GOING SOLO INTO THE NEW YEAR…Theatre West, which originated the hit stage work Spoon River Anthology, now presents Lee Meriwether playing 26 distaff characters who populate the premiere of Women of Spoon River: Their Voices From the Hill, adapted by Meriwether and Jim Hesselman based on the original book by Edgar Lee Masters, opening Jan. 28…Musician/scripter/thesp Hershey Felder (Gershwin, Chopin, Beethoven) now morphs into Maestro: The Art of Leonard Bernstein, opening Jan. 4 at Laguna Playhouse following the show’s premiere at the Geffen Playhouse… Jamie Adkins’ one-person comedy Circus INcognitus begins Jan. 15 at Culver City-based Kirk Douglas Theatre….A week later, noted scripter/thesp Wallace Shawn takes UCLA Live’s Royce Hall stage for an intimate, introspective evening of spoken word, Jan. 22…On a more effusive note, Academy Award/Golden Globe nominated thrush/thesp  Sally Kellerman (Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H) is bringing her tuneful one-hander Hot Lips to Cool Blues! to Vicky’s of Santa Fe in Indian Wells, Jan. 10, backed by pianist Andy Langham…Closer to home, Drama Desk Award-winner Ken Page (Ain’t Misbehavin’) takes the stage at Pepperdine University’s Smothers Theatre in Malibu, Jan. 21…And over at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood, Ann Magnuson Does David Bowie on Bowie’s birthday Jan. 8, backed by music director/keyboardist Kristian Hoffman… Also in for one night at the Allen, adroit comic/ radio host Jamie Kilstein goes solo Jan. 14…

THERE ARE PREMIERES…Always ambitious Sacred Fools Theatre Company in Hollywood preems Puzzler, a film noir-ish saga “about East German spies, the reconstruction of memory and the loyalty of undying love,” scripted and helmed by Padraic Duffy, opening Jan. 21…Last season’s Off-Broadway hit, Circle Mirror Transformation, has its West Coast premiere on South Coast Rep’s Julianne Argyros Stage Jan. 9. Annie Baker’s tale of five would-be actors in a Vermont community center’s “creative drama” class copped the Obie Award for Best New American Play earlier this year, helmed by Sam Gold who also helms SCR’s production…Hollywood’s Hudson Backstage is hosting the premiere of Emily’s Song, scripted and helmed by Chet Holmes with musical direction by Amanda Holmes, starring Lindsey Haun (HBO’s True Blood) in the title role, opening Jan. 15… International City Theatre in Long Beach kicks off its 2011 season with the West Coast premiere of Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein, adapted from Stein’s writings by Tony Award winners Stephen Flaherty and Frank Galati, helmed by caryn desai with musical direction by Darryl Archibald opening Jan. 21…Looking ahead, La Jolla Playhouse is in the organizational throes of its upcoming world premiere musical, Little Miss Sunshine (based on 2006 feature film) by the Tony Award-winning team of William Finn (composer lyricist) and James Lapine (playwright/director), due to open Feb. 15… And following an extensive three and a half year development process, the world premiere mainstage Equity production of scripter Carolyn Dunn‘s The Frybread Queen is being produced by Griffith Park-based Native Voices at the Autry at the Wells Fargo Theatre, helmed by Robert Caisley, premiering Mar. 12…

AND REVIVALS…Malicious and delicious, The School for Scandal is coming to the radio, featuring an all Brit cast including Jane Carr, Julian Sands and Tara Summers, helmed by Michael Hackett, when L.A. Theatre Works records Richard Brinsley Sheridan‘s comic masterpiece at the Skirball Cultural Center, Jan. 12-16, for later broadcast over NPR… Marc Blitzstein’s socially relevant ’30s tuner The Cradle Will Rock, the third production of Hollywood-based Blank Theatre Company’s 20th anniversary season, helmed by Artistic Director Daniel Henning with music direction by David O, featuring vet stage/TV singer/ thesp Rex Smith, opens Feb. 12… NoHo- based Group Rep goes more gently into 2011 with the revival of Horton Foote’s endearing The Trip to Bountiful, helmed by Larry Eisenberg, opening Jan. 28…And Long Beach-based Musical Theatre West is bringing that feline celebratory tuner Cats to Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Feb. 12…

AND OTHER STUFF…Downtown LA-based REDCAT offers an eclectic winter/spring lineup including the virtuosic puppetry of Betontanc and Umka.lv: Show Your Face! (Jan. 19-23); George Herms: The Artist’s Life, a premiere jazz opera featuring a seven-piece instrumental ensemble led by Bobby Bradford (Feb. 3-5); Lemi Ponifasio/MAU: Tempest: Without a Body, entwining dance, theater, Polynesian ritual and social activism (Apr. 1-2); and David J: Silver for Gold (The Odyssey of Edie Sedgwick), chronicling the rise and crash of the Any Warhol muse (Apr. 14-17)…Weird on Top Improvisational comedy troupe returns to Eclectic Company Theatre for a one-Thursday-a month gig, starting Jan. 20 and extending to Aug. 18. In development, ECT is hosting a Jan, 10 rehearsed stage reading of Hollywood Perfume, scripted and helmed by Dean Farell Bruggeman, whose legiters have been produced, workshopped and read at such LA area venues as Company of Angels, The Road, The Hudson, Lonny Chapman Group Rep, West Coast Ensemble and Eclectic Company Theatre…The Actors’ Gang revives its Mon/Tues Axis Mundi Series, curated by Oscar-winner/Artistic Director Tim Robbins. Upcoming on Jan 18, GET LIT! - An evening of poetry performed by Los Angeles’ award-winning teen poetry troupe, the Get Lit! Players, at the Gang’s Ivy Substation home theatre in Culver City…Finally, the aforementioned Sacred Fools hosts the return of Serial Killers, produced by Victor Isaac, J.J. Mayes and Colin Willkie, the sixth season of this legiter play off, featuring 16 competing staged serials, beginning Jan. 22…

THE THING IS… “So many people I know who are doing vaudeville-style entertainment are the children, grandchildren or even great grand children of vaudevillians who worked in the early part of the 20th century. My grandfather was a prestidigitator. He was a sleight of hand magician and in fact was Orson Welles’ favorite prestidigitator. He took his talents to the grave without passing on his skills to my parents or to me. I took a different path to vaudeville. It took me a long time to find the kind of material I do now which is largely musically comedic, owing a lot to artists like Fanny Brice. I was really very close to my grandmothers and aunts. Part of my family was from Poland and many spoke Yiddish. I would look into their closets and find all these exotic clothes and costumes from that period. I was a kid growing up in San Bernardino. These outfits were like from another planet to me. A lot of what my older relatives told me brought up the landscape of the ’20s and ’30s, the music, the entertainers and what nightclubs and stage shows were like back then. One of my great aunts from back east sounded exactly like Gracie Allen and I started imitating her speech patterns and seeking out the music from that era. When I was in college at UCLA, I spent a lot of time in the audio library finding the music of the times and started building a collection of songs which became the basis of my current repertoire. I have a band named The Parlor Boys and we perform authentic band and vocal arrangements from a time period that can range from the pre-’20s through the ’30s. I dress the part even when I am not performing. I am comfortable in this style so I go for it.” – Janet Klein and The Parlor Boys play the first Thursday of the month at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. For more info go to www.janetklein.com…

The Burbank Follies

INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…My father owned a restaurant, The Stage Coach Café, in the Trailways Bus Depot, located at 6th and Main in Downtown Los Angeles for close to 40 years. On Friday afternoons, after school, I was allowed to “hang out” on Main Street until my Dad got off work. My favorite place to sojourn was the Burbank Follies, located at 548 S. Main, one of two burlesque houses that faced each other about half a block from my dad’s eatery. The Burbank made its debut in 1893, built by dentist Dr. David Burbank (also the namesake of the city). In 1899, he leased it to entertainment entrepreneur Oliver Morosco who dubbed it Morosco’s Burbank Theatre. Over the years, the theatre evolved from live vaudeville into a newsreel house in the ’30s. By the ’40s, as the Burbank Follies, it became LA’s most prominent purveyor of burlesque. I was 10 at the time and dad thought it was fine for me to see the shows. I particularly loved a baggy pants comic named Joe Yule, father of Joe Yule Jr., better known as Mickey Rooney. Strippers such at Lili St. Cyr, Tempest Storm and a slew of others amply demonstrated their talents, although the relevance of their performances was kind of lost on me at the time. I do remember December 1948. I was on school break and I was hanging out at the Burbank almost every day. I think it was about three days before Christmas and the usual 2 pm matinee was cancelled. The management and performers re-dressed the stage for a holiday lunch. I was invited by Mr. Yule to join them. The highlight of the afternoon was Joe Yule and two other comics offering their own version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, supplemented by three rather endowed ghosts of Christmases past, present and future. I carry that image with me to this day. The Burbank was demolished in 1973…

The Julio Martinez-hosted ARTS IN REVIEW, broadcast Wednesdays (2 to 2:30 pm) on KPFK (90.7FM), spotlights the best in live theater and cabaret in the Greater LA area. Upcoming on Dec. 29 is a one-hour spotlight on live theater during the year 2010. In studio guests include arts journalists Dany Margolies (Backstage), Steve Leigh Morris (LA Weekly) Lee Melville and Don Shirley, both from LA Stage Times…