No Square Theatre’s ‘Trashy Love’ offers a Valentine’s venue for the jilted, skeptical

If the thought of Valentine’s Day fills you with dread, you may find a perfect evening at Laguna Beach’s No Square Theatre Feb. 10 and 11, when an annual musical tradition takes aim at traditional notions of love and romance.

Billing itself as an anti-Valentine’s Day concert, this year’s “Trashy Love” promises a lineup of musical theater tunes that eschew hearts and flowers for a look at love’s dark underbelly, where insecurity, uncertainty and bad behavior rule, according to artistic director Ella Wyatt.

“We try and focus on the ridiculous things love makes people do,” she said Thursday. “It makes people a little wacky, where they can lose all sense of reality and common sense. But we’ll have a few sweet things in there, too.”

Joe Lauderdale performs as Cupid during an anti-Valentine’s Day themed performance at No Square Theatre in Laguna Beach.

(Courtesy of Ella Wyatt)

For example, Wyatt this year will be singing “Changing My Major,” from the musical “Fun Home” and “Let’s Generalize About Men,” from the musical theater adaptation of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” Other songs include “Screw Loose,” “Big French Boyfriend” and “Stupid with Love.”

Wyatt, who’s performed with the Laguna Beach community theater for the past decade and recently assumed the mantle of artistic director, said the annual performance is a fun, snarky and irreverent salute to romance fit for anyone, so long as they don’t mind a little cursing.

“We’ve done it at least five years in a row now. It started as a break-up concert, and every year it has a different name, but it’s always something anti-Valentine,” the 40-year-old Capistrano Beach resident said. “It’s good to bring a significant other — or not. It’s good for everyone.”

No Square Theatre, producer of the annual local musical roast “Lagunatics,” formed 30 years ago under the aegis of founding President Bree Burgess Rosen, who vowed it would not be an ordinary theater.

That founding spirit is still going strong, attests Wyatt, who says the next installment of “Lagunatics” is slated to open on March 10 for a three-weekend run.

“It’s like the roast of the coast. It’s what put us on the map,” she added. “We like to pick fun of ourselves and everything that goes on in Laguna Beach.”

“Trashy Love” runs Feb. 10 and 11 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $20. No Square Theatre is located in Historic Legion Hall, 384 Legion St., Laguna Beach. Parking is available at nearby Laguna Beach High School. For more visit nosquare.org.

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