Mark Emerson plays the Auctioneer in Broadway / San Diego’s “Phantom of the Opera,” playing at the Civic Theatre Oct. 7 through 18. Recipient of a 2003 San Diego Playbill Billie Award for his performance as Louis in “11 Hills of San Francisco” (UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance), Emerson lived in UCSD’s graduate housing, acted in numerous MFA productions and appeared in three shows at La Jolla Playhouse – “The Wiz,” the “Doctor Zhivago” workshop and its full musical production. In a slightly updated version, Josefina Lopez’s 1990 play about immigrant clothing workers, “Real Women Have Curves,” plays through Oct. 4 at Pasadena Playhouse; it’s directed by Seema Sueko, founding artistic director of Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company. The excellent LA Times review said, “The five women are warmly drawn, with humorous foibles, and the Playhouse cast brings them vividly to life.” San Diego Playwrights Project’s Young Playwrights Program produced Lopez’s first play in 1987, when she was still in her teens. Meanwhile, Sueko’s Mo’olelo successor, Lydia Fort, opens Cassandra Medley’s “Cell,” her first directorial outing as head honcho, playing Sept. 24 through Oct. 18 at 10th Avenue Arts Center. The subject matter in this case is immigrant detention, perhaps a hot topic these days. The company comprises Andrea Agosto, Monique Gaffney, Vimel Sephus and Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson. Fort follows up immediately with Tanya Barfield’s beautiful two-hander titled “Bright Half Day” for Diversionary Theatre Oct. 29 through Nov. 29. “Bright Half Day” follows two women through nearly 50 years of their relationship. Casting is to be announced. Matt Morrow, Diversionary Theatre’s new executive artistic director, made his company directorial debut Sept. 12 with Jordan Harrison’s “Amazons and Their Men,” a hysterically funny, complex farce that riffs on the life of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003). It plays through Oct. 4 at Diversionary, 4645 Park Blvd., University Heights. To further celebrate and raise a bit of money, divinely renowned drag artist Charles Busch performs in two shows to benefit Diversionary, 8 p.m. Oct. 13 and 14, at Martinis Above Fourth. For information on tickets and more, go to MA4SD.com. George Takei stars in “Allegiance,” the musical that premiered at The Old Globe Theatre in 2012. It begins previews at New York’s Longacre Theatre Oct. 6. “Being on Broadway has always been my dream,” says Takei. The book was inspired by Takei’s real-life boyhood prison-camp internment during World War II. Meanwhile, former Old Globe artistic director Jack O’Brien inaugurated his new version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” at the Ahmanson Theatre in L.A. Sept. 20. His Maria is a 20-year-old college student named Kerstin Anderson. Then the show goes to Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, Tennessee and Florida, among others, before it winds up in Michigan and Colorado. Last but not least, acclaimed klezmer composer/musician Yale Strom and the Hausmann Quartet perform the world premiere of Strom’s “Somalia Quartet” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, at the Lyceum. It is free, a special event of the San Diego Jewish Arts Festival. Not only will you hear the world premiere and learn about San Diego’s Somalian community, you’ll be treated to free Somalian food afterward. This is presented through the generosity of the Creative Catalyst Fund of the San Diego Foundation. Phone the Rep at (619) 544-1000 for more.
