Ahmanson Has Summer Date With ‘She Loves Me’; : A New ‘Tamara’ to Open Off Broadway in September

The Ahmanson Theatre, threatened with a dark summer, has been granted five weeks of relief.

A revival of the 1963 Bock/Harnick/Masteroff musical, “She Loves Me,” will play the Ahmanson from June 30 through Aug. 2. Featuring Pam Dawber and Joel Higgins, the production will virtually duplicate a staging that played the Lobero Theatre, as part of the Santa Barbara Theatre Festival, in April. The festival and Center Theatre Group will co-produce, in association with investors Jeffrey Green and Lawrence Patton.

Can this intimate romantic comedy successfully jump to the 2,071-seat Ahmanson from the 669-seat Lobero? Ahmanson general manager Drew Murphy, noted that the Ahmanson stage is only four feet wider than the Lobero’s, “and there they were cramped for space.”

The Musicians Union requires 21 instrumentalists at the Ahmanson, in contrast to the six who played at the Lobero. But while 21 will be hired, Murphy doubts if 21 will actually perform--”it would be overpowering to the show.”

Director Paul Blake pointed to the testimony of the show’s original director, Harold Prince, in answer to questions about the size of the Ahmanson. In his autobiography, “Contradictions,” Prince wrote: “I overestimated the importance of the size of the theatre on the play’s effectiveness. . . . ‘She Loves Me’ played wonderfully in the (1,046-seat) O’Neill, but it would have played equally well in a theatre half again as large.”

The show will cost $340,000 to remount. That includes the price of services contributed by the Center Theatre Group, which is not providing any cash for the venture.

Murphy considers five weeks a short run in which to amortize those costs, but it’s better than four weeks--which was the initial plan because of Dawber’s commitments to her TV series, “My Sister Sam.” As it is, an understudy may have to go on for Dawber for two performances during that last week.

Audiences will have to fill 65%-70% of the house for the show to break even, estimated Murphy.

Meanwhile, in Pasadena, California Music Theatre artistic director Gary Davis was “disappointed, in terms of our own plans” to hear the news of the Ahmanson “She Loves Me.” His plans include a 10-day run of the same show next December in an even bigger theater, the 2,900-seat Pasadena Civic Auditorium. “We’ll go ahead anyway,” he added. “We don’t want to change our season once it’s announced, and we’re almost 50% pre-sold to subscribers.”

The show’s concluding scene is set at Christmas, so Davis hopes to bill “She Loves Me” as a Christmas show. But the Ahmanson company hopes Christmas will arrive early this year.

“Tamara” will open in New York in late September, apparently setting a record for the highest theatrical ticket price ever charged there.

The New York plans were announced Wednesday night, at a ceremony celebrating the beginning of the fourth year of the show’s run at Hollywood’s Il Vittoriale. Producers Moses Znaimer and Barrie Wexler also seized the opportunity to spread the word that the run of “Tamara” has lasted longer (156 weeks) than any other Equity wage-paying production in Los Angeles history. In second place is a 104-week run of “Evita.”

With a $1.5-million budget, New York’s production of “Tamara” will be the town’s most expensive non-musical theatrical production, according to Wexler. Ticket prices will break the “Nicholas Nickleby” record, with a $125 top on Saturday nights.

Yet the show will be categorized as an Off Broadway production. The location is the Seventh Regiment Armory, which occupies a chichi Upper East Side block between Park and Lexington avenues and 66th and 67th streets. Capacity of the house is 199, compared to 130 in Hollywood. Opening night is scheduled for Sept. 26.

As in Hollywood, the New Yorkers will roam through three floors of a quasi-military structure. The Armory was built in 1886 and houses a collection of World War I memorabilia. But there will be a few differences. The bedrooms of Tamara de Lempicka and Gabriele d’Annunzio will be on separate floors, connected by “a long, secret staircase,” said Wexler. The characters won’t be able to drive off in an old automobile, but the collection of the real de Lempicka’s art will be expanded from what initially appeared in Los Angeles.

Wexler is aware of “a long casualty list of shows that did well in L.A. and not so well in New York.” But his publicity won’t hide the Los Angeles connection; “I’m proud of our history in L.A.” He pointed out that the show also won awards in Toronto and Mexico City, where it opened last October in a franchised production.

Local “Tamara” devotees should not be too alarmed by those ads that claim the production is in its “last three weeks.” A call to TicketMaster revealed that single-ticket reservations are being accepted through Aug. 30. However, if the production should close this summer, take heart; the “passports” issued to guests at the Hollywood Il Vittoriale will be honored for discounts at the New York production.