beck).
There are some great comic moments between the playwright (A. J. Tannen) and the porn star (Adam Allison), as well as well the Hollywood actor (Parnell Damone). The graduate student, Marco (Christopher Grant Pearson), shows poignancy in his encounter with a flippant, sexually-liberated (he thinks) college kid Kyle (Michael Rachelis). This circle is woven beautifully by director Calvin Remberg into a riveting evening where we really start to care about these characters. This is a show that should be performed all around the Purple Circuit.
Next up at CT is “Haram Iran” by Jay Paul Deratany. It is a story about two young Iranian gay men who were executed because of their orientation.
Opens March 5, 2010.
Call 323-957-1884.
Cousin Bette
Also noteworthy is the North Hollywood Antaeus Company’s world premiere of “Cousin Bette,” an adaptation of the Balzac novel by Jeffrey Hatcher. Alicia Wollerton was remarkable in the title role of Bette Fischer, the poor relation of the Hulot family spinning her destructive web of intrigue in 1830s Paris. Hector Hulot (Barry Creyton) was hilarious as her libertine cousin, and Henri Lubatti was dreamy as her spurned fantasy lover Wenceslas, The production is first rate from the sets and costumes to the direction by Jeanie Hackett.
Call 818-506-1983.
Celadine
The Colony Theatre in Burbank is presenting the west coast premiere of “Celadine” by Charles Evered directed by Andrew Barnicle.
Giselle Wolf, Will Barker, Holly Hawkins
photo: Michael Lamont
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Celadine (Giselle Wolf) is a liberated woman in Restoration England who writes plays and other forms. Her spunk is matched by her servant Mary (Holly Hawkins), the actor Elliot (Michael A. Newcomer), former lover Rowley (Will Barker) in a comic tour de force, and the sweet mute who likes wearing women’s clothes Jeffrey (Larry Cedar). This show of spying, intrigue, romance, and swordplay in 17th century London makes for a great night at the theater.
Call 818-558-7000.
Other LA Shows of Interest
Naked in the Tropics
by Odalys Nanin at the Macha Theatre
Carlos Morenoi, Daniel Rivera
photo: Michael Helms
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A bisexual young Latino is set up to take the fall for a drug bust by a gay male porn star.
The Jamb
by J. Stephen Brantley at The Eclectic Theatre
As Tuffer and Roderick approach forty, neither wants to face it. Tuffer smokes, snorts, and screws his way through Manhattan’s much younger gay male population. Roderick goes for activism and martial arts. Roderick insists that Tuffer go with him to sober up at his mothers house in rural New Mexico. Tuffer brings his latest boy toy, Brandon. Roderick’s mother throws the guys a very “organic” birthday party, and twenty years of tension comes to a head. The foursome find themselves on the verge of something, almost somewhere, in the jamb.
Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Holiday Bash
curated by Ian MacKinnon at Highways.
This features a nude, lap-dancing 16th president!
Salam Shalom, Enemies … Another Love Story
by Saleem at Greenway Court Theatre in West Hollywood.
A Palestinian Ph.D candidate and an Israeli graduate student meet and fall in love at college in the U.S. When they return to the Israel, political unrest, family expectations, and ancient traditions threaten to destroy their happiness.
Opens March 5, 2010.
Call 323-655-7679 ext 100
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