Kathleen Turner stars in "Red Hot Patriot" Photo by Mark Garvin

FYI: The Geffen Playhouse will present the West Coast premiere of the solo show Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins (date TBA), starring two-time Tony and Oscar nominee Kathleen Turner, scripted by twin sisters Allison and Margaret Engel. Turner portrays the brassy Texas reporter, the self-proclaimed “pain in the ass to whatever powers come to be.” Red Hot Patriot will be in the third slot of the Geffen’s next season, which will ultimately include five plays, running from Sep. 2011 through July 2012…Also in Westwood, straight from “down under,” Kristy Edmunds has been named executive and artistic director of UCLA Live. Edmunds arrives from Australia’s University of Melbourne, where in 2008 she was appointed head of the new School of Performing Arts in the Victorian College of the Arts, after four years as artistic director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival and previous arts administration jobs in Oregon.  Since 2009 she has also served as consulting artistic director for the Park Avenue Armory performing arts space in New York City. Edmunds’ official appointment date is May 1, 2011, and she will transition into her role throughout the summer, relocating to LA in August, launching immediately into the planning process for the 2012–13 UCLA Live season…Pasadena based Theatre @ Boston Court is presenting How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, a Southern California premiere, scripted by Brit Fin Kennedy, inspired by the book by Doug Richmond, helmed by Nancy Keystone, opening Apr. 30…Also, Boston Court is debuting its 2011 Spring Music at the Court Series with O Works on May 6, showcasing the compositions of award-winning theatrical music director David O…Phantom Projects Theatre Group is coming to the west side of LA County after performing nearly exclusively at La Mirada Theatre for 15 seasons. Its production of The Bluest Eye, adapted by Lydia R. Diamond from the novel by Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison, helmed by Janet Miller, opens Apr. 8 at the Miles Playhouse in Santa Monica…Thesps Annie Korzen, Ron Orbach, DeeDee Rescher and Carol Ita White join Jason Alexander and Gina Hecht in the revival of Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue. Helmed by Glenn Casale, it opens Apr. 23 at NoHo-based El Portal Theatre for a three week run…

HONORS…The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles (SCLA) has been named the recipient of Actors’ Equity Association’s 2011 Rosetta LeNoire Award. The Award will be presented in a special ceremony to SCLA Founder and Artistic Director Ben Donenberg on Apr. 8 in the Union’s Western Regional office in LA. The Award, established in 1988, recognizes “outstanding artistic contributions to the universality of the human experience in American Theater”…Noting LA Stage Times’ editor-in-chief Lee Melville’s 50^th anniversary of professional life in the theater, Playwrights’ Arena has re-named its annual award for “outstanding contribution to the Los Angeles Theatre Community” the Lee Melville Award. This year’s honorees include Luis Alfaro, Olga Garay, Mark Seldis and Katharine Noon, to be cited at PA’s 2011 Hot Night in the City event on May 10 at LA Theatre Center… Over the last 14 years, American Theatre Wing has simulcast the Tony Awards live from NY to LA via Direct TV at a special event that allows its guests to view the show live, hours before the rest of the West Coast sees it. The event benefits the Actors Fund and is highlighted by the bestowing of the annual Julie Harris Lifetime Achievement Award. The roll call of previous winners includes Ms. Harris (first awardee), Gwen Verdon, Charles Durning, Rita Moreno, James Earl Jones, Tyne Daly, Lauren Bacall, Stockard Channing, Carol Channing, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Herman, Tommy Tune, Chita Rivera and Brian Stokes Mitchell. Held on Tony night, June 12, at the Skirball Center in West LA, this year’s honoree is Tony winner and Oscar-nominated Hal Holbrook. The presentation is being scripted and produced by Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) and David Rambo (God’s Man in Texas)…

F Murray Abraham as Shylock Photo courtesy of Berkshire Stage

BEACH CITY STAGES …Santa Monica-based Broad Stage is presenting the touring Theatre for a New Audience’s production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, opening Apr. 14, starring Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus), staged by Darko Tresnjak.  As a free-to-the-public bonus, Abraham and TFNA founding artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz will discuss the work on Apr. 12, hosted by Broad Stage…Down in Long Beach, Alive Theatre is debuting the company’s first full-length production, Entropy General by Ryan McClary, a world premiere “traumedy” opening Apr. 29 at the MADHouse Warehouse in downtown LB, helmed by Turner Munch, commissioned by Alive…Farther down the coast, Laguna Playhouse‘s 2011-12 season opens July 5 with the revue, I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett, created by David Grapes and Todd Olson, incorporating 40 Bennett pop standards.Laguna’s Sep. 27-Oct. 23 slot is still under consideration, but it will be followed by a stage version of the Frank Capra holiday film classic It’s a Wonderful Life, scheduled to open Nov. 25, adapted by Steve Murray into This Wonderful Life. Rubicon Theatre’s upcoming Lonesome Traveler: A Journey Down the Rivers and Streams of American Folk, conceived and helmed by James O’Neil, travels to Laguna on Jan. 10, 2012. Maripat Donovan’s Sister’s Easter Catechism: Will My Bunny Go to Heaven,” helmed by Mark Silva, opens Mar. 13. The Laguna season ends with the premiere of Tickled Pink, scripted by Rita Rudner and Martin Bergman (who also helms), opening Apr. 24…Even farther south, La Jolla Playhouse has invited Eveoke Dance Theatre, led by artistic director Erika Malone, to be its resident company for the 2011-12 season, the first time a dance company has been chosen. As its season opener, Eveoke will present Las Mariposas, based on the 1960 murder of three Dominican Republic sisters who opposed then-Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, opening Sep. 8. La Jolla’s current 2010-11 in-house guest, San Diego Asian American Repertory Theater, completes its residency with a concert version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song, May 12…

"Bonded" by Donald Jolly

EXTENSIONS…The premiere of Girls Talk, scripted and helmed by Roger Kumble, is extending at Hollywood’s Lee Strasberg Theatre through May 7, but it is losing the services of  Brooke Shields and Constance Zimmer, replaced on Apr. 14 by Andrea Savage and Jamie Denbo…The Fountain Theatre in Hollywood is extending the West Coast premiere run of A House Not Meant to Stand, Tennessee’s Williams’ final play, through May 22… OC-based Segerstrom Center is extending the tuner Mary Poppins before it has even begun, adding eight performances to its run, which opens July 14, now closing on Aug. 7…The premiere run of Donald Jolly’s Ovation-recommended Bonded, helmed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, is adding a week of performances, now closing on Apr. 15 at downtown’s LA Theatre Center. Two extra Sunday matinees also have been added (Apr. 8 & 15)…Back in Hollywood, Re-Animator the Musical, turning into a cult hit, has not only extended its run at the Steve Allen Theater until May 29 but has added Friday midnight and Sunday 3 pm performances to its Fri.-Sun. 8 pm schedule…

Graham Skipper as Herbert West Photo by Ed Krieger

THE THING IS…“I play the brilliant but somewhat quirky and strange medical student Herbert West who has invented a serum that can re-animate the dead, whether they want to be or not. Events do get messy. I was aware of my character from both the HP Lovecraft story (1922) and the film version by Stuart Gordon (1985). Herbert is driven, single-minded and though horrible things always happen when he conducts his experiments, he staunchly believes his serum will save mankind someday ‘with just a little more tweaking.’ Lovecraft created my character to be a kind of Dr. Frankenstein figure. I find it interesting that in almost every resurrection-of-the-dead story, the dead don’t want to be brought back, and they show it.  Hence, in our live theater version, a lot of stage blood and gore gets splattered out onto the audience, especially the first three rows.  But even with all the carnage, there is still that manic gleam in Herbert’s eye that he can make this work”…Graham Skipper portrays Herbert West in Re-Animator the Musical at the Steve Allen Theater…

INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…In 1894, a group of forward-thinking local society ladies formed the Ebell of Los Angeles Women’s Club, based on the teachings of Adrian John Ebell, a pioneer in women’s education. In 1925, after selling their original clubhouse property (located at Shatto and Wilshire) for a profit, the Ebell ladies purchased a larger lot further west at Wilshire and Lucerne and commissioned architect Sumner P. Hunt to build a clubhouse complex that would include a modern theater. In Dec. 1927, the 1300-seat Wilshire Ebell Theater (originally called the Windsor Square Playhouse) opened to the public with the West Coast premiere of the Sigmund Romberg/Otto Harbach/Oscar Hammerstein II operetta The Desert Song. During the stage’s theatrical down times, the Ebell folk booked vaudeville acts. In 1929, the Gumm Sisters performed, featuring six-year-old “Baby” Frances Gumm. That resulted in a screen test arranged by actor George Sydney I. In 1935, now 13-year-old Frances, who had changed her name to Judy Garland, returned to the Ebell, performing on her own. She was discovered that night by producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz who subsequently signed her to an MGM contract. In 1937, Amelia Earhart made her final public appearance at the Ebell before her ill-fated attempt to fly solo around the world. The Wilshire Ebell continues to be one of LA’s most viable live performance venues. In Jan. 2006, the musical theater department of the LA County High School for the Arts staged the tuner 42^nd Street at the Ebell, prominently featuring a 16-year-old sophomore named Martinez. We are still waiting for the call from MGM…

The Julio Martinez-hosted ARTS IN REVIEW, broadcast Fridays (2 to 2:30 pm) on KPFK (90.7FM), spotlights the best in live theater and cabaret in the Greater LA area. Upcoming on Apr. 8, a showcase of the stage tuner Locked and Loaded, premiering at the Santa Monica Playhouse…