January Theater Openings Include Vintage Comedy, Japanese Stories

After December’s slim pickings, theater gets revved up in 1992 with a truckload of January openings. The roster includes:

Wednesday: Avery Brooks has the title role in Phillip Hayes Dean’s biographical drama, “Paul Robeson,” opening at the Westwood Playhouse.

Wednesday: San Franciscans Jess Curtis, Keith Hennessy and Jules Beckman explore the image of the American male in “Mandala,” coming to Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.

Thursday: At the Wooden-O Theatre in West Los Angeles, John Murrell’s “Waiting for the Parade” tells the story of five women left behind in Calgary when their men go off to fight in World War II.

Thursday: An oddball assortment of New Yorkers comes together in the middle of the night in Leonard Melfi’s “Last Call Forever,” playing on a double bill with Melfi’s one-act “Charity,” at the Gardner Stage in Hollywood.

Thursday: “It Had to Be You,” Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna’s vintage comedy about an out of work, ex-B movie actress struggling to write a play, has a revival at the Attic Theatre in Hollywood.

Thursday: Joe Swan registers his take on modern-day relationships in the comic drama, “Bombers,” premiering at the Burbage Theatre in West Los Angeles.

Friday: Also bowing at the Burbage is John Martin’s “Tower of Masks,” a humorous look at sexual preferences and first impressions, directed by Ivan Spiegel.

Saturday: Susan Van Allen creates a quintet of contemporary female characters in her one-woman show, “Jersey Girls,” at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood.

Saturday: Performance artist Beth Lapides joins comedians Judy Toll and Taylor Negron for a pair of “Un-Cabaret” late-night shows at Highways.

Jan. 12: Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40 kicks off its third One-Act Festival with four new works on two programs: Clem Martini’s “Life History of the African Elephant,” Paddy Campbell’s “The Parallax Garden,” Steven Jeffrey Wolfson’s “Toros y Huevos” and William Sheer’s “Before Eva.”

Jan. 15: “Uncle Tadao,” R.A. Shiomi’s story of a Japanese-Canadian family during the government’s Redress Campaign of 1984, has its world premiere at East West Players in Hollywood. Philip Kan Gotanda directs.

Jan. 16: Set in a Pittsburgh restaurant circa 1969, August Wilson’s latest examination of black culture, “Two Trains Running,” comes to the James A. Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood. Lloyd Richards directs Roscoe Lee Browne.

Jan. 16: “Reflections on the Future in Three Tenses” is an umbrella title for two one-acts--Robert Spera’s “The Field” and Murphy Guyer’s “The American Century”--at the Company of CharActors Theatre in Studio City.

Jan. 16: A contemporary relationship is traced from its blissful beginning to the bitter end in J. Paul Porter’s “Men Talking Women Talking Men” at West Coast Ensemble in Hollywood.

Jan. 17: The last 12 years of Ludwig von Beethoven’s life are the subject of playwright-physician-psychoanalyst Frederick Kurth’s “Beethoven,” making its premiere at the Gene Dynarski Theatre in Hollywood.

Jan. 17: Actor-playwright Michael Kearns (“intimacies”) plays multiple characters--including Marilyn Monroe--in his latest performance work, the semi-autobiographical “Rock,” at Highways.

Jan. 24: Dayton Callie’s “Survival of the Heart” surveys one man’s attempt to cope after a relationship breakup, at Theatre West in Studio City. Mark W. Travis directs.

Jan. 31: Buoyed by last summer’s success of “Club Indigo, Memories in Blue,” Burbank’s Golden Theatre presents the sequel, “Club Indigo Revisited,” a nostalgic journey through the songs of the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Jan. 31: A group of artists and writers--including Tosh Berman, Amy Gerstler, Peter Sellars, Masako Takahashi and Norman Yonemoto--read their favorite works of Japanese literature in “Japanese Story/Fable/Noh Play Night” at Beyond Baroque in Venice.