‘Mask’ and ‘Orson’ at Playhouse

A world premiere musical based on the film “Mask,” about a disfigured boy and his biker mother, and Austin Pendleton’s widely produced sly tribute to theater, “Orson’s Shadow,” will open the Pasadena Playhouse’s 2008 season.

Adapted by playwright and screenwriter Anna Hamilton Phelan, who wrote the original screenplay, “Mask” (March 14 to April 13) features music by Barry Mann and lyrics by Cynthia Weil, the veteran songwriting team.

Kicking off the season, “Orson’s Shadow” (Jan. 18 to Feb. 17), a Steppenwolf Theatre Company premiere in 2000, imagines a clash of wills as Orson Welles directs Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright in a 1960 rehearsal of Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros.”

Subscription tickets are available; group and single ticket sales, and the rest of the theater’s 2008 season, will be announced at a later date. Info: www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.

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LYNNE HEFFLEY