Problems Are Multiplying at the Ahmanson

It’s an old story that won’t go away. Martin Manulis’ decision earlier this week to resign, effective July 1, as artistic director of the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson is forcing everyone to focus once again on the theater’s multiple problems.

Most often cited as culprits are the configuration of the house (too cavernous), the growing difficulty of putting a season together and of finding talent (in this case superstars, historically the Ahmanson’s best drawing card). And since the Civic Light Opera’s pullout from the Music Center, CTG/Ahmanson also has had to fill the theater’s 12 summer weeks.

Rising costs, fewer big Broadway shows to import and superstars reluctant to commit to the number of weeks required by stage productions--and reportedly fearful of negative reviews--have impeded the ability to put together attractive programming.

With recent lackluster seasons, subscriptions have tumbled (from a peak of 76,000 in 1981-82, to a low point of 46,500 in 1986-87). As Manulis emphasized Monday when he announced his decision to leave, Band-Aid fixes won’t work. A major reevaluation is in order, something the 72-year-old Manulis believes would be “a better challenge for a younger man.”

The question is who? A person plugged into the current theatrical scene, with real vision and solid skills, according to Lawrence Ramer, president of the Center Theatre Group’s board of directors.

All well and good, but late. The malaise at the Ahmanson had been coming on for at least three years. For all of the rush to adopt strong corrective measures, there is still a disquieting vagueness about exactly what needs to be done. No serious theater person is going to accept the “challenge” without some assurances from the board that it will offer more than moral support.

“This (conversation) is a bit premature,” Ramer said, speaking from Washington, D.C. “I’ve only just appointed a committee to start a search. We need a five-year plan, or longer. We need to consider all the options. The board has to take a look at what type of changes are needed.”

There had been talk of splitting the Center Theatre Group board, creating separate boards for the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson, to enable each to focus on their vastly different problems. Ramer claims the issue is still very much alive. Outgoing artistic director Robert Fryer, whose 16-year term ends simultaneously with Manulis’ in July, said, however, that “there have been no more formal talks.”

And what of earlier talk of possibly reconfiguring the theater?

“We’ve come to no conclusions,” Ramer said. “Some (reconfiguration) options are cosmetic, some structural, which is more difficult.”

Who’s planning 1988-89?

“I haven’t been asked,” Fryer said, “It’s a decision the board will have to make.”

“We have a strong management team in place,” said William Wingate, executive managing director of CTG, who, in a bit of unplanned bad timing, will begin a six-month sabbatical in January. “We have two or three likely candidates for shows for next season. Bobby’s (Fryer) still here. So’s Martin (Manulis). Ramer is a superb board president--exactly right for this moment in the organization.”

Yet the uncertainty over how to cope with the future persists. So does uncertainty over what kind of individual the board is looking for to lead this theater out of the swamp.

“We need someone with a very strong background in theater,” Ramer stressed, “someone well-acquainted with artists in London, New York and L.A., someone who knows what will sell to our subscribers. It’s very difficult to set preconditions, but you know the right combination when you see it.”

“It has to be someone who knows writers and artists,” Fryer said. “It’s a very time-consuming job. It was in my contract that it wouldn’t be full time, that I would be free to do films, but lately it’s become full time. (Star) salaries sky-rocketed. The well started drying up. We had zero funding. You live on the box office here. I’ve been saying for three years that we needed to restructure. . . . “

“I think the search committee has to take as much time as it needs,” Wingate said. “It’s more important that they find the right person than that they do it quickly. I would advise them not to write a job description. Let the person approach them with his own.”

One name no one brought up is that of Gordon Davidson, artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum. Since he’s already running one CTG theater, would it help or hinder to have him run the other?

Fryer doubted that one person running both theaters would work. Ramer said the possibility of Davidson’s candidacy had “never really been discussed. It’s an interesting thought.” Wingate suggested that the board “should ask Gordon if he has a vision.”

Davidson’s reply when asked if he’d consider running the Ahmanson: “Nobody’s asked me.”

And if someone did?

“Only under certain circumstances. If you’re asking can one make a helluva theater out of the two theaters combined? Yes. But I think this is another conversation.

“When the Ahmanson was doing what it did and did it well enough, I had my hands full (with the Taper). But one has to think about what the two theaters might do in tandem as opposed to separately, it can be a very stimulating proposition--but I am not campaigning for the job.”

FORWARDING “MAIL”: Michael Frazier, one of three producers who hope to forward the Pasadena Playhouse production of “Mail” to Manhattan (along with Stephen Wells and Susan Dietz) would like to “Mail” it first to Boston’s Colonial Theatre, then to the Kennedy Center. The Colonial’s John Platt saw the show at the Playhouse Wednesday and the Kennedy Center’s Roger Stevens is coming next week.

In the meantime, Frazier, Wells and Dietz are in the process of raising the money, Frazier said--a cool $3 million.

“Ideally, we would like to put it in a middle-size house, such as the Neil Simon, or the O’Neill (1,100 to 1,200 seats). Unfortunately, the economics of musicals today push (producers) towards the bigger size houses. But that wouldn’t work artistically.” Stay tuned.