LONG BEACH - New producing artistic director caryn desai [sic] has announced her first season of plays with International City Theatre, located in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center.The 2012 schedule includes: God of Carnage, Jan. 27 - Feb. 19: In this 2009 Tony Award-winner for Best Play by Yasmina Reza, a playground altercation between 11-year-old boys brings together two sets of Brooklyn parents for a meeting to resolve the matter. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the evening progresses and the rum flows, it quickly deteriorates into a finger-pointing, fur-flying, hilarious brawl, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters. The Fix, April 27 - May 20: The West Coast premiere of a hard-edged, hard-boiled rock musical about the American political machine. A popular presidential candidate is dead, and his widow thrusts their son into the political spotlight. Her maniacal scheming is matched by that of her crippled brother-in-law, who will stop at nothing to see the boy elected. Together, the three of them make up one of the most dysfunctional almost-first families this side of real-life Washington politics. Nominated for London's 1998 Olivier Award for Best New Musical. Leading Ladies, June 8 - July 1: A rollicking comedy about two down-on-their-luck actors who dress as women to con a dying woman out of her millions. A cross between "Twelfth Night" and "Some Like It Hot," this comedy finds two actors, Leo Clark and Jack Gable, so down on their luck that they are performing "Scenes from Shakespeare" on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that an old lady is about to die and leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her beloved relatives and get the cash. Mayhem ensues when they find out that the relatives aren't nephews - but nieces! Ghost Writers, Aug. 24 - Sept. 16: Something mysterious is happening. In the West Coast premiere of an intimate spine-tingler from award-winning playwright Michael Hollinger, acclaimed novelist Franklin Woolsey has died. But his devoted secretary remains poised at her typewriter - waiting to channel the words that will complete his masterpiece. This ghost story of literary proportions questions where we draw the line between fact and fiction, between this life and beyond. Winner of the Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. Ain't Misbehavin', Oct. 12 - Nov. 4: This Tony Award-wining musical review is based on the life of Thomas "Fats" Waller. Step back to the Golden Age of Jazz, when places like the Cotton Club and the Savoy Ballroom were havens where snappy swing music, snazzy jazz and the stride piano infused the energy of the country. For more information on the theater schedule, or to purchase season tickets, call (562) 436-4610 or go online to InternationalCityTheatre.org.

********** Published: August 25, 2011 - Volume 10 - Issue 19