‘TANGO’ DANCING ITS WAY TO L.A.

When the curtain goes up on “Tango Argentino,” it reveals two male thugs dancing a sultry tango--with each other. Is the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera audience ready for this?

It had better be. “Argentino” is one of three shows announced for this summer’s 49th Civic Light Opera season. This exploration of the tango as cultural icon was the surprise heavy-breathing hit of the fall Broadway season, and its cast of 30 dancers, musicians and singers comes to the Pantages May 27 for eight weeks direct from Argentina via Broadway.

The other two shows, both taking up residence in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, are equally grown up: British composer Noel Gay’s “Me and My Girl” and--surprise, surprise--Rodgers and Hart’s “On Your Toes,” this time with Natalia Makarova.

“Me and My Girl,” presented by Richard Armitage (son of Noel Gay) and coming May 20 for seven weeks, is a revival considerably revamped (by Mike Ockrent and Stephen Fry) of a large-cast 1937 megamusical that won acclaim in London (then and now) as well as the 1985 Laurence Olivier Award for best musical.

It will feature Robert Lindsay (who also received an Olivier Award for outstanding performance by an actor in a musical), but it will have to put together the rest of its company here because of strict Equity regulations governing the importation of actors. The Los Angeles engagement will be the show’s American premiere. It then goes on to launch the new theater in Broadway’s monolithic Marriott Marquis.

“Toes”--second show in the Pavilion, third in the season--had been on the CLO schedule two years ago with headliner Leslie Caron, until Caron injured a hip in Dallas and brought the production (and almost the CLO season) to a grinding halt. But patience is sometimes rewarded. We now get “On Your Toes” July 7, its Balanchine choreography intact and Makarova instead of Caron to re-create it.

“I think it’s the most exciting season we’ve had,” said the Nederlander’s Stan Seiden. It is, provided nothing changes. Subscriptions reportedly are up from last year (figures are closely guarded, but they had been sliding). This year could go down as the CLO’s most encouraging season since 1981, when the Nederlanders took over.

Does Seiden think the traditionally conservative Civic Light Opera audience might resist “Tango’s” heat?

“Gee, I would hope not,” he said. “It’s just different couples doing the tango. What would they object to?”

A DIFFERENT TUNE: Preceding “Tango” at the Pantages is yet another round of the Barry Weisler production of “Zorba,” again with Anthony Quinn and plucky Lila Kedrova. It runs April 28 to May 18.

“Basically,” Weisler said, “it’s the same cast (that was at the Pavilion in 1983) except for a few secondary characters.”

As for the other two Nederlander Theaters in town, the Wilshire continues to show no signs of light, but the Henry Fonda has announced “Pump Boys and Dinettes,” a musical romp, country diner style, that should rumble in, Seiden said, in April or May.

COAST-TO-COAST:Theater used to travel mostly East to West, but lately the traveling has been more and more in both directions.

Latest West/East travelers are the dynamic Debbie Allen in “Sweet Charity,” a show that was part of last summer’s CLO season; “Sherlock’s Last Case,” the Charles Marowitz mystery launched at the Los Angeles Actors Theatre in 1984 as part of the Olympic Arts Festival that played the New Mayfair last year, and Ray Stricklyn’s one-man Tennessee Williams, “Confessions of a Nightingale.”

“Sweet Charity” is a go, scheduled to open at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre April 23, again with Bob Fosse “supervising.”

“Sherlock’s Last Case” was just confirmed for Broadway, with Frank Langella not only playing the title role but co-producing (through his Alfie Productions company) with the New Mayfair’s Herb Kendall and Jerry Roberts.

As for “Nightingale,” which played the Beverly Hills Playhouse a year and a day (literally), “It looks very promising,” Stricklyn said. “I’m just waiting to hear.”

If it goes, Henry Margolis will produce at Off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel, some time in March. And there are other anxieties.

Said Stricklyn:

“You know how much they love shows from Los Angeles. . . .”

CALLBOARD: “A Woman of Independent Means” Betsy Hailey’s elegant adaptation of her novel of the same name, starring Barbara Rush, has been confirmed for March 12 to 23 at the Doolittle Theatre. Norman Cohen again directs.

--Emmy-award-winning director George Schaefer, who, among his numerous other achievements, staged “On Golden Pond” (1980) and “Another Part of the Forest” (1982) at the Ahmanson, has been appointed chair of UCLA’s newly renamed Department of Theater, Film and Television.

--”Provenance,” a new exploration of the dynamics of the American family by Janice Van Horne, comes to the Ensemble Studio Theatre Feb. 28.

--J. Paul Porter’s one-act, “Mississippi Jade,” opening Saturday at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, is Camelot Productions’ contribution to Black History Month.

--Renny Temple, Bart Braverman and Caren Kaye, members of the War Babies improv comedy company, are presenting a new two-character play by Alan Gross called “La Brea Tar Pits” (“where relationships go to die”). How funny can it get? We’ll find out when performances begin Feb. 17 at the Cast-at-the-Circle.

HEART TO HEART: Women in Theatre will host a Valentine’s Day Dance, coast to coast, that will be held next Thursday--Valentine’s Day eve. Chapters of the organization in Los Angeles, Houston and New York are joining hands to “Celebrate and Participate” (theme of this year’s dance). The Los Angeles event will be at the Crush Club, 1743 N. Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood, 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 (couples) or $6 (singles). Proceeds will go to support the Women in Theatre Playwrights’ Salon. Information: 818-449-6609.