Taper to Produce ‘All the King’s Men’; Four Pairs of Love Birds for ‘Love Letters’

Forget Humpty Dumpty. Can Gordon Davidson put “All the King’s Men” back together again?

Adrian Hall’s adaptation of the Robert Penn Warren novel will receive a Mark Taper Forum production “sometime in the next year--I don’t know when,” said Taper artistic director Davidson. The process will begin today, when Hall conducts a Taper workshop using actors from Kenneth Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company, some American actors and the “King’s Men” text.

But still to be decided are the dates for the production and whether it will be complete--running over two nights--or just a single fragment.

Asked specifically whether a version of “All the King’s Men” might replace Arthur Kopit’s “The Discovery of America” in the last slot of this season’s schedule, July 8-Sept. 2, Davidson declined to comment.

But Kopit independently confirmed that “America” may go undiscovered this summer. “We’re not going to be ready, I don’t think,” said Kopit from Houston, where he is working on his “Road to Nirvana” at the Alley Theatre. “I don’t know when I can commit the full time to go into production on it. My schedule has been in such flux. . . . It’s possible it could be this summer, or next winter, or next spring, or a year from this summer.”

The thornier question may be whether “All the King’s Men” will be done in one or in two parts.

Hall’s adaptation opened in 1986 at Dallas Theatre Center. After the first preview, which ran nearly five hours, Hall eliminated what he calls “the prologue,” which is essentially an adaptation of the book’s Chapter 4, a “digression back to the pre-Civil War era,” said Hall. This brought the show’s length down to a more manageable three hours, and it ran in this form in Dallas and in 1987 productions at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I., and Arena Stage in Washington.

But Hall didn’t forget the prologue, and he brought it to a workshop he conducted in Dallas last fall. Davidson attended the workshop, at Hall’s invitation, and then agreed to put a production together.

That production could consist of just the prologue--or it might be a two-show package: the prologue and the already-seen three-hour “King’s Men,” performed in repertory. It will depend “on whether I can figure out the logistics of it all,” said Davidson.

“It could be that if we did just the prologue, we might go as soon as this summer,” said Hall. Chances of getting the entire project launched by this summer are slimmer.

The earlier three-hour production included music by Randy Newman. Davidson said he hoped that Newman would be involved with the Taper production.

The next step is the workshop to be held today. Hall believes that Branagh’s Renaissance actors will be able to contribute advice on playing in repertory. “In this country,” he said, “we’ve had trouble playing in rep.” Yet he discouraged the idea that the Renaissance company’s involvement would extend beyond the workshop.

“If I wanted to cast Louisiana in the 1930s,” said Hall, “I probably wouldn’t shop around in London.” Warren’s 1946 novel was modeled on the story of Louisiana Gov. Huey Long. The book has been adapted for other stage productions, the first of which also originated in Dallas, where Erwin Piscator directed an adaptation in 1947.

VALENTINE NEWS: A star-studded list of Hollywood names, including a few married couples, will be among the frequently changing casts of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters,” opening Feb. 25 in the Pasadena Playhouse Balcony Theatre. The actors:

David Dukes and Pamela Reed (Feb. 25-26), Ken Olin and Patricia Wettig (March 4-5), Sandy Duncan and Perry King (March 11-12), Meredith Baxter Birney and David Ogden Stiers (March 18-19), Donna Mills and Perry King (March 25-26), Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker (April 1), Ed Harris and Amy Madigan (April 2), Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss (April 8-9), author Gurney and Holland Taylor (April 15-16).

The marrieds: Olin and Wettig, Eikenberry and Tucker, Harris and Madigan, Benjamin and Prentiss.

PARKING: Cancel last week’s word on parking at Los Angeles Theatre Center during the next seven months (while a new parking garage is being built behind the theater). This week’s news is that two new lots have opened up on 6th Street, south of the theater. The underground garage at the First Interstate Bank building, 6th and Spring, charges $5; an outdoor lot near the southwest corner of 6th and Main charges $3.

Meanwhile, the parking brouhaha on the side streets off Melrose Avenue, near the Zephyr and Groundlings theaters, has been cleared up with the announcement of a compromise between the area’s merchants and homeowners. As soon as signs can be installed, post-8 p.m. parking will be available on west sides of the streets, but not on the east sides, which will be reserved for permit parking by residents.

“TUNA” RETURNS: “Greater Tuna,” the two-man production about the denizens of a small Texas town, will open at the Westwood Playhouse March 21 for a four-week run with the show’s creators and original cast members, Joe Sears and Jaston Williams. The two appeared in “Tuna” at the Las Palmas Theatre in Hollywood in 1984 and at the Lyceum in San Diego last year.

“WOOLF” RETURNS: In case you missed Edward Albee’s staging of his “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” at the Doolittle last fall, you’ll have another chance this spring--though this time it will be with the understudies.

Albee mounted a production with the Los Angeles understudies at Houston’s Alley Theater. It closed there Sunday and went on a tour that will arrive at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo March 30, the Norris Theater in Rolling Hills Estates March 31, the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara April 1--and the Soviet Union on April 13.

“DIARY” RETURNS: “Diary of Black Men . . . How Do You Love a Black Woman?” returns to the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles for performances Friday and Saturday. Three sold-out performances there in January were the first “legit” shows at the former vaudeville palace since the early ‘60s.

BIG WEEKEND: “Art in Chaos: The Political Struggle” will be the subject of a symposium at Los Angeles Theatre Center’s annual Big Weekend, March 1-4. Also on the agenda are staged readings of four new plays, presentations by six of LATC’s labs, and four 20-minute performances on the theme of censorship.

One day after the Big Weekend, on March 5, Allen Ginsberg will read poetry as part of LATC’s poetry/literary series. Information: (213) 627-6500.