A TIME TO MOVE IN ‘EDEN’

The International City Theater, the relatively new Equity Waiver space at Long Beach City College, is emphasizing new works or West Coast premieres and to that end has just opened New York playwright Murphy Guyer’s “Eden Court,” which hasn’t been seen in these parts before. Jules Aaron directs.

“The play is a contemporary comedy and has been done at the Actors Theatre in Louisville and Off Broadway,” Aaron said.

“It’s a four-character piece centering on a factory worker named Schroeder who, at 30, finds himself sitting in a trailer park in Missouri and wondering if he has any chance at a future. He thinks he wants to go to Australia. He feels hemmed in by rural life. His crisis affects the people around him. He’s a romantic in a modern realistic setting, and I think the play works because he sees that he does have a chance.”

At 43, Aaron (one of our busier local directors) has survived his 30s and a little more. Asked if Schroeder’s angst may be a little premature, Aaron replied, “When he gets to be 40, he’ll go through it all over again.”

In its brief history the La Jolla Playhouse has shown more than a passing interest in music in the theater. They did a Randy Newman musical, “Big River” has gone on to a long life, and Stephen Sondheim & co. made an unusual trip west to retool “Merrily We Roll Along” last summer.

“Shout Up a Morning” (opening Tuesday) is the Playhouse’s most ambitious musical to date. Composed by Nat and Cannonball Adderley (with lyrics by Diane Lambert), it not only brings jazz to the theater--two forms that don’t often have much to do with each other--but it attempts several other things as well in dealing with American myth, exemplified here by the story of black folk hero John Henry.

Henry was a post-Civil War railroad worker whose strength and determination were the stuff of legend. His mano a mano match against a steam drill was a perfect metaphor for the drama of man giving way to machine in what was an early chapter of the modern world. Or, as director Des McAnuff put it, “So much of modern culture has grown out of the morally diseased 19th Century.

“John Henry was an actual figure who had this duel with the steam drill in a tunnel built for the Ohio and Chesapeake Railroad,” McAnuff said. “But we’ve cast him as an angel from heaven, sent to join his people after the war. He’s a demigod, but as the typical story goes, he falls in love, loses his power and takes up the cause of mankind.

“This is definitely not a docudrama. There are so many incredible layers to this story. It parallels the Bible, and Moses getting to the Promised Land. It’s a mythic black American story that uses contemporary black music--it contains gospel, rhythm & blues, spirituals and jazz. It captures the spiritual and political expression of the time, which leads to our own. Outside of doing Shakespeare, this is the best story I’ve ever worked on, our first clean-sheet production--meaning we’ve worked it up from scratch--and the biggest thing we’ve ever done.”

Michael Edward-Stevens plays John Henry. Others in the cast include Charlaine Woodard, Nick LaTour, Leila Danette and Tony Award-winner Leilani Jones. Paul Avila Mayer has worked on the original book by Lambert and Peter Farrow. Daniel Troob, Charles Coleman, Johnny Bowden and Kirk Nurack are all involved with the musical production in one way or another, as is Nat Adderley.

If past is prologue, this could be something big.

David Willinger’s “Andrea Has Two Boyfriends,” written purely out of a sense of expiation (as opposed to commercial interest) over the playwright’s temporary abandonment of his retarded sister, has enjoyed a surprisingly strong run, first at the Burbage and now at the Eagle on Robertson. Perhaps it’s because, whatever else the dilemmas retardation offers, it’s also a needle stuck on perpetual innocence.

The actors from the cast have frequently visited Tierra del Sol, a school in Sunland where adults ranging in age from 20 to 60 learn farming, horseback riding and crafts. The school is in danger of losing its land, and so the company is offering a special benefit performance at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the theater. There’ll be a champagne reception before at 7 and a post-show dinner and dance at the American Legion Hall. Helen Reddy will host. Mr. and Mrs. Larry Gelbart are on the honorary committee, as are LeVar Burton, Debbie Allen, Shaun Cassidy and Norman Corwin. Obviously this condition has struck a chord.

Tickets are $100. For further information, call (213) 874-8781.