Lovelorn bed comes to life at Depot
A new musical co-written by a local playwright. A venerable community theater housed in the remnants of a train station.
If history is any indication, they may be strange bedfellows.
Thursday evening, the Mysterium Theater at the La Habra Depot Playhouse hosted the world premiere of “Bed: A Horizontal Musical,” written by playwright Tom Swimm with music and lyrics by C.J. Ver Burg. Like any new production, it faces an uphill battle to lure an audience, win over critics and go on to future stagings.
But regardless of how well it plays in La Habra, it’s bound to be the depot theater’s most successful world premiere since ... well, that’s just it.
The playhouse at 311 S. Euclid St. has been a staple of local culture since it began hosting performances in 1982. Over the years, it’s brought such repertory staples as “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “The Odd Couple” to a city untouched by freeways. But the playhouse’s current creative team, as well as city officials and representatives of the La Habra Historical Museum, said they couldn’t recall the last time the depot debuted an entirely new work.
That’s not to say for sure that there hasn’t been one — the Mysterium Theater, which began staging plays at the depot last year, doesn’t have a complete set of past schedules. Nonetheless, the theater’s reputation evokes “Bye Bye Birdie” more than searing new works by Theresa Rebeck or Samuel D. Hunter.
“It brought the arts into the area and at a reasonable price,” said Debbie Presentadi, a former theater board member whose children were involved in “Alice in Wonderland” and other productions. “I think our prices were fair, and you didn’t have to go to L.A. to see a show and pay $30. You could come right to little old La Habra and see local talent.”
Then again, the new depot may not be the little old venue of the past. In 2013, the city-owned theater closed temporarily when its resident company ended its lease with the city. The Mysterium Theater, which launched in 2009 and went through three venues in Orange and Santa Ana before settling in La Habra, took over the space last September.
Marla Ladd, the Mysterium’s co-director, began with a series of tried-and-true choices, including “Peter Pan,” “The Pirates of Penzance” and “Miss Saigon.” She also staged her own adaptations of “Dracula” and “A Christmas Carol,” although the depot performances weren’t their first.
Still, Ladd was keen on bringing an all-original work to the depot. Swimm, her longtime friend, had finished work on a musical about a struggling Broadway composer whose bed comes miraculously to life and seeks emotional fulfillment, and it landed the next slot on Mysterium’s schedule.
An exhibitor for decades at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach, Swimm originally wrote “Bed” as a straight comedy a decade ago. After he met Ver Burg at a South Coast Repertory class, the two converted it to a musical. In the past few years, Swimm said, he has led staged readings of “Bed” and gotten encouraging feedback.
“The more we did it, the more positive it got,” he said. “We rewrote it a couple of times.”
The final version of “Bed” features 15 songs and a cast of eight actors, with roles that include talking pillows as well as the lovelorn bed itself. Ladd, the show’s director, said that while the musical may be edgier than some traditional depot fare, it isn’t as raunchy as its title might indicate.
“I wouldn’t be embarrassed if there were younger kids that came to see it, but it does have adult themes,” she said. “It does talk about divorce and philandering. But it’s not blatant. It’s not in your face.”
Swimm, whose son once played Snoopy in a depot production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” would love to see “Bed” move on to a larger local venue such as SCR. Down the road, he hopes to launch an Off-Broadway production. Already, he jokes that luck is on his side — a typical musical, he said, takes nine years to make it to stage, while his took a mere eight.
For now, with all the personal connections the depot brings, he’ll gladly take it for a premiere spot.
“That’s the goal of any playwright, to have your work shown and hopefully admired,” Swimm said. “That’s my goal. So who knows where it will go from here?”
If You Go
What: “Bed: A Horizontal Musical”
Where: Mysterium Theater at the La Habra Depot Playhouse
When: 8 p.m. May 24, 28, 29 and 30; 5 p.m. May 31, with a champagne reception and fundraiser at 4 p.m.
Cost: $15 to $25 ($20 to $50 for May 31 reception and show)
Information: (562) 697-3311 or mysteriumtheater.com