If the shoe fits (Culture Watch)

In 1984 Santa Monica Playhouse co-artistic directors Evelyn Rudie and Chris DiCarlo wrote a musical version of "Cinderella" that's been performed locally, nationally and in 20cities throughout Japan and England.

Now, however, timed to coincide with Pride Month 2015, they've adapted their hit play and reworked it as an all-male production. It runs Fridays and Saturdays at 9:30 p.m. through July 25.

This new "late-night" all-male twist on the classic Playhouse musical is a light-hearted, bawdy, risqué and uproarious celebration of love for all.

Proud of who she is, Cinderella will wait forever if necessary to find the one person who will love her for who she is. Ditto Prince Asgood who would give anything to be loved for himself, not the icon society claims he must be. A heart-warming relationship blooms with the assistance of a glass slipper, a feather duster and a truly magical wand.

Call the Santa Monica Playhouse Box Office at (310) 394-9779 or reserve seats online at http://SantaMonicaPlayhouse.com. The Playhouse is located at 1211 4th St., between Wilshire and Arizona.

FROM PR MAVEN TO PLAYWRIGHT

This Saturday, I'm headed to The Odyssey Theatre in West Los Angeles to see "Off the King's Road," the West Coast premiere of a play written by the founding partner of one of Hollywood's most notorious public relations firms.

Neil Koenigsberg joined iconic agent Pat Kingsley when he and his partner Michael Maslansky merged their firm with hers, creating the once super-powerhouse entertainment PR agency PMK. After 11 years, Koenigsberg took off on his own, became a talent manager and a feature and documentary film producer.

The play, however, is not about the PR world, it's about a lonely widower on vacation. And there's a nice backstory about how interconnected actor, director and playwright are.

Tom Bower, who plays the lead character Matt, was in the film "Pollock," produced by Koenigsberg, and starring Ed Harris (who also produced and directed) as artist Jackson Pollock.

Harris is married to Amy Madigan, an actress whose face is familiar to from her many film and TV roles. She starred alongside her husband in "Pollock," and appeared as Kevin Costner's wife in "Field of Dreams." You might know her as Dr. Wyatt from TV's "Grey's Anatomy," and I was fond of her in the bizarre supernatural fantasy, "Carnivale" on HBO.

Harris and Madigan recently costarred onstage in the world premiere of Beth Henley's "The Jacksonian" at Geffen Playhouse, which went on to a sold-out production at the New Group in New York. They were also co-founding members of the still-thriving MET Theatre here in Hollywood. They'll team up for a 2016 New York revival of Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize winner, "Buried Child" with New Group.

Harris, Madigan, Koenigsberg and Bower all came together for "Pollock," and they've found it very easy to collaborate on this production. "I was immediately taken with Matt's character and all the people who get plugged into him," says Madigan. "I love the way the play handles that sense of isolation that sometimes comes with age. How do you go on? But Neil writes with such a great sense of humor, and I responded to that. There are some very poignant moments, but it's also very funny. It hit me on a very gut level."

"Off the King's Road" tells the story of Matt Browne (Tom Bower), a retired American businessman. After the death of his wife, Matt escapes to his favorite city, London, for a week's respite at a small hotel. As the New York Times described it, Matt came to London "with Viagra, Valium, condoms, mouthwash, a blowup doll and a framed photo of Betty, the wife to whom he was faithful for 38 years and died six months ago." The characters he gets entangled with include a Croatian prostitute, a "crazy cat lady," the overly-friendly hotel employee and an L.A. shrink.

This is a guest production at The Odyssey Theatre, which is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. in West L.A. For tickets and info call (323) 960-7712 or click on www.plays411.com/kingsroad.

BARN DANCE AND BBQ

If you haven't yet made plans for Independence Day, what could be more all-American than an old-fashioned family barn danceand barbecue?

On July 4, Theatricum Botanicum is hosting a family hoe-down with live music, a barn dance with multi-instrumentalist and traditional dance caller Evo Bluestein (1 p.m. and 3 p.m.), children's games, a pie-eating contest, watermelon seed-spitting contest, cake walk, horseshoes, relay races, dunk bucket and more. Barbecue and fixin's, beer and wine available for purchase. Folk and country fun!

Kids under 6 years of age get in free. For more details call (310) 455-3723 or visit www.theatricum.com. Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum is located at 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., in Topanga.

Sarah A. Spitz spent her career as a producer at public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica and produced freelance arts reports for NPR. She has also written features and reviews for various publications.