Theater

The San Diego Repertory Theatre may not have been ready to announce its opening show for the 1988 season, but Thomas Vegh, artistic director of the Diversionary Theatre, was determined to do it for the Rep.

That’s not because Vegh wanted to help publicize the San Diego premiere of the late Charles Ludlam’s “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” which the Rep has scheduled for May 18.

Instead, he thinks the production of the very same play he’s preparing for July 10 at the Puppet Theatre in Balboa Park should have been the local premiere.

The Rep, which obtained the professional rights to the 2-year-old show after Vegh had secured the amateur rights, sees the two productions as a coincidence. But Vegh claims that the very idea of doing the comedy was stolen from him.

“The Mystery of Irma Vep,” which premiered in January of 1986 at the Ridiculous Theater Company is a tour de force about Gothic penny-novel characters, played by two actors, handling eight roles with a variety of quick changes. It was a surprise hit for Ludlam, who appeared in the original with his lover, Everett Quinton. Ludlam died of AIDS last year.

Vegh, who is planning to star in the show with local San Diego actor Stanley Madruga, was hoping that the production would also be a hit that would attract a crossover audience to his gay theater.

But with the Rep negotiating a contract with “major talents,” as producing director Sam Woodhouse promises, for their main stage show, the Diversionary Theatre production may be lucky to find a place in the limelight.

According to Vegh, the story began when he obtained amateur rights to the play last summer and discussed doing the play with Will Roberson, a co-creator of “Suds,” as director.

According to Roberson, who turned down the job with Diversionary and was subsequently hired to direct the play for the Rep, the story began two years ago, when he and his producing partners first had the idea of doing “Vep” and had come close to doing just that at the Rep last season. The only reason “Vep” didn’t make it then, he said, was that the selection of “Hard Times” seemed too similar a project.

Vegh insisted that Roberson got the idea of doing the play from him, which Roberson and Sam Woodhouse, managing producer of the San Diego Repertory Theatre, both denied.

Roberson and Woodhouse stressed their admiration for Vegh and the work his theater does. Roberson said he wanted to include Vegh in the production but was not interested in doing a non-Equity show with Vegh as one of the two leads, as Vegh had requested.

It has been a successful year for Roberson, who will be directing both his first main stage Rep show and his first main stage Old Globe show (“Suds”) this year.

But, as someone who also understands the challenges a small theater faces from the large stages (Roberson managed the now-defunct Triteria Theatre), he expressed sympathy for Vegh.

“I’m very sorry that Tom sees me as the bad guy. It’s tough when there’s a big theater . . . (doing the same show). I hope it’s an enormous success wherever and whenever he does it.”