Musical ‘Sayonara’ Due in Pasadena; Spielberg’s Grant to LATC Unmatched

A musical version of James Michener’s “Sayonara” will become the second new musical offered by Pasadena’s California Music Theatre. The opening is scheduled for March 6, 1991.

After a steady diet of revivals of old shows, CMT will open its first new musical, the previously announced “Clothespins and Dreams,” in August.

“Sayonara” received its only prior production in 1987 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. Written by William Luce (“The Belle of Amherst”), with music by George Fischoff and lyrics by Hy Gilbert, it was optioned by CMT’s artistic director Gary Davis and Mikal Pippi, founding director of the American Musical Theatre Festival in Carmel.

After the CMT production, Davis and Pippi hope to send the show on a tour ending in New York. The first stop may be in Southern California. Long Beach Civic Light Opera, Orange County Performing Arts Center, and San Diego’s Starlight Musical Theatre are considering the project.

Davis said that as the show’s producer as well as the head of the CMT, “I won’t take anything out of the CMT presentation--that wouldn’t be ethical. But as it moves on, I will share in the (financial) participation.” He said he has received verbal commitments to productions in 10 cities.

E.T., COUGH UP: Last year Steven Spielberg’s Amblin’ Entertainment offered Los Angeles Theatre Center $100,000-- if six other Hollywood institutions would match it.

Now it can be told: Spielberg gave LATC the $100,000 on Dec. 19, without waiting for anyone else to match it. LATC managing director Robert Lear said that Spielberg had requested anonymity in December. But it was a spokesman for Spielberg who revealed the change of course.

Lear added that Spielberg made his donation, without the match, in response to a request from LATC, which was drumming up as much money as possible in December in order to meet a deficit-lowering deadline imposed by the Community Redevelopment Agency.

The campaign for matching money has not been abandoned, emphasized Lear. “You stand in line--it’s not a call and then a ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ ” he said. “While Steven Spielberg’s gift lends credibility to that kind of subsidy coming out of Hollywood, it’s no guarantee.”

THE MISSING LINK: Ron Link, who was replaced on Friday by Jack O’Brien as director of Neil Simon’s “Jake’s Women” (opening tonight at the Old Globe in San Diego), said that producer Emanuel Azenberg blamed “chemistry” for the switch when he delivered the news.

“I don’t know what means. I’m not really that sure what happened,” added Link. “All of Neil’s people said that his shows have never been in better condition than this one was.” At any rate, Link said that “Jack has promised me to shepherd my play to its opening.”

“Neil and Ron just had different views of the direction the play was going,” offered Thomas Hall, the Old Globe’s managing director. “And it’s the playwright’s interests that need to be served.” Asked if the Old Globe management concurred in the decision, he replied, “it was a consensus of opinion.”

O’Brien, artistic director of the Old Globe, must balance his new assignment with his direction of a television adaptation of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” for KCET in Los Angeles. It went into rehearsal Tuesday, said a KCET spokesman, and will shoot for 11 days beginning March 19. It’s scheduled to be broadcast in June.

This marks a turnabout for the Simon/O’Brien relationship. In 1980, Simon fired O’Brien as director of his “I Ought to Be in Pictures.” As recently as two months ago, O’Brien commented, “I believe in my heart right now that Neil loves me as a colleague but doesn’t think I can play his music. As a director, I believe I can direct anything. To be successful, you’ve got to have enough chutzpah to say, ‘I can do anything.’.”

Link could take some consolation from his Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award, announced Tuesday, for his staging of “Stand-Up Tragedy.”

AT VENTURA COURT: “Tiger Treadwell Takes Tinseltown” has closed at the new Ventura Court Theatre, in the wake of the fire department’s closing of the theater last Thursday. The theater’s owner, Max Rubinchik, said the producers knew, going in, that the theater had not obtained all of its permits; producer Steve Itkin denied this. Three other productions had been scheduled for the theater; one of them, “Merlin,” is now moving to the Globe Theater in West Hollywood, opening April 8.

TAPER DISCOUNTS: You may choose your own ticket price for a limited pool of tickets at the Saturday night preview of Beckett’s “Play” and “Krapp’s Last Tape” and Pinter’s “The Collection,” part of the “50/60 Vision” series.

In a separate offer, any tickets that remain unsold 10 minutes before curtain, at any “50/60” performance through March 27, will then be sold for $10 (normal preview price is $18).

The rules for both discounts: Cash only, a limit of two per person. Information: (213) 972-7373.

WEEKLY AWARDS: The LA Weekly will present its annual smaller-theater awards Monday at Myron’s Ballroom, 1024 S. Grand Ave., in downtown Los Angeles. Artificial Intelligence of “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” fame will host, and the program will feature singer Sam Harris, the Del Rubio Triplets and Charles Busch of “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.” The public is invited. Information: (213) 667-2511.