Different Women With the Same Problem--Love

Three upscale New Yorkers find love, lose love and keep love in John Patrick Shanley’s friendship comedy, “Women of Manhattan,” opening this weekend at the Tiffany Theatre in West Hollywood.

“The women are all in their 30s, all from different backgrounds and all in different situations with men,” said director Claudia A. Weitsman. “One is married; one begins a relationship during the course of the play; one has just ended a relationship as the play begins. It’s about three people who have different ideas about what’s supposed to happen in a relationship, what they want--and how they all arrive at different places and still remain friends.”

Although Shanley has recently made a big name for himself in movies (he won an Oscar in 1988 for his screenplay of “Moonstruck”), his local play outings (“Savage in Limbo,” “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea”) have been less plentiful than in the past.

Weitsman, 27, who’s married to “Women” lighting designer Jim Blickensderfer, originally staged the play in its West Coast premiere last year at San Diego’s Progressive Theatre Co. “I thought the piece had elements of doing well,” she said of the remounting. “The author has a real name value here. The play’s not been done on a professional level in Los Angeles. It has small, well-defined roles for the actors. It’s short . My motto is, ‘Small theater is good theater.’ ”

Here, the writer seems to agree. In his instruction notes, Shanley counsels, “This play is about finding and solving problems. For that reason, I think it would be best to do it in the spirit of simplicity and warmth.” Weitsman said, “That not only tells me about the style and pursuing an overall look but gives the actors direction from the source. He also says, ‘Please do be loving, natural and vulnerable, and a little rough around the edges.’ So that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Susan Anton, Sharon Wyatt and Nicole Orth-Pallavicini play the ladies; Charles Salter and Malcolm Groome are the men in their lives.

Also this month:

Monday: John Bacos’ full-length comedies, “A Little Sex on the Weekend” and “Happy Birthday, Dear Millie,” receive a one-night reading at the West End Playhouse in Van Nuys. Admission is free.

Thursday: Siobhan Fallon’s one-woman show “What Can I Tell You?” a comedic look at cheerleading camp, new-wave therapy, summer stock, fishing and child custody, has its West Coast premiere at Hollywood’s 2nd Stage.

Thursday: John Murrell explores feelings on the home front during World War II in his “Waiting for the Parade” (at the Pacific Theatre Ensemble in Venice), a story of five Canadian women whose lives are altered by the outbreak of war. Stephen Robinson directs.

Friday: Anna Nicholas’ risque five-character comedy “Lu/Lou,” about the complexities of modern-day relationships, has its world premiere at the Lex Theatre in Hollywood. Dorothy Lyman directs.

Friday: Demmy Tambakos’ “Second Chance,” a drama about a man’s obsessive love for his alcoholic wife, has its West Coast premiere at Hollywood’s Fig Tree Theatre. Bruce McIntosh directs.

Friday: “The Sunshine Boys,” Neil Simon’s stage-and-film tale of two show-business oldsters trying to revive their comedy act, opens at Woodland Hills’ Richard Basehart Theatre. Cynthia Baer directs Cliff Norton and Bernie West.

Nov. 15: “Shakespeare in a Nutshell,” a collection of scenes and monologues from Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies and histories--plus a “tab” version of “Richard II”-- opens at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills. Armin Shimerman directs.

Nov. 15: Eric Boles’ “Romance,” a “black comedy about a sleazeball, young girls and vengeance,” has its premiere at the Cast Theatre in Hollywood. Ric Holden directs.

Nov. 16: Venice’s L.A. Theatre Works’ fall New Play Reading Series continues with Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Greek mythology-inspired “The Love of a Nightingale,” featuring Robert Foxworth, Amy Irving and Roger Smith.

Nov. 16: Actress Maylou(cq) Sullivan does a reading of 42 Oscar Mandel fables in “Gobble-Up Stories,” opening at the Lido Ristorante in Pacific Palisades. A full prix-fixe menu is $50 per person and includes admission to the show--plus dinner, wine, tip and tax.

Nov. 17: Kathleen Mazzola’s “Tie-Off,” a black comedy on the theme of addiction and co-dependency, has its world premiere at the Tamarind Theatre in Hollywood. Thea Constantine directs.

Nov. 28: L.A. Theatre Works winds up its play-reading series with “Where’s Nova Scotia,” a black comedy by actor David Selby about a family “whose love for each other reminds them of how lonely they are.” Nan Martin stars.

Nov. 28: Ken Hill’s “The Phantom of the Opera” (1976), billed as “the original London stage version” of the Gaston Leroux tale, opens under Hill’s direction at the Wiltern Theatre in Hollywood. Unlike Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom,” Hill’s boasts a comedic, campy tone--and the music of Verdi, Offenbach and Mozart.