O’CASEY KIN MULL A ‘DANDY’ REVIVAL

Eileen and Shivaun O’Casey, widow and daughter, respectively, of playwright Sean O’Casey, are in town this week looking at a possible revival of O’Casey’s 1958 “Cock-a-Doodle-Dandy.”

The prime hurdle is financing, but should it be pulled together, the production, to be directed by Robert Lewis, could fill the Doolittle early next year.

“I’m trying to advise them on what it would take to put a production together,” said artistic director Gordon Davidson. “It’s a hard project, but we do have some open dates in January and February, before the rep comes in, though we’re also still talking about ‘As Is’ and one or two other projects.”

Davidson says the Theatre Group (a joint corporation of the Center Theatre Group and UCLA that operates the Doolittle) cannot produce the O’Casey play. The funds aren’t there--a matter of concern to him not only in this instance, but in all future cases.

“I’m hoping to create a production fund, so that I can pick and choose more freely,” he said, acknowledging that “Sunday in the Park With George,” which would be ideally housed at the Doolittle (in terms of intimacy and acoustics), is looking dim because of the enormous costs involved.

Judging from last week’s unveiling of the renovated Doolittle--one of the city’s best proscenium houses--it deserves to be able to get the finest possible programming.

A new carpet is on the floor to match the recycled red curtain (it was once the Ahmanson’s). The seats, handsomely recovered in a random pattern of red and gray, are staggered. And gone are the garish harlequins on the walls, replaced now by permanent grid work for additional lighting positions.

“The lighting booms and battens that were there were inadequate,” explained Lindsey Nelson, general manager of the Doolittle. “We’ve also got new electrical service throughout the theater--more efficient and up to date. In addition, we’ve updated the air conditioning and the acoustics for it, so you don’t hear it rattle and wheeze.

“The box office is Ticketron. Jim Conklin (a longtime mainstay at the Taper box office) is our treasurer. We’ve also expanded the box office considerably, which makes ticketing much easier. Other than that, the theater required no specific help in terms of presenting a show. It was and remains a beautiful theater. We’ve just tried to make it more comfortable.”

About the austere facade that has been restored to its 1926 stone and concrete (when it was the Vine St. Theatre) and is oddly augmented by recycled trusses from last year’s Olympics, “it will take some getting used to,” Nelson said.

At least the focus here--as at the new Los Angeles Theatre Center--is on the right elements: comfort, economy and events on stage.

AWARDS: A final reminder that deadline for the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild’ annual Julie Harris Playwright Award Competition is Nov. 1. First prize is $5,000. For application forms and rules send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Award Competition, 2815 Beachwood Drive, Los Angeles, 90068.

--The Denver Center Theatre Company’s PrimaFacie II also is accepting unproduced, full-length scripts. No musicals, translations, adaptations or casts of more than 12, please. There’s no money to win and no single winner; the prize here is staged readings of the plays selected (April 7-11) with the writers on hand--and possible full production in the DCTC’s 1986-87 season. Mail by Jan. 1, with SASE, to PrimaFacie II, DCTC, 1050 13th St., Denver, 80204.

CALLBOARD: The original cast of “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove,” which had a 24-month run at the Fountain Theatre starting in 1983, is reuniting for a seven-week reprise of the show beginning Nov. 2 at the Cast-at-the-Circle. This includes Jean Smart, Camilla Carr, Dianne Turley Travis, Shannon Kriska, Linda Cohen, Sandra J. Marshall, Nora Heflin and Lee Carlington. Director Zev Braun is the only new addition to the lineup. --Tricky Dicky Philip Baker Hall will visit the scene of the crime when he plays Washington, D.C., with “Secret Honor” in January.

--In a world of diminishing black companies, the recently formed (1983) Cambridge Players launches its first pro effort: James Baldwin’s “The Amen Corner,” at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium Oct. 18/19. Headliner is Esther Rolle.

--Speaking of black companies, Marla Gibbs Crossroads Theatre and Academy has relocated to the Inner City Cultural Center. The new quarters may be only temporary. In time, Gibbs wants a room of its own for Crossroads.

--A reminder that Monday is the Actors’ Fund Celebrity Blood Drive at the Pantages. Call 464-4171.

--And the good news is that the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event last Monday at the Variety Arts raised more than $26,000 for the AIDS Project/L.A.

TWICE AROUND THE TRUTH: “A Need for Brussels Sprouts,” which closed Sunday at the New Mayfair, was billed as a West Coast premiere, which may have come as a surprise to folks in Cathedral City. That play was mounted there in 1983 as half of another Murray Schisgal double bill (“Twice Around the Park”) at the now-defunct Theatre West. Cathedral City may be 90 miles inland, but it still counts.