L.A. Stage Insider
Celebrating the Best in Theater and Cabaret in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
September 7 2022
Written by Julio Martinez
LTC & STUDENTS FROM LACC THEATER ACADEMY TOUR ‘MELANCHOLIA’…AMMUNITION THEATRE’S ‘REVENGE PORN’ PREMIERES AT THE PICO…L.A. DEBUT OF ‘SANCTUARY CITY’ AT PASADENA PLAYHOUSE…JOBETH WILLIAMS & PETER STRAUSS STAR IN ’LOVE AMONG THE RUINS’ AT LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE…INSIDE L.A. STAGE HISTORY SPOLIGHTS SAD FATE OF THE BURBANK THEATRE AND OLIVER MOROSCO…AND MORE.
NEWS
José Luis Valenzuela
From Sep 15 to Oct 16, twenty students from the Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy, directed by Latino Theater Company, artistic director José Luis Valenzuela, will tour a new production of the Latino Theater Lab-created, Iraq war-themed “Melancholia” to three colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District, followed by a two-week residency at The Los Angeles Theatre Center. As part of the Latino Theater Company’s “IMPACT” partnership with the community college district, the production will travel to Los Angeles Valley College, Los Angeles Mission College and East Los Angeles College over the course of three weeks in Sep, then play for two weeks in Oct at The LATC in Downtown L.A. Developed and written collectively by members of the Latino Theater Lab (a program of the Latino Theater Company) through a process of research, improvisation and the exploration of new theatrical expressions, “Melancholia” is a highly stylized performance work about a young Latino Marine who, having returned home from the Iraq war, struggles to reconnect with a world that no longer makes sense. The original production premiered at LATC in 2007 before traveling to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was revived by the Latino Theater Company in 2013. Admission to all performances is free. For more information and performance schedule, call 213-489-0994 or go to www.latinotheaterco.org.
PREMIERES
Tina Huang
Winner of the first 2021 L.A. New Play Project Award, Ammunition Theatre Company’s production of Carla Ching’s “Revenge Porn or The Story of a Body” premieres Sep 23 at The Pico. Directed by Bernardo Cubría, the play takes a very public look into the private lives of people who hurt the ones they love most. When Kat Chan’s ex-husband posts revenge porn images of her, and tags everyone she knows, Kat wrestles with a choice: be humane to someone she used to love or take him out in a very public way? The cast includes Tina Huang (Kat Chan); Kahyun Kim; Christopher Larkin; Nelson Lee; Roland Ruiz; and Jeanne Sakata. The production opens Sep 23, running through Oct. The Pico is located at 10508 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064. Tickets are $35 online at https://www.ammunitiontheatre.com.
Ana Nicole Chavez, Miles Fuller
Pasadena Playhouse is presenting the Los Angeles premiere of “Sanctuary City” by Pulitzer Prize-winner Martyna Majok, focusing on a love story of two life-long friends, ‘their tenuous grip on an uncertain future, and finding sanctuary among those closest to them.’ The work is the recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Theater Development Grant. The cast features Ana Nicole Chavez, Miles Fuller and Kanoa Goo, directed by Zi Alikhan (Director). Performances are scheduled from Sep 14 through Oct 9; the press opening is Sep 18. Tickets are on sale now at pasadenaplayhouse.org.
Octavio Solis
Produced by CalArts Center for New Performance and supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, REDCAT is co-presenting the premiere of Scene With Cranes. “A tight-knit East LA family is left shattered in the wake of their youngest son’s mysterious death. Devastated, the mother retraces her son’s final steps in search of the truth.” Written by Octavio Solis and directed by Chi-wang Yang, there will be four performances, Sep 29-Oct 1. For tickets and more information, go here.
AROUND TOWN
JoBeth Williams and Peter Strauss
Laguna Playhouse announces that JoBeth Williams and Peter Strauss are set to star in the upcoming stage production of “Love Among the Ruins,” based on the 1975 ABC Theatre Presentation that starred Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier, written by James G. Hirsch and Robert A. Papazian, from a film script by James Costigan, directed by Michael Arabian. The Cast also features Ava Burton, CJ Blaine, Martin Kildare, Tom Shelton. Katy Tang, Tyee Tilghman, Patrick Merck Vest and Wendy Worthington, The production opens Oct 30, performing through Nov 13 at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Dr. in Laguna Beach.
SOLO MOJO
The Whitefire Theatre will be launching Solofest 2023, running Jan 12-Mar 19, 2023. Registration is $175 (up front, non-refundable, secures date). Show tech and performance, including personnel is $750 (out of ticket sales, equivalent to 30 tickets sold). Performer is responsible for meeting the minimum $750 out of ticket sales and will only be billed should the minimum not be met. Anything over the minimum is returned to performer. Registration for Solofest started Sep 1. Show dates are booked on a first-come, first-served basis, so long as the show meets the minimum requirements as follows: Solo performance (live musical accompanist allowed); No more than 80 minutes in length; Have summary, press release, and marketing materials, or the ability to create them prior to Jan 1, 2023. Performers register BY CLICKING HERE and create their account and show page. Shows will be approved and given show dates within 72 hrs of submission. Once show is approved and date given, performer will be given an email prompt to pay registration fee and lock-in their date. If registration fee is not paid within another 72 hrs of link being sent, the date will be made available to another performer. For further information regarding Solofest 2023. Go here.
INSIDE L.A. STAGE HISTORY: The Burbank Theatre and Oliver Morosco
My father owned a restaurant, The Stage Coach Café, in the Trailways Bus Depot, located at 6th and Main Streets in Downtown Los Angeles for close to 40 years. During the 1940s, on Friday afternoons, after school, I was allowed to “hang out” on Main Street until my Dad got off work. My favorite place to sojourn was the Burbank Burlesque Theater, located at 548 S. Main Street, one of two burlesque houses that faced each other about half a block from my dad’s eatery.
Oliver Morosco
The Burbank made its debut in 1893, built by dentist Dr. David Burbank (also giving his name to the city). In 1899, he leased the 1800-seat facility to entertainment entrepreneur Oliver Morosco, who dubbed it Morosco’s Burbank Theatre, specializing in presenting “east coast productions at a working man’s ticket price.”
Oliver Morosco, born Oliver Mitchell in Logan, Utah (1876) was living on his own from age 12. He moved to San Francisco at 14, performing in an acrobatic act created by local theater impresario Walter Morosco. By age 16, Oliver became assistant manager at one of his mentor’s theaters and adopted the name Morosco as his own. Wanting to explore new territory, the fledgling impresario moved south to LA. An inventive and flamboyant self-promoter, Morosco leased the failing Burbank Theater on Main Street in 1899 (at age 23), renamed it The Morosco and turned it into a successful operation, securing a steady flow of east coast theatrical, vaudeville and concert talent.
As LA’s population grows and the downtown area moved westward, Morosco expanded his theater ventures, including the Casino on Spring Street (1905) which failed, and the Majestic on Broadway (1908), a venue leased from department store owner M.A. Hamberger, which is a success. By this time, he was successfully producing in New York as well as operating the Majestic Theatre in San Francisco. In 1913, with a steady influx of theatrical talent at his disposal from New York and San Francisco, Oliver abandons his Main Street operation in favor of building another Morosco Theater at 744 S. Broadway, devoted to legit productions, a risky venture on a street known only for presenting movies and vaudeville. With seating for 1300, Morosco initially changed playbills every week, featuring such stars as Edward Everett Horton, Al Jolson and Leo Carrillo.
Eddie Cantor (1920s)
During the summer of 1916, Oliver Morosco persuaded Zeigfeld star 1916 Eddie Canter to come to Los Angeles to star in Morosco's Canary Cottage. After a performance, around midnight, Canter was sitting in a cafe with his back to the door when suddenly someone threw a coat over his head, lifted him from his seat and took him to a car outside. Eddie found himself in a speeding car with a coat over his head and was not able to see who was with him; he was convinced he was being taken for a “ride.” When the car stopped and they arrived at the destination, he was relieved to find that his kidnappers were silent film stars Thomas Meighan and Mabel Normand. They had taken him to Baron Long's Hawaiian Village, a night club adjacent to the Vernon Country Club; so he could hear a ukulele player by the name of Buddy DeSylva, part of a group called "the Hawaiians." Buddy DeSylva was another of Mabel’s discoveries, perhaps not as important as Charlie Chaplin but a discovery is a discovery. It wasn't long before Buddy began writing songs for Al Jolson, and had 2 big hits on Broadway – Louisiana Purchase and DuBarry. DeSylva was part of one of the greatest songwriting teams in the history of American music--DeSylva, Brown and Henderson, which was formed in 1925; they are responsible one of Eddie Cantor’s biggest hits, If You Knew Susie.
Oliver Morosco also discovered and groomed future star Charlotte Greenwood. But by the mid-1920s, Morosco, a victim of an excessive lifestyle and four financially disastrous divorces, loses control of his theater to the Henry Duffy Players. During the next decade, Morosco was involved in a number of LA theater ventures and attempted to establish himself as a film producer and film writer; but his fortunes steadily declined during the 1930s and early 40s. Oliver Morosco died August 25, 1945 after being hit by a Red Line streetcar in Hollywood. He had 8 cents in his pocket. His formerly majestic Morosco Theater also went through hard times and a few name changes, in the 1940s dubbed The Globe, specializing in newsreels. Today, the main floor theater area is a gutted strip mall.
Joe Yule (backstage at the Burbank)
Over the years, the Burbank Theatre also went on the decline, evolving from live theater and vaudeville into a newsreel house in the 30s. But during the WWII years, Burbank became a fulltime purveyor of burlesque, the most successful burlesque house in the U.S. This was abetted by nearby Greyhound and Trailways bus depots that disgorged thousands of off duty servicemen on a daily basis. When I turned seven, my dad thought it was fine for me to see the shows. I particularly loved a baggy pants comic named Joe Yule, the father of Joe Yule Jr. (better known as Mickey Rooney). Strippers such as Lili St. Cyr, Tempest Storm, Amazon Yolanda and a slew of others, amply demonstrated their talents, although the relevance of their performances was kind of lost on me at the time.
I do remember December 1948 when I was ten. I was on school break and I was hanging out at the Burbank almost every day. I think it was about three days before Christmas and the usual 2pm matinee was cancelled. The management and performers re-dressed the stage for a holiday lunch. I was invited by Mr. Yule--who by then had become friends with my father--to join them. Members of LA’s City Council, a few men in police uniforms and LA Mayor Fletcher Bowron were also in attendance. The highlight of the afternoon was Joe Yule and two other comics offering their own version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, supplemented by three impressively endowed ghosts of Christmases past, present and future. I carry that image with me to this day. The Burbank, renamed New Follies Burlesque, attempted to continue on into the 1950s but by the end of the decade was forced to close. As is a pattern in Los Angeles, this magnificent building was demolished in 1973.
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Racquel Lehrman and Ronnie Marmo
Arts in Review, hosted by arts journalist Julio Martinez, celebrating the best in theater and cabaret in the Greater Los Angeles area, airs on KPFK (90.7fm) on Fridays (2-2:30pm), streamed live around the world in real time over www.kpfk.org. On Sep 9, Arts in Review welcomes actor/writer Ronnie Marmo and producer Racquel Lehrman, discussing their new and improved state-of-the-art Theatre 68 Arts Complex and the return of Marmo’s critically acclaimed one man show, “I’m Not A Comedian…I’m Lenny Bruce” written and performed by Marmo, directed by Tony Award winning stage and television star, Joe Mantegna, re-opening Sep 17, followed by an opening night gala.