STAGE : Festival Is Over, but Soviet Acts Will Keep on Coming

Mayor Maureen O’Connor did not welcome Don Hughes as part of the official Soviet Arts Festival when he presented the Red Army Chorus and Soviet rock star Vladimir Kuzmin, but no matter. The Red Army Chorus pulled in an audience of 16,000, Hughes’ largest ever in San Diego; Kuzmin signed an exclusive contract with Hughes’ organization, International Attractions, and the promoter intends to keep the exchange going with more Soviet fare through next year.

The next event in the hopper is the high-jumping Soviet Acrobatic Revue at the Old Globe Theatre this Tuesday through Dec. 17. Hughes recently opened an International Attractions office in Moscow to facilitate other Soviet attractions. Coming up next year are:

- The Rustavi Company, a group of Georgian singers and dancers, at Symphony Hall Feb. 27-March 4.

- The Obraztsov’s Moscow Puppet Theatre at the Old Globe Oct. 16-28.

- The Koslov Youth Dance Ensemble of Moscow, a group of 49 child folk dancers, to be presented from September to November at a venue to be announced.

Combine those with the Old Globe’s independent production of Fyodor Abramov’s “The House,” the Maly Drama Theatre of Leningrad show scheduled for 1990 or 1991, and San Diego shapes up to be the Soviet performer’s home away from home.

Hughes also plans to present the Moscow Boy’s Choir in 1991, as well as the Peking Opera and the Peking Acrobats. He is also working on other attractions from the Soviet Union and other nations in the Soviet Bloc.

Hughes said he has no problem attracting acts from the Soviet Union.

“The ambition of every Russian performer is to work in the States,” he said. “It is the absolute dream. I have people call me in New York and say, ‘I don’t believe it, I’m in America!’ ”

Hughes’ involvement with acrobats goes back to 1974, on the heels of near disaster. He was presenting Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” while living in Johannesburg, South Africa. The show opened to critical raves, but the audiences never materialized. He canceled the show before the run in the theater was scheduled to end and figured it might take him a year and a half to recoup his losses.

Then a stranger named Ken Hai called and asked Hughes if he wanted to book his show. Hughes said yes, and soon the Taiwan Acrobats arrived, filling up the house through the end of the run.

Hughes took the Taiwan Acrobats to the United States, where he decided to settle himself. He hired Hai, who now runs his Asian division. Hai checked out the Soviet Acrobatic Revue, and when he told Hughes that “the Soviet acrobats are just as good as the Chinese acrobats, that was good enough for me,” Hughes said.

Hughes once asked Hai why he called him that day in South Africa.

“I told him, ‘You have turned my life around, you know,’ ” Hughes said. Was it Hughes’ reputation that prompted the call? His track record? The fact that he had an empty theater starving for an act?

Hughes said Hai told him: “I looked in the Yellow Pages and your office was the nearest one to my hotel.”

It came as no great surprise to anyone--especially not the principals involved--that Harris Goldman, executive producer at Starlight Musical Theatre since October, 1988, officially quit as of Tuesday.

The words seemed friendly enough on both sides as Marshall Lucas, president of Starlight’s board of trustees, spoke of his great respect for Goldman, and Goldman spoke of wishing Starlight well, but it was hard to miss the relief between the lines as Lucas and Goldman reached a final agreement on buying out the rest of Goldman’s three-year contract, which was to expire Oct. 3, 1990.

Goldman will continue as a consultant at Starlight and will be involved in union negotiations while he explores other opportunities in the performing arts in San Diego.

Lucas has assigned the interim job of acting business manager to comptroller Steven Bevans while Starlight searches for a replacement to Goldman.

That search will be preceded by some soul searching on the part of the organization, according to Lucas, as Starlight, with the help of a committee of executive producers, reevaluates what sort of producer it wants, both for their own needs and in light of what is happening in the rest of the country.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Harris Goldman, but maybe we weren’t ready for some of the things he wanted to do,” Lucas said. “We are going through tremendous growing pains, and, while we’re meeting with success, we still have to keep the flavor of Starlight as we move into the ‘90s and do shows that people have never seen before.”

There’s no rush to fill Goldman’s post; the 1990 season is already in place and the theater is dark until May 23, when Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies” will open.

The new appointment might not be made until April or May, Lucas said. More important than filling the seat is determining just what Starlight wants from the person in it.

“We could bring in Hal Prince and it could be a problem. Or Tommy Tune. It all depends on what our needs for the future are,” Lucas said.

PROGRAM NOTES: Local composer Max Branscomb will give a workshop production of his new musical, “JFK,” about President John F. Kennedy, at Southwestern College Dec. 8-9 in the Arena Theatre at Mayan Hall, Chula Vista. Admission is free. . . .

The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company will give a benefit performance of “Hay Fever” on Nov. 11 for children with cancer and their siblings as part of its second Future Audience program. . . . Rumor has it that additions to the executive staff at the Gaslamp are imminent. . . .

The La Jolla Playhouse will announce Jan. 3 whether it has raised the requisite money to ensure a 1990 season. Raising $500,000 by Dec. 31 is the goal. . . .

Look for some familiar faces in the Old Globe’s “Uncle Vanya,” opening the 1990 season Jan. 11-Feb. 18. The cast includes Richard Easton (“Waiting for Godot” and “Measure for Measure”), Lynne Griffin (“The School for Scandal”), Richard Kneeland (“Waiting for Godot” and “Breaking Legs”), Jonathan McMurtry (“Waiting for Godot” and “Measure for Measure”) and Byron Jennings (“Coriolanus”) . . .

Auditions for the California Young Playwrights Project at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre are Saturday. Call Larry Hogue at 232-6188 to set up an appointment.