Laughter, Tears Mingle Onstage

Whether their tastes run toward the new, the classic or the musical, theater-goers in Orange County should be able to fill out a stage itinerary worth anticipating this fall.

* The world premiere of Richard Greenberg’s “Everett Beekin” runs through Oct. 8 on the Mainstage at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa; though witty throughout, there is a sadness at its core as Greenberg, who has had five plays produced at SCR, examines how a family runs from some of the most painful chapters of its past, leaving a void in its present. The second act takes place in contemporary Orange County--including a brief, scathingly satirical scene on the “Unity Bridge” that connects South Coast Plaza with the arts district of Costa Mesa.

* Ron House, a transplanted Chicagoan, made his name as a farceur as part of a London-based team that created the ‘80s comedies, “El Grande de Coca Cola” and “Bullshot Crummond.” House’s new play, “Butlers, Bobbies & Boobs,” draws on his experiences in England and has its world premiere Oct. 11-29 at the Grove Theater Center’s Gem Theater in Garden Grove.

* “Art,” by French playwright Yasmina Reza, is another play new to Orange County. The object of art in question is a white, featureless canvas that a collector has bought for a bundle; when two of his friends prove less than admiring of his taste, the bonds of friendship are put to the test. Oct. 13 to Nov. 19 on SCR’s Mainstage.

* The art of painting also provides the dramatic canvas for “The Countess” by Gregory Murphy. The 1999 off-Broadway hit, receiving its West Coast premiere on SCR’s Second Stage, dramatizes a true-life marital scandal among famous 19th century art-folk: critic John Ruskin, his wife, Effie, and his protege, painter John Everet Millais. Oct. 31-Dec. 3.

* Greasepaint gets mixed with oil paints in yet a third coming production: “Vincent,” by Leonard Nimoy (yes, that Leonard Nimoy), tells the story of Van Gogh based on the artist’s letters to his brother and with projections of his paintings. Jim Jarrett plays both brothers Van Gogh in a one-man one-night stand. Nov. 4 at Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton.

* The American-Soviet race into space and its implications for one troubled, everyday man is the subject of “The Far Side of the Moon,” by Canadian writer-performer-director Robert Lepage. With an original score by avant-gardist Laurie Anderson, the multimedia theater piece has its West Coast premiere Oct. 26-28 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

* The Rude Guerrilla Theater Company’s Empire Theater in Santa Ana rings out its third season with two plays new to Orange County. “Simpatico,” by Sam Shepard, runs through Oct. 1. It deals with the ongoing repercussions of a racetrack scam, offering a noir-ish mixture of blackmail and past sins unearthed. The 1994 piece reached local movie screens early this year in an adaptation starring Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges and Sharon Stone.

Rude Guerrilla will also conjure the O.C. premiere of Clive Barker’s “The History of the Devil,” a stage play that the master of film and novelistic horror wrote before he found fame on page and screen. It runs Oct. 20 to Nov. 11.

* The season also offers established, edgy repertory works from three top names in modern theater. “Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” the 1976 play that made David Mamet’s reputation and established his profane, staccato style, runs through Sept. 30 at Stages in Anaheim.

* Joe Orton’s “Entertaining Mr. Sloane,” Sept. 19 to Oct. 22 on South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage, plays murder and lust for laughs in what a Times critic has called “an outrageously lewd parody of a stuffy British drawing-room comedy.” In other words, don’t invite Joe Lieberman if he’s campaigning hereabout.

* Before Tony Kushner wrote the monumental “Angels in America,” he warmed up with “The Illusion,” an adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s 1636 “L’Illusion Comique.” It’s a hybrid of fantasy and humor, based on a father’s enlisting of a magician to help him find the son he has provoked to run away. The Saddleback College production runs Nov. 3-12 at the campus’ McKinney Theatre in Mission Viejo.

* The first year of the new century wouldn’t be complete without a production of “The Three Sisters,” written by Anton Chekhov in 1900. Cal State Fullerton obliges with a 100th anniversary student production of the play about a cultured Moscow family’s descent toward despair as it lives exiled in a small-minded provincial town. At the campus’ Arena Stage, Sept. 29 to Oct. 15.

* Shakespeare is always with us; more so in the summer, but fans of the Bard will have opportunities during the fall. The Grove Theater Center’s unorthodox “Hamlet,” with the prince played as a princess, ends Sunday at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. The gender confusion comes ready-made in “Twelfth Night,” Shakespeare’s slapstick, frothy piece written to celebrate the 12th night of Christmas, 1601, at Queen Elizabeth’s court. The Vanguard Theatre Ensemble has a go at this oft-produced nugget, performing it at the Curtis Theatre in Brea, Sept. 22 to Oct. 8. A Cal State Fullerton production of “Twelfth Night” arrives Dec. 1-10. UC Irvine’s theater students present more Shakespearean frolic in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.

* Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” returns for its 21st annual run at SCR, Nov. 25 to Dec. 24, while SCR’s other popular seasonal standby, “La Posada Magica,” by Octavio Solis with music by Marcos Loya, has its seventh annual production on the Second Stage, Dec. 8-24.

* “Ragtime,” the musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s sprawling historical novel about the energies bubbling through American society in the early 1900s, continues at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa through Sept. 24.

* You’ve heard of a song being a hit “with a bullet” as it shoots up the Billboard charts? The trove of enduring hits from Irving Berlin’s 1946 musical “Annie Get Your Gun” fit that description as they help tell the story of Old West sharpshooting ace Annie Oakley. Marilu Henner takes over the title role famously associated with Ethel Merman in the touring production that arrives Nov. 21-26 at the center.

* “Rent,” another proven attraction, with its rock-influenced songs and its adaptation of “La Boheme” to modern-day bohemian New York, returns to the center Dec. 26-31.

* The team that created “Gunmetal Blues,” which played at the Laguna Playhouse’s Moulton Theater in 1999, returns to the scene of that crime-mystery musical with a show-biz tale, “Enter the Guardsman.” The Craig Bohmler, Marion Adler, Scott Wentworth show is based on “The Guardsman,” Ferenc Molnar’s play about an actor who disguises himself as a soldier in an attempt to test his wife’s fidelity. Oct. 31 to Dec. 3 in Laguna Beach.

Information:

Curtis Theatre: (714) 990-7722

Empire Theater: (714) 547-4688

Grove Theater Center: (714) 741-9555

Irvine Barclay Theatre: (949) 854-4646

Laguna Playhouse: (949) 497-2787

McKinney Theatre: (949) 582-4656

Orange County Performing Arts Center: (714) 556-2787

Plummer Auditorium: (714) 278-3371

South Coast Repertory: (714) 708-5555

Stages: (714) 525-4484

UC Irvine: (949) 824-2787