‘Chapin’ a Hit, but Profits Remain Elusive; LATC Grant Part of Broad Latino Initiative

One of the songs in “Lies and Legends: The Musical Stories of Harry Chapin” is called “Dogtown.” It wasn’t about Los Angeles, but should it have been?

“Chapin” was declared a hit when it opened at the Pasadena Playhouse on Aug. 16 (in repertory with “Jacques Brel Is . . .”). It did such brisk business that it was moved by the producers to the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills on Oct. 6. Another slam-dunker?

“We’ve run eight weeks and the perception is that it’s a hit,” said Joe Stern, one of “Chapin’s” producers. “We got great reviews, but basically we’ve only broken even two of the eight weeks, and that’s with waiving royalties.”

New show, old story.

“Chapin’s” potential weekly gross at the Canon: $80,000. Break-even point: $40,000. Waiving the royalties brings the break-even down to about $34,000. Highest weekly gross so far: about $34,000.

“Saturday night is when we do 30% to 40% of our business,” Stern said, “so that one show out of eight (we do per week) is responsible for a third of the gross.

“The show ran nine months at the Apollo in Chicago in 1984 and four months at (New York’s) Village Gate in 1985,” said Stern, who produced the original version at the Improvisation in 1977. “I think we’re caught between a perception problem and how developed the audience is. We played to capacity in Pasadena. We’ve kept prices down (tickets are $25 and $28.50). The sound is terrific--and we’re struggling through December.”

It’s the syndrome of the unsubscribed show. Unless its title is “Cats” or “Phantom of the Opera” or “Les Miz,” a show without subscribers usually has a tough time in Los Angeles. Even a heavyweight such as “Les Miz” is averaging $500,000 a week against a potential gross of $565,000. General manager Alan Wasser considers that “good--for Los Angeles.”

August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Fences,” closing Sunday at the Doolittle Theatre, will have grossed about $1.7 million in 10 weeks, according to a theater representative. Not unhealthy for a non-musical, but it’s one of the best plays and productions to come down the pike in a very long time, and its potential was $2.4 million.

The only mid-size theater other than the Canon with a live show running in town is the Westwood Playhouse, where a strong “Hurlyburly” opened two weeks ago.

Perhaps because of such big box-office draws as Sean Penn in the cast, “Hurlyburly” has done a respectable $68,000 and $69,300 for its first two six-performance weeks. With a break-even of $40,000 to $60,000, and a potential gross of about $85,800, producer Barbara Ligeti isn’t complaining.

“We’ll make our money back,” she said. “And then some.”

Meanwhile, “Chapin,” “Fences” and “Hurlyburly” are terrific buys. How ready we are to embrace them will say everything we need to know about how sophisticated we really are in this town.

BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH: The Los Angeles Theatre Center’s 9-year-old Latino Theatre Lab will be getting a hefty $200,000 from the Ford Foundation over the next three years. It’s the second largest grant of its kind from Ford, the largest ($280,000) having gone to San Diego’s Old Globe a couple of years ago for its Teatro Meta.

“There’s no magic in these figures,” said Ruth Mayleas, program officer for the Ford Foundation’s education and culture program.

“It’s part of a broad initiative in support of Hispanic/Latino theater projects in so-called mainstream theaters. We also made a small grant last year--$50,000--to South Coast Repertory (for its Hispanic Playwrights Project). We often do that: make a small grant, come in, see how the project is developing and, often, provide longer support.”

Meanwhile, LATC artistic producing director Bill Bushnell says he’ll be asking for a modification that will make the grant, now dated Oct. 1, effective Dec. 1. “We didn’t get formal notification until mid-November,” he explained.

When the LATC announced its spring/summer season of plays, by the way, it neglected to mention that Thomas Babe’s “Demon Wine,” last show of the fall/winter season (Feb. 10-March 19), will lap over into the spring/summer season beginning Feb. 3 with an as yet unselected play. Confusing?

“If you think it’s confusing,” Bushnell quipped, “talk to our marketing people. I’m making a time correction here,” he said. “We had an 11-month season and I’m trying to adjust it to 12 months. The overlap is designed to prevent future overlap.”

Hmmm. Meanwhile, world-class Lithuanian director Eimuntas Nekrosius, who was going to stage Chekhov’s “Ivanov” at the Theatre Center next fall, has changed the play to “The Cherry Orchard.” And Bushnell’s own plans to direct next summer at Moscow’s Taganka Theatre (where he recently visited) have been postponed to 1990.

“The Taganka’s schedule changed,” he said. “The summer no longer worked for them. They wanted me in October, which is impossible for me.”

Bushnell is consoling himself by staging Russian playwright Alexander Galin’s “Stars of the Morning Sky” opening Dec. 16.

MORE GRANTS: The Cast Theatre, the Inner City Cultural Center and East West Players are recipients of a $5,000 Recognition Award each from the Brody Arts Fund, administered by the California Community Foundation. The awards are for “for sustained artistic achievement, organizational stability, and work in the expansion or minority arts field,” said a representative of the fund.

THE LAST HURRAH: Milt Larsen, whose Society for the Preservation of Variety Arts was forced by mounting debts to sell its Variety Arts Center on Figueroa Street, will throw one final bash there before the year is out.

“Vaudeville Is Alive!” will run Wednesday through Dec. 18, offering, Larsen says, “a different show each week.” So here’s a potluck chance to see “singing, dancing, juggling, magic and novelty acts” as well as rare films from the Vaudeville Encores archives.

“It’s kind of a holiday show for the family,” Larsen said. Tickets are $9.50, with kids under 12 and seniors admitted to matinees for $4.75. How can you beat it?

Larsen, whose museum collections of vaudeville arts, scripts, photos and other memorabilia are in search of a new home, says he’s “in the talking stages with a number of people about moving the center to Hollywood.” But--are you ready for this?--we could lose the whole bundle to Cleveland.

Cleveland?

“I’d rather stay in Hollywood,” Larsen said, “but Cleveland has to be considered. The Playhouse Square Foundation, which has restored three magnificent theaters--the Palace, the State and the Ohio--is interested.

“The Palace was the flagship for the Keith circuit. It later became the Keith-Orpheum and the Radio-Keith-Orpheum--or RKO.”

Would Larsen go too?

“Oh no. I was born in Pasadena. I don’t care for snow and sleet.”