Underground Founder Now Banking on Cover Charge

Comedian Elaine Boosler may have canceled her show at the California Theatre tonight, but that doesn’t mean San Diego is without laughs. Tonight is the grand opening benefit bash for the Underground at the Lyceum.

More than 20 performers will present a retrospective Best of the Underground in 1989 at 10:30 tonight , along with a buffet and no-host bar. Proceeds from the tickets, which are $10 in advance and $15 at the door, will go to raise money to buy a sound system, tables and chairs for the space.

The Underground has come a long way since its founder and artistic director, Judy Milstein, first approached the San Diego Repertory Theatre about housing an intimate late-night spot for theater, comedy and music in the empty area in front of the doors to the Lyceum Stage and Lyceum Space.

When it opened in December, 1988, Milstein had to coax people in for an evening of comedy that was free of charge. Entertainment after 10 p.m.? And who were these performers, anyway? But, as the season wound down at the end of 1989, experimental and sometimes disjointed evenings gave way to cohesive and consistently funny and/or dramatic pieces, such as a new musical titled “Snake Attack” and a workshop piece by the creators of “Suds” called “When Friends Collide.” The Underground, which remained free of charge, began drawing people by the hundreds.

Now, given the program that Milstein has lined up for 1990, it is likely to go further, despite her qualms about charging money for the first time in the Underground’s history. The $5 cover charge will go to the cost of the space (lighting, sound, bartending, musicians, insurance, etc.) and to providing stipends for the performers who used to work for free.

The 1990 season reflects Milstein’s interest in what she calls “intimate, original theater that’s about the human being on stage, and very little about production value.” Shows will be Friday and Saturday nights through December and will feature:

* A co-production with Sharon Murray, the soap opera fanatic from “Six Women With Brain Death or Expiring Minds Want to Know” in an original work called “An Act in Three Parties,” co-starring Ron Creager, June 1-16.

* An ensemble of local artists performing new works in “Moment to Moment,” June 22-July 7.

* A co-production with Ensemble Arts Theatre of a new work called “VVN,” or “Vaudeville Vietnam,” by Ensemble Arts Theatre members Ron Lang and R.J. Bonds, the latter a Vietnam veteran, July 13-28. Ensemble Arts Theatre plans to take the show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.

* Los Angeles solo artist Beth Lepidis in a comic work-in-progress titled “Globamania,” Aug. 3-18.

* A musical look at ambition in the big city called “Makin’ It,” with veteran Underground performers Milstein, Loren Hecht, Laura Preble, Mark Danishovszky and Johnny Warner, Aug. 24-Sept. 8.

* A full-length two-person musical by Tom Simmonds, a friend of Milstein’s who died of AIDS, called “Splendora,” Sept. 14-29. Starring Milstein and Johnny Warner, it’s the story of a transvestite librarian, a monk and a variety of other characters who find love in a small Texas town.

* A new musical work from the creators and performers of “Suds,” Oct. 5-20.

* San Francisco artist Jessica Litwak in “Exit: Pursued by a Bear,” Oct. 26-Nov. 10.

* A local African-American theater troupe, Community Actors Theatre, led by Damon Bryant, in an evening of music, vignettes and dramatic poetry, Nov. 16-Dec. 1.

* A Christmas show called “Consumer Lust,” Dec. 7-22.

Despite the current financial troubles of the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company, managing director and acting artistic director Kit Goldman is already thinking about next year’s season. Still in what Goldman described as “the most preliminary of stages,” pending discussions with her board, is a new musical, “Tales of Tinseltown,” that New York producer Celso Gonzalez pitched to her this week in San Diego.

“Tales of Tinseltown,” a story of a young actress trying to make it in Hollywood in the 1930s, was produced at the George Street Playhouse in Brunswick, N.J., last year.

Gonzalez said he is working to produce the show, written by Michael Colby with music by Paul Katz, off-Broadway. Gonzalez spoke by phone from the Horton Grand Hotel, owned by the same limited partnership that owns the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre, which the Gaslamp rents. He said he is interested in a San Diego production that would help him further develop the piece.

The next step would be a Southern California tour managed by Harris Goldman, (no relation to Kit), former executive director of Starlight Musical Theatre, who introduced Gonzalez to Kit Goldman. After that, Gonzalez said, he hopes the show will be ready for New York.

Gonzalez said he is not bothered by the Gaslamp’s financial situation. His plan is to put up what he calls a yet-to-be-determined amount of “enhancement money” that would reduce or eliminate the Gaslamp’s risk. If the show does go on to another life, the Gaslamp would be credited as one of the original producers and pull in a percentage of the royalties.

“We’ll find a way of backing up the Gaslamp with additional money so they won’t be at risk,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a good theater, and they have some problems that I think they will be able to solve.”

Gonzalez sees his show as one of the solutions. He said he would like to start rehearsals in April and open next May.

“Nonprofit theater has to take risks, but you also have to try to produce something that will eventually bring money back,” Gonzalez said. “The question is: How do you pay Caesar and God at the same time? I’m very aware of the financial problems of the theater, but it is a very good facility and she (Goldman) is very dynamic. If anyone can pull it off, she can.”

And what’s in it for Gonzalez? Even with the enhancement money, having the Gaslamp produce the show will still be a bargain for him, he said.

“If we wanted to start a show from scratch off-Broadway, it would cost us $1 million. ‘Legs Diamond’ proved you can’t develop musicals in New York anymore.”

Goldman, despite her enthusiasm for the project, said she has not yet committed to it, but she did send Gonzalez home with the first act of another new musical, “The Debutante,” an African-American updating of the Pygmalion story, which she hopes to produce in January. Goldman is hoping Gonzalez may think about producing “The Debutante” in New York as well.