Welcome to Theater News, a regular column by longtime reviewer Anita W. Harris. Look for it most Thursdays. Or sign up for our Eat See Do newsletter to get it in your inbox.
With summer heating up in Long Beach, why not enjoy the communal, air-conditioned atmosphere of one of our many local theaters? Here’s what’s playing near you in June:
International City Theatre
Beginning June 11, International City Theatre will stage the Los Angeles premiere of “The Angel Next Door,” a romantic comedy by Paul Slade Smith adapted from Ferenc Molnár’s French farce “Play at the Castle.”
Set in the 1940s, the metatheatrical story focuses on a writer whose novel about an actress he loves is about to be staged as a hit Broadway play featuring the same actress. But what happens when she turns out not to be the “angel” he fell in love with?
“Only the power of theatre can save the play… and his heart,” says the theater.
International City Theatre’s “The Angel Next Door” will run from June 11 to 29 (with two lower-priced previews on June 9 and 10) at the Beverly O’Neill Theatre, 330 E. Seaside Way. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-436-4610 or visit ICTLongBeach.org. Paid garage parking is available across the street.
Long Beach Landmark Theatre
Opening this Friday, May 30 and continuing through June 15, the Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company is staging Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s “Bright Star” at the First Congregational Church of Long Beach, 241 Cedar Ave.
Check out last week’s column here for more info on this bluegrass-infused musical with live musicians on stage.
For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-366-0085 or visit LBLandmark.org.
Long Beach Playhouse
Long Beach Playhouse’s woman-driven, Southern-inflected “Steel Magnolias” is continuing at its downstairs Mainstage Theatre through June 14, as shared in a previous column here.
Also, beginning June 7 in its upstairs Studio Theatre, “Ada and the Engine” brings the fascinating tale of 19th-century mathematician and writer Ada Byron Lovelace (daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron) to life.
Written by Lauren Gunderson as a “poetic drama,” the play focuses on Ada’s relationship with mathematician Charles Babbage in the 1840s as they develop the idea of an “analytical engine,” or computer.
The Playhouse describes the play as “Jane Austen meets Steve Jobs in this poignant pre-tech romance heralding the computer age.”
“This play is about a brilliant woman in an era when women weren’t celebrated for brilliance or welcomed into the sciences,” says Sean Gray, the theater’s producing artistic director. He adds that Ada in the play finds herself caught between her marriage and her love for Babbage, complicated by how her father’s own infidelities had brought shame to her mother.
“There is magic in numbers, poetry in equations and math in music,” says director Kelsey Weinstein. “When you turn on your phone after the show, don’t forget to thank Ada Byron Lovelace.”
Tickets for both “Steel Magnolias” and “Ada and the Engine” can be purchased by calling the box office at 562-494-1014 or visiting LBPlayhouse.org. The Long Beach Playhouse is at 5021 E. Anaheim St., with free parking available in a lot behind the theater.
Long Beach Shakespeare Company
The Long Beach Shakespeare Company is continuing its New Works Festival in June, with four new works on the weekend of June 20 to 22.
Star-crossed lovers must stay alive long enough to find a cure for an illness in a staged reading of Darren Nash’s “The Lives to Come” on June 21 at 2 p.m. and June 22 at 8 p.m.
A double feature of Steve Treuting’s “The Apollo Waltz” and Chris Callard’s “Death Takes a Vacation” will perform June 21 at 8 p.m. and June 22 at 4 p.m. The first play finds the second wife of a famous writer intervening in her husband’s manipulation of his daughter. The second sees Death showing up at the door one day.
And Charissa J. Adams’ “Speak I Will” on June 20 at 8 p.m. and June 22 at 1 p.m. delivers a collection of fractured, rearranged and recontextualized Shakespearean monologues that give fresh meaning to the original texts.
Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s New Works Festival tickets can be purchased by calling the box office at 562-997-1494 or visiting LBShakespeare.org. The company’s Helen Borgers Theatre is at 4250 Atlantic Ave., with metered street parking available nearby.