Theater Review

Tom Titus

The phrase “world premiere” attached to a theatrical event adds an

element of excitement both for those who stage them and those who watch

them. For playgoers, it’s somewhat of a kick to realize that they’re

viewing the original cast in the original production of a work that

didn’t exist until this point.

At South Coast Repertory, where two such entities will be born in the

next two weeks -- Howard Korder’s “The Hollow Lands” and Jose Rivera’s

“References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot” -- world premieres are almost

commonplace. By July, the 35-year-old company will have produced 75 plays

with that designation.

The plethora of premieres began back in the company’s second season, in

1966 at the old Second Step Theater in Newport Beach. The play was

“Chocolates,” an allegorical drama by Laguna Beach playwright Ian Bernard

(who at the time was musical director for “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In”

on television). Not many laughs here, but some impressive acting by John

Arthur Davis and Don Took, the latter still with SCR and appearing in

“Hollow Lands.”

Probably the most celebrated premiere in SCR annals was the 1970

introduction of “Mother Earth,” a rock musical by Ron Thronson and Toni

Shearer (now known as Toni Tennille) that goosed the rather staid ecology

movement with pulsating songs and sharp comic satire. Shearer/Tennille’s

all-stops-out rendition of her “Sail On, Sweet Universe” was a resounding

anthem for the show.

Thronson and Shearer returned the following season with another original,

“In the Midst of Life,” based on the writings of Ambrose Bierce, while

Thronson also contributed “The Incredible Reign of Good King Ubu” to the

mix. “Mother Earth” eventually went to Broadway but didn’t have the same

effect on New York audiences as it did in SCR’s downtown Costa Mesa

theater.

More successful, however, was Margaret Edson’s “Wit,” introduced in early

1995 on SCR’s Second Stage and featuring a bravura performance by Megan

Cole as a woman dying of cancer. “Wit” eventually landed on Broadway and

won the Pulitzer Prize.

Another locally born hit making waves on the Great White Way was

“Collected Stories” by Donald Margulies, who also wrote “Sight Unseen”

for SCR.

George Sibbald’s “Brothers” was, at least for this writer, a high-water

mark among SCR’s originals, featuring a dynamic performance by Dennis

Franz (now known as Det. Andy Sipowicz on “NYPD Blue”). “Men’s Singles”

by D.B. Gilles, a biting locker room seriocomedy, made such an impression

in September 1984 that it was brought back for an encore in June 1985.

Korder’s superb “Search and Destroy” opened the new decade in 1990 and

certainly belongs in the top ranks of SCR premieres. So do two plays by

Beth Henley -- “Abundance” and “The Debutante Ball” -- not to mention Amy

Freed’s “Freedomland” and David Henry Hwang’s “The Golden Child.”

Craig Lucas went on to wider acclaim after the premiers two of his plays

-- “Prelude to a Kiss” and “Three Postcards” -- at South Coast Repertory.

Newport Beach’s Cecilia Fannon hit the jackpot with “Green Icebergs,” one

of the company’s more impressive introductions.

Even SCR’s company members have gotten into the act. Dramaturge John

Glore saw his “The Company of Heaven” produced in 1993, and his “On the

Jump” was a contender last season. Fellow dramaturge Jerry Patch didn’t

create “A Christmas Carol,” but his adaptation of the classic in 1980 has

warmed playgoers’ hearts every holiday season since.

SCR’s charter members -- actors who started out in the old Second Step in

the mid-1960s -- have had a pair of originals written for their talents

-- “Hospitality Suite” by Roger Reuff and “BAFO” by Tom Strelich. The

annual Second Stage presentation of “La Posada Magica” by Octavio Solis

and Marcos Loya started out as a world premiere in 1994.

Who, you may ask, has created the most world premieres for the SCR stage?

That honor would go to Richard Greenberg with four -- “The Extra Man,”

“Three Days of Rain,” “Night and Her Stars” and “Hurrah at Last.”

There are, of course, many others deserving mention over South Coast

Repertory’s three and a half decades of originality, and if space

permitted we could list all 75. They’ve all contributed to making

theatergoing at SCR an invigorating experience.TOM TITUS reviews local

theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.