Theater

Tom Titus

If you missed the thriller “Deathtrap” at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse

last year, fear not. Another version, also in Costa Mesa, opens tonight.

The new Trilogy Playhouse officially takes over the Bristol Street

theater occupied for five years by the Theater District, but if you’re

planning to drop in tonight, be advised that the event -- which includes

dinner and a champagne reception -- is $70.

It’s the gala kickoff for Costa Mesa’s newest theater group, an

8-year-old transplanted troupe formerly known as the Laguna Niguel

Playhouse. Serendipitously, both the leases of the Theater District and

Laguna Niguel Playhouse expired at the end of last year, and neither

could continue in its original venue.

“Deathtrap,” Ira Levin’s literate mystery thriller, kicks off the adult

portion of the Trilogy’s 2000 schedule, a slate that also includes Neil

Simon’s “Fools,” Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” and

Maxwell Anderson’s “The Bad Seed.”

Interspersed between the grown-up offerings will be youth theater

presentations of “Into the Woods,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,”

“Little Shop of Horrors” and “A Winnie-the-Pooh Christmas Tail.”

Artistic director Alicia Butler is staging “Deathtrap,” which features

James Newell as the murderous older playwright, James Mulligan as his

precocious student, Denise Ducloux-Brink as Newell’s fragile wife, Mina

Kedar as the neighboring psychic and James Manley Green as the older

playwright’s attorney.

Performances will be given Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and

Sundays at 7 p.m. through March 12 at the remodeled Trilogy Playhouse in

the Lab Anti-Mall, 2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa.

After tonight, tickets are $15 and $20, with additional information

dispensed at (714) 957-3347.

CALLBOARD -- Auditions for OCC’s spring musical, “1776,” will be held at

7 p.m. March 7 and 8 in the Drama Lab Theater on the college campus, 2701

Fairview Road, Costa Mesa.

Director Alex Golson will hear women’s auditions from 7 to 8 p.m. and

men’s from 8 to 10 p.m. The cast calls for 25 men and two women, and all

roles in the production are open.

“1776” is the musical version of the birth of our nation, set in the

Continental Congress in Philadelphia with a cast of characters including

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and other founding

fathers.

The show opens May 11 for two weekends in the Drama Lab. For more

information, call (714) 432-5640.