STAGE NOTES : Stunned Producers of ‘Gypsy’ to See Show Tested at Arts Center

The Broadway producers of “Gypsy,” stunned by the show’s anemic box office in Los Angeles, are looking to its second week at the Orange County Performing Arts Center for signs of drawing power.

Fran Weissler--the main producer with her husband, Barry--said they would be coming to see the show Sunday in Costa Mesa. “We’re going to find out whether Orange County is a two-week market,” she said from her office in New York. “It would be nice to think it is.”

“Gypsy” had the advantage of a subscription audience this week at the Center, which means a test of the show’s “legs” will have to come next week. The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion had no subscriber cushion.

Even so, the gross at the Chandler gave the producers a shock. “Gypsy” did only a third of capacity in its first week there and less than two-thirds in its second. “Can’t you just die?” asked Weissler. “If you think it was weak, how do you think we feel?”

The straight-talking Weissler volunteered that when people hear the word “Gypsy,” they don’t rush out to buy tickets because the musical is perceived as just another revival. “Certain shows obviously excite them, and this one does not,” she said. “But then we open, and business doubles.” That is precisely what happened at the Chandler, once the rave notices appeared. The box office gross leaped from $280,417 to $501,203 (out of a weekly potential of $837,954).

Meanwhile, Weissler hopes to get the word out sooner for the rest of the “Gypsy” tour by shooting additional TV commercials. She said the new spots would be filmed Tuesday and Wednesday at the Center, for airing in New York and Washington.

When the show leaves Costa Mesa after closing July 29, it heads to Houston for a week. Then it is scheduled for six weeks at the Kennedy Center, followed by an open-ended run on Broadway at the St. James Theatre.

HAMMETT REVISITED: Arthur Laurents, who wrote “Gypsy” and directed this production, is already writing the libretto for his next show, “Nick and Nora.” Yes, it’s about Dashiell Hammett’s Nick and Nora Charles. No, it’s not like “The Thin Man” pictures of the ‘30s.

“When you begin to examine those two characters, they’re alcoholics,” Laurents said. “She is this rich little Dresden doll who sits around while he solves the murders. He’s very macho, puts her down all the time. What I’ve developed is that while they’re investigating murder, they’re investigating their relationship.”

“Nick and Nora” will also be about over-weaning arrogance, which is why it is set in Hollywood.

“No place outside of Washington has more hubris,” said Laurents, who has worked in movies on and off since the ‘40s. “Hollywood has the same arrogance as they do in the government. They think that because of who they are they can get away with anything, including murder.”

The show, with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Richard Maltby, is to go into rehearsal in March for a Broadway opening next summer, Laurents said.

PHANTOM OF ANAHEIM: An official of the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim finally broke a week of silence--sort of--about last week’s reports in The Times on the cancellation of Ken Hill’s “The Phantom of the Opera” (not to be confused with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s version).

“I have no comment,” said Nick Masters, the Celebrity’s booking manager. The theater had advertised the show and sold tickets without the producer’s authorization. Masters refused to confirm or deny that $100,000 in tickets had been sold, but he did confirm that refunds can be obtained at point of purchase.