Rand’s ‘Ideal’ to Make Its Theatrical Debut

Millions of readers know Ayn Rand through her novels: “Anthem,” “We the Living,” “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged.” Fewer people know that she also wrote a movie (“Love Letters” (1945), starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten) and four plays: “The Night of January 16th,” “The Unconquered” (adapted from “We the Living”), “Think Twice” and “Ideal”--the last two unproduced.

That situation changes Oct. 13 when “Ideal” has its world premiere at the Melrose Theatre in Hollywood. It is directed by Michael Paxton, 32, who was granted the rights by Rand’s estate.

“The story--which takes place in 1934--is about a Hollywood film star, Kay Gonda, who’s been accused of murder and is on the run from the police,” Paxton said. “She decides to visit the homes of six fans who’d promised to do anything for her. But they end up betraying her.”

The setting of “Ideal,” which has 15 actors playing 30 characters, struck close to home for Rand; while she was trying to get “We the Living” published in the early 1930s, she was also working in RKO’s costume department. Her segue into play writing in the ‘40s produced mixed results. Although Paxton claims that “January 16th” is the second-most-staged play in American high schools, George Abbott’s production of “The Unconquered” barely lasted a week on Broadway.

Paxton, a New York University film school graduate and a staff coordinator at Disney, counts himself as a longtime fan of Rand; his first post-college job was as office manager for the Ayn Rand Institute.

Yet those connections did little to smooth the path for this production. Before Rand estate executor Leonard Peikoff approved Paxton’s bid to stage “Ideal,” the director had to pass “a little sort of quiz; he wanted to be sure I really understood the play.” As for comparisons between Rand’s works, “there are definite similarities,” he said. “But unlike her novels, which focus on an attitude that’s heroic--like Dominique in ‘Fountainhead,’ Kay Gonda is definitely unheroic. She’s like Rand herself on a bad day.”

Also opening this month:

Tonight: Alann Jack Lewis’ “I Think I Killed My Wife” has its world premiere at the Tiffany Theatre in West Hollywood. Gerald Gordon directs Teri Copley, Crystal Justine, Sheri Lubov, Don Most and Lance Roberts in this romantic comedy whodunit.

Tuesday: Santa Monica Playhouse’s 12th annual “Octoberfest” features return visits with Chekhov’s “The Boor” and Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano”; admission covers performances plus buffet supper and outdoor entertainment.

Thursday: John Lithgow and Glenda Jackson are the notorious George and Martha, and Brian Kerwin and Cynthia Nixon are Nick and Honey in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” opening at the UCLA James A. Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood. Albee directs.

Saturday: “Once Upon a Midnight,” Ron Magid and Paul Clemens’ one-man show about Edgar Allan Poe, commemorates the 140th anniversary of the writer’s death, opening at the Cassandra Gaylord Theatre in Hollywood. Sandra Caruso directs Clemens as Poe.

Oct. 10: Charles Nelson Reilly (whose last local staging was the Oscar Levant show “At Wit’s End”) directs “Vanities,” Jack Heifner’s popular comedy about cheerleaders growing up, playing at the Tamarind Theatre in Hollywood.

Oct. 13: “Frightening Things in Life,” an evening of 14 short works by local poets, singers, actors and performance artists, opens at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. Producing are Mary Herczog and Debbie Parino.

Oct. 14: TAFFY, the Theatre Arts Festival for Youth, returns for its annual weekend sojourn at the Peter Strauss Ranch in Agoura. The entertainment includes clowns, mimes, singers, acting troupes, jugglers, storytellers and dancers--plus workshops in puppet-making, poetry and origami.

Oct. 15: At the Cast Theatre in Hollywood, Justin Tanner and Andy Daley’s “Zombie Attack” celebrates the Halloween season in a story of a group of old friends who gather in a deserted cabin to dabble with the occult. Daley directs.

Oct. 18: A revival of the perennially popular Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical “Company” will be presented by East West Players in Hollywood. Paul Hough (“From Berlin to Broadway With Kurt Weill”) directs.

Oct. 19: “1789,” Stages Trilingual Theatre’s English-language world premiere of Ariane Mnouchkine’s Theatre du Soleil production celebrating the French Revolution, opens at Hollywood’s Las Palmas Theatre. Stages’ founder Paul Verdier directs the multi-ethnic company of actors, singers, musicians and puppeteers.