Producer Hogs Ads, Investors Nip at Heels; Interim Lots Lighten LATC Parking Woes

At the top of the ad for “The Living Room,” which continues at the Wilshire Ebell through Sunday, is a large picture of Shelly Garrett. Then the copy begins: “Shelly Garrett’s Living Room. It’s . . . Shelly Garrett’s new comedy-drama stage play. If you saw Shelly Garrett’s ‘Beauty Shop,’ hey! Wait . . . wait until you step into his living room!”

Would you assume from this that Garrett wrote “The Living Room”--or that he’s in it, or even that it’s about him?

Wrong on all counts. Charles Michael Moore wrote the play that is now called “The Living Room.” It was initially produced with the title “Love’s Light in Flight,” in Chicago and two smaller cities. Another producer brought the play to Los Angeles last year and changed the title--with Moore’s permission. Only after the Los Angeles production was underway did Garrett take over as producer, said Moore, talking by telephone from Chicago.

“I’m not crazy about the fact that my bio is not in the program,” said Moore. But he said he had a good business deal with Garrett, and “as long as the business end is taken care of, I don’t have an ego problem (with the downplaying of his own credit).” Moore added that he has been paid for working as assistant director on the show, and he expects to receive an author’s percentage (he wouldn’t reveal the size of his cut), “but I won’t see any real money until it starts recouping its investment.”

Meanwhile, investors in another Garrett production, the touring “Beauty Shop,” have replaced Garrett as general partner in the enterprise, according to an attorney representing the limited partners.

The limited partners contend they have not received an accounting of their investment--and most of them maintain they have not received any return from it. Last year five of them filed a suit against Garrett in Los Angeles Superior Court, and seven others have since joined the lawsuit.

According to attorney Gene Harter, 31 of the 40 limited partners met Monday and voted to replace Garrett with Sylvia White (who performed in “Beauty Shop” in 1987-88 and became a limited partner in 1988) as general partner. Harter said the vote was unanimous, except for abstentions from Garrett’s parents. The re-organized partnership will now attempt to gain access to the production’s bank accounts.

Neither Garrett nor his attorney could be reached for comment. But White said the limited partners had received letters from Garrett last month, announcing that he was dissolving the partnership.

LATC PARKING: Parking at Los Angeles Theatre Center last weekend was an ordeal. Two weeks ago, the lot in back of the theater was closed, as construction began on a new parking garage that won’t open until next fall. The loss became quite apparent over the weekend, as all four theaters in the complex were lit up for the first time since the lot was closed. Cars backed up in front of the theater even more than usual, and curtain times were delayed.

But “the problem will resolve itself this weekend,” said LATC’S Bill Bushnell, as two additional lots on the east side of Spring St. between 4th and 5th, one block north of the theater, open for LATC business. A security guard who formerly was posted at the back of the theater will now be stationed at 5th and Spring to assist pedestrians walking from the new lots. Bushnell also pointed out that a little-known lot is also open across Spring St. from the theater, at the Alexandria Hotel.

On another LATC matter, Bushnell and managing director Robert Lear said they welcome the city council’s requirement that the Community Redevelopment Agency reports within 90 days on plans for the next five years of LATC-related spending. The proviso was added as an amendment to the council’s approval on Friday of $350,000 in CRA money for LATC. Bushnell and Lear said the five-year plan is something that they would have to do anyway.

SCR PLAYWRIGHTS: Mark Lee of Los Angeles is the winner of South Coast Repertory’s second California Playwrights Competition. His winning entry: “Pirates,” a fantasy drama about two women--a repressed academician and a feminist graduate student--who draw inspiration from swashbuckling female pirates in their clash with male faculty. Lee, whose “Rebel Armies Deep Into Chad” opens at the Old Globe in San Diego March 3, won $5000.

Runners up--receiving $2500 apiece--are Shem Bitterman for “The Ramp” and Robert Daseler for “An Office Romance.” All three plays will be presented as either productions or readings at the California Play Festival in May. About 300 plays were submitted to the competition.

AT PCPA: A translation of Ibsen’s “Ghosts” by Jerry Turner, artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Ore., is the most noteworthy item in the repertory of the upcoming Theatrefest at Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, in Santa Maria and Solvang.

Turner’s translation was introduced at Ashland in 1988. Also on the PCPA season: “Little Shop of Horrors,” “A Chorus Line,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Guys and Dolls” and “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

The season begins previews on June 14 and extends until Sept. 23.

SAN DIEGO REP: A new Amiri Baraka play, “The Life and Life of Bumpy Johnson,” is the highlight of the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s recently announced fifth season. Featuring an original score by Max Roach, “Bumpy Johnson” is the tale of a gangster who helped fund the Harlem Renaissance. It will open in December.

Also coming up at the Rep, beginning in June: Latins Anonymous, Ariel Dorfman’s “Widows” (which will first be seen at the Mark Taper Forum, opening May 31), Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This,” Joe Orton’s “Loot,” Tennessee Williams’ “A Lovely Sunday in Creve Coeur,” Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” and “A Christmas Carol.”