By Christopher Cappiello

Hellman Classic Gets Rare L.A. Staging

As the third show in his ambitious inaugural season as Celebration Theatre's managing artistic director, 29-year-old Chicago transplant Michael Matthews has chosen to revive The Children's Hour, Lillian Hellman's groundbreaking 1934 drama about homophobia and lies. Set in a New England boarding school, the play follows the trail of destruction created by a young girl's false claim that the two women running the school are lesbians. Matthews was inspired to add Hellman's shockingly relevant, 70-year-old drama to the theater's season after seeing Doubt, John Patrick Shanley's 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about accusations of child abuse made against a Bronx priest in the 1960s. "After seeing Doubt, and after getting the job at Celebration, I thought we have got to do The Children's Hour," he explains, with infectious enthusiasm. While Shanley's play never concretely resolves whether the allegations are true, "both plays show how vicious rumors and vicious lies can tear people apart," he says.

The Children's Hour was Hellman's first big hit, with the original production running on Broadway for more than 700 performances. Later the hard-drinking writer and longtime lover of Dashiell Hammett would go on to write The Little Foxes and Watch on the Rhine, and endure a 1950s blacklisting for her outspoken leftist views. After a 1936 film adaptation titled These Three, in which the scandal involved a straight relationship, it took Hollywood almost 30 years to touch the play's lesbian theme, with William Wyler eventually directing Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine in the fine 1961 film version.

"It's important," Matthews says about the play's message, "especially now and where we are today." The play's director Matt Bankston isn't "doing anything crazy, like casting it with all men," Matthews explains. "We're letting the language speak for itself." When asked if he hopes to attract more women to the Celebration with the play's famous lesbian scandal, Matthews speaks of a bigger picture. "My mission is to do provocative gay and lesbian works that attract everyone," he states, emphasizing, "I want everyone to come to the theater." The Children's Hour runs March 31-May 7. For information and tickets, call (323) 957-1884, or visit www.CelebrationTheatre.com.

Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles presents the rhythms and sounds of Latin America in Carnaval!, a special production that will tour South America in the fall. Dr. Bruce Mayhall, the chorus' artistic director, promises "a concert as diversified as the city in which we perform." Audiences can expect folk tunes, samba, spirituals, and even the exotic tango. Gay Men's Chorus shows at Glendale's Alex Theatre usually sell out, so audiences are encouraged to order tickets in advance. Carnaval! is performed Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, April 2, at 3 p.m. For information and tickets, call (800) MEN-SING, or visit www.gmcla.org.

Any time a man in a dress plays a room as big as the Ahmanson Theatre, it seems worth mentioning. Australia's finger-wagging dispenstress of wisdom and wickedness returns to L.A. for a brief engagement in Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance! Supported by the Gorgeous Ednaettes, comic Barry Humphries dons the glasses, wigs, jewels and artfully outrageous dresses of Dame Edna and works the room like Queen Elizabeth doing the Catskills. Audience participation is both a danger and delight with the Dame, so watch out where you sit. She'll be shacking up at the Ahmanson from March 28-April 9. For information and tickets, call (213) 628-2772, or visit www.TaperAhmanson.com.