Geffen puts U.S. plays first

The Geffen Playhouse will introduce the Tony-winning “Take Me Out” and the Pulitzer-winning “I Am My Own Wife” to Los Angeles and also stage two American works from the mid-20th century at its temporary quarters in Brentwood during the 2004-05 season.

The season -- at the Brentwood Theatre while the Geffen is being renovated -- will launch a decade-long focus on American theater, said Gilbert Cates, the playhouse’s producing director.

Richard Greenberg’s “Take Me Out” (Sept. 22-Oct. 24) is about a major league baseball player who reveals that he’s gay. It features extensive male nudity, but Cates said this shouldn’t be an issue for Geffen patrons, who saw naked men in “Quills” and “Love! Valour! Compassion!”

Cates will stage a new adaptation by David Rambo (“God’s Man in Texas”) of the Lerner & Loewe Gold Rush musical “Paint Your Wagon” (Dec. 1-Jan. 9). In contrast to the 1951 original, Cates said, the new version will place more emphasis on “the restlessness of the American spirit.” Parts of the original aren’t accessible to modern audiences, he said.

Cates has an undisclosed new American play in mind for a February opening “if it’s ready,” he said.

Christopher Hart will stage “You Can’t Take It With You” (April 20-May 22, 2005), the 1936 comedy about an eccentric family that his father, Moss Hart, wrote with George S. Kaufman. The younger Hart staged it in 1999 at the 99-seat Actors Co-op in Hollywood. Cates, who said “it’s important not to do plays our audience could otherwise see,” said he was unaware of Hart’s Hollywood staging. “I’m not dismissive of that, but it’s small.”

“I Am My Own Wife” (June 22-July 24, 2005) is by Doug Wright, whose “Quills” opened the Geffen’s first regular season. A solo show with many characters, about a German transvestite who survived the Nazi and Communist regimes, the production will feature original actor Jefferson Mays and original director Moises Kaufman.

The Geffen’s new emphasis on American plays and themes will not eliminate other plays and themes from consideration, Cates said. He eventually would like to do the company’s first Shakespeare play.

However, he said that too many Americans “have forgotten who we are.” He sees the initiative as “a journey on what it means to be an American.”

The Geffen is sponsoring an open house at the Brentwood Theatre on May 15 and 16. The first show there, “Cookin’ at the Cookery,” opens June 23 as part of the 2003-04 season.