California Music Theatre Sets ’89 Season; LACLO Sets Its Season . . . More or Less

The California Music Theatre, poised to begin performances tonight of “Strike Up the Band” (the George and Ira Gershwin/George S. Kaufman show opens officially Saturday at the Pasadena Civic), has just announced its 1989 season.

It will offer revivals of Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me Kate” (April 20-May 2); the Stephen Sondheim/Burt Shevelove/Larry Gelbart “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum” (June 15-July 2); the George Abbott/Richard Bissell “Pajama Game,” with music and lyrics by Dick Adler and Jerry Ross (Oct. 5-22, 1989); and, for the holiday season, Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Iolanthe” (Nov. 30-Dec. 17, 1989).

Not bad, if not earthshaking, but the most encouraging signs of the CMT’s third season are not in the line-up. They are in the broadening subscription base (30% higher this year than last, according to artistic director Gary Davis), an extra week of running time for each show (to accommodate the larger audience) and a continuation of the kind of co-venture exemplified by tonight’s production of “Strike Up the Band” ( moving to the Orange County Performing Arts Center Aug. 18-24 and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Aug. 26-Sept. 11).

Davis said he is looking into the possibility of extended tours for CMT, “either on the West Coast or nationally.” The Music Theatre is also a member of the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Producers, a group of about 65 producing organizations differing in size from Connecticut’s modest but feisty Goodspeed Opera House to Indianapolis’ Starlight Musicals at the 4,081-seat Hilton Brown Amphitheater. It was forged in 1985 by Frank M. Young of Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars.

“(Musical production) used to be competitive, now it’s co-operative,” Davis said, “as a result of Frank Young rolling up his sleeves and saying ‘Look, you guys, let’s not have seven separate productions of the same show. Let’s pool our resources.’ ‘The Wizard of Oz’ that just played Long Beach (Civic Light Opera) was a combined effort of the Long Beach CLO, the Pittsburgh CLO and the Muni (St. Louis Municipal Opera).

“Every time we get together we discuss what’s available, and look at combining forces and sharing costs. I see ‘Kiss Me Kate’ (which will feature Terry Lester and Leslie Easterbrook) and ‘Pajama Game’ (with Robert Morse) as viable touring productions. Neither is done very much. And (the Alliance) is not just interested in recycling older musicals. We’re also looking at creating new ones, such as ‘Grover’s Corners’ (by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt).”

As for a repeat of the three-way pact Davis struck for “Strike Up the Band,” it’s possible, though he concedes reconstruction of the 1927 original “Band” was a unique project that attracted lots of attention.

Is there a chance for a tour beyond Orange County and the downtown Music Center?

“It’s possible,” he said noncommitally, “if it gets an OK from the Gershwins (Ira Gershwin’s widow and others) and from Anne Kaufman-Schneider (Kaufman’s daughter), which it might.”

Meanwhile, Houston’s Young and the Kennedy Center’s Roger L. Stevens (rumored interested) will be in Saturday’s audience.

MORE MUSICAL MOOS: The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera might want to take a cue from Davis, Young, Long Beach CLO and their friends.

After rumors, denial of rumors, cancellations and substitutions, the LACLO has come out with a revised fall and spring schedule that just might be definitive. Sort of.

For starters, scratch “West Side Story” (now remanded, they tell us, to the 1989-90 season) and welcome stylist “Michael Feinstein In Concert,” promised for November--some time--at the Wilshire Theatre. Feinstein played the Hollywood Bowl last year and this (as recently as July 15 and 16).

The national tour of the Lincoln Center production of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes,” announced in June as the replacement for “Black and Blue” at the Pantages, remains on the schedule. It’ll be here next June--some time. Leslie Uggams will play Reno Sweeney.

This leaves “Can Can” as the only show carried over from the original line-up. It, at least, benefits from Chita Rivera backed by the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. That’s promised for December--some time--at the Pantages.

“Dates have not been firmed,” said Stan Seiden of the Nederlander Organization, which now runs the LACLO, “because these national companies are still juggling schedules. We’ll have them in the next two or three weeks.”

But the best thing this CLO season may have going for it, oddly, is a non-musical fourth show offered as a bonus: Julie Harris in Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Driving Miss Daisy.” How come a non-musical in the CLO season?

“We felt this is such a strong play that we wanted our subscribers to see it,” was Seiden’s explanation. Why not offer it as part of the Nederlanders’ Playgoers’ Series?

“Because that isn’t put together yet. It’s being put together now.”

Since the Playgoers’ Series is a winter/spring event and “Miss Daisy” is offered in April, could it mean the Playgoers’ Series might not happen this year?

“Oh, no, no, no, no,” Seiden said. “You know how hard it is to find good plays.”

Er--Hmmmmmm?

FENCES ‘N’ FARCES: Forget those rumors that “Fences” might not come to the Doolittle Theatre this fall. This August Wilson Pulitzer Prize-winner is now definite for Sept. 22-Dec. 4, with James Earl Jones and the best of the New York cast: Courtney B. Vance, Lynne Thigpen, Ray Aranha. Count on it.

International City Theater’s Shashin Desai has returned from vacation with a decision on the play he’ll produce this winter at Long Beach’s Center Theatre. It’s Feydeau’s “13, Rue De L’Amour,” now opening in late October or early November. Desai will direct.

DOUBLE TAKES: Marsha Norman’s “Getting Out,” with singer-songwriter Carole King, opening Friday at the Burbage Theatre, is a Neon Art Production, not--repeat, not --a Burbage Theatre production. Producers are Suzanne Battaglia and Nancy Penoyer. . . .

And it is Shawna Casey who plays Vera in Michael Sargent’s “Big Boy,” a performance acclaimed by reviewer Ray Loynd as “scabrous.” Due to incorrect information from the theater, she was misidentified in the review.