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Jeremy Ordaz (Sgt. Carlino), Kimberly Patterson (Susy Hendrix), Michael Mullen (Harry Roat) and Leland Burnett (Mike Talman), at rehearsal this week, star in ‘Wait Until Dark.’ |
Recently blinded in a car accident, Greenwich housewife Susy Hendrix is terrorized by three hoodlums hellbent on finding a heroin-stuffed doll in the Broadway thriller “Wait Until Dark.”
Written by Frederick Knott (“Dial ‘M’ For Murder”), “Wait Until Dark” stars Kimberly Patterson as Susy who must use her “handicap” to turn the tables on the criminals.
Director Stephanie Coltrin calls “Wait Until Dark,” which opens at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse with previews Tuesday, Nov. 3, a “highly technical” and intricate production.
“It’s a classic thriller,” said Coltrin who is also the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities’ artistic director. “It’s intricate to watch and try to figure out, and just when you think you know what they’re doing, you realize you don’t know what they’re doing. It’s just so fun to watch as an audience member because it seems simple but it’s actually not. It’s very choreographed as far as what these criminals are doing with this woman. It’s a great big, fun thriller.”
“Wait Until Dark” is probably best known for the 1967 Hollywood version starring Audrey Hepburn, who was nominated for her fifth Academy Award, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna and Efrem Zimbalist Jr., which was a year after the play debuted and ran for 374 performances on Broadway. There are significant differences between the play and film version, especially with the characterization of Susy.
“It was great, Audrey Hepburn playing this woman and showing strength from the beginning of the movie,” said Patterson, a veteran of CLOSBC productions. “When you first see her, she’s coming back from blind school, she’s already learning how to be self-sufficient, where I think in the play you’re actually introduced to this woman who’s been blind for a year, she was blinded in a car accident and she hasn’t accepted it yet. She’s looking for people to take care of her. Her husband does everything for her. What I think is interesting is that her husband is trying to get her to do more and she’s fighting it because, ‘I’m blind. What can I do?’ But through the course of the play she learns the strength that she has and that she is a capable person despite being blind.”
The con men try to convince Susy her husband is involved in a murder connected to the doll and the only way to protect him is to hand it over. The trio features the bumbling criminal pair of Mike Talman (Leland Burnett) and Sgt. Carlino (Jeremy Ordaz) who are led by the brains of the operation, Harry Roat Jr. (Michael Mullen).
“I’m basically the Stan to his Laurel,” Talman said. “We’re a duo working for years but fresh out of prison and this is the first job we’re back on since being paroled. It’s going to go wrong because neither of us have two brain cells to rub together between us. We always let somebody else do the thinking for us so when he (Roat) comes into our lives we sort of let him take the reins because we’re used to following orders than thinking for ourselves. But Mike’s biggest contribution is the gift of the gab. He’s able to talk his way out of situations even if talking gets him into those situations to begin with.”
Ordaz added, “He’s good at what he does and he has a good rapport with Mike. Together they work as a pretty decent team although they haven’t been able to reach that next step. So they are all kind of still low-level con men.”
Roat can be confident and charming but he’s also a “nasty killer.”
“He is a sociopathic con artist, brilliant and good at what he does,” Mullen said. “He sees people as tools and he has no conscience and he’s not afraid to kill people, use people to get what he wants, which in this case is money, money, money.”
“Wait Until Dark” also stars Dane Brien as Susy’s husband, Sam, and Kailey Nicole Swanson as Gloria.
“Wait Until Dark” opens with previews Nov. 3 to 5, at 8 p.m. The gala press opening is Friday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m. The regular schedule is Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. There are Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Nov. 8 and 15, and a Sunday show at 7 p.m. The show closes Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m.
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