ON STAGE with

I continue to enjoy outdoor theatre events such as the Hollywood Bowl, Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, and The Old Globe in San Diego. However, it’s almost too hot, so for this month, I have selected some indoor productions.

PETER PAN GOES WRONG: The Play That Goes Wrong opened in London in 2012 and on Broadway in 2017. In 2019 the Broadway production moved to off-Broadway, which just means it currently plays in a house with fewer than 500 seats (and allows the producers to pay the cast a different rate). It shows the hilarious misadventures when a local English theatre company tries to present The Murder at Haversham Manor, a typical British mystery. Everything that could go wrong does, and the result is nonstop laughs. Actors get knocked out and the stage crew takes their roles, parts of the set collapse, etc. Some of the incidental business takes on Cirque du Soleil dimensions like when an actor trips and the book he is holding sails across the stage and lands firmly in the hands of another actor. The Mischief Theatre Company which produced that play has subsequently produced two sequels and the funnier one, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, is coming to Los Angeles’s Ahmanson Theatre this month. It will arrive after a 16-week run on Broadway. Unlike the first Play That Goes Wrong, this one uses multiple sets and much more fanciful costumes, but the laughs are packed in with a full-figured Tinkerbell, Darling Children played by very adult actors, and rivalries and ineptitude rampant throughout. Who couldn’t use a good laugh these days? Plays at the Ahmanson Theatre 8/8 – 9/10 (CenterTheatreGroup.org).

ALADDIN: Okay, before you slam this magazine shut with concern that I’m listing a Disney musical, please hear me out. I saw this show on Broadway, caught it again on tour when I was vacationing in Florida, and I can’t wait to see it a third time. It’s actually that good! Sure, it’s the Disney story about the poor boy who finds a lamp, but the very cheeky genie (Robin Williams in the animated film, James Monroe Inglehart winning a Tony on Broadway) and some incredible staging and choreography make this a show that can be seen again and again. On Broadway, the number “Friend Like Me” received a three-minute standing ovation in the middle of the first act. It was directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw (Book of Mormon, Mean Girls) who delights audiences but must terrify dancers because of the demands he makes of them. The “Friend” number has three costume changes for the ensemble during the number, finishing with a lengthy tap routine. The second time I saw the show, I sat in the third row from the stage thinking I would surely figure out how the magic carpet flies. Nope. The damned rug picks up two people and effortlessly carries them around the stage, once in moonlight and then again in full illumination, and I still don’t have a clue. Sure, you can grab a nephew or niece to drag along if you are sensitive about attending a fairy tale show, but with or without the youngsters, do yourself a favor! Plays at the SF Orpheum 8/2-13; Hollywood Pantages 9/12-23; and Orange County’s Segerstrom Center 5/7 – 12, 2024.

THE RED SUITCASE: This is an untried value – a world premiere. The Best Play Winner in the “Del Shores Foundation Writers Search,” The Red Suitcase by Jiggs Burgess follows the life of Pogue from his unusual birth to the death of his father. The play explores the sometimes-difficult relationship between fathers and sons and the many moments, stories, and characters that build a person and a life. Pogue is led on a journey to unpack his memories that takes him from, “we are the sins of our ancestors” to “we are the hope of our ancestors.” A play of family, survival, and finding ourselves in the stories that made us. The production is directed by gay icon Del Shores and presented in the relatively intimate Broadwater Theatre in Los Angeles. If you are used to big productions, I highly recommend you explore some intimate storytelling. Plays 8/10 – 9/3 (https://p3theatre.biz/theredsuitcase/).