Coming to Westwood: The Promenade? ‘Movies,’ ‘Accomplice’ Ready to Move East

Westwood bound:

The New York-based Promenade Theatre Corp. plans to take over the Westwood Playhouse.

If the plans work out, the theater will be renamed Promenade Theatre/Los Angeles. Or perhaps Promenade Theatre/Westwood.

Ben Sprecher, vice president and chief operating officer of Promenade (president William P. Miller is “the financial partner”), isn’t sure what the new name will be, but he is sure that “we are going ahead” and leasing the 499-seat theater--for at least eight years. “We are 99.9% of the way there,” he said.

Westwood owner Kirsten Combs confirmed that a deal with Promenade “is very close”--but not quite sealed. “They will be very good tenants,” she said. “It sounds as if they have ideas for good programs. But nothing is signed.”

Combs and Sprecher declined to identify the remaining obstacles in the way of a signed deal. But Sprecher did not hesitate to discuss his plans for the theater.

He hopes it will become “the first stop on a national circuit of mid-sized theaters” operated by Promenade. The company is negotiating to take over theaters in San Francisco, Chicago and Toronto--though none of those talks are close to fruition yet.

The circuit will exist “for the purpose of taking shows that don’t translate into a national tour (of limited engagements in larger theaters) and giving them some sit-down (open-ended) runs,” said Sprecher.

“I believe many shows are best served in open-ended runs at intimate theaters,” he said. “And Los Angeles is an untapped market for that kind of thing.”

Specifically, Sprecher seeks a site to take shows after they play his 399-seat Promenade Theatre in New York. Since he bought and re-opened the Upper West Side theater in 1983 (after it had been gutted and dark for five years), it has been the New York home (often in conjunction with other producers) for such plays as “The Road to Mecca,” “Hurlyburly,” “A Lie of the Mind” and “The Common Pursuit.”

Its current attraction is A.R. Gurney’s “The Cocktail Hour”--which originated at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre. “Hour” has played the Promenade since September.

Sprecher also operates (but does not own) the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York. A Lortel production of “A Walk in the Woods,” with Sam Waterston and Robert Prosky, will open in Moscow on May 19. After that opening, Sprecher hopes to occupy the Westwood. The first show is yet to be determined.

Promenade plans some minor refurbishing of the building, including the installation of a marquee. Shows could originate in Los Angeles before going to New York, in addition to the other way around.

At one point, the Jujamycn Theatre Corp., also of New York, was exploring the possibility of joining Promenade in the Westwood venture, but “since then, we’ve put it on the back burner,” said Jujamycn vice president and general manager Aldo Scrofani.

Sprecher was born in Los Angeles and graduated from Granada Hills High School and Cal State Northridge. His first professional job in the theater was as a stage manager at the Broadway Dinner Theatre in San Diego. But he has never produced in Los Angeles. He hopes to hire a manager who knows the territory.

He believes that the Westwood “hasn’t had a consistent marketing policy. There is a tremendous lack of awareness of it, for example, (across the street) at UCLA or (one block away) at the Westwood Marquis Hotel. When I stayed there, I couldn’t find one piece of literature about (the theater) at the hotel.”

He hopes the city’s other theater operators will be open to cooperative ventures. “We’re not coming to town to take anything away. We’re coming to add.”

AND EASTWARD BOUND:

--”Blame It on the Movies,” the revue of movie music that was born at the Coast Playhouse last year, is about to tackle New York. Previews begin Friday at the Criterion Center/Stage Left, a 299-seat cabaret-style theater at 45th Street and Broadway. The opening is scheduled for May 16.

Four of the original cast members--Barbara Sharma, Bill Hutton, Patty Tiffany and Christine Kellogg--are in the New York version, joined by Sandy Edgerton, Peter Marc, Kathy Garrick and Dan O’Grady. The show played the Burt Reynolds Theatre in Florida earlier this year.

--”Accomplice,” the comedy-thriller that received its premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse, may travel to the Kennedy Center in Washington in October, en route to its Broadway opening in November at New York’s 46th Street Theatre, reported its author Rupert Holmes.

Alexander Cohen will produce with Holmes’ business partner, Normand R. Kurtz, and Max Cooper. A Kennedy Center spokeswoman said “Accomplice” is “under consideration” but not yet at the negotiating stage. Wherever the play goes next, Pasadena Playhouse will receive a small percentage of the gross.

Holmes said this week that he is “meddling” with “Accomplice.” Will he eliminate any of the narrative’s many twists, the last of which was criticized in some of the otherwise glowing reviews?

“No way,” said Holmes. “The audience has totally disagreed (with the criticism).” He also noted that the “the show was in an experimental stage” in Pasadena, especially when it was reviewed.

“At the beginning,” he said, “we were trying to play it as both comedy and reality at the same time.” The comedy will take the priority now--”We’re not trying to confront the audience with stark truth. It’s a matter of tone.”

Holmes hopes to keep the Pasadena cast intact, “but my suspicion is that one or two of them will have a conflict.”

If the show is a hit on Broadway, “it would be fun to come back” to the Southland, he added. He believes a Los Angeles audience for the show may exist independent of its Pasadena audience: “For a lot of people in Los Angeles, you say ‘Pasadena’ and they break out in hives.”