EVITA RETURNS TO L.A.

The touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's EVITA will check into the Pantages Theatre for a two-week run, March 1-13. The all-new version is directed by Hal Prince and Larry Fuller, both of whom were responsible for the ground-breaking original Broadway production. EVITA is the sixth show of Broadway/L.A's 2004-05 season.
      

      
Haidle's new adult comedy, presented in SCR's NewSCRipts reading series last fall, is a comic take on the shared memories of two highly imaginative brothers. Reflecting on teen romances gone awry, they fantasize about the object of their affection, once so innocent and perfect, until she returns for a visit--all grown up.
SCR recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. Beginning in a hastily converted marine hardware store in Newport Beach, the company, founded by David Emmes and Martin Benson, moved a few years later to a larger space down the road, and finally to a permanent three-stage facility built to the company's own specifications. Today SCR is considered one of the remarkable success stories of the American theatre, one that stands in the national spotlight thanks to its riveting productions, new play commissions and festivals, children's presentations and performing-arts training programs.

Upcoming productions include A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE by Arthur Miller (May 20-June 26) and VESUVIUS, the world premiere of a play by Lucinda Coxon (April 24-May 15). PINOCCHIO, a family musical by Susan Dilallo (book & lyrics) and Jeffrey Harris (music), will run June 3-19.

SCR is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Call (714) 708-5555

A NOISE WITHIN'S NEW PRODUCTIONS

A NOISE WITHIN, L.A.'s only year-round resident professional company, will unveil three new repertory productions in March and April, including Eugene O'Neill's MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA, which will run April 8-May 29, directed by Geoff Elliott & Julie Rodriguez Elliot. Based on the classical Greek trilogy, The Orestia, O'Neill plants his epic masterpiece in the soil of post-Civil War New England.

On March 4, the company will mount its version of Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR, directed by Eve Adamson (founder of Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre in NYC). Through May 13.
Moliere's THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES, directed by Sabin Epstein, will be launched March 18 for a one-month run through May 14. Agnes, the prize pupil in Monsieur Amophe's finishing school for prospective brides, graduates in unexpected ways, going from naif to coquette to liberated spirit.

A Noise Within is located at 234, S. Brand Blvd. in Glendale. For tickets and information call (818) 240-0910 x1; fax (818) 240-0826

JEKYLL & HYDE--THE MUSICAL

Adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, JEKYLL & HYDE will haunt the Kodak Theatre April 5-10. Nominated for four Tony Awards, the musical deals with a brilliant young doctor and research scinetist who, distraught over his father's mental illness, embarks upon a quest to isolate the dual elements of good and evil that are found in every human being. When his experiment backfires, Jekyll inadvertently gives life to Edward Hyde, his evil alter ego, a murderer who unleashes a reign of terror on the city of London.

Kodak Theatre is located at Hollywood & Highland Blvds. Call (800) 511-6449 or visit www.theatricalarts.com

ELECTRICIDAD

Based on Sophocles' Electra, Luis Alfaro's ELECTRICIDAD is set in a barrio on an urban Eastside and has been transformed--with the help of director Lisa Peterson--into a compelling myth for the modern age.

ELECTRICIDAD is a contemporary look at the power and consequences of revenge, and the damage it causes to a family and a community. The story is dominated by a daughter, who is mourning the loss of a murdered father, the former leader of the South Side Locos. Driven by all-consuming passions of love and loyalty, hate and vengeance, Electricidad and her exiled brother, Orestes, begin to believe that their father's death must be avenged, the murderer must be punished, not by the courts but by the swift retribution of barrio justice.

April 7-May 15 at the Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave. For tickets and information call (213) 628-2772 or visit TaperAhmanson.com

NATIONAL PASTIME PREMIERES IN PASADENA

On March 19 the Fremont Centre Theatre will present the world premiere of Bryan Harnetiaux's NATIONAL PASTIME, which deals with the events surrounding Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, integrating major league baseball for the first time.

James Reynolds directs. He is the recent recipient of the Valley Theatre League's award for his mounting of The Tangles Snarl/Murder Me once, an LA Times Critic's Choice. Reynolds is best known for his ongoing portrayal of Detective Chief Abe Carver on the NBC soap Days of Our Lives, for twenty-two years and counting. James' son, Jed Reynolds, will portray Robinson in National Pastime.

Through April 24 at Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave. (at El Centro), S. Pasadena. For tickets & information call (626) 441-5977 or visit fremontcentretheatre.com

SCOTLAND THEATRE NEWS

TRAVERSE UNVEILS TWO BIG ONES
Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre will launch two major new works this spring: ONE DAY ALL THIS WILL COME TO NOTHING by Catherine Grosvenor and IN THE BAG by Wang Xiaoli (in an English version by Ronan O' Donnell).

Both plays are company productions. ONE DAY, the debut play by the Edinburgh-based Grosvenor, is set in a city "where conversations don't end just because life has ended; it follows three characters who learn how to live again without knowing anything for certain." Directed by Philip Howard, the play will be performed Mar 18-April 9.

IN THE BAG (April 29-May 22) is a Traverse partnership project commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Playwright Wang Xiaoli lives in Beijing, where she writes for television, film and theatre. IN THE BAG deals with two couples caught in the midst of China's cultural change. It has been adapted by O'Donnell, who lives in Edinburgh and has just completed a new play, The Doll house, based on the life of T.E. Lawrence and his Scottish bodyguard, John Bruce.

IN THE BAG is the first UK production of a contemporary Chinese play.

Traverse Theatre is located on Cambridge St. in central Edinburgh. For tickets & information on the full range of forthcoming attractions at the Traverse (which include readings, visiting productions, workshops, art shows, jazz & dance),
call 0131-228-1404 or visit traverse.co.uk

GEFFEN'S SPRING PLAYS

The Geffen Playhouse, fresh off its successful three-week SRO run with Tovah Feldshuh in GOLDA'S BALCONY by William Gibson, will mount a classic American comedy, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, directed by Christopher Hart. The TV sitcom would probably never have been invented if it weren't for Kaufman & Hart's first fasmily of zany and hilarious oddballs. April 12-May 22 at the Brentwood Theatre.

Following will be I AM MY OWN WIFE, starring Jefferson Mays. Written by Doug Wright and directed by Moises Kaufman, the play won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2004 Tony Award for Best Play and Best Actor. It tells the true story of an East German trasvestite who managed to escape both the Nazi and Communist regimes. June 14-July 10 at the Wadsworth Theatre.

Call (310) 208-5454 or visit geffenplayhouse.com