Geffen sets date to reopen

The Geffen Playhouse will reopen its renovated Westwood home with a benefit party on Oct. 17, followed by a revival of Tennessee Williams’ 1958 drama “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” starring John Goodman as Big Daddy, the patriarch of a troubled Southern clan.

The Williams play, to be staged by Geffen producing director Gilbert Cates from Nov. 16 through Dec. 18, will be the second offering of the company’s 2005-06 season.

Cates had intended to present all of next season’s productions at the company’s renovated home base, but heavy winter rains delayed the Geffen construction crews by about a month, he says.

The season opener, Heather Raffo’s “Nine Parts of Desire,” will play from Sept. 14 through Oct. 16 at the Brentwood Theatre on the Veterans Administration grounds. That venue has housed most of the company’s shows since last summer, when the renovation of the Geffen began. “Nine Parts” is a solo show, previously seen in London and off-Broadway, in which the playwright portrays a variety of Iraqi women.

Cates, who led a tour of the still unfinished main stage and the adjacent new Skirball-Kenis Theatre after a news conference Thursday, estimates that the company still has to raise $2.5 million to $3 million -- on top of $15.5 million in hand -- to pay for the construction work. A bank loan will fill the gap if the money is not raised by the beginning of next season, he says.

The order of the next two shows after “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is not set. One of them will be David Mamet’s “Boston Marriage,” directed by the playwright. Mamet first staged this comedy, which revolves around two upper-class Boston lesbians in the late 19th century, in its 1999 premiere in Cambridge, Mass.

The other announced production is Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” to be staged by Geffen artistic director Randall Arney.

A new play to be selected, will conclude the season next June.

The smaller Skirball-Kenis will open, probably in November, with the premiere of “My Buddy Bill,” a solo show written and performed by Rick Cleveland, a “West Wing” and “Six Feet Under” writer. The play is a fictionalized treatment of Cleveland’s acquaintance with former President Bill Clinton.

The exact capacity of the Skirball-Kenis has not been determined, Cates says, although he expects the space to accommodate 120 to 135 seats.

Cates says his staging of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” will use the traditional Broadway version, including a third act in which Big Daddy returns, instead of the original third act, minus Big Daddy. He considered alternating the endings but concluded that such a move would be viewed as “a stunt.”

Other than Goodman, the play’s casting has not been set.