Emmy-nominated “Veep” actor Anna Chlumsky and Broadway actor Genevieve Angelson will join Tony nominee Matthew Broderick next month in the world premiere of “Babbitt” at La Jolla Playhouse.
Adapted from a satiric 1922 novel by Sinclair Lewis, playwright Joe DiPietro’s new play is the story of George F. Babbitt, a middle-aged real estate broker in the Midwestern city of Zenith. By day, he has a prosperous, respectable middle-class existence. By night, he’s plagued by the thought that he has amounted to nothing. Searching for something more meaningful than his top-of-the-line toaster and hickory golf club, Babbitt leaps with abandon into the most spectacular rebellion of his life ― one that could end up costing him everything.
Broderick, most recently seen in the Netflix opioid drama “Painkiller” and in Broadway’s “Plaza Suite” with his wife, Sarah-Jessica Parker, will play the title character in “Babbitt.”
Genevieve Angelson is featured in the cast of La Jolla Playhouse’s “Babbitt.”
(Jordan Strauss / Associated Press)
All of the rest of the “Babbitt” cast each play multiple characters. They are Chlumsky; Angelson (of Broadway’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”); Julie Halston (“Sex and the City”); Francis Jue (La Jolla Playhouse’s “Wild Goose Dreams”); Ann Harada (Broadway’s “Avenue Q”); Matt McGrath (the Playhouse’s “His Girl Friday”); and Chris Myers (“An Octaroon”).
Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley will direct the production. Ashley and playwright DiPietro last teamed up on the musical “Memphis,” which made its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in 2008 and went on to Broadway where it won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Broderick is making his first trip back to the Playhouse since the pre-Broadway tryout of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” in 1994.
“Babbitt” will run Nov. 7 through Dec. 3. Tickets are now on sale at lajollaplayhouse.org/show/babbitt.
William Virchis in front of Teatro Máscara Mágica’s home theater in San Ysidro.
(Howard Lipin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
TMM presents ‘The Last Angry Brown Hat’
“The Last Angry Brown Hat,” one of the seminal works of the Chicano theater movement in the 1990s, will be presented Oct. 17-22 at Teatro Máscara Mágica’s El Salon Theatre in San Ysidro.
How significant was the play to American Latino culture? It won the 1993 Plaza de la Raza Nuevo Los Angeles Chicano Playwrights Competition. From 1996 to 1999 it traveled the country on a 60-city tour. And in 1999, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History named it among the most significant Latino plays of the late 20th century.
Written by Los Angeles playwright Alfredo Ramos, it’s the story of four Chicano friends who reunite and reminisce after the funeral of their friend, Frankie. All five of the men were members of the Brown Berets, a group of Chicano activists who fought for the civil rights of the Chicano community in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Willie is a die-hard Chicano who owns a welding shop and in whose garage the story unfolds. Louie is a popular math teacher, JoJo is a struggling writer and Rudeboy is a burned-out Vietnam veteran. In a series of recollections and flashbacks, the men come to terms with the past and discuss their personal and political beliefs.
The local production will be directed by William “Bill” Virchis, who co-founded Teatro Máscara Mágica with Chicano scholar Jorge Huerta in 1990. The production will feature actors Daniel Edward Mora, John Padilla, Victor Crosthwaite Contreras and Bruno Bosardi.
Performances are at 7 p.m. Oct. 17-21 and 2 p.m. Oct. 21 and 22 at 114 West Hall Ave., San Ysidro. Tickets are $15-$25. Free parking is available at 137 Cypress Drive. Call (619) 987-5616 or visit teatromascaramagica.org.
Kelly Pocian, left, and Christian Molina in Innovation Family Community Theatre’s “Dracula.”
(Courtesy of IFCT)
Innovation theater company takes a family approach
Next weekend, Innovation Family Community Theatre will open an adult-cast production of “Dracula” in Tierrasanta.
The theater company was recently launched by married theater artists Freddy Smith and Natasha Starbuck-Smith. Smith said the community theater is the latest stop on his 28-year life and work journey with his wife, who he met 28 years ago and determined from the moment he saw her onstage that they were destined to be together.
“I needed a dancer in a show I was directing. Her audition was a dance performance she was appearing in at theater north of Boston. When she appeared on stage I looked at my friend sitting next to me and I said ‘I’m going to marry her,’” he recalled.
For the past 10 years, the couple have been producing student shows at Innovations Academy, a K-8 school in Tierrasanta . They’ve also recently begun working on shows with San Diego Metropolitan Regional, Career, and Technical High School (or The MET).
Smith said he and his wife came up with the idea of branching out into community theater because they saw a niche in the local theater community that wasn’t being filled.
“We were lamenting the fact we never appeared onstage with our children, Salem and Kassadeano. It was then that the idea to open a community theater was born,” he said.
Smith said Innovation community theater aims to lower the barriers for parents and their children, as well as people with little experience, to get involved. Innovations holds fee-free open auditions and no headshot or resumes are required. Auditioners are provided with script excerpts in advance so they don’t have to sweat through any cold readings. And whenever possible, the children of adult cast members are given the first opportunity to audition for children’s roles.
In addition to producing its own mainstage productions, Innovation Family Community Theatre has also this year launched a playwriting competition for young authors, and it is inviting local playwrights to submit short scripts for its “Nights of Drama” events in January. Future IFCT productions will include “The Jungle Book,” the musical “Cabaret” and “Oliver Twist.”
But first up is “Dracula,” which runs Oct. 20 through 29 at Innovations Academy at 5454 Ruffin Road, San Diego. Tickets are $12-$15 for adults and $7 for ages 17 and under. For tickets, call (619) 458-1313 or visit theifct.info.