‘Cocktail Hour’ Replaces ‘Henceforward . . .’; Chekhov’s ‘Cherry Orchard’ to Play La Jolla

Alan Ayckbourn’s “Henceforward . . .” takes place “sometime quite soon,” according to the stage directions. But it won’t be quite as soon as we expected.

The Ahmanson-at-the-Doolittle production of “Henceforward . . .,” scheduled for April 19 to July 1, has been postponed until sometime next season. In its place will be A.R. Gurney’s comedy “The Cocktail Hour,” with the same cast that opened in it at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre and Off-Broadway in 1988, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington last year.

“The main issue is casting,” said Ahmanson producing director Gordon Davidson. Although he declined to name names, the actors he wanted for “Henceforward . . .” weren’t available now. “A complicated sound score” also needs additional work, he said, “but we could have dealt with that.”

It’s “likely” that this production of “Henceforward . . .” will move from Los Angeles to another venue on Broadway or elsewhere, said Davidson, but that was not a factor in the casting problems. “The contracts were only for here. I wasn’t trying to tie people up for a longer period.”

The production will still be the West Coast premiere when it finally takes place, he added.

In Gurney’s “The Cocktail Hour,” a playwright asks permission of his stuffy Upstate New York family to proceed with a new autobiographical play. Bruce Davison plays the writer, with Nancy Marchand and Keene Curtis as his parents and Holland Taylor as his sister.

It will be Gurney’s season on local stages: His “Love Letters” is at Pasadena Playhouse’s Balcony Theatre, with different casts each week, and will move to the Canon Theater in Beverly Hills April 17. Treat Williams and Christine Lahti will open the show there and play for one week.

CHEKHOV IN LA JOLLA: Lynn Redgrave will play Madame Ranevskaya in Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” at La Jolla Playhouse May 13 to June 17. The production will push the previously announced “Twelfth Night” from the season’s opening slot to the closing slot, Oct. 14-Nov. 18.

Playhouse artistic director Des McAnuff said that he has been talking to director Tom Moore about working in La Jolla since 1984--and he has been talking to Redgrave since 1985. “The Cherry Orchard” was at the top of Moore’s wish list, Redgrave was also interested, and schedules coincided in May.

McAnuff believes a Russian play “that involves startling social changes” is especially appropriate now, as the Soviet Union goes through another round of such changes. But while he and Moore have talked about the parallels between the two eras “in the abstract,” McAnuff cautioned that they haven’t discussed whether or how the parallels might become more specific on stage.

This will be Moore’s first full-fledged stage assignment since “ ‘night, Mother” at the Taper in 1986 (he directed L.A. Classic Theatre Works’ live radio production of “Once in a Lifetime” in 1987). He has been working primarily in television.

GROUNDLING RUMBLING: Gary Austin, founder and artistic director of the Groundlings from 1974 to 1979, will return to the group as its temporary Friday and Saturday revue director for the next two months. While Austin doesn’t expect to make many changes in the scripted sketches in the group’s current show, “Worship the Groundling You Walk On,” which was directed by Bill Schreiner, he said his influence probably would be visible in the improvised sections of the show.

The Groundlings have lost some of their “group dynamics” over the years, Austin said. In an effort to make the revues more collaborative and less of what he called “a talent show,” he’s insisting that the active Groundlings attend a weekly workshop during his tenure.

Austin acknowledged that he left the Groundlings in 1979 after friction between himself and his successor, Tom Maxwell, who left the Groundlings last year. In the last decade, Austin has continued to direct his own improvisational workshops and recently has achieved some success as a country music singer and songwriter. But he said he missed the audiences that are an essential part of the Groundlings experience.

PHANTOM TICKETS: The cast’s house seats for the March 30 to April 8 performances of “The Phantom of the Opera” will go on sale Monday morning in a benefit for Equity Fights AIDS, the Actors’ Equity fund for the union’s members who have AIDS.

Twenty seats at each of 11 performances will be sold. The Tuesday through Thursday evening seats will go for $150; the Friday and Saturday evening and Saturday and Sunday matinee seats will cost $250. The normal price for these seats is $50, and all but $50 of the benefit price is tax deductible.

The tickets (cash and personal checks only) will be available only through Actors’ Equity, 6430 Sunset Blvd., in Hollywood, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Monday. Information: (213) 462-2334.

BABIES REUNION: The War Babies, once among the city’s finest improv companies, will reunite for three performances March 19-21 at the Cast Theatre on behalf of that theater’s ailing leader, Ted Schmitt.

The group performed regularly at the Cast in 1977-78 and returned once for an earlier reunion. Not all of the Babies will be back, but those who plan to be there are Maryedith Burrell, Jed Mills, John Welsh, Susan Krebs, Renny Temple, Caren Kaye, Archie Hahn, Marsha Meyers and pianist Joyce Bramberg. Information: (213) 462-0265.

The War Babies reunion follows on the heels of another improv benefit for Schmitt at the Cast last Saturday. The ‘80s group Instaplay, which created audacious instant musicals for almost five years during a late-night slot at the Cast, reunited for one sell-out performance. The returning Instaplayers included Bill Steinkellner and Cheri Eichen (now “Cheers” producers), George McGrath, Jonathan Stark, Steve Devorkin, Deanna Oliver, Chad McCann, Jim Dean and pianist Mary Falcone.

STAGES WATCH: Italian actor/playwright Dario D’Ambrosi will bring a new piece, “La Trota,” to Stages Trilingual Theatre, March 20-25, following a March 13-18 reprise of “Nemico Mio,” which he did there in 1988.

Sonia Lloveras is the new general manager of the Hollywood theater. Among her first tasks, said artistic director Paul Verdier: raising at least the $25,000 to $30,000 that the theater lost on its production of “1789” at Las Palmas Theatre last fall.

SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC: Patrick Doyle, musical director of the Renaissance Theatre Company and composer of the scores for its Mark Taper Forum productions as well as the recent movie “Henry V,” will discuss “Music in Shakespeare, Theatre and Film” in the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Friday at 11 a.m. The workshop is free and open to the public. Information: (213) 972-7636.