The Pacific Palisades Annual Spring Garden Tour and Plant Market will take place on Sunday, April 13, from 1 to 5 p.m. The self-guided tour highlights six gardens in and around the Paliasdes, featuring a range of styles from classic English country to Southern California landscape with a 180-degree panoramic view. Tickets ($25 prior to April 13, $30 on the day of the tour) are on sale at the Outdoor Room Nursery, 17311 Sunset Blvd.; Yamaguchi Nursery, 1905 Sawtelle, West Los Angeles and Merrihew’s Sunset Gardens, 1526 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica. Also on the day of the tour, tickets will be available at 7951 Sea Breeze and 707 Via de la Paz, and at the Plant Market on the day of the Tour, 12 to 4 p.m. at 1412 Amalfi Dr. All proceeds will help fund community beautification projects. 1422 Capri Drive This garden is one of two on the tour that have maximized landscape areas by eliminating a circular driveway. The motor court has now been somewhat separated from the house, maintaining focus on the garden. The front of the house is shielded from the noise and exposure of the street by redwoods and liquidambar trees, which provide an elegant stately fence. Inside the gate, a fountain offers a quieting mood. The challenge in this garden for landscaper designer Jay Griffith was to incorporate the family’s ‘play’ activities into a cohesive, green plan for the backyard. Fanning out from the house, the back landscape becomes a series of outdoor rooms contained on the property line by a large stand of redwoods and eucalyptus. To the south, and convenient to the seating area, is an outdoor fireplace and ‘kitchen.’ On the other side of a large grass expanse is a swimming pool, surrounded by a picket fence in keeping with the architecture of the house, and beyond the pool, a fire pit and jacuzzi. Other sports activities include a putting green and a half-court basketball court. The landscape is functional and private, softened by subtle color combinations such as variegated privet and camellias, dwarf magnolias, and the ivy geranium that clambers over the volcanic rock formation abutting the pool. 719 Amalfi Drive When landscaper designer Jay Griffith learned that the late Eddie Albert’s Mediterranean-style estate on Amalfi was for sale three years ago, he got the word out to his clients, hoping that one of them would buy the John Byers gem. Failing in this effort and acting as his own self-proclaimed preservationist, Griffiths bought it himself and created a new landscape that matches the Spanish sensibility of the home. The approach from the street is private, but not secret. A low pittosporum hedge leads up to the gate and opens into a courtyard. Running the width of the house, this long horizontal patio is anchored by a quiet pond on one side and large blue agave dramatically centered in a Corten steel planter on the other. Mature jacaranda, sycamore and palms fit the California tradition, providing color, texture and shade. The main show is the backyard, which opens out toward the panoramic view. From the back colonnade, 5,000 square feet of lawn stretches to the edge of the property which overlooks Rustic Canyon. Two rough-hewn pavilions are strategically placed, one north, the other south, and, as seen from the colonnade on the back of the house, help to create a long, continuous S-curve, embracing the view from the Will Rogers Polo fields to the Pacific Ocean. Low impact plantings and a leaf-blower ban contribute to the peaceful landscape–a painterly pastoral. Around the south side of the house, a second courtyard has been created from the car turnaround area where a patterned pavement provides a nice anchor for the blue date palm, and sundry ‘found’ treasures of an inveterate collector. Griffith emphasizes that his design is a landscape as distinct from a garden, which is made up of areas of plants—the herb, flower or water garden, vignettes that have been hand wrought over time. What has been created here is a landscape, ‘A painterly gesture that is all about a sense of place.’ Photo: courtesy Jay Griffith 774 Ranch Lane This garden, created by Whitney Landscape, Design and Installation, benefits from the naturally rich, good draining soil found in Rustic Canyon. The front garden, which was installed to replace a circular driveway, offers a transition from the public space. White birch trees line the street, while flowering purple plum trees give color and vertical structure. Dwarf magnolias and Boston ivy soften the front wall. Whitney says that he likes to match his color palette to the architecture of the house, in this case the brick of the English traditional. With an eye on year-round color, he has planted hydrangea (which grow naturally blue without a chemical boost), cyclamen, begonia and camellias. The back yard opens up to a view of Rustic Canyon and beyond. A large, gracious grass expanse was expanded 10 feet by installing a retaining wall on the canyon side. The perimeter is planted in perennials, supplemented by seasonal annuals. A mature Aleppo pine with an extravagant canopy provides a cooling element, and a transition from the greensward to the entertainment area. A deck extends at one end of the garden furnished with tables and chairs, while the barbecue area, adjacent to the house, is paved in Simmons brick and enlivened by purple wisteria. At the other end of the garden, a weeping cypress is ‘illuminated’ by the pillowy texture of the bright chartreuse yellow leaves of Helichrysum petiolare ‘Limelight’ that spreads at the base of the tree. An essential element of this garden is water furnished by the fountain that flows from a large ceramic pot filled with worn river stones. Whimsical garden decorations include a weathered wagon wheel table, an antique carousel horse and an art deco tin bas-relief. 707 Via de la Paz This garden is the charm of Via de la Paz and is at its best in spring. A honest-to-goodness English garden, blowsy with colorful annuals pouring over the low river rock wall. This year, the assortment includes johnny-jump-ups, hydrangea, anemones, Iceland poppies, ranunculus and sweet peas. Alyssum peeks out from under the wall and in crevices in the wall. The garden is entered through an arch draped with climbing roses. Once inside, a ficus tree gives focus to the front yard. Citrus trees anchor the west side, while a grass patch still allows room for the children to play. The owner-designer, who professes to lose himself in the garden, aims for the interesting, unusual and colorful around the perimeter. His latest enthusiasms are stone fruit trees. The plum, apricot, nectarine and peach all show off their spring blossoms. The back yard opens out toward Temescal Canyon below. Topside, is an intimate, shady ‘room’ defined by nicely proportioned birch trees. Walking the path toward the canyon reveals an area open to full sun, allowing for sunbathing and space for propagation boxes. The owner admits to two successes here, his Santa Rosa plum and blueberries, whose yield is small, but good sized and delicious. 17951 Sea Breeze Drive This garden is different from many in that it was installed before the house was built. The owners supplied landscape designer Rick Mosbaugh with a footprint of the new house five years before construction, so he could provide a mature, ready made landscape, including the existing swimming pool. Stone pines dominate the horizon and can be seen soaring above the house from the street. The front landscape and infinity-pool fountain provide a cooling influence on the hot exposure of this house, which sits well above the street. The fountain is backed by a multicolored ashlar wall and planted with papyrus and willow. A sneak preview of the back garden is visible from the window in the front door. The garden in the back is a study in texture and in shades of green. The hardscape seems to grow right out of the land. The fountain consists of a simple urn centered on roughhewn Yosemite canyon boulders, covered with lichen and mosses, and surrounded with variegated ivy. Note the striking plant combinations in the planters. Each area shows off a masterful combination of plants, often reflecting Mosbaugh’s latest enthusiasm. 361 Surfview Drive This garden is so attentive to the site, climate and owners artistic input, that a modest tract house has been turned into a subtle work of art. The approach, masterminded by landscape architect Heidi Santschi is a study in texture and a cool palette. The irrigation was removed, allowing for a rock garden, olive trees, red fescue and pittosporum. A concrete wall consists of three slabs, each one offset slightly to break up the surface and suggest privacy, but not seclusion. The family has created a pleasant seating area on the other side of the wall. A fountain, constructed of concrete chunks salvaged from the old back yard patio, is flanked on one side by a paloverde tree, whose green bark harmonizes beautifully with the wall of pastel shades of blue and grey. The backyard merges vegetation, color and texture with the natural habitat of the Santa Monica Mountains beyond. Feather grass laps over the low chromium yellow wall that contains the yard. Flowering plum provides an aerial hedge. The patio area, of Del Rio salt and pepper mixed composite, is shaded by a carrot wood tree. The hillside planting, loose and textured, includes Mexican weeping bamboo, cotoneaster, schefflera trees, euphorbias and Michelia, a tropical tree with fragrant blooms. This family achieved their ocean view by building a crows’ nest, where they can escape and enjoy the setting sun. Back down on the ground, the garden continues around the house on the west side, where a ‘food’ corner provides herbs, lettuces and vegetables for the kitchen.

Going to see a high school musical is not where one would expect to see major talent or be wowed by the singing and choreography, but the production of ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ at Palisades Charter High School does both. Go see these cast members now, so that you can tell people that you saw them before they became famous. Based on the 1967 film, ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ opened on Broadway in 2002 and won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The music, by Jeanine Tesori with lyrics by Dick Scanlan, has a book by Richard Morris and Scanlan. Set in 1922, ‘Millie’ commences with Millie Dillmount leaving Salina, Kansas, to come to New York City and become a flapper. She plans to marry her boss for his money, because marrying for love is old-fashioned. After Millie’s purse and a shoe are stolen, she runs into a young man on the street, Jimmy Smith, who advises her to go back to Kansas. Determined to follow her plan, she instead finds a place to stay at a hotel where most of the young women are aspiring actresses. These women are unaware that the unsavory owner of the establishment, Mrs. Meers, kidnaps young orphan girls and sells them to a white slavery ring in Southeast Asia. Meers’ two in-house workers, Ching Ho and Bun Foo, are forced to do her bidding because they are trying to make money to bring their mother to the U.S. from China. On short notice, Millie finds a job and sets her sights on marrying her boss, Mr. Trevor Graydon III, who is unaware of her feminine qualities; he calls her ‘John.’ But Millie falls in love with Smith, whom she thinks is penniless. So she tries to reconcile her head with her heart. The course of love never runs smoothly in musicals, so Millie’s new best friend, Miss Dorothy, and Millie’s boss fall in love. Unfortunately, Mrs. Meers finds out that Dorothy is an orphan, and it seems that the unlucky girl is on her way out of the country. It is hard to signal out just two or three performers in ‘Millie’ because there are so many exceptional performances. Playing Millie is Mia Canter, whose exuberance and lovely voice fills the room. Her love interest, Smith, played by Ryan Steinberg, takes command of the stage. His voice is perfect for the male lead. Lorin Doctor, who plays Smith’s stepmother, Muzzy Van Hosmere, sings two solos, and both are show-stoppers. The warm edges of the songs delivered by Doctor curl up into the corners of the auditorium. Paul Miller, as Graydon III, sings one of the show’s nicest duets with Elizabeth Rich (Miss Dorothy). Both have incredible stage presence. And just when you think the show cannot get any better, the talented Christie Pryor (Mrs. Meers) and her associates, Michael Jones (Ching Ho) and Anthony Iglesias (Bun Foo), throw themselves into their parts with crowd-pleasing gusto. The support cast is top-notch and the student orchestra plays with finesse, rounding out a production of Broadway caliber. An enthusiastic audience gave the cast a standing ovation on opening night. Special nods go to director Monica Iannessa, choreographer Monique Smith, musical director Terry Henderson, and vocal director Josh Elson, for putting on a high-quality show in what is basically a multi-purpose room (Mercer Hall). This production is further evidence that this community needs a state-of-the-art performing center. At intermission, Iannessa apologized to the audience for technical glitches that had nothing to do with the tech crew, but rather with a facility that was never meant to be a theater. Occasionally, microphones would blow out and then come back on and lights would die, and somebody would instantly throw another one on. The performers took it all in stride and didn’t miss a beat. Even with cushioned folding chair seats, it is a crime to have to sit and watch such a good show this way. In addition, the orchestra ‘pit’ is actually to the left side of the stage, and instead of having their space, the band members become part of the audience. With such outstanding student talent at Palisades High, in a town that is home to numerous movie stars and leaders in the film, television and recording industry, it is a disgrace that we lack a large performing arts facility. Such a wonderful show, with its outstanding performances, deserves a better space. The remaining performances of ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ are tonight, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets at the door: $10. Reserved seats are $15.

Our insatiable appetite for the real story behind the play or the movie–the shenanigans, the jealousy and the love affairs–is more than happily satisfied in Michael Frayn’s deliciously funny ‘Noises Off,’ now on stage through May 11 at Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Rd. With spot-on direction by Sherman Wayne, the Theatre Palisades cast has landed a winner, having triumphed over the notorious challenges that farce presents. The great English actress Edith Evans once summed it up with. ‘In a farce, you don’t have a play to help you.’ Success depends on the stuff of farce, namely its extreme physical and comic appeal, and unerring timing. That Theatre Palisades took on this challenge is remarkable, but we’re glad the company did. In a nutshell, the conceit concerns staging a play, so not only is the ‘business’ among the actors funny, but the play-within-the play itself is unbearably bad, and thus hilarious. It’s difficult for good actors to play ‘bad,’ but this troupe pulls it off, squeezing out the most from Frayn’s smart, situational bon mots, which blessedly don’t rely on knowledge of the latest headlines or celebrity scandal. We start right off in Act I with a rehearsal of ‘Nothing On,’ the aforementioned faux play, which we soon learn is scheduled to open the next night. The set, wonderfully conceived by Wayne, with help from the Theatre Palisades production staff, recreates the living room of the Brents’ English country home. A silent partner in this whole game, the set, equipped with the multiple doors, is a must in the structure of farcical antics. Housekeeper Mrs. Clackett (Martha Hunter) as caretaker is the fulcrum for the humorous antics that ensue. Hopelessly scatterbrained, she is constrained by the director (Craig Christiansen), whose hopeless reminders of a missed cue become the stuff of pratfall and general mayhem. He has already let her off the hook for the text: ‘Don’t worry about the words, love,’ he assures her. The house is for lease and thus empty, which opens up the possibilities for opportunists, surreptitious trysters and idle burglars. By the end of Act I, we audience members are grateful for intermission, having laughed ourselves to near-exhaustion. Act II finds us repeating the rehearsal, but this time from behind the stage so we get to see exactly what goes on behind the scenes. Everything under the sun. There is the two-timing director, the ing’nue with the wandering contact lens, the drunken burglar’the usual slice-of-life comedy. By Act III, when we see opening night, the hilarity has reached full bloom. The actors, by this time sick of the play and one another, slug through, ‘on we bloody stagger, on we blindly stumble.’ The acting is uniformly exceptional, as it must be in ensemble work. Martha Hunter seems to thrive in over-the-top characters, much to the audience’s delight. Craig Christiansen, who plays the ‘director,’ lends necessary straight-man solidity, which, of course, is funny. Costumer Joyce Gale Smith must have had a ball dressing her wacky players in everything from country club sport to ‘Sheik of Araby’ sheets! ‘Noises Off’ continues Friday, Saturday and Sunday through May 11. For tickets, call (310) 454-1970.

Middle East politics may not seem like fodder for musical comedy. And yet, ‘West Bank, UK,’ a winning theater production presented by the Malibu Stage Company, delivers in both categories. ‘West Bank’ plays at the Company’s venue, 22837 Pacific Coast Hwy., through Sunday evening. Written and directed by Stage Company artistic director Oren Safdie, with music and lyrics by Ronnie Cohen, ‘West Bank’ offers what is essentially a racy riff on Neil Simon’s classic roommate comedy ‘The Odd Couple,’ pairing a crazy Israeli with a slovenly, put-upon Palestinian. Lively and physical, ‘West Bank’ benefits from its core four actor/singers, whose entertaining performances skewer the regional conflict’s inherent absurdities (racial hatred, suicide bombers, 72 virgins, etc.) on a tasty shish kebab spear of acerbic broad humor. Jeremy Cohen (as the Jewish Assaf) and Mike Mosallam (Aziz, a Palestinian) create the show’s strong central performances. Janine Molinari and Anthony Patellis each do multiple duties interpreting several characters apiece. Patellis’ palette of colorful characters provides much comic relief, while the Broadway-ready Molinari demonstrates an electric stage presence. Molinari, as the boys’ American landlord and, especially, as the kooky frum woman Bathsheva, belts out her numbers forcibly with precision comic timing. ‘Can’t a girl be naughty and love God?’ sings Bathsheva during one of the show’s tamer lyrical moments. Also notable: the live musical talent incorporated into the show. Last week’s enthusiastic audience enjoyed the robust opening instrumental by ‘West Bank”s three on-stage performers”Chriz Michens-Zaborowski (percussion), Scott Baldyga (the show’s musical arranger and pianist) and Varoujan Nalbandian (violin)” as well as Yukihide Takiyama (bass/guitar), who welcomes arriving audiences with frenetic oud-playing from the theatre’s rear and also joins in with the trio on the show tunes. Acidic wit and pungent black comedy mix with a raunchy sexual humor to give ‘West Bank’ its edge. Those with at least a passing knowledge of Middle East politics, as well as the Jewish and Palestinian cultures, will be best equipped to get ‘West Bank”s snarky humor and exaggerated characterizations. In a sense, ‘West Bank”s comic sensibility seems very Israeli, very blunt and matter-of-fact. Given the chronic violence plaguing Israel, a dark sense of humor seems vital for survival. Here, such a comic sensibility operates to disarm and unnerve viewers regarding the difficult, sensitive subject matter that ‘West Bank’ comments on. One elderly viewer remarked, on her way out, that she enjoyed the play, although it was ‘a little weird in places.’ Fair enough. Peace in the Middle East may remain a present-day political impossibility; however, in the meantime, here’s the randy, raunchy, off-kilter solution. Malibu Stage Company next mounts ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane,’ a 1998 Tony winner depicting the dysfunctional relationship between a spinster and her domineering mother, on May 16. Catch the last weekend of ‘West Bank, U.K.,’ which plays through April 13, this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 4 p.m. Call (310) 456-3445. PHOTO CREDIT: Kitty Kang

‘The Sun Never Sets on Love.’ Such is the feeling one gets watching the sunset while visiting that magical spot on the Via de las Olas bluffs, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, with the Santa Monica Pier to the south and Malibu, framed by the Santa Monica Mountains, to the north. Now if that phrase sounds familiar, it may be because the romantic sentiment is inscribed on the plaque of an elegant pastel bench facing the Pacific, which is dedicated to Dino A. De Laurentiis. Located in the small park near where Mount Holyoke meets Via de las Olas, the bench was installed in honor of the late grandson of legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis (‘Army of Darkness,’ ‘Orca,’ the 1976 ‘King Kong’ remake). ‘It was placed one year after Dino’s death on November 3, 2004,’ Martha De Laurentiis, wife of the Italian-born producer, told the Palisadian-Post. Dino, who was 31 when he passed away from melanoma, lived in the Palisades with his wife, Talley, on Mount Holyoke. ‘He had a really tough battle,’ Martha De Laurentiis said. ‘They used to watch the sunset. That was his favorite spot, his as well as the family’s.’ Dino De Laurentiis’ granddaughter, Palisadian Giada De Laurentiis”who hosts ‘Everyday Italian’ on the Food Network and is a regular contributor to NBC’s ‘Today’ show”also visits the look-out with her husband Todd. The simple plaque, which bears the younger Dino’s name and dates, and the motto, also includes the Italian phrase ‘Tanti Baci’ (‘lots of kisses’). ‘His friends and family all pitched in to pay for it so it wasn’t one person,’ said Martha, adding, ‘Talley planted rosemary and lavender and does upkeep on the area. Those were Dino’s favorite plants.’ De Laurentiis and her producer husband live in Beverly Hills, but they remain closely connected to the Bluffs’ sweet spot. “It’s a place we go to remember him,’ Martha said of the De Laurentiis family. ‘The bench puts a smile on the place. It’s a very special place, and we hope people enjoy it and take care of it.’ Tanti baci, Dino A.