Hello and "Bye Bye"

Called a reader back today who had left a message saying a wonderful theatrical experience had been slighted.

She was talking about "Bye Bye Birdie" at the Madrid Theatre, produced by Golden Performing Arts Center. She went on to say that this production was better than a lot of what she had seen at the so called bigger, more professional houses in town.

Now, here's the kind of lousy thing about being a critic at a major publication (or publications if you count all the other LA.com papers) and having minimal theater reviewing resources.

It's an old song. I sing it often to all the publicists who call up bemoaning the absence of Daily News critics. I'll sing it again.

Choices will be made.

Things will get missed.

The local productions of "Bye Bye Birdies" -- no matter how excellent they may be -- will often be among them.

Last weekend, I checked out Shakespeare Festival/LA's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Tonight it's Culture Clash's "Zorro in Hell" at the Ricardo Montalban. That's about all I have time for in a single week. All the paper has room for.

Golden Performing Arts Center is once again staging musicals out of the Madrid in Canoga Park. They've let it be known that they stage professional productions as well as children's shows. Once back in the days of freelancers, we reviewed one of their shows. That was, I grant, a long time ago.

"Birdie" is a 50s era nostalgia show with a rather cute score about an Elvis-y rock star who disrupts a small town before shipping out for the army. Dick van Dyke and Janet Leigh were in the 1963 movie, along with Ann-Margret (who has never been hotter).

Valley theater goers who argue that there is no venue more "right in our own backyard" as the Madrid have a legitimate point.

And "Bye Bye Birdie plays two more weekends, through the 29th, at 21622 Sherman Way, Canoga Park. (818) 347-9938 or check out www.madridtheatre.org. or www.goldenpac.net.