STAGE : ‘Funny Girl’ Stand-In Hurt in Collision That Kills One

A bit of this, a bit of that. . . .

Actress Nanci Hunter, filling in for a sick Susan Mosher as Fanny Brice in the Lawrence Welk Resort Theatre production of “Funny Girl” on Dec. 5, was injured in a fatal traffic accident between shows. On a 2 1/2-hour dinner break between the matinee and evening performances, Hunter collided with a motorcyclist on North City Parkway south of Jesmond Dene Road in Escondido at 5:08 p.m. The man, Paul Campbell, 40, of Escondido died and Hunter, who was trapped in her car for 40 minutes, was flown by helicopter to Palomar Memorial Hospital where she was treated for two broken ankles, a dislocated leg, a torn nose and released. Hunter said she could not talk about the accident because it is still under investigation, but a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol told the Times that Hunter had crossed the double yellow lines before the head-on accident. Mosher filled in for Hunter. . . .

To accommodate the rehearsal schedule of Lloyd Richards, who will be directing August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” on Broadway in April, the Old Globe is moving another Richards’ directing job, Lee Blessing’s “Cobb” from the May 3-June 10 slot to the early part of summer Festival ’90. Pinch-hitting for “Cobb” is C.P. Taylor’s “And A Nightingale Sang,” the story of a family in England during World War II, directed by Old Globe executive producer Craig Noel.

Other directors lined up for the Old Globe season: Adrian Hall, who directed “Measure for Measure” for the Old Globe last summer, will take on Mark Lee’s “Rebel Armies Deep Into Chad,” March 3-April 15 and Will Roberson, who directed “Suds” at the Old Globe and Off-Broadway, will direct Lanie Robertson’s “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” April 28-June 10. . . .

More news on the Vaclav Havel front. The Czechoslovakian playwright whose work, “The Memorandum” will get its San Diego premiere at the North Coast Repertory Theatre Jan. 19-Feb. 24, has been nominated by the opposition Civic Forum, as the nation’s next president. If he wins, maybe he will get to see a production of his own work in his country. All his work has been censored there up until now. . . .

The Bowery Theatre will open “Teibele and Her Demon,” the play by Nobel laureate and Pulitzer prize-winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and dramatist Eve Friedman, on Groundhog’s Day, Feb. 1. The run is scheduled through March 17. . . .

The Big Kitchen Theatre resumes with Sheri Glaser of Hot Flashes (Whoopi Goldberg’s old troupe) performing comedy routines Dec. 15-17 at 7:30 p.m. Storyteller David Novak will perform Jan. 6-7 and Steve Garber and Kay Loftus will give a poetry reading Jan. 13-14. . . .

Scottish-born John Barrowman, the United States International University junior who was originally slated to star as the Scottish soldier in the North Coast’s production of “The Hasty Heart” (instead Michael Deitering is doing a fine job with the part), is garnering accolades for his work starring opposite Elaine Paige in “Anything Goes” at the Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End. London’s Daily Mail calls him “undoubtedly one of the most exciting musical talents to have hit the London stage since Michael Crawford” and talks about “the nightly ovations which greet his every performance. London’s Daily Telegraph refers to his work as “show-stopping.” London writers also seem to love retelling the story of how Barrowman auditioned and got the part when he was in Scotland for his summer vacation. . . .

The San Diego Theatre League has a new president--Gerard Buckley, director of annual support for Scripps Memorial Hospitals Foundation. Among the upcoming plans for the Theatre League are the expansion of Arts TIX ticket sales operation into the San Diego Convention Center, which is donating space to the organization, in January and ultimately into downtown La Jolla (space donated by William Nelson, to be built by the La Jolla Town Council) on the southwest corner of Prospect and Girard in late summer 1990, said executive director Alan Ziter. The San Diego Actors Co-op is looking for space in the Gaslamp Quarter for a downtown Actors Center and an Actors Festival of works by individual actors in winter 1991. . . .

The Moonlight Amphitheatre, Vista’s summer version of Starlight Musical Theatre, will move indoors for its first winter season with “Taming of the Shrew,” Jan. 25-Feb. 4, and “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” April 5-15 at the Rancho Buena Vista High School Performing Arts Center in Vista. Don’t be surprised if Shakespeare’s Kate comes off sounding a bit like Scarlett O’Hara. Moonlight’s artistic director, Kathy Brombacher, who is directing the show, is setting “The Taming of the Shrew” on a plantation in the deep South in the 1860s. Moonlight will segue into its outdoor summer season with “42nd Street” July 3.