For many years, the best-kept secret about theater in Los Angeles — apart from the fact that there is any — has been the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities. This is a company that operates out of the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center for larger plays and the Hermosa Beach Playhouse for smaller ones. (Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach are both closer to L.A. than a lot of Angelenos think. Folks who think nothing of going downtown to the Music Center to see a show might recoil at the notion of shlepping to Redondo Beach to see one…but, depending on where in L.A. they live, Redondo Beach might mean less travel time.)
The C.L.O.S.B.C. stages wonderful productions of mostly-classic plays for short runs that often surprise with their production value and professionalism. I've seen more than a dozen shows in their larger venue and, while some aspects of a few seemed a bit community-college, they occasionally work miracles. They achieve quality far beyond what one could reasonably expect from a revival that is mounted for less than two dozen performances, primarily for subscribers.
One of the reasons this happens — surely, the main one — is the company's Executive Director/Producer, a flamboyant, passionate gent named James Blackman. And among the miracles he achieves is that he prefaces each performance with a little monologue that belies an old show biz adage. That's the one that holds that when the boss comes out and makes a speech before the show, he can't help but get the evening off to a screaming stop. Au contraire, Mr. Blackman is funny and friendly and you can't help but feel that a lot of attendees renew their subscriptions each year because they know James won't let them down, and don't want to let him down. Another great thing is that he seems to be able to compensate for the short rehearsal times by securing directors and actors who have done the show (whatever show they're doing) before and know it inside and out.
Which brings us to their new production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which I saw in previews last night. It opens tonight and runs through October 6. The book of Forum, by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, is maybe the funniest thing ever written for the stage and the score by Stephen Sondheim is wonderful. It's my favorite musical and I've seen at least 25 productions, ranging from the Phil Silvers revival and the one with Nathan Lane, all the way to a Vegas production with Alan Young to which they added tit jokes and Liberace references. I've seen high school productions, college productions, even one (see here) in which the entire milieu was transformed from Roman to Polynesian. The C.L.O.S.B.C. production would surely rank near the top of the list.
Much of this is due to its star, a gent named Bob Amaral who is absolutely terrific as Pseudolus. In the recent Broadway revival of the show, he was the stand-by for its various stars — Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg and David Alan Grier. Reports were that he was at least as good as Lane and easily better than the other two. I can well believe it. But the rest of the cast down in Redondo Beach pretty much comes up to his standard, including Larry Raben as Hysterium, Kevin Cooney as Senex and especially Robert Towers as Erronius. The production, by the way, was directed by Will MacKenzie and choreographed by Sha Newman.
Most of you reading this live too far from Redondo Beach to get down there before October 6. Some of you who are local will think "Redondo Beach? That's too far" and not go. A select few of you will visit the C.L.O.S.B.C. website, procure tickets, and have a wonderful time.