Happy New Year! If too much champagne is making you seriously consider “dry January,” you may be pleased to know that two local plays this month are focusing on the equally serious subject of murder.
And just to keep things from getting too sober, there’s a spoof of an iconic 1980s brat-pack movie as well, among other shorter-run imaginative stagings this month.
But first, murder. As it does each January, the Long Beach Playhouse is staging an Agatha Christie whodunnit. This year it’s the time-traveling “Go Back for Murder,” in which daughter Carla tries to clear her mother’s name years after she was convicted of murdering her husband.
“The daughter persuades those present on the day of her father’s death to return to the scene of the crime and ‘go back’ 16 years to recount their version of events,” the Playhouse says.
“Go Back for Murder” is actually Christie’s 1960 stage adaptation of her 1942 book “Five Little Pigs” featuring detective Hercule Poirot. However, in the play, Carla takes on the role of detective, assisted by a lawyer whose own father had led the case against Carla’s mother back in the day.
The Playhouse is offering a half-price preview on Friday, Jan. 9 before the play’s Jan. 10 opening-night champagne gala (assuming you’re ready for another glass by then).
“Go Back for Murder” runs Jan. 10 to Feb. 7 at the Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and information visit LBPlayhouse.org or call the box office at 562-494-1014.
For murder of a more political nature, look no further than Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s staging of William Shakespeare’s historical tragedy “Julius Caesar” beginning Jan. 23.
The play centers on Roman dictator Julius Caesar and the senators who fear his ambitious power-grabbing will destabilize the republic — so much so that they plot his assassination.
“When does loyalty become betrayal?” the theater asks. “This timeless tale of ambition and power shows how legends are born not only from triumph, but from the chaos they leave behind.”
While the play is known for Caesar’s parting line, “Et tu, Brute?” it’s also rhetorically astute. Mark Antony’s speech in which he sways the public (“plebeians”) against Brutus and the other conspirators (“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”) is a masterclass in persuasion — and also a sad reflection on how easily manipulated citizens can be (hmm).
Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s “Julius Caesar” runs Jan. 23 to Feb. 7 at the Helen Borgers Theatre, 4250 Atlantic Ave., with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, visit LBShakespeare.org or call the box office at 562-997-1494.
If you’ve had enough murder, you might check out the four shorter-run January plays in Long Beach Playhouse’s Studio Collaborative Series, featuring 13 productions by local theater companies, performing arts organizations and individuals on the Playhouse’s upstairs Studio Theatre from January through March.
First up is “The Club of Broken Fasts” from Jan. 9-11, which the theater describes as “a madcap take” on the 1985 film “The Breakfast Club,” told in Shakespearian verse.
Stereotypical high school characters similar to those in the film spend a day in detention “joking, musing, fighting, kissing, flouting authority and, hopefully, growing up,” the theater says, with the show’s design melding “iconic ‘80s looks with Elizabethan sensibilities.”
“Harriet Tubman: Love Slave” follows from Jan. 16-18, which the theater describes as “a bold, rap-poetic musical remix of history” reimagining young Harriet before she helped over 300 enslaved people escape and her first husband who “ghosted her when she chose freedom over fear.”
Writer and producer Terrell M. Green says his 267 Productions Company specializes in hybrid digital media and live performance “committed to amplifying underrepresented stories through data-driven storytelling, digital innovation and theatrical expression.”
Musical expression and experimentation continue with the remaining two Collaborative shows this month, “Mixtape Confessions & Wake (the f*ck) Up!” from Jan. 23-26 — in which artists of the Long Beach Community Theater sing and storytell about their lives and influences — and Little Renegade Productions’ “Anything But Broadway” from Jan. 30-Feb. 1, with performers singing in any genre except musical theatre.
“I find the Collaborative season creatively energizing,” says Sean Gray, producing artistic director for the Playhouse. “The shows are unique and the people who put them on are committed to their craft and their work.”
For tickets and information on Long Beach Playhouse’s Studio Collaborative Series, visit LBPlayhouse.org or call the box office at 562-494-1014.