BACK STAGE WEST

 

August 01, 2002     

     

 

THE WICKED STAGE

 

by Rob Kendt

           

 

Rumors are swirling around Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul, at press time still officially scheduled to start previews at the Taper on Sept. 8. Kushner's eerily prescient Afghanistan-themed play, which opened at New York Theatre Workshop in November and recently closed a run at Berkeley Rep, is still minus a director, cast, and designers for the TaperÑway behind schedule. I spoke to Nancy Hereford in the press office last week, and she confirmed that staffers were "nervous" but that artistic director Gordon Davidson had "pulled something out of a hat" before. The question, though, is whether the "something" Davidson will pull out this time is a director for HomebodyÑor another play altogether. Hereford assured me that "Gordon loves the play," but other sources have whispered that Davidson wanted Kushner to do rewritesÑand that the Pulitzer-winning playwright won't. If the chatter is true, it reminds us a little bit of the Oleanna fiasco of 1993, when Davidson clashed with Mamet over casting (rightly, it turned out) and the play ended up at the Tiffany.

 

¥ First Titanic, now Ragtime: How does the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities do it? It hasn't been officially announced, but the Redondo Beach company's next season is rumored to include the first CLO production of that Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally masterwork. Will the show fly without the marquee names, without Eugene Lee's sets, Frank Galati's direction, Graciela Daniele's choreography? As one who saw the show more times than I care to admit, including in a tour stop at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, I can attest to the tuner's inherent strength minus the star power. Yeah, it's that good. A toast to South Bay CLO, whose reputation for quality work reaches me mostly secondhand (I confess I've only been down to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center to see Dale Wasserman's blah Western Star, and more recently to catch a solo appearance by Randy Newman, which proved a salutary palate cleanser after South Coast's lame Newman revue).

 

¥ Caught up with the striking Katy Selverstone recently, whose brilliant work with Pacific Resident Theatre some years back (Indiscretions, Scotland Road) marked her as an essential local artist. Her big news: Last week she won the Best Actress award at Outfest for her lead role in Laura Nix's The Politics of Fur, which also took the award for best film at the influential gay/lesbian film fest. Distributors, and more festival berths, are being sought. We didn't see Fur, but Selverstone assured us it's a much more fulfilling turn than her recent 7-minute appearance in The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which if nothing else got her nationwide exposure in a much-reprinted bra-flashing publicity still. In Fur she plays a control-freak music executive with a baby tigerÑnow that sounds more like the Katy we know. Will she get back on a stage any time soon? (Her last appearance was in Circle X's ElectroPuss last year.) She mentioned hopes of appearing in Diana Son's sweet, subtle Stop Kiss, still unseen in L.A. despite acclaimed runs Off-Broadway, in Seattle, and at Oregon Shakes a few years back. That show would be great at PRT, come to think of it.

 

¥ It's anyone guess these days, but I've got a sneaking hunch that Steven Oxman, who just left Variety's theatre desk, will be the next L.A. Times head criticÑa post that's been open since December 2001, when Michael Phillips replaced Richard Christiansen at The Chicago Tribune. Is the Times position really so hard to fill? Apparently so, judging by the mixed bag of staff writers and stringers it's had covering the major openingsÑmost infamously, Jan Breslauer's outrageously personal slam of Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero at South Coast. I heard about one scribe who regularly writes freelance reviews for The Times who inquired about the positionÑand was told to "send in her clips." Ouch.