CALENDAR LISTINGS
October 2007 – March 2008
October 26 – November 4
Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre
November 13 – December 16
Moulton Theatre Main Stage
Off-Broadway Hit Musical
Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Written by Randal Myler and Mark Harelik
November 13 – 16 Regular Run: November 18 – December 16
Country and Western music icon Hank Williams touched the hearts of millions of people during his short career. Now, his unique magic as a performer and the simple spell of his yearning songs return to life in this unforgettable musical tribute. Packed with familiar melodies – including “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart” – the show recounts Williams’ often lonely journey from obscurity to super-stardom at the Grand Ole Opry. Though his life ended tragically, Williams’ legend lives on through songs that celebrate the tenderness of the heart and the hopefulness of the human spirit.
Casting has been announced for The Laguna Playhouse production of Hank Williams: Lost Highway, the Off Broadway hit musical about the life of country music legend Hank Williams that runs November 13 through December 16 at the Moulton Theatre in Laguna Beach.
Van Zeiler has been cast in the lead role of Hank Williams, the music icon who touched the hearts of millions in his short career. Zeiler portrayed Williams in previous productions of Lost Highway in San Diego, Nashville, New York and Arizona. He played the title role in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story in London and on UK/US tours. He has extensive NY and regional credits at Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, Looking Glass Theatre, CAP21, Transport Group, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theatre Center, Arizona Rep, Kansas City Rep, New Harmony Theatre, Ordway Center, Princeton Rep, and Cortland Rep. Film/TV: “All My Children,” “Guiding Light,” “Tad,” “Families at War” (BBC).
Other cast members include Mississippi Charles Bevel as Tee-Tot, Margaret Bowman as Mama Lily, Stephen G. Anthony as Hoss, Myk Watford as Jimmy Burrhead, Marc Baczynski as Leon Loudmouth, Mike Regan as Fred “Pap” Rose, Russ Weaver as Shag, Stephanie Cozart as the Waitress, and Regan Southard as Audrey Williams.
Director Randal Myler was nominated for a 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award (Best Director) for Hank Williams: Lost Highway, which he co-wrote and directed. He also wrote and directed the hit musical Love, Janis and received a Tony® nomination for It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, which he co-authored and directed at Lincoln Center. He has examined the lives of The Mamas and the Papas (Dream a Little Dream), frequent co-writer Mark Harelik’s grandfather (The Immigrant), and John Denver (Almost Heaven and Back Home Again: A John Denver Holiday Concert). Regionally he has directed throughout the United States, including The Kennedy Center, the Mark Taper Forum, the Arena Stage, Actor's Theatre of Louisville and many others.
Hank Williams: Lost Highway is a musical tribute that traces the brief but stellar career of country music icon Hank Williams, who touched the hearts of millions of people through his memorable mystique as a performer and the simple spell of his yearning songs. Packed with familiar melodies, including “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” the show recounts Williams’ often lonely journey from backwards Alabama obscurity to super-stardom at the Grand Ole Opry. Though his life ended tragically, Williams’ legend lives on through songs that celebrate the tenderness of the heart and the hopefulness of the human spirit.
“Over the past 15 years The Laguna Playhouse has become one of the West Coast’s premier producers of small and mid-sized musicals, and Hank Williams: Lost Highway continues that tradition,” said Laguna Playhouse’s Artistic Director Andrew Barnicle. “The show was a hit Off Broadway, and I think it will strike a chord with our audience.”
December 17– 23
Moulton Theatre Special Engagement
Sister’s Christmas Catechism
Written by Maripat Donovan with Marc Silvia and Jane Morris
Directed by Marc Silvia
December 17-23
Think CSI: BETHLEHEM as Sister tackles the question that has been puzzling historians throughout the ages: What ever happened to the Magi's gold? Sister engages her audience to help solve the mystery through a forensic examination of the nativity scene. Sister hunts under the manger and over camel humps in her quest for clues.
January 1 – February 3
Moulton Theatre Main Stage
World Premiere
TRANCED
Written by Bob Clyman
January 6 – February 3, 2008
In this fast-paced, suspense-filled thriller by the author of The Laguna Playhouse hit drama, The Secret Order, an African graduate student comes to Dr. Philip Malaad, a respected psychiatrist and renowned specialist in clinical hypnosis, seeking relief from her panic attacks which began shortly after she observed a violent incident in her native country. After ‘trancing’ her, Dr. Malaad begins to suspect whatever she believes she witnessed may actually be concealing a repressed memory, one with profound consequences for many thousands of people unless someone quickly intervenes. Caught between his professional ethics and this large moral obligation, Malaad is soon pulled into a vortex of high-level political intrigue, forced to examine as never before the slippery nature of truth.
February 12 – March 16
Moulton Theatre Main Stage
Southern California Premiere
Red Herring
Written by Michael Hollinger
February 17 – March 16, 2008
Take three pairs of lovers, add an unsolved murder, several pinches of espionage, and pickle everything in a brine of early Cold War paranoia, and you have the ingredients for a side-splitting black comedy enmeshed in tangled romance. Why is Senator Joseph McCarthy’s daughter dating a would-be traitor? And what’s that supposedly dead Russian fisherman doing pretending to be feisty landlady Mrs. Kravitz’ deaf husband? Did we mention the pair of dogged gumshoes? And how does I Love Lucy and the H-Bomb fit into the plot? This spoof Red Scare drama will keep you reeling with laughter.
March 25 – April 27
Moulton Theatre Main Stage
World Premiere
BROWNSTONE
Written by Catherine Butterfield
March 30 – April 27, 2008
As the saying goes, “if only these walls could talk,” and in Catherine Butterfield’s imaginative new play they do! Set in a Manhattan brownstone, this play spans three contrasting eras and plays host to three very different sets of occupants. There’s the pampered rich young couple of the 1930s, eager for adventure in Paris. There are the starry-eyed aspiring actresses of the 1970s and the chillingly self-absorbed “power couple” of the new millennium. They all have dreams, but as events unfold they must learn to ride the shifting waves of fortune. These walls have stories – funny, tragic and mysteriously linked. From the author of The Playhouse hit comedy The Sleeper.
ABOUT LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE
www.lagunaplayhouse.com
606 Laguna Canyon Rd., Laguna Beach, 92651
