Pasadena’s Boston Court theater to open two plays in New York

The Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena announced Thursday that it will open two of its most popular mainstage productions in New York City in June, including “Happy Days,” starring Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub.

Boston Court’s production of “Happy Days” will be presented by the Flea Theater, an off-off-Broadway house, on June 29. “The Twentieth-Century Way,” a co-presentation with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York’s Greenwich Village, will open at that house on June 3.

“We’ve always dreamed about the next step for Boston Court,” Co-Artistic Director Jessica Kubzansky said. “We wanted to expand our reach and not just do plays whose life ended after they were seen in our space. So the opportunity to share with other places is always the dream, and it’s shocking and thrilling that it’s coming true.”

The road to realizing this artistic coup was a long one, but made possible by a growing relationship with Rattlestick, which shares a vision similar to Boston Court’s and has expressed interest in affiliating itself more closely with Los Angeles.

Previously, the Rattlestick’s artistic director, David Van Asselt, co-produced the world premiere of “Everything You Touch” at Boston Court and went on to produce a New York production of the play with Boston Court that just closed.

“We have an exciting ongoing relationship with them,” said Boston Court Co-Artistic Director Michael Michetti. “We’re already talking about potential collaborations for next year.”

The Flea connection was more coincidental, Michetti said. “Happy Days” actors Adams and Shalhoub have a relationship with staff members at the Flea. They brought up the idea, and the proposed schedule worked for the Flea and Boston Court.

“The Twentieth-Century Way,” written by Tom Jacobson, explores a time in L.A. history when, in 1914, gay men were entrapped for “social vagrancy” in public restrooms in Long Beach.

“Happy Days,” written by Samuel Beckett, unfolds from the psyche of a woman buried chest-deep in a mound of dirt with nothing to distract her but the contents of her purse and her eccentric husband.

Twitter: @jessicagelt