Long Beach, California–Adapted from Stein’s writings by Tony Award winners Stephen Flaherty and Frank Galati, International City Theatre kicks off 2011 “Season of Romantic Adventures” with the West Coast premiere of LOVING REPEATING: A Musical of Gertrude Stein. Illuminating Gertrude Stein’s world and bringing fresh perspective to her poetic texts, the music evokes diverse spirits of eras past, including Victorian parlor tunes, vaudevillian songs, and even opera, paying homage to Stein’s deep love of the way American language perpetually changes to reflect the voices of the people. Following Stein from her student days in the late 19th century to the height of her artistic era in Paris as one of the “lost generation,” a term she coined referring to those who came of age between the two world wars, she lived among a celebrated circle of artists, writers, and thinkers, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, and her beloved “wife” Alice B. Toklas.
International City Theatre is Long Beach’s Resident Professional Theater at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. ICT’s 2011 “Season of Romantic Adventures” will feature a mix of two musicals: Loving Repeating by Stephen Flaherty and Frank Galati and The Robber Bridegroom by Alfred Uhry and Robert Waldman; and three character-driven comedies: Southern Comforts by Kathleen Clark; The Old Settler by Henry Redwood; and Private Lives by Noël Coward.
Loving Repeating will run Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays @ 8 pm and Sundays @ 2 pm, January 21 through February 13. Tickets are $37 on Thursdays, and $44 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, except opening night which is $55 and includes a reception with the actors following the performance. Preview performances take place on Tuesday, January 18; Wednesday, January 19; and Thursday, January 20 at 8 pm. Preview tickets are $29.
International City Theatre is located in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center at 300 E. Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach. For reservations and information, call the ICT Box Office at (562) 436-4610. InternationalCityTheatre.org.