Heard the name? John Doyle is the British director who made Patti LuPone learn to play the tuba for her role in the Broadway revival of "Sweeny Todd" in which all the actors had to be the orchestra as well. The same technique is used for his interpretation of another Stephen Sondheim musical, "Company," currently on Broadway.

Well, it seems Mr. Doyle has finally made it to this coast.

He'll direct L.A. Opera's production of Brecht and Weill's rarely seen "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny." He'll have LuPone for that production as well as Tony award magnet Audra McDonald (no word whether she'll have to play the trombone). The production opens Feb. 10 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the day after the revival of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" bows across the plaza at the Ahmanson. The two productions are completely unrelated, of course apart from playing the same venue complex. Still, Feb. 9-11 is shaping up to be quite a weekend downtown.

Back to Doyle: He's not done in the southland. The man was schedueld to direct a revival of "Barnum" at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre this summer, but apparently the theater ran into some kind of snafu regarding getting the rights to the musical. Playbill Online reports that the Globe will announce a replacement production _ also directed by Doyle _ in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the casting notice has gone up for the Doyle-directed "Sweeney Todd" tour, to kick off in San Francisco in August. By my calculations, we'd probably get "Sweeney" (perhaps to coincide with the release of the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie) by the end of 07.