Euripedes sells out the Getty Villa

APPARENTLY, ancient theater is not Greek to us: Euripides’ tragedy, “Hippolytos,” the inaugural production at the Getty Villa’s new outdoor theater, drew capacity crowds of 450 for all 15 paid performances (at $38 a pop) during its September run, reports Villa spokeswoman Tracy Gilbert.

But no expansion of the annual series is planned. Still treading gingerly, given conditions set by the L.A. City Council to allay neighbors’ concerns about traffic and noise, just one monthlong late-summer production is scheduled for 2007: L.A. director Meryl Friedman’s staging of Plautus’ Roman comedy, “The Rope,” in a new translation by UCLA classics professor Amy Richlin.

The Villa will not try to replicate conditions that led to the two “hottest” performances of “Hippolytos” -- free afternoon shows for students, in which the midday Malibu sun and the black marble plaza that doubles as a playing surface proved too sizzling a combination for comfort. Future student matinees will start at 10 a.m. instead of 1 p.m.

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Mike Boehm