O.C. THEATER / JAN HERMAN : Expect a Cast of Eclectic Characters in Spotlight

The months ahead promise a world of contradictions at the county’s prime venues, with stage appearances by everyone from Frankie and Johnny to Spalding Gray, Tommy and the Phantom.

Of course, no self-respecting year of theatrical offerings could get by without Evita and Annie or, at the very least, Susan Anton fronting the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. So expect them to show up here with bells on.

If that doesn’t slake the county’s thirst for fare of every stripe, there’s always the possibility of finding signs of intelligent life in the universe with spaced-out Trudy somewhere on Storefront Row, a figurative place of brave little theaters installed in out-of-the-way commercial malls and basements and on local college campuses.

King Lear is also making plans to divide his kingdom in that neighborhood. And the classic black American family from the ‘50s, the Youngers of Chicago’s South Side, will get its chance to be counted there.

Another brood of a much earlier time, the Millers of small-town Connecticut, also will be turning up, as will the Class of ’59 from Rydell High.

But it is Hedda Gabler who launches 1994 with a bang tonight at South Coast Repertory in a Mainstage revival of Henrik Ibsen’s century-old play titled (what else?) “Hedda Gabler.” (Previews continue through Jan. 13; the regular run opens the following night.)

Is she a pre-feminist hero of mythic stature or just a gun-toting, manic-depressive housewife who makes trouble for everybody, herself above all?

To put it another way, are her inchoate yearnings for liberation from a life of provincial repression the stuff of tragedy or melodrama?

“We see her as an archetype,” director David Chambers said earlier this week in Costa Mesa. “We’re looking at the play as one might look at a Greek play, recognizing the power of fate. We’re interested in her spiritual and psychological journey.

“Ibsen’s plays in the 20th Century have been locked in the drawing room. He’s been put in a post-Freudian bag. The take on the plays tends to be psychological and sociological.

“While those are not elements to be ignored, we have to remember he was an extraordinary poet. Psychology and sociology are not all he was interested in by any stretch of the imagination.”

“Hedda Gabler” (through Feb. 13) ought to have a formidable actress in the title role. Chambers has cast Lynnda Ferguson as Hedda, and she certainly has shown herself capable of commanding the stage in previous SCR roles.

SCR-goers will remember her most recently as Marianne in “The Miser” and before that as Olivia in “Twelfth Night,” both also directed by Chambers. But she also starred as a much underrated Tracy Lord in “The Philadelphia Story” and made her SCR debut as the downed aviator in “Misalliance.”

Ferguson has been surrounded with a cast possessing top-notch credits. Most of the supporting players are newcomers to SCR. But if they measure up to the quality of the sterling Nicholas Hormann, an SCR veteran also cast in the production, we’re in for a great ride.

Meanwhile, SCR has enlisted Ralph Funicello to design the set and Shigeru Yaji the costumes, which virtually guarantees an arresting visual look. And Chambers has written a new English version of the Norwegian text, reworking it from a commissioned literal translation.

“While I have not colloquialized the language, there is very definitely an abbreviation,” Chambers said. “I’ve deflowered the language, if you will, and I hope it is has a Pinteresque impact for its brevity, economy, tautness and ambiguity. The play is shot through with mysteries and ambiguities. It has extraordinary menace.”

Although SCR has done only one Ibsen play before (“A Doll’s House” in 1978), it will turn later this month to a longtime favorite, the South African playwright Athol Fugard, on its Second Stage. Three of his works have been done at the theater (“The Blot Knot” in 1982, “Master Harold . . . and the boys” in 1985, and “The Road to Mecca” in 1989).

This time SCR will mount the ironically titled “Playland,” a work about the aftermath of apartheid that had its U.S. premiere two years ago in San Diego (to mixed reviews). SCR artistic director Martin Benson, an old hand at Fugard stagings, will direct.

“Playland” (Jan. 25-Feb. 27) will go up in Costa Mesa just before the beginning of nationally designated Black History Month--February--and doubtless will teach a lesson about race relations in Fugard’s deeply humane style.

The play, which has just two actors and is set in South Africa, focuses on a white war veteran and a black watchman of an amusement park. They confront each other on New Year’s Eve, 1989, in a battle of wills and tortured confessions until the sun comes up.

The Alternative Repertory Theatre in Santa Ana also is gearing up for Black History Month with a production of “Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 drama about Lena Younger’s hope of buying a house and moving her family out of Chicago’s black ghetto.

“We’re expecting a lot of student groups,” said ART spokesman Gary Christensen. “Even though people may not have seen the movie (of ‘Raisin’) with Sidney Poitier, they’ve heard of it. The play has a very special place in the black community. It has a mythology. It’s a sort of national treasure.”

Immediately following “Raisin” (Jan. 28-March 5) ART will stage Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine”(March 18-April 9), a reminiscence of childhood about a man who goes back to his hometown to recapture his youth and reconciles himself with his past.

After that comes “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,” Lily Tomlin’s spacey one-woman show of the ‘80s (written by Jane Wagner). Tomlin did it all over the country and in Los Angeles and took it to Broadway. But, so far as we can tell, it has never been done in the county.

ART will not have Tomlin’s services, however. Nor will “Search” (May 6-June 11) be done as a one-woman show. Director Patricia L. Terry has decided to use an ensemble of five women instead. They’ll be playing Trudy, of course, as well as Agnes and Kate and Chrissy and all the other inimitable characters Tomlin originated.

Meanwhile, over at the Laguna Playhouse’s Moulton Theatre in Laguna Beach, artistic director Andrew Barnicle is preparing the world premiere of John Twomey’s “Teachers’ Lounge” (Tuesday through Feb. 6), which is described by the theater as a humorous look at a year in the life of a school system on the verge of collapse.

The Playhouse has done original works before in its long and venerable history, but not often. Barnicle, who is directing “Teachers’ Lounge,” says it is “just as accessible as anything we do here. It’s a linear play with real people in it. I’m not exploring or experimenting with theatrical form in front of my audience here.

“What interests me,” he adds, “are the characters and the subject matter and the questions the play raises. It’s amusing and poignant and very timely.”

Later this year the Playhouse also will stage “Ah, Wilderness!” (March 15-April 10), Eugene O’Neill’s comic (for him) recollection of youth through the eyes of Nat and Essie Miller and their son, Richard. That will be followed by “The Mystery of Irma Vep” (May 17-June 12), Charles Ludlam’s transvestite spoof of Gothic horror shows.

The Playhouse combination is, to say the least, eclectic.

“I wanted plays that offer counterpoint to each other rather than any through line,” Barnicle says. “The reason we’re doing ‘Irma Vep’ is just to get some Ludlam up on our stage. I tend to look at playwrights who are either interesting or neglected. I also want to put on one American classic in every season.”

When it comes to eclectic, however, nobody can compete with the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Its Broadway Series for the rest of this year continues with “Grease” (Mar. 29-April). “The Who’s Tommy” (May 10-15), “The Great Radio City Music Hall Spectacular” (June 14-19) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (July 22-Aug. 28).

“Grease” will have stand-up comic Rosie O’Donnell among its Rydell High graduates and, like several other recent entries in the center’s Broadway Series (“My Fair Lady,” “Camelot” and “Gypsy”), is a road revival on a pre-Broadway tour that will take it to, rather than from, New York.

“The Who’s Tommy,” a rock musical about a boy who is blind, deaf and mute, is still on Broadway. It was developed at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1992 and became a smash hit there. Then it opened in New York and was hailed by the critics as the best rock musical ever to appear on Broadway, where it won five Tony Awards (though not the one for best musical).

“The Great Radio City Musical Hall Spectacular” is supposed to be more than a mouthful of words. Created to celebrate the hall’s 60th anniversary, it will feature the Rockettes and Susan Anton. Just what Anton has to do with the hall’s legendary history is not clear.

Andrew Lloyd Webber fans will not want for fare this summer. The nearly six-week booking of “The Phantom of the Opera” is the longest of any event in the center’s history. Though not as large as the production that played Los Angeles, it will come complete with chandelier. The casting hasn’t yet been decided. But don’t expect any name stars.

In shorter bookings and in decidedly less glitzy terms, El Teatro Campesino and Spalding Gray will come to the Irvine Barclay Theatre for one-night engagements.

El Teatro Campesino will revive Luis Valdez’s play “I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinking Badges!” (Feb. 16), about a middle-aged Latino couple that has made a successful living as the “King and Queen of Hollywood extras.”

Gray will do his latest monologue, “Gray’s Anatomy” (May 1), which revolves around a traumatic eye operation that ultimately led to his marriage but, as with all Gray’s kaleidoscopic tales, gets into the myriad nooks and crannies of his life.

Back at SCR the rest of the Mainstage season features a world premiere of Richard Greenberg’s “Night and Her Stars” (March 4-April 3) and revivals of Peter Shaffer’s “Lettice & Lovage” (April 15-May 15) and Brian Friel’s “Dancing at Lughnasa.”

The theater company is particularly high on the new Greenberg play, as might be expected for a commissioned work. But SCR producing artistic director David Emmes speaks of it as “a breakthrough” for Greenberg on a par with “Prelude to a Kiss,” which launched Craig Lucas on a huge trajectory.

Greenberg had another play done at SCR with mixed results (“The Extra Man” in 1991) and is best known for “Eastern Standard,” which premiered in Seattle and went to Broadway as the quintessential play about Manhattan yuppies of the ‘80s.

In “Night and Her Stars” Greenberg reaches back to the ‘50s for a look at the TV quiz show scandals that catapulted people like Charles Van Doren to fame and, as it turned out, lured them into ethical quicksand.

On SCR’s Second Stage the rest of the season will offer “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” (March 8-April 17), a hostage drama by Frank McGuinness that was nominated for a Tony Award on Broadway last year, and a still-unnamed play in the final slot (April 26-May 29).

The big summer events for Shakespeare Orange County will be Thomas F. Bradac’s staging of “King Lear” with Alan Mandell, one of the Southland’s premiere classical actors, in the title role. SOC also will do “Twelfth Night.” Both plays will be produced at Chapman University’s Waltmar Theatre, dates to be announced.

We haven’t forgotten Evita and Annie. The Fullerton Civic Light Opera promises “Evita” (Feb. 18-March 6) for Plummer Auditorium, along with “Annie” (May 13-29) and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (July 15-31). FCLO producer Griff Duncan also says the company will stage another outdoor summer season of three plays--one musical, one comedy and one drama--at the Muckenthaler Center, with titles to be announced.

Also in Fullerton, the Vanguard Theatre Ensemble opens the year tonight with the Michael Cristofer’s “The Shadow Box,” (through Feb. 5), followed by John Olive’s “Voice of the Prairie” (March 2-April 2); Timberlake Wertenbaker’s “The Love of the Nightingale” (April 27-May 28); “Talley’s Folley” (June 29-July 30); Ruth and Augustus Goetz’s “The Heiress” (Sept. 7-Oct. 5); and Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” (Oct. 26-Dec. 1)

Vanguard, which is entering its third season this year, recently incorporated as a not-for-profit institution and has already made its mark as one of the county’s prime storefront theaters.

But another storefront operation, the three-year-old Backstage Theatre in Costa Mesa, will fold at the end of January, following Terrence McNally’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” (tonight through Jan. 30).

“We’re closing up here at the end of that run,” Backstage producer Al Valletta said, adding that he hopes to stage shows in Los Angeles instead.