STAGE / NANCY CHURNIN : Starlight’s Musical Prelude Gets Volcanic Beginning

It’s official. Starlight Musical Theatre’s “Prelude Series” of new musical stage readings, promised recently by artistic director Don Ward, will kick off with “Kiss Me Quick Before the Lava Reaches the Village,” a comedy about a movie company trying to make a South Seas epic in Nebraska, in a private reading for Starlight’s board of directors, donors and other invited guests on Feb. 26.

The series, done in conjunction with the six-year-old Musical Theatre Works Inc. in New York, continues in March with “Abyssinia,” a black gospel musical about a young girl who overcomes personal tragedy to become a singer and healer, and “Jimmy Valentine,” based on the O. Henry story about a reformed bank robber asked to crack one last safe to save a child’s life, in April. Staged readings of the three musicals, open to the public, will be offered at the San Diego City College Theatre in the summer.

All of the musicals are by new writers and composers: “Kiss Me Quick Before the Lava Reaches the Village,” which the Wards saw in an October workshop in New York in 1988, has a book by Steve Hayes, music by Peter Ekstrom and lyrics by Ekstrom and Hayes; “Abyssinia,” produced at Musical Theatre Works in April of 1987 and later at the Arena Stage in Washington and the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn., has lyrics by Jim Racheff, music by Ted Kociolek and a book by both; “Alias Jimmy Valentine,” produced by Musical Theatre Works in 1988, has a book by Jack Wrangler, music by Bob Haber and lyrics by Hal Hackady.

James Dark, president of the Board of Trustees, is dean of humanities, creative arts and telecommunications at San Diego City College and he is making the theater space available, according to Steve Bevans, Starlight’s acting general manager.

The timing of the musical series comes at a crucial time in Starlight’s history. Starlight, which has never produced a new musical, has instead relied on old standards, while theaters like the Old Globe and the La Jolla Playhouse have embarked on original, contemporary work.

Starlight also is facing a common problem for musical theaters around the country: Broadway’s failure to generate new musicals leaves regional theaters with a finite number of shows that are recycled repeatedly. In the wake of spiraling Broadway musical costs, which are upward of $6 million a show, New York producers are turning increasingly to regional theaters where musicals can be tested out for $500,000-750,000.

One of the three shows may be optioned as a workshop presentation for the 1991 season with sets, costumes, blocking, choreography, lighting and orchestra at a smaller venue than either of their customary venues, the Starlight Bowl and the Civic Theatre.

The meeting between Don and Bonnie Ward, co-artistic directors of Starlight, and Anthony Stimac, artistic director of Musical Theatre Works, Inc., took place on Jan. 6 after all three went to see “Annie II” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The much anticipated “Annie II” turned out to be a big bust. Its Broadway journey was abruptly cancelled and the show went back to the drawing board.

“After we saw ‘Annie II,’ we were sitting there quite glum because we wanted it so desperately to work,” recalled Stimac on the phone from his New York office. “You can’t be in the theater and not want a show that has that potential to be glorious not to work. We started to talk about new works. I believe that just as the LORT theaters in America are now the source of all dramatic work in the theater, the National Alliance (of Musical Theatre Producers) will be the source of all new musical work.

“We are the only organization in New York devoted exclusively to developing new musicals,” said Stimac, whose organization helped develop the Tony-nominated “Starmites,” in 1987, which played at the Criterion Theatre in 1989.

“Musicals are all I live for. What we’ve looked for since we started was to have a permanent ongoing relationship with another organization. Our mission is to develop new writers and new musicals for the musical theater and if we just do the production and they’re never heard from again, we’re not living up to our mission. In order to develop a show it takes more than one production. Starlight gives us the opportunity to get that absolutely invaluable second look.”

The financial and credit arrangements have yet to be worked out, said Stimac and Bevans. This is a trial relationship, but one embarked on with high hopes.

“We have a history of doing nothing but new musicals,” said Stimac. “They have not done any new musicals, but they want to. They are in a great town for it, they have the facilities and the musical expertise. It’s a perfect marriage.”

PROGRAM NOTES: Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista became one of the first non-professional theaters to obtain the rights for “Into the Woods,” the Stephen Sondheim musical that premiered at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986 and went on to a two-year Broadway run. The musical melding of fairy tale characters who explore life after the conventional “happily ever after” ending, replaces “Brigadoon” Aug. 29-Sept. 9 . . . . Albert Uhry, the playwright of “Driving Miss Daisy,” a big success for the Old Globe last season, just picked up a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Academy of Motion Pictures . . . . The Marionetas de la Esquina (Marionettes on the Corner) will present “A Chapter in the Life of the Great Marvelous Circus” at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. The Mexican puppet show is a co-production by the San Diego Repertory Theatre and the San Diego Mexican Consulate . . . . Ollie Nash will direct Mickey Mullany, managing director of the Bowery Theatre, in “Jesse and the Bandit Queen,” David Freeman’s play about legendary outlaws Belle Starr and Jesse James, at the Kingston Playhouse in April. If the Bowery doesn’t find an Equity actor for the part of Jesse, Mullany, who is eligible to join Equity, will do so to maintain the terms of the Bowery’s professional contract requiring a certain percentage of Equity performers in each show . . . . Performance artist Holly Hughes will perform an excerpt from her latest work, “Lobster Tails,” at a benefit for Sushi Performance Gallery at Cafe Japengo in the Golden Triangle at 6-9 p.m. tonight. The show, which is based on Hughes’ experiences as a waitress at a seafood restaurant, is under consideration for a full production at Sushi . . . . Proceeds of the March 21 performance of “In Stitches,” the new musical produced by Sweetooth Comedy Theatre that opened yesterday at Uptown Sound, will go to Ariel House, a hospice for persons with advance AIDS-related illnesses.