Laguna Playhouse lineup set

Laguna Playhouse’s 2005-06 season will include a West Coast premiere of “Last Easter” by Bryony Lavery -- who wrote the recent Tony-nominated “Frozen” -- and the fourth in Laguna’s series of American premieres of comedies by Irish playwright Bernard Farrell.

Three other West Coast premieres, one Southern California premiere and only one play previously presented in the Southland also made the list.

“We always have our eyes open for new work,” said Executive Director Richard Stein, “but it’s a matter of coincidence that we have so many this coming season.”

The season will open with “The Musical of Musicals (the Musical!)” from off-Broadway (July 9-Sept. 4), in which one melodramatic story is treated in the styles of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Kander and Ebb.

Theresa Rebeck’s “Bad Dates,” about a shoe connoisseur who undergoes the titular affliction, is slated for Sept. 7-Oct. 16, followed by Farrell’s Christmas-set farce “Many Happy Returns,” Nov. 19-Dec. 18.

For 2006: Mitch Albom’s (“Tuesdays With Morrie”) Oscar-related comedy “And the Winner Is” (Feb. 18-March 19); Lavery’s “Last Easter,” about four London friends who take a modern pilgrimage to Lourdes (April 22-May 21); and Catherine Butterfield’s “The Sleeper,” about a housewife who is attracted to her son’s possibly dangerous tutor (June 3-July 2).

“Two Pianos, Four Hands” (Jan. 7-Feb. 5), about two would-be concert pianists, was previously produced at the La Mirada Theatre, but the Laguna cast will be different.

In addition to the subscription season, a new work from “Late Nite Catechism’s” Maripat Donovan, “Sister’s Christmas Catechism: The Mystery of the Magi’s Gold,” is slated for a Nov. 21-Dec. 23 run this year.