Playhouse has varied lineup

Tom Titus

A quartet of plays -- two very familiar and two virtually unknown --

has been announced for the 2003-04 season at the Costa Mesa Civic

Playhouse.

The new season will get under way the night before Halloween with

one of the most famous mystery plays of all time, Agatha Christie’s

“Ten Little Indians.” In this classic whodunit, a group of people are

invited to a party on a near-inaccessible island only to fall prey to

an unseen killer who’s reducing the head count one by one.

Christie mysteries aren’t the usual fare at the playhouse, but the

theater has mounted a satire on them -- twice -- in the form of the

musical “Something’s Afoot.” Those who remember that one now can find

out just what the show was spoofing.

The second show of the playhouse’s season, arriving Feb. 12, is a

local premiere called “Schoolhouse Rocks Live.” It’s based on the

Emmy-winning Saturday morning cartoon series of the 1970s, although

it’s an adult version, to be performed by grown-ups.

The central figure is Tom, a jittery schoolteacher nervous about

his first day of teaching, who tries to relax by watching television

when various characters representing facets of his personality emerge

from the set and show him how to win his students over with

imagination and music.

“It’s like a fabulous rock concert with an educational twist,”

playhouse board member Steve Endicott said. “Each song is a whole new

piece of theater, bringing its infection zest to a cross-generational

audience.”

Another play that may appear to be kid stuff, but is intended for

a more adult audience, is Don Nigro’s “Cinderella Waltz,” opening

April 8. This is a farcical retelling of the Cinderella story, in

which things are not always what they seem.

“Some characters are allowed to break out of the fairy tale mold

and make choices,” Endicott said. “This is a grown-up fairy tale that

shatters all the myths and leaves the audience with something to

think about besides another Hollywood ending.”

Finally, opening a monthlong engagement next June 3, is the dark

musical “Cabaret,” set in decadent pre-World War II Berlin and

centering around an American writer and an English chanteuse who view

the encroaching peril from different perspectives.

Most audiences will be familiar with the movie “Cabaret,” which

won Liza Minnelli her Oscar, but be assured that the stage version is

infinitely superior. The John Kander-Fred Ebb score was a dramatic

revelation when it first emerged back in the 1960s, casting the

spotlight on the Nazis’ rise to power through often highly comedic

entertainment.

This is the closing weekend of the Civic Playhouse’s production of

the musical “Once On This Island.” Closing performances are at 8 p.m.

today and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday at the theater, 611 Hamilton

St., Costa Mesa. More information about the theater may be obtained

by calling the box office at (949) 650-5269.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.