Bowery Theater Chief Finds Crime a Hard Act to Follow

Ralph Elias, artistic director of the Bowery Theatre, hopes that viewers who see him on “America’s Most Wanted” at 8 p.m. Sunday on Channel 6, the Fox station, won’t confuse him with the part he plays.

Elias portrays Charles Russ, a man who disappeared from Leucadia two years ago before police could question him about the killing of his wife--on whom he had taken a life insurance policy worth $600,000--and issue him a warrant for allegedly embezzling his mother-in-law of retirement money in excess of $80,000.

“Just make sure the pictures are clearly labeled in any story you do,” Elias said. “I’m really serious. I was cast because I resemble the guy, and I’m afraid I’m going to get hassled.”

The Russ story seems especially grisly because of its setting against a backdrop of plenty. Two years ago, Charles Russ, then 37, and wife, Pamela, 33, seemed to have it all--a high life that included a posh condominium in Leucadia, parties, race track gambling, international travel and a pair of Mercedes-Benzes.

Then, on Feb. 1, 1987, Pamela’s battered body was discovered on an isolated stretch of highway between Torrey Pines State Park and the ocean. At first, Charles Russ grieved with his dead wife’s family. By May, Russ’ economic empire crumbled, and he was accused of bilking the 66-year-old mother of his slain wife out of her retirement money. By August, Russ was a suspect in the case of his slain wife. When he was expected to surrender to police, he disappeared.

Sgt. Hank Olais, who supervised the investigation of the case, hopes that “America’s Most Wanted” will lead to Russ’ being sighted.

“I’m expecting that the show will reveal people who knew Chuck Russ by that name or by an alias,” the sergeant said. San Diego detectives Richard Hansen and Robert Lopez will be standing by in Washington to take calls.

Elias confesses to being a little unnerved when Hansen told him he really reminded him of Russ.

“On the one hand, that’s nice. As an actor, I’m glad it’s working well. On the other hand, it’s hard to be told, after a friendly conversation with the guy who had talked to (Russ), that you’ve got the right idea. You feel a little ambivalent about that. I would like to say I was nonplussed. But I was plussed--a little.”

The former local comedy team of Kathy & Mo did its bit for talk-show impresario Pat Sajak on Tuesday night, peppering the numbers from their off-Broadway smash “Parallel Lives” with flattering references to their host.

“When you gonna give up that boss-man of yours and marry me,” said Kathy Najimy, using the routine in which she plays a drunk man in a cowboy hat at a bar.

“Never,” said Mo Gaffney, who plays the bored object of the cowboy’s desire. “I’m going to marry Pat Sajak.”

Gaffney added later, “He’s so attractive, he ought to have his own show.”

Sitting just a few seats away from a fellow guest, former First Daughter Maureen Reagan, Najimy revealed that this may have been her first foray to the Pat Sajak show, but not her first time on a Pat Sajak show. Najimy pulled out a photograph of herself as a contestant on “Wheel of Fortune” standing next to host Sajak, at which point the surprised Sajak appeared to blanch. Najimy also revealed that, before off-Broadway stardom beckoned, she had concocted a scheme to meet Bette Midler (whom she named as one of her idols, along with Lily Tomlin and, of course, Sajak). She dressed up like a bunny and delivered a singing telegram, walked out the door and fainted. This year she noticed a bunny scene in the Bette Midler movie “Beaches” that seemed oddly reminiscent of the incident.

“I’m expecting a check in the mail,” Najimy quipped.

PROGRAM NOTES: Priscilla Allen has been a regular on the stage of the San Diego Repertory Theatre for years, but her last big break came directly as a result of her part in the Rep’s “Heathen Valley” last season. An agent who liked her work in that show wrangled her an audition for the upcoming Arnold Schwarzenegger science-fiction thriller, “Total Recall,” and Allen has just wrapped up her segment in her first feature film. She plays--now concentrate--a woman going through Customs on Mars in whose body Schwarzennegger is hiding. Eventually her body “explodes” and Schwarzenegger pops out wearing an identical dress. But it didn’t fit him identically, Allen reveals. Schwarzenegger needed a little more padding on the stomach and rear to resemble her. Now returning to the place where it all began, Allen will appear in “The Marriage of Bette and Boo” at the Rep June 7. . . .

The world premiere of “Just Say No,” a musical produced in association with the “Just Say No” to drugs organization chaired by former First Lady Nancy Reagan, will be presented May 12-14 at Sherwood Auditorium in the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. Bonnie Johnston, who choreographed “Six Women with Brain Death or Expiring Minds Want to Know” for the San Diego Repertory Theatre will direct “Just Say No.” Ironically, the “Six Women” show pokes fun of the “Just Say No” slogan in one of its numbers, suggesting that Nancy Reagan wanted Americans to “Just Say No” to poverty rather than supporting any programs that might have helped the homeless. . . .

“Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon,” produced by the Satori Company at the old Mission Playhouse in Marina Village, will have life after the end of its run May 7. It will be broadcast on Cox Cable, Coronado Cable, Southwestern Cable and Daniels Cablevision of Carlsbad in May or June.