Call It Fate; 2 Dinner Theaters Are Featuring ‘South Pacific’

Some enchanted evening you can eat “barbecue selections” out of a Styrofoam box, wrap yourself in a blanket to ward off the cold and watch performers in Vegas-style Polynesian outfits and Eva Gabor-style wigs sing and mug their way through “South Pacific.”

On another enchanted evening you can have a Swedish smorgasbord while watching a troupe of actors in homemade sailor suits and plastic-fruit-covered hats sing and dance--each to his own interpretation of the choreography--through “South Pacific.”

And in the San Fernando Valley you can do it all in the same weekend.

Call it fate, but there are two local dinner theaters featuring the beloved Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein-Joshua Logan musical. Both cost about $20 to attend, including dinner. Both feature some actors who can sing on key and others who cannot. Both say something about theater in the suburbs.

Debut Show

“This is not just a dinner theater,” said the effervescent Tommy Finnan, who, with his wife Jan co-owns the new outdoor Starlight Dinner Theater in Whizin’s Mall in Agoura Hills. The theater, which sits in an open area near Lumber City and Albert’s Pet Cages & Supplies, is decked out in a South Seas World War II motif in honor of its debut show.

“Jan and I do not like to do anything that’s ordinary. What we do is extravaganza. We plan to take the classic Broadway musicals, which I love, and combine them with what we know through our experience of producing big shows, and give people a full evening’s professional entertainment. We want to make it an event for people, a party atmosphere.”

A short freeway drive to the west is Woodland Hills’ Swedish Inn restaurant, the home of the Showboat Dinner Theater production of “South Pacific.” Mike Monahan, the founder and managing director, is there two hours before curtain overseeing a rehearsal of a young actress, Crystal Sloat. She quickly runs through the role of Liat, the French-speaking island siren of “Bali Ha’i.”

Daughter of a Minister

“The girl who was supposed to play Liat is the daughter of a minister,” the mild mannered Monahan explains, settling into one of the Swedish Inn’s red Leatherette booths.

“Her father didn’t want her to play the part on Sunday nights. So Crystal, who normally plays one of the nurses, is stepping in.”

It’s an ecumenical production. Until Wayne Gross, who plays Commander William Harbison in the show, joined the Showboat troupe, his only theatrical experience was warming up the audience for celebrity night at his temple.

During the opening weekend of Monahan’s production last month, Tommy and Jan Finnan were among the audience at the Swedish Inn. It was not just a friendly visit of competitors paying their respects, even though both Monahan and the Finnans emphatically say that they do not feel they are rivals. Both parties say that the fact that they booked “South Pacific” at the same time was a coincidence and that they wish each other the best.

But when the show was over, the Finnans contacted the actor Monahan had cast in the key role of Lt. Joseph Cable. With the enticement of a salary, they convinced the actor to leave the Showboat production and be their Lt. Cable for the Starlight “South Pacific” that was to open a few weeks later.

No Hard Feelings

Monahan insists he was not upset.

“Good heavens, no,” he said with a laugh. “I can’t blame an actor for wanting to go where the money is.”

The incident illustrates the differences in the backgrounds and aspirations of the two dinner theater operations.

Monahan, who came to Los Angeles in 1956 with hopes of an acting career (he spent two seasons as Eleanor Donahue’s boyfriend on “Father Knows Best”), loves community theater and has organized several amateur troupes. His Showboat company has been performing year-round for six years at the Swedish Inn, and, in keeping with the long tradition of community theater, no one connected with the troupe, including Monahan, has ever been paid for their work. Monahan supports himself by teaching acting at Pierce College, and with his wife he runs a theater school for children.

Tickets Cover Cost

The cost of putting on a Showboat production, which ranges from $10,000 to $15,000 for a six-week run, is covered by ticket sales. On the rare occasion that there is a profit, the money goes toward the next production. Actors don’t even get a free buffet on the nights they perform, but they do get a cut rate.

“Maybe it’s a cliche,” Monahan said, “but we do it for love.”

The Finnans’ ambitions are more commercial. A cousin to Ed Sullivan, Tommy has always leaned toward the razzmatazz brand of entertainment. On a hallway wall of their Agoura Hills home are photographs of his nightclub/casino/cruise ship revues that played in Cairo, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Johannesburg, Bangkok, Portugal, Hong Kong, Hawaii and many other spots. Most feature a chorus line of statuesque women in scant, exotic costumes. Jan, who was the lead singer in several of the revues, is pictured in a spangled outfit and feather boa.

Tired of a hectic life spent on the road, the Finnans came to Southern California to settle down and produce only an occasional traveling revue. But Tommy got restless and wanted to try and stage a local show.

3-Month Run

Last year, they rented a plot of unpaved land adjacent to Whizin’s Mall, brought in tractors to level it, constructed a circus-sized tent, put in bleachers and produced the musical “Barnum.” The show was enough of a hit to play for three months.

This year they took over the lot again. They built the Starlight and announced a debut season of “South Pacific,” “Kismet” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” each to run a month, and a two-week return engagement of “Barnum.”

Although both dinner theaters are non-union, the Finnans boast that all actors (a total of 23 for “South Pacific”) and crew members (9) in their show get paid, even though it amounts to little more than a stipend.

The Finnans won’t disclose how much it cost them to construct the Starlight, but Jan does say that their operating costs are about $40,000 a month. Their goal, this inaugural season, is to break even.

Because their ambitions are decidedly not nonprofit and because they see themselves as running the area’s only “professional” theater, the Finnans do not consider Monahan’s operation competition.

“There is plenty of room for both of us,” Tommy said. “We wish him only the best.”

Patrons of the Starlight are seated at long tables decorated with seashells and other ocean paraphernalia to tie in with “South Pacific.” A costumed member of the chorus brings each one a box containing a dinner of barbecued ribs, chicken and coleslaw prepared by a catering service in the shopping center. (The manager of the shopping center made a deal with them to provide the food).

Jan circulates throughout the crowd of about 35 on a Thursday night, asking if everything is all right and passing out blankets to those who are cold. The crowd is mostly middle-aged or younger.

Mature Crowd

Over at the Swedish Inn, about 85 people are in attendance on a Sunday night. The average age hovers around 65. “These are the people who love live theater and remember the classic shows,” Monahan says with a sigh. His attempts to bring in a younger audience have proved fruitless, and his one attempt to do a show that was not a vintage Broadway blockbuster, “Dames at Sea,” was a financial disaster.

Just before show time at the Swedish Inn, the food is cleared, glasses and pitchers of water are put on the table, and Wayne Gross, who works for a bank selling repossesed luxury cars, comes out from backstage to warm up the audience, just like at his temple.

Like the other Navy uniforms in the show, the one Gross wears was put together from uniforms donated by a local Navy reserve unit. He tells a few jokes, acknowledges birthdays and anniversaries and makes special mention of people there to watch a family member or co-worker perform.

Although the leads are all professionally trained and pursuing serious acting careers, the majority of the 26 cast members are, like Gross, on a lark. As the recorded orchestra track strikes up the overture, Janet Martocchio, who has a small part as a nurse, stands backstage amid the good-natured chaos of last-minute preparations.

First Attempt

“This is my first attempt at show biz,” said the 59-year-old secretary. “I was in singing class, and they said they needed singer for this show, so I came over. It’s wonderful.”

At the Starlight the music is also recorded, but it was done in a recording studio exclusively for this show. Some of the voices were recorded, too, to give the performers a fuller sound.

The “extravaganza” aspects of the production, so important to Tommy Finnan, are readily apparent. He makes good on his promise that the sailors will make their grand entrance through the audience in a “Jeep” and that during the “Bali Ha’i” number the “island girls” will look exotic.

Unfortunately, when a desire for extravagance outpaces a budget, the glitz can end up looking pretty tawdry. The “Jeep” turns out to be a Suzuki Samarai, a wild incongruity in a show about servicemen in World War II. The costumes and headdresses look as if they were borrowed from a ‘round-the-world revue from one of the smaller Nevada casinos.

Larger Audiences

The Finnans may, however, be on the right track commercially. If they can bring big-time production values to their shows, they might be able to find a large audience.

“This is becoming an affluent area,” Jan noted. “Even in the time we’ve been here there have been a number of new office buildings that have gone up.”

“We’ve already had interest in providing the investment to make this a permanent theater, with a removable roof so it could still be the ‘Starlight,’ ” Tommy added. “We’re going to give the people something that can’t see anywhere else in the area.”

Back at the Showboat, “South Pacific” is far more natural and quieter. The leads give understated and emotional performances that bring out the heart of the story line. The sets and costumes are serviceable, the dance routines and choral singing less so, but mugging is largely absent.

Family Atmosphere

If the Starlight represents glitzy show business dreams, the Showboat stands for the flip side of suburban theater--a warm, family atmosphere that gives amateurs and young hopefuls the chance to be on stage.

Monahan knows that his brand of dinner theater is an endangered species.

“Our peak years were around 1984 and ‘85,” he says. “Now, we’re really getting hurt by the competition from VCRs. And when these people are gone,” he said with a sigh, gesturing to the senior citizens in the audience, “God knows what we will do.”

But for Monahan, who hasn’t taken a vacation for several years with the exception of his 40th high school reunion, one option he has not considered is quitting.

“There are people who look down on dinner theater, I guess,” he says. “But I love doing theater of almost any kind. It’s the reason I exist. I can’t imagine my life without it.”