Malibu has loads of Music Center lovers. (Eli Broad, Ginny Mancini, and Marc and Eva Stern are all fans.) Now that the award season is over, they can turn their attention to the theater, and what’s not to love?
Legendary playwright Arthur Miller’s riveting family drama “The Price” is on the most recent playbill.
You’ll find it beginning this week at the Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum and you can check it out through March.
The gripping production is directed by Tony Award-winner Gary Hynes, and it explores the difficult choices one is faced with in a lifetime. It features a phenomenal cast, including Kate Burton, John Bedford, Sam Robards, John Bedford Lloyd and Alan Mandell.
It tells the tale of two brothers who haven’t spoken to each other in 16 years. Yet fate brings them together when they are forced to settle their late father’s estate.
The characters couldn’t be more intriguing; Victor (played by Sam Robards) is a police officer with 28 years on the job. His brother Walter, played by John Bedford Lloyd, is a successful surgeon.
Kate Burton plays Victor’s wife, Ester.
They all gather at the family brownstone, where they have an encounter with a wise and wily antiques dealer named Soloman. Through his poking around, they all discover that what they have on their hands is not only years of accumulation, but also hidden motives that long ago put a strain on the brothers’ relationship.
“The Price” is considered an American classic. It first opened on Broadway in 1968. Miller impressed from the start, with the New York Times writing that it was “one of the most engrossing and entertaining plays that Miller has ever written.”
Pretty high accolades for a decades-old play. Remember, this is the man who gave us “All My Sons” in 1947, “Death of a Salesman” in 1949 and wrote the screenplay for “The Misfits” in 1960. In case that isn’t enough to make you get up and go, remember Miller received countless awards, including a Pulitzer, three Tony Awards, two Emmys and the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Productions of this extraordinary performance will continue at the Mark Taper Forum until March 22.
DRESCHER GETS GUSSIED UP
Speaking of locals loving stage, two-time Emmy Award-winner Fran Dresher joins the cast of “Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.” The “Nanny” star will be performing at the Ahmanson through March 26.
Fran will reprise her role of the wicked stepmom, which she also played in 2014, making her Broadway debut.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
Malibu may have lost a friend when we lost legendary producer Dick Clark, but his company is still alive and kicking.
Producer Antonio Gellini is said to be in negotiations with The Dick Clark Company, Inc. concerning a new major TV network national broadcast of his company’s production called “The Family Film Awards.”
Wish him luck as Dick Clark is gone, but certainly not forgotten.