AS CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS continues to bubble with intrigue and controversial twists, Concord's Willows Theatre looks at one of history's most compelling political tales, "Sunrise at Campobello."

The play, by Dore Schary, is about Franklin D. Roosevelt's early political career around the time in 1921 when the future four-term president of the United States was stricken with polio.

The show, named for the Roosevelt island summer home off New Brunswick, Canada, opens at 8 tonight in the theater in the Willows shopping center, 1975 Diamond Blvd.

"Sunrise" debuted on Broadway 50 years ago, with Ralph Bellamy playing FDR (the play also marked the Broadway debut of James Earl Jones). Two years later, Bellamy also starred in the movie version.

The play is set in Campobello and in the Roosevelt family home in New York. The main story deals with FDR's struggle to overcome the disease that left him paralyzed from the waist down, and unable to walk or stand without help.

Roosevelt was 39 and not ready to give up his political career, so he worked to develop an enormous upper-body strength, which made it appear to onlookers that he was able-bodied, even though he needed braces and crutches or the support of a companion to move around.

It was called the "splendid deception," but the effort served Roosevelt well. His political career was energized at the Democratic National Convention of 1924,

Advertisement
when he nominated Al Smith for president with a fiery speech.

Less than a decade later, Roosevelt was elected to the White House, where he led the country during the Great Depression and most of World War II.

A subplot in the play deals with the battle of wills between the two strong women in his life — wife Eleanor and mother Sara Delano Roosevelt.

The show plays through June 1 at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets, at $30-$40, may be reserved at 925-798-1300 or www.willowstheatre.org.

"URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL," by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann, opens tonight in Hayward's Douglas Morrisson Theatre, 22311 N. Third St.

The Hayward community theater group will perform the musical, an unlikely Broadway hit that got its start in the New York Fringe Festival in 1999.

The show, a sly and surprisingly tuneful parody of both musical comedy and corporate greed, tells the story of a town where a water shortage forces the people pay to use restroom facilities.

"Urinetown" plays at 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through June 8. Tickets, at $25, may be reserved at 510-881-6777.

"CATS," by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, plays a brief engagement in Oakland's Paramount Theatre tonight through Sunday.

The musical, based on a number of cat tales from T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," began when Lloyd Webber picked up a copy of the book in an airport.

From there it went on to become the longest-running musical in both England and the United States, and has run continuously on the road almost since it opened on Broadway.

"Cats" has developed an enormous fan following from people enchanted by the show's fanciful nature. It plays at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets, at $20-$60, may be reserved at 510-625-8497 or www.ticketmaster.com.

"THE COOKING SHOW CON KARIMI & CASTRO," by Robert Farid Karimi and John Manal Castro, opens Saturday at the SomArts Cultural Center in San Francisco as part of the 11th annual United States of Asian America Festival.

The play, which blends cooking — Iranian, Guatemalan and Filipino food — commentary, politics and comedy, has played around the United States, including an off-Broadway run.

In addition to the show's material, the actors will cook and serve food to the audience to make good on the promise of "a live cooking show for your heart, mind, stomach and funny bone."

It plays in the SomArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St., San Francisco, at 8 p.m. Saturday, Thursday and May 16-17 and at 7 p.m. Sunday and May 18. Tickets, at $18 and $20, may be reserved at 415-864-4126.

"NO CHILD "...," a solo show by Nilaja Sun, a teaching artist in the New York public school system, opens at Berkeley Rep on Monday following a successful and award-winning run off-Broadway.

Directed by Hal Brooks, the show tells of the triumphs and struggles of America's public schools.

The story is filtered through the eyes of Sun, who plays various characters in a classroom full of children, teachers, parents and school staffers, including the security guard who tends a metal detector at the school's front door.

Sun performs 17 roles in the 70-minute show, which won numerous awards last year, including the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance, Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Production, Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New American Play and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.

The production plays at 7 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays through June 1 on Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets, at $33-$69, may be reserved at 510-647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org.

"BUG," by Tracy Letts, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his play "August: Osage County," has its West Coast premiere Saturday in the SF Playhouse.

"Bug" is set in a seedy motel room on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, where Agnes, a drug-addled cocktail waitress, is hiding from her ex-husband. She is introduced to a handsome drifter who could be an AWOL Gulf War soldier.

What follows is a twisted relationship that leads to a banquet of bizarre psychological situations.

The show plays at 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays in the theater at 533 Sutter St., San Francisco. Tickets, at $38 ($65 for opening night), may be reserved at 415-677-9596 or www.ticketweb.com.

"IT'S MURDER, MARY!" a world-premiere comedy by Andrew Black & Patricia Milton, opens in previews tonight in the New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco.

The campy, action-packed comedy is modeled after a classic murder mystery. Set at an exclusive Russian River resort, the show drops clues as it works its way toward who dunnit.

The play runs at 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through June 28. Tickets, at $22-$34 ($40 for the May 17 opening night), may be reserved at 415-861-8972 or www.nctcsf.org.

Reach Pat Craig at pcraig@bayareanewsgroup.com.