Amanda Eliasch To Produce Noel Coward's 'The Vortex'
British Artist and Director Amanda Eliasch will present a remount of Malibu Playhouse's critically acclaimed production of The Vortex by Noel Coward, directed by Gene Franklin Smith.
Los Angeles, CA, November 10, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Following its successful run at the Malibu Playhouse earlier this year, the award winning production of Noel Coward’s ‘The Vortex‘ directed by Gene Franklin Smith along with other original cast members from the Playhouse production is now headed to West Hollywood by popular demand, produced by Amanda Eliasch.
Eliasch, an award winner herself for her film ‘The Gun the Cake and the Butterfly” which transformed into a play ‘As I Like It’ – played last year in London, followed by a successful run at the Macha Theatre in West Hollywood, explained how she, “Fell in love with The Vortex.”
"I saw this production of The Vortex which is now set in the sixties, back in May of this year and fell in love with it immediately. I felt it needed a wider audience, so I reached out to the super-talented director Gene Franklin Smith and proposed that I produce it."
Amanda Eliasch, Producer
A well-known supporter of the arts, Eliasch said: “I saw this production of The Vortex which is now set in the sixties, back in May of this year and fell in love with it immediately. I felt it needed a wider audience, so I reached out to the super-talented director Gene Franklin Smith and proposed that I produce it.”
Starring the remarkable talents of Shannon Holt as “Florence” and Craig Robert Young as “Nicky”, The Vortex surprises audiences with its climactic emotional showdown between a mother and son that evokes Hamlet. The play's original run was way back in 1924, in London, and its scandalous subject matter of drug abuse, repressed homosexuality, nymphomania and Oedipal jealousy made Coward an overnight sensation, combining Coward's trademark wit and trenchant one-liners.
Holt and Young are joined by an impressive cast, which includes Victoria Hoffman as “Helen”, Daniel Jimenez as “Tom”, Skye LaFontaine as “Bunty”, newcomer John Mawson as “David”, and Cameron Mitchell Jr., as Pawnie.
In this new production, the setting is updated to Mod London of 1965. In The Vortex, Nicky Lancaster brings his elegant fiancée, Bunty, home to introduce her to his famous mother, stage actress Florence Lancaster. Nicky is shocked to discover that Florence has taken a much-younger lover, and when Bunty ditches Nicky to run off with Florence’s boy-toy, both are forced to confront the truth about themselves.
Of The Vortex, director Gene Franklin Smith says: “Coward never really wrote another play quite like The Vortex again. He created a juicy role for himself, including drug abuse, repressed homosexuality and Oedipal jealousy, knowing full well it would make him a star. The Vortex doesn’t sit on the same high Pantheon as Private Lives or Blithe Spirit, but it is far more contemporary than Coward’s other works, and you would swear it was written today and not 90 years ago.”
The Malibu Playhouse’s production was praised as “a smashing success, one of the best plays in Los Angeles” (FVM Global Magazine) and “an enjoyable new production that demonstrates The Vortex still has emotional resonance” (Stage Raw) with Shannon Holt and Craig Robert Young giving “powerhouse performances” (Stage Scene LA) in “a final scene imbued with a truly frightening and obsessive madness” (Malibu Surfside News).
Who: Written By: Noel Coward, Directed By: Gene Franklin Smith, Produced By: Amanda Eliasch, Starring: Shannon Holt and Craig Robert Young with Victoria Hoffman, Daniel Jimenez, Skye LaFontaine, John Mawson and Cameron Mitchell Jr.
Where: The Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90048.
Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. Appropriate for ages 13 and up.
When: Opens Thursday, November 13, 2014 and runs through Sunday, December 14, 2014. Shows are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. Preview performance Wednesday, November 12.
How: Tickets may be purchased online at www.plays411.com/vortex or by calling (323) 960-7735. Single tickets for the preview are $20 and $34 for all regular performances.
Press Contact: Sean Borg
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