Oops, It’s a War: Two Comedy/Improvisation Groups Playing Under the Same Name

Oops.

Or rather, double-Oops.

Fans of the longtime comedy/improv group, the Alley Oops, may be understandably confused over the status of the troupe of satirists and comic actors. When Actors Alley Repertory Theatre moved to its new North Hollywood establishment in late May, it took the Alley Oops along in the truck. After all, the Oops were born at Actors Alley in 1984. There’s only one Alley Oops group, supposedly, and Actors Alley has it.

So why is a group, also named the Alley Oops, performing Saturday nights at the Tracy Roberts Actors Studio in Beverly Hills?

It is not a touring company, as if, for example, the Groundlings set up a traveling group to go on the road to Orange County. It is simply two groups vying to use the same name.

It also might be a story that could end up in the skit of some enterprising local comedy/improv group. Right now, however, neither party is laughing.

On one side, Actors Alley managing director Robert Caine claims the theater has not given permission for any group, independent of the theater, to use the Alley Oops name.

On the other side, Steven Kavner, director of the Alley Oops show at Tracy Roberts and co-creator (with former Actors Alley artistic director, Jordan Charney) of the original Oops group and name, claims the theater can’t own the name.

“They can’t do that,” said Kavner, “any more than they can claim ownership to a play written, developed and produced by Actors Alley members. The play is owned by the playwright, never by a theater.”

Kavner, who left Actors Alley in November, 1989, assumed future use of the name wouldn’t be an issue, since Charney had notified Caine that “Vaguely Vegas,” a TV pilot script for the Oops by Charney, Kavner and Mark Measures, would be shopped around for a buyer. Caine was informed that the Alley Oops name would be attached to the script, which remains unsold, and that a to-be-negotiated percentage of any first sale would go the theater.

“We thought this was fair,” Kavner noted, “since Actors Alley had been home for the Alley Oops for six years. We had no idea that we would run into the kind of problems that we’ve encountered.”

Caine also has evinced surprise over the current War of the Oopses. Four months after Kavner left the theater, Caine received a phone call from him. Kavner had been startled to see Actors Alley ads proclaiming “the new and improved Alley Oops” in a new show, “Alley Oops Go to the Movies.”

“I asked (Caine) not to use the name,” Kavner said, “since we had filed a doing-business-as license,” which identified the producing entity as the Alley Oops. “He said ‘OK,’ and that seemed to be the end of it.”

Charney, in a phone interview from New York, where he is teaching acting workshops, said: “I don’t personally need this name. But we had attached the name to the ‘Vaguely Vegas’ script during pitches to various TV producers. Had it been made clear by Actors Alley early on that they wanted full claim to the name, we wouldn’t have used it. But they didn’t make it clear. In the meantime, we’ve used it.”

Caine denies that he approved Kavner’s use of the name. “I told him that I would look into it,” Caine said. (Kavner “vehemently denies” Caine said this, and stands by his account of their conversation.)

“After considering it,” Caine said, “I decided, ‘Nuts to them.’ Though it’s true that Jordan and Steven had created the Alley Oops, they did it at Actors Alley. It was developed at Actors Alley. It was identified as a part of Actors Alley for six years.” He said they are not getting anything from the name, “but our position is that the name belongs to us.”

Kavner and his associates attempted a temporary restraining order in Van Nuys civil court against Actors Alley in May, when it opened “Alley Oops Go to the Movies.” The order was withdrawn when Kavner’s party could not post the required $2,500 bond.

Caine insisted that the “new and improved” sticker on the Actors Alley’s Oops wasn’t intended as a slam at the old Oops, but “just to let people know that a new group had formed.” It may be new, but it includes three members of the original Oops: Gary Reed, Raoul Staggs and Carol Keis.

The theater’s group, under the direction of Barry Pearl, who took over as Alley Oops ringleader and head of the Actors Alley improv workshop after Kavner left the theater, will resume with regular performances Aug. 3--about a month before the Kavner/Measures/Charney group (which includes Oops veteran and MTV veejay, Martha Quinn) plans to resume performances at Tracy Roberts. Come September, confused fans of the Oops may not know where to turn.

The issue could be resolved, Kavner suggested, if his current effort to trademark the name succeeds. There is a possible snag on that front as well. United Media Syndicate, which owns syndicated rights to the old comic strip, “Alley Oop,” may lay ultimate claim to the name. “This kind of use of the name falls into a legal gray area, and would require further studies by our attorneys,” said Lisa Wilson, United Media’s national sales manager.

When the War of the Oopses is over, a comic strip could claim victory.

Actors Alley Repertory Theatre’s opening production of its new season has been changed to “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow--a Stephen Sondheim Evening.” The theater is currently dark after its move to North Hollywood from Sherman Oaks.

Previews will be July 25 and 26, with opening night July 27. According to Robert Caine, the Sondheim revue was originally produced at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art in March, 1983, and has only been staged in Southern California at University of California, Irvine. Like another Sondheim revue, “Marry Me a Little,” this show includes songs that didn’t make it into previous Sondheim musicals. It also includes songs that did, but, Caine noted, “they’re mostly upbeat numbers, not the darker stuff usually associated with Sondheim.”