San Diego Magazine / March 2006 / Northern Exposure

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Northern Exposure

FOR TOO LONG, despite its sprawling population, North County didn’t offer many enticements to fans of live theater. That’s rapidly changing, and stage savants are finding several North County destinations worth the time—and gas money. Such jaunts will be particularly rewarding in March.

Foremost is the New Village Arts offering of John Millington Synge’s rarely seen masterwork, The Playboy of the Western World (March 11–April 1). The Carlsbad company, headed by the husband-wife team of artistic director Francis Gercke and managing director Kristianne Kurner, has been producing quality work since 2001, but hasn’t garnered commensurate attention or attendance, partly because the troupe’s temporary venue, an off-hours Jazzercise studio, requires a labyrinthine drive from Interstate 5.

Those who manage the navigation, however, have been rewarded with excellent productions of challenging works like Lyle Kessler’s Orphans and Sam Shepard’s Lie of the Mind. Synge’s poetic drama, one of those works that evolved from controversial to classic, promises more of the same. Its 1907 opening in Dublin stirred considerable anger from critics who called it indecent and negatively stereotypical of the Irish.

The title character is a young man who one day shows up in a small village, saying he has just killed his father. The way he describes the incident makes him a hero to the villagers and highly appealing to a young woman previously headed into a loveless marriage. Subsequent developments, however, change their views and reveal that their glorification of the stranger stemmed largely from the excitement he brought to their mundane lives. Yet, in one of the play’s ironies, as he loses favor, he becomes more the man they thought he was.

OVER IN VISTA, there’s Moonlight Stage Productions. Kathy Brombacher’s leadership has turned Moonlight’s outdoor musicals in Brengle Terrace Park into a prime attraction in the summer, and the company’s winter season in the downtown Avo is becoming equally polished and professional. Closing this season is the 1937 John Murray–Allen Boretz farce, Room Service (March 2-19), basis for the beloved Marx Brothers comedy film. George Flint, who proved his skill at mounting classics with his now sadly defunct Renaissance Theatre Company, directs.

Around the block from the Avo is the fledgling Broadway Theatre, a black-box venue opened in June by Randall Hickman and Douglas Davis. They co-own Premiere Productions and for years have done producing, directing and designing at various North County venues, but wanted their own space where they could put on works appealing to a broader audience. They’ve clicked with shows like James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter and the local debut of the 1980 musical A Day in Hollywood . . . a Night in the Ukraine. Coming up is another local premiere, All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten (March 9–April 2), a series of sketches based on Robert Fulghum’s best-selling book.

ANY DISCUSSION OF NORTH COUNTY THEATER, of course, can’t omit the North Coast Repertory, the Solana Beach company that, since 1982, has been pulling audiences to its home in the Lomas Santa Fe Plaza with a clever mixture of old and new. Next is one of the former, Larry’s Shue’s popular comedy, The Nerd (March 18–April 16).

The classy performing arts centers in the north tend to schedule more music programs than anything else, but do have occasional touring theater troupes. Such dates are usually family-oriented, like the Missoula Children’s Theatre version of Robin Hood, March 25 in Poway, and the Berenstain Bears on Stage, March 2 at Escondido’s California Center for the Arts.

Farther north, however, the fare is more bountiful. Welk Resort Theatre, which for years seemed stuck in the dinner theater doldrums, has recently stepped up with some top-notch musical presentations, notably The Desert Song and 42nd Street. Through April 2, it’s featuring an exciting edition of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony-winning Evita.

And the newest North County entry, one of the most charming, is in Ramona. The renovated Mainstage Theatre is a downtown attraction all by itself, and has begun booking professional stage shows like last year’s road musical Route 66 and the recently closed tuner Pete ’n’ Keely.