La Jolla Nabs Premiere of Sondheim-Lapine Work

The La Jolla Playhouse will present the world premiere of a new musical by the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning team of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine in its 1993 season, Playhouse Artistic Director Des McAnuff has announced..

McAnuff said Tuesday that because the work is still in early development, both its title and subject matter cannot be named. He said Lapine will direct the work at the Mandell Weiss Theatre.

“I don’t want to interfere,” McAnuff said on the phone from New York, explaining why he wouldn’t describe the work. “Our interest is in helping them develop the piece. . . . We’re thrilled to be doing it. I think it will challenge us and help us to grow and help keep San Diego on the map as a national theater center.”

Sondheim and Lapine won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for drama for their libretto of “Sunday in the Park With George.” In 1989, Lapine won a Tony for the libretto and Sondheim a Tony for the original score of “Into the Woods”--which had its world premiere at the Old Globe Theatre in 1987.

Sondheim and Lapine last worked at the Playhouse in 1985 on a revised version of “Merrily We Roll Along,” for which Sondheim had done music and lyrics.

The idea of Lapine and Sondheim doing their new musical at the Playhouse came up during discussions about having Lapine premiere his new comedy, “Luck, Pluck and Virtue,” at the Playhouse in 1993, McAnuff said.

“Luck, Pluck and Virtue” may also become part of the 1993 season, but that hasn’t been finalized yet, McAnuff said. If that play goes ahead, it should be a busy year in San Diego for Lapine. He is also scheduled to direct the West Coast premiere of “Falsettos,” which won him a Tony for best book, at the Old Globe Theatre starting March 18.

The Globe production is part of a national tour scheduled to start in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Dec. 2 and come to San Diego via Palm Beach. The show’s next scheduled stop is San Francisco.

There is no budget and no enhancement money lined up yet for the new musical, but McAnuff said he is “quite confident that we’ll be able to put it all together.”

McAnuff and Lapine have a friendship that dates back to McAnuff’s pre-Playhouse work at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Lapine had his play “Twelve Dreams” produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1981, the year before McAnuff’s play, “The Death of Von Richtofen as Witnessed From Earth,” was produced there.

“We’ve been friends since the 1970s, ever since we worked cheek by jowl at the New York Shakespeare Festival,” McAnuff said of Lapine. “In my mind, they’re the premier creative musical team working at this moment. This is a great thing for us.”