Academy will catch ‘Hay Fever’ this weekend

Tom Titus

Having reached back into theatrical history for its fall musical,

“42nd Street,” the Academy for the Performing Arts at Huntington

Beach High School is going back even further for its next production,

which opens tonight.

“42nd Street” was a product of the 1930s, and the academy’s latest

project -- Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever” -- is set in the 1920s, offering

a taste of the sophisticated English humor so prevalent in that

period.

“Hay Fever” -- which runs tonight through Sunday only -- focuses

on the Bliss family of highborn Bohemian eccentrics. There’s Judith,

a flamboyant actress; David, her author husband, and their two

teen-age children, Simon and Sorel, who inhabit their own

individualistic world. Each family member has invited a guest for the

weekend -- without notifying the rest of the clan -- and the result

is predictable pandemonium, an entertaining weekend filled with many

romantic twists and turns.

“Some say the play was inspired by Laurette Taylor, a good friend

of Coward’s and a noted American actress,” director Earl Byers said.

Taylor probably was most famous for creating the role of Amanda

Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’ first play, “The Glass Menagerie.”

Commenting on Coward, who was a frequent houseguest, and his gift

for words, Taylor is quoted as saying, “He never had to search for

the right one; they came effortlessly to his obvious delight as well

as that of the listener.”

Byers, who counts “Hay Fever” as one of his favorite plays, is

predicting that this “obvious delight” will be reflected from the

stage of Huntington Beach High School this weekend.

Comprising the Bliss family characters will be Kelly Dixon as

Judith, Alex Malcynski as David, AJ Gutierrez as Simon and Nicole

Weber as Sorel. The diverse guests will be played by Ryan Field, Dani

Kerry, Alessandro Randazzo and Amanda Bolten.

Curtain time is 7:30 tonight, Friday and Saturday, with a 2 p.m.

matinee Sunday in the high school theater, 1905 Main St., Huntington

Beach. Tickets are $9 for general admission and $7 for students. More

information is available at (714) 536-2514, ext. 602.

“What keeps Noel Coward’s comedy alive after more than 60 years?”

Byers said. “Obviously his deft plotting, musical language and those

dynamic and flamboyant characters that every actor worth his salt

wants to play again and again.”

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.