Huntington Library sets shows on American history, Chinese mirrors

Two American history shows -- one looking at the sweeping changes spawned by the transcontinental railroad and the other at how Civil War photographs influenced the ways the nation grieved -- will highlight the 2012 exhibition season at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

"Visions of Empire: The Quest for a Railroad Across America, 1840-1880" will run April 21 to July 23. The show -- which taps into the Huntington's trove of letters, diaries, tourist guidebooks and other material -- will tell tales of engineering and entrepreneurship and examine the Iron Horse's social, political and economic impact. The subject has special resonance for the Huntington because its founder, Henry E. Huntington, was the nephew of Collis P. Huntington, one of the "Big Four" of American railroading.

"A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Mourning, and Memory in the American Civil War" will run Oct. 13, 2012, to Jan. 14, 2013. More than 150 photographs by Mathew Brady, George N. Barnard, Alexander Gardner and Andrew J. Russell will be presented in the first show drawn exclusively from the Huntington's collection of Civil War-related images.

The Huntington also is announcing Thursday an addition to its 2011 calendar: the first public display of a group of Chinese bronze mirrors spanning 3,000 years. "Ancient Chinese Bronze Mirrors from the Lloyd Cotsen Collection," which will run Nov. 12 to May 14, will feature about 80 intricately decorated items from the Qijia Culture (c. 2100 to 1700 B.C.) to the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234).

John Leguizamo and 'Ghetto Klown' coming to the Ricardo Montalban Theatre

"Ghetto Klown," John Leguizamo's latest one-man show, will open Oct. 2 at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood.

The play, which ended a limited engagement on Broadway this month,  describes the Obie- and Emmy-winning actor's often-bumpy journey from Queens to Hollywood.

Besides his eclectic film and television work, Leguizamo is known for his uninhibited, high-octane solo pieces and their depictions of colorful characters and experiences from his life. He burst onto the New York theater scene two decades ago with "Mambo Mouth," followed by "Spic-O-Rama," "Freak,"  "Sexaholix ... A Love Story" and "Ghetto Klown."

With his newest show, Leguizamo told The Times in March, "the goal was to create an opus magnum. To go more raw, more honest, deeper and wilder than I'd ever done before. I tried to be as ruthless with myself in that as I could."

"Ghetto Klown," which is directed by Fisher Stevens, will close Oct. 16. Tickets will go on sale July 31.

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-- Karen Wada

Photo: John Leguizamo in "Ghetto Klown." Credit: Carol Rosegg.

A Noise Within announces its first season in its new theater in Pasadena

A Noise Within will open its new home in Pasadena with a season of Shakespeare and other old favorites as well as some less frequently performed works.

The classical repertory company -- which will be marking its 20th anniversary -- is building a 33,000-square-foot theater complex, where it will move this fall. Currently, it occupies a '20s-era former Masonic temple in Glendale.

The 2011-12 lineup, which was announced Thursday, will begin with the Bard's comedy "Twelfth Night," set in pre-revolutionary Cuba, which will run Oct. 29 to Dec. 16. An opening night gala will include a Champagne reception, followed by the show and a dinner party.

Other offerings include Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms" (Nov. 19-Dec. 18), a reprise of the company's 2009 staging of Michael Frayn's "Noises Off" (Jan. 6-15), Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" (March 3-May 13), "The Illusion," Tony Kushner's adaptation of the Pierre Corneille play (March 17-May 19), and Moliere's "The Bungler," translated by Richard Wilbur (April 7-May 27).

In Glendale, A Noise Within operated in tight quarters and performed in a 145-seat theater. The Pasadena site includes a 281-seat theater, expanded backstage, rehearsal space, offices, a classroom and storage and support facilities.

The Bowl to feature movie music from Hollywood, Bollywood and Philip Glass

True to its name, the Hollywood Bowl has made a specialty of showcasing music from the movies. 

"Given our location and history, it's a natural for us," says Arvind Manocha, chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. It's fitting, he adds, that the Bowl's 90th season, which opened last week, represents "perhaps our most diverse summer yet" when it comes to cinema-related offerings.

The lineup will begin and end with sing-alongs for flicks based on Broadway shows: "Grease" on June 24 and "The Sound of Music" on Sept 24. In between, says Manocha, "we'll be performing lots of live orchestral music and screening iconic film."

The 50th anniversary of another stage-inspired hit, "West Side Story," will be celebrated July 8 and 9 when a new digitally remastered version of the Academy Award winner is shown in high definition with its original vocals and dialogue and with Leonard Bernstein's music played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by David Newman.

A.R. Rahman, the popular and prolific Indian composer who won two Oscars for "Slumdog Millionaire," will join the Phil for excerpts from his scores, accompanied by clips, on July 10. Also featured will be performer-composer Karsh Kale, traditional Indian music and Bollywood and Bhangra dancers.

A Noise Within to end two decades in Glendale with retrospective show

A Noise Within will bid farewell to its Glendale home this weekend with a benefit show featuring scenes from plays that the classical repertory company staged there during its first two decades.

"A Noise Within: A Retrospective," which will run Friday through Sunday, will be the troupe's final production in the '20s-era former Masonic Temple that it has occupied on Brand Boulevard. It will open its 2011-12 season this fall in a theater complex it is building in Pasadena.

"We sat and thought, 'How do you distill all the highs of doing what we were doing as well as all the challenges along the way?' " says Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, A Noise Within's co-founder and co-artistic director with her husband, Geoff Elliott. "We kept coming back to what it all emanates from -- the work onstage."

The retrospective will start with the company's first offering, Shakespeare's "Hamlet," and end with   Ionesco's "The Chairs," which closed in May. In between, says Rodriguez-Elliott, will be plenty of the Bard, "American classics," and "everything from 'Tartuffe' to 'Ubu Roi' to 'Man of La Mancha.'

"We'll also have stories about some interesting or important moments and behind-the-scenes things," she says. "It will be like a mini-play that tracks our performance history from 1991 to the present day."

Tickets cost $100. The event will include the show, a champagne-and-dessert reception and a silent auction and sale of works by the late James Moore, who photographed many A Noise Within rehearsals. Proceeds will benefit the company's education programs and theater operations.

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 -- Karen Wada

Photo: Jill Hill, from left, Geoff Elliott and Brian Dare in A Noise Within's 2008 production of "Oliver Twist." Credit: Craig Schwartz

Original Broadway stars plus Drew Carey, John Stamos, Nick Jonas set for Bowl's 'Hairspray'

Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur will re-create their Tony-winning roles when the Hollywood Bowl stages the Broadway hit "Hairspray" this summer. Joining them in the cast -- which the Bowl will announce Tuesday -- will be Drew Carey, John Stamos, Nick Jonas, Darlene Love and Corbin Bleu.

The musical, which will run Aug. 5-7, will be directed and choreographed by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell, who choreographed the original show.

Fierstein and Winokur will be performing together in "Hairspray" for the first time since the Broadway production closed in 2009. Winokur will return as zaftig teenager Tracy Turnblad, who uses a TV dance show to strike a blow for integration in 1960s Baltimore. Actor-writer Fierstein, a multiple Tony winner, will play Tracy's reclusive and even more zaftig mother, Edna, and comedian Carey, the host of CBS' "The Price Is Right," will play her father, Wilbur.

Stamos, seen recently on Fox's "Glee" and in Broadway's 2009 "Bye Bye Birdie," will portray dance show host Corny Collins. Pop rocker Jonas, whose stage credits include "Beauty and the Beast" and "Les Miserables," will be heartthrob Link Larkin. Love, a 2011 inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, also appeared in "Hairspray" in New York and will reprise her performance as record shop owner Motormouth Maybelle. Bleu (Disney's "High School Musical" and Broadway's "In the Heights") will play her son, Seaweed.

The cast also will include "American Idol" alum Diana DeGarmo, Tara Macri and Mo Gaffney.
 
"Hairspray," which is based on the 1988 John Waters film, features music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman, and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. It opened on Broadway in 2002, won eight Tonys including one for best musical and ran for more than 2,600 performances. (Fierstein and Winokur rejoined the production at the end of its run.) A 2007 movie version starred John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah and Nikki Blonsky.

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-- Karen Wada

Above: Harvey  Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur in the original Broadway production of "Hairspray." Credit: Ari Mintz / Newsday.

Huntington is adding two 20th century works to its American art holdings

 
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens has acquired its first major work by an African American artist and what it calls "a long-desired addition" to its paintings by the anti-academic group of American artists known as the Eight.

Sargent Claude Johnson's 1937 redwood screen for a pipe organ and Ernest Lawson's oil "Harlem Flats (Back Lot Laundry)," circa 1907, were purchased at the 17th Art Collectors' Council meeting last weekend.

"These are extremely important acquisitions that help us tell a more complete story about American art made in the first half of the 20th century," says Jessica Todd Smith, chief curator of American art.

Johnson was one of the first African American artists from the West Coast to develop a national reputation. He created the 22-foot-long screen for an organ at the California School for the Blind in Berkeley while working for the Federal Art Project, a part of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. The school later relocated and the piece was eventually removed from the site, says Smith, who calls the purchase "an extraordinary opportunity to acquire a monumental WPA sculpture."

The untitled screen--which is carved, gilded, stained and painted--depicts what Smith describes as "a beautiful Garden of Eden-like setting with a tree of life as a focal point surrounded by people, animals and plants."

South Coast Rep is hoping to expand its musical repertoire with shows like 'Cloudlands'

South Coast Repertory has become known as one of the nation's major incubators of plays and playwrights.

Musicals, however, are another matter. Neither the Costa Mesa theater's full productions nor its new-works programs have featured a lot of song and dance. "We've done the occasional show over the years," says associate artistic director John Glore. "But we're not interested in typical Broadway fare."

Recently, SCR has been working to develop more musicals it is interested in by using an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to commission pieces that, Glore says "have the same values we hew to in our straight plays: high literary content, a strong sense of theatricality and serious themes engaged in interesting ways."

This Sunday, South Coast will present the first public reading of one such creation, Octavio Solis and Adam Gwon's "Cloudlands," as part of its 14th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival. It tells the story of a San Francisco teenager who discovers her mother is having an affair and decides to follow her mother's lover, ensnaring herself and her family in a tangle of dangerous secrets.

Glore says the show "ultimately has a lot of sadness in it but a lot of humor as well. It explores the mysteries of the human heart and the ways that desire can lead to transgressions of various kinds."

Besides "Cloudlands," projects the grant is helping to launch include an adaptation of Bridget Carpenter's "Fall" by Carpenter and singer-songwriter Nellie McKay and a joint venture between Culture Clash and singer-composer-violinist Gingger Shankar.

Glore, who calls "Cloudlands" a strong contender for a production at SCR, hopes these combinations of artists and projects will generate the creative combustion that South Coast seeks. "We're saying, 'Let's not think traditionally,' " he says. " 'Let's do musicals that follow our artistic impulses.' "

Read more about the story behind Solis and Gwon's "Cloudlands" in Sunday's Arts & Books.

--Karen Wada

Photo: Playwright Octavio Solis (right) and composer Adam Gwon at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, take a breather before going over some of the work in their new musical "Cloudlands." Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times.

 

Circle X and Ensemble Studio Theatre-L.A.'s latest joint venture? Side-by-side Tom Jacobson premieres

 
Having written more than 50 full-length plays, Tom Jacobson probably has seen almost every kind of production of his work. But this weekend will offer a first: Two premieres presented by two companies in two days in one building.

Circle X Theatre Co. will open "The Chinese Massacre (Annotated)" on Friday and Ensemble Studio Theatre-L.A. will open "House of the Rising Son" on Saturday at their shared space, the Atwater Village Theatre.

"It should be fun," Jacobson says. "A lot of people, I hope, will see both plays, which are very different, and get a chance to compare and contrast."

"The Chinese Massacre," which is directed by Jeff Liu, examines the 1871 race riot that erupted when Los Angeles was still a Wild West town. Fourteen actors perform more than 40 roles in what Circle X artistic director Tim Wright calls "a very Brechtian, epic piece of storytelling."

"Rising Son," which is directed by Michael Michetti, is a modern-day family drama set in New Orleans and Los Angeles. EST-LA artistic director Gates McFadden says the piece blends gay rights, ghosts and "a look at the bigger picture, the balance of nature, predators and parasites."

"The premieres are an opportunity to see the range of Tom's work," McFadden says. "You can see similarities. Tom loves history. He loves science. He loves to put things in greater context." And yet, says Wright, "the differences in the playwright's voice, the structure and style of the plays are astonishing."

USC Thornton bassist wins chance to play with the L.A. Chamber Orchestra in new mentorship program

For several years, the USC Thornton School of Music's strings department has held mock orchestral auditions to give students a taste of life in the professional world. But, says adjunct professor Margaret Batjer, there was always something missing — "an added incentive that would energize and motivate them in a different way."

So Batjer, who also serves as concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and department chair Midori Goto, the celebrated violinist, went to the ensemble with a proposal. The result is the LACO-USC Thornton Strings Mentorship Program, which offers auditioners a real prize to compete for — the chance to perform with the orchestra.

The first winner, double bassist Mary Reed, will play in LACO's concerts at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Alex Theatre in Glendale and 7 p.m. Sunday at UCLA's Royce Hall. Music Director Jeffrey Kahane will lead a program that features John Harbison's Gli accordi piú usati ("The Most Often Used Chords"), Dvorak’s Serenade in E major for Strings, Op. 22, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with soloist Jon Kimura Parker.

Reed, a 22-year-old master's candidate, was among nine nominees — violinists, violists, cellists and bassists — who auditioned last fall before Batjer; adjunct professor Peter Stumpf, principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Roland Kato, LACO's principal violist. Batjer says the judges assessed areas including technical proficiency, "familiarity with not only their own parts but also the score" and "stylistic approach to the composer." If no one had met the appropriate standards, no winner would have been selected.