Warming Up With Two Rare English Chestnuts

The term “fall season” makes next to no sense in Southern California, where climatically and theatrically the seasons run together in a year-round blur. But the calendar says ‘tis autumn, and production activity is running high.

Seldom-staged English chestnuts? Two come to mind. First is “The Circle,” the rarely staged W. Somerset Maugham comedy. South Coast Repertory’s production, which opened earlier this month in Costa Mesa and runs through Oct. 7, features Paxton Whitehead, William “Biff” McGuire and Carole Shelley.

Meanwhile in glittering downtown Glendale, A Noise Within begins its fall repertory with another rare bird: “Trelawny of the Wells” by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, directed by company members Julia Rodriguez Elliott and Geoff Elliott. It opens Sept. 28 and continues through Nov. 25, in repertory with “Pericles” and “The Imaginary Invalid.”

Jumping back on the timeline a moment, playwright Charles L. Mee’s gleeful craziness forms the willfully unstable center of the Evidence Room’s West Coast premiere of “The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem” (Saturday-Oct. 13). Evidence Room materials describe Mee’s romp as “a sly celebration/assault on the postmodern experience,” an evening of “wild bedroom stories ... continually interrupted by a series of diverse, escalating performance events.” The Evidence Room itself is one of the coolest spots on the L.A. 99-seat-and-under map.

Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse cracks open its 2001-02 season with a two-hander. Yasmina Reza’s “The Unexpected Man” (Wednesday-Oct. 21). The author of “Art” here turns her attention to strangers on a train, played by Christopher Lloyd and Holland Taylor.

It’s always a pleasure to watch actress Emily Kuroda tackle a role. She’s prominently featured in the Chay Yew play “Red,” directed by the author, which opens Oct. 3 at East West Players in Little Tokyo (through Oct. 28).

Tim Robbins has taken back the reins of the Actors’ Gang. The actor and director is announcing his return by way of two intriguing projects. The Robbins-directed “Mephisto” opens Oct. 5. A week later comes “The Seagull”--directed by Georges Bigot, whose ’84 Olympic Arts Festival productions remain legendary. The shows continue in repertory through Dec. 15.

The Taper, meanwhile, is tackling a musical that’ll no doubt throw the purists into a collective huff. It’s a new version of the 1958 Rodgers & Hammerstein bauble “Flower Drum Song” (Oct. 14-Dec. 2), with a book by David Henry Hwang and direction by Robert “Scarlet Pimpernel” Longbottom. There’s a lot of attention on this nationally.

Ditto for “Dracula, the Musical,” Oct. 21-Nov. 18. Frank Wildhorn, who wrote the music for “Jekyll & Hyde,” takes on Bram Stoker’s vampire in a La Jolla Playhouse world premiere staged by artistic director Des McAnuff.

In a more mellow vein: The Reprise! series at UCLA offers Frank Loesser’s “The Most Happy Fella” (Nov. 7-18), with Jennifer Leigh Warren, a standout in the recent “Hair” at the Wadsworth, and opera baritone Rodney Gilfry.

Disney’s gifts tend to keep on giving, or at least touring, and the multinational’s latest is the Elton John-Tim Rice “Aida,” coming to the Ahmanson Theatre (Nov. 11-Jan. 5). Another Broadway touring export, the Tony Award-winning play “Copenhagen,” arrives at the Wilshire Theatre Nov. 25. It continues through the end of the year.