Culver City Observer -

“Elephant Room Opens Sunday At Douglas

“Elephant Room” will open at the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City Sunday at 6:30 p.m.

The West Coast premiere of this “enchantingly goofy collaboration” (Alexis Soloski, Village Voice) by Trey Lyford, Geoff Sobelle and Steve Cuiffo will star magicians Louie Magic, Daryl Hannah and Dennis Diamond, and is directed by Paul Lazar.

“Elephant Room,” which was called “delightfully daft” by Eric Grode of The New York Times, was commissioned by Center Theatre Group and workshopped as “Next Stop Amazingland” in DouglasPlus in November 2009.

By turns fresh, silly and profound, “Elephant Room” is set in a basement rec room where three semi-pro conjurers hang out and practice their tricks with varying competence. These self-deluded illusionists are brimming with childlike wonder and undeserved self-confidence, but there is something mysterious about their Elephant Room. Things are not as they seem.

“It gets weird, but it’s an enjoyable, laugh-out-loud kind of weird,” said Gwendolyn Purdom, of the Washingtonian. Grode said, “. . . their lovable-loser shtick as well as their nifty skills help turn ‘Elephant Room’ into one of the coolest places in town.”

Center Theatre Group presented “all wear bowlers,” created and performed by Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle, in the Kirk Douglas Theatre’s second season in September-October 2005. Lyford and Sobelle are joined by magician and actor Steve Cuiffo in the creation of “Elephant Room.”

Tickets for “Elephant Room” will be available by calling (213) 628-2772, online at http://www.CenterTheatreGroup.org, in person at the Center Theatre Group box office at the Ahmanson Theatre or two hours prior to performances at the Kirk Douglas Theatre box office.