THEATER FOR SALE--AND IT’S A JEWEL

Wanna kick off 1985 in style? Have we got a theater for you!

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Community Church building at 1050 S. Hill St. downtown is for sale. In an earlier incarnation, it was none other than the Belasco Theatre--then and now a jewel of a proscenium house.

Built in 1926 (a very good year for new theaters), it was described by Times Theater Critic Edwin Schallert on its opening night as “architecturally satisfying . . . rich and replete with an old gold luxuriance . . . “ and having “an ample breadth and an adequate degree of intimacy. Nothing ostentatious, though with quality bedecked.”

The quality still bedecks.

The theater also can seat 1,000 between its orchestra and sharply banked balcony. It has excellent sight lines; a high, full stage; ornate dome ceiling (richly old gold); orchestra pit; green-room; a flexible third-floor space (for a potential other theater); a spacious lobby (with the original carpeting still in excellent condition), and an assortment of dressing rooms, rehearsal halls and offices. The price: $2.1 million.

“We’ve shown it to a couple of people, but no theater people yet,” said Marcia Robbins, who is handling the sale for R. B. Augustine & Co.

That was Monday. Better hurry.

Among events crowding the end of 1984 were a number of other real-estate exchanges and renovations, some still awaiting consummation.

The Center Theatre Group and UCLA, for instance, are “very close” to closing escrow on the Huntington Hartford.

“There are only one or two residual hurdles still to be overcome,” the Taper’s William Wingate said. “It should happen by the end of the month.” The venerable Vine Street house will be renamed the James A. Doolittle Theatre, after its current owner, and Doolittle will retain a five-year option to fill the theater for seven weeks a year.

As for the close of escrow on the Pasadena Playhouse, “It’s mechanical at this point,” developer David Houk said, “about a week away--two at the most.” Houk is committed to opening the Playhouse doors before the end of 1985.

Renovation on the new Henry Fonda Theatre (formerly the Pix) on Hollywood Boulevard is proceeding with only slight delays. The new name goes up in a week and formal dedication--a dinner on the premises with many Fonda friends--is targeted for Feb. 10.

The Plumstead Theatre Society, which has leased the Fonda in eight-week increments from Forman/Nederlanders (who are doing the renovating), hopes to open its first show later that month: Reginald Rose’s “Twelve Angry Men,” a well-known Fonda favorite.

“We’ve started casting,” Plumstead’s Martha Scott said, “and we’re working on two candidates for the Fonda role (which he played in the film version).”

So far, they’ve signed Jack Klugman, John Randolph and David Opatoshu and are negotiating with Leon Ames. One more change: Robert Lewis replaces the unavailable Ed Sherin as director.

In Beverly Hills, meanwhile, city director of community services Fred Cunningham confirmed Tuesday that two theaters--a 550-seat auditorium and a 99-seat Equity Waiver space--have been proposed as part of that city’s new civic center complex.

“We’re getting the bids in for the fire station now,” Cunningham said. “Next is the police station, then the library and auditorium.”

The complex, to be constructed on five acres next to the existing city hall, will also include a 550-car parking garage.

Look for completion in 1987.

True to its name, the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, which, on and off, has worked with fixed companies--ensembles--of actors, is about to do it again.

“We’re seeing people this month,” artistic director Ron Sossi said, “then doing elimination workshops. In early February we’ll begin lab work through the end of March and then, beginning April, we’ll start working formally on our first project: a dramatization of David Lindsay’s ‘Voyage to Arcturus,’ a cult science-fiction novel.”

(Shades of another Odyssey ensemble creation: “The Chicago Conspiracy Trial”?)

“The goal is to develop two projects a year as part of our season,” Sossi said, “and to tour. We’ve applied to the National Endowment (for the Arts) and hope to get corporate support, but now it’s a question of commitment, since there won’t be any money right away.”

That ongoing commitment is high--about 20 hours a week, evenings and Sundays.

“We’re trying to create a hybrid situation,” he added, explaining that the Odyssey will simultaneously do a season of plays with other actors brought in on a show-by-show basis. “But the ensemble will be the centerpiece for the new facility we eventually hope to have in Santa Monica.”

Interested parties should send pictures, resumes and a note to Sossi at the Odyssey, 12111 Ohio St., West Los Angeles 90025. Don’t call him, he’ll call you.

Speaking of the Odyssey, remember John De Fusco’s “Tracers,” an ensemble piece about Vietnam that made waves in 1980 and garnered a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award? It opened Wednesday at Joe Papp’s Public Theater in New York. No mention of its L.A. roots, of course. No verdict by press time, either.

Finally, surprise, surprise: Guess who’s in rehearsal for “Tamara”? None other than Karen Black and Anjelica Huston. For those who haven’t taken the Vittoriale tour yet, they join the cast Jan. 29.