STAGE WIRE : ‘LES MISERABLES,’ YES; ‘CIVIL warS,’ NO

“Les Miserables” is coming, but “the CIVIL warS” is not.

Washington’s Kennedy Center announced this week that it will present the American premiere of the musical version of Hugo’s novel--a superhit both in Paris and London--on Dec. 27, followed by an eight-week run. This will be considered the show’s national opening, although it will naturally travel to Broadway, opening March 13 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.

Meantime, plans to present Robert Wilson’s 9 1/2-hour mega-opera in Texas have fallen through. The hope was to produce the work at the University of Texas in September, in connection with the state’s sesquicentennial celebration. But, just as when the work was announced for the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, there was a problem raising funds.

In place of “the CIVIL warS,” Wilson was “drafting the proposal of a new work,” said chairpersons Louisa Sarofim and Betty Blake. They added that their production team had prepared a complete practical blueprint of “the CIVIL warS” production. “We offer this to any other producer with a dream of presenting the work in its entirety.”

Wouldn’t it be ironic if “the CIVIL warS” found its way onto the schedule of the Los Angeles 1987 International Arts Festival?

Keith Reddin’s satirical replay of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, “Rum and Coke,” got pretty good reviews last year at South Coast Repertory, but the New York press didn’t think much of it at Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre.

Frank Rich of the New York Times, who had enjoyed Reddin’s “Life and Limb” (South Coast audiences have also seen that one), found the playwright off the mark here. Despite some enjoyably wacky side scenes, Rich thought the main drift of the story was “stale investigative journalism” and as naive as Reddin’s idealistic hero.

Gordon Rogoff of the Village Voice gave Reddin points for trying to knock down the right targets (defined by Rogoff as “the solemn clowns running America”), but found his attack too soft and unfocused. “Reddin is not merely bringing back news already known, he’s bringing it in aw-shucks disguise.”

Variety found the play “cartoony,” “vaguely written,” “repetitive” and “almost totally lacking in dramatic tension.” This, by the way, was the only review that mentioned the previous South Coast production.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK. British producer Michael White: “A star is someone to whom no one tells the truth.”