Doing as Romans Do

A rather wonderful thing happened on the way to the La Jolla Playhouse on Monday night.

Judith Harris chaired the theater’s second annual “Monday Night Live” gala and revealed herself to be a student of time-honored American sayings. Faced with building a party in a space occupied by sets for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” Harris heeded the adage that advises “When in Rome, make hay while the sun shines,” and netted more than $80,000 for the cash-hungry playhouse by treating the backstage of the Mandell Weiss Theatre as an arena ripe for Dadaist interpretation.

“We used some of the ‘Forum’ flavor in the decor,” Harris said--rather modestly--describing a topsy-turvy backstage setting of tables jumbled among props and walls splashed with theatrical graffiti; just to make sure no one missed the mood, some of the centerpieces hung upside down over the tables.

“It’s sort of ‘Caligula meets Mad Max,’ kind of ‘Beyond the Roman Thunderdome,’ ” Harris continued. “It’s wild, it’s industrial--it’s La Jolla Playhouse!”

And, because it did take place at the La Jolla Playhouse, Harris threw a show into the bargain, a performance by youthful New Orleans crooner Harry Connick Jr. and his orchestra. If Harris took the crowd roaring uptown on an “A” train that often flew off the tracks, it was Connick who punched the return tickets and used a snazzy, jazzy downbeat to somehow make the Mandell Weiss stage seem like Radio City Music Hall circa 1940.

But, before the show, there was dinner. The 350 guests seemed ripe for madness on a Monday eve and went along with the wry Roman theme by crowning themselves with the gold cardboard laurel wreaths that hung from the back of each chair. The sight amused playhouse artistic director Des McAnuff, who said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight. Maybe it’ll turn into a Roman orgy, but I kind of doubt it. It’ll be a good fund-raiser, though.”

In the middle of caterer John Baylin’s handsome cucina nuova menu of caramelized onion pizza, chicken sauced with roasted peppers and layered chocolate terrine, McAnuff managed to distract the audience from the setting long enough to honor major playhouse benefactors Charmaine and Maurice Kaplan, Elizabeth and Mason Phelps and Peggy and Peter Preuss. In September, 1989, the Kaplans and Preusses launched the La Jolla Playhouse Financial Stabilization Campaign. Theater board president Mason Phelps has led several fund-raising efforts.

“This has been a remarkable year,” McAnuff told the crowd. “There were many moments when we thought we would no longer exist. You’ve all been wonderful. I hope we can continue to count on all of you to come to our aid in these troubled times.” Turning specifically to the leading playhouse angel, Mandell Weiss, McAnuff threw out his arms and exclaimed, “Thank God for you !”

The event progressed in three parts that could be described as the reception, the dinner and the show, but a more accurate breakdown would list them as anticipation of Connick’s performance, enjoyment of Connick’s performance and discussion of Connick’s performance. Widely mentioned as “the new Frank Sinatra,” Connick gave every evidence of being perhaps the first genuine American showman to come along in a generation or more.

With a painted scene of Rome’s Colosseum as a backdrop, Connick directed his orchestra through gyroscopic variations on Big Band hits, danced a step or two and sang in a voice so soulful that it just may inspire a revival of bobbysoxerism. After the performance, several guests actually discussed him as a sign of possible cultural rejuvenation in the 1990s.

The program listed David Copley (who escorted Susan Farrell), Roger and Ellen Revelle and Mandell Weiss as event angels, and Lee and Frank Goldberg as benefactors. Among other supporters present were Robert Singer, Karen and Don Cohn, Geri and Joseph Kennedy, Anne and Bill Otterson, Sandra and Douglas Pay, Louise and Robert Ritchie, Colette and Ivor Royston, Sally and John Thornton, Audrey Geisel, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, Carol Randolph and Bob Caplan, Eileen and Willard VanderLaan, Kathleen and Douglas Wilson, Luba Johnston, Rita Bronowski, Martha and Don Chatelain, Carolyn Yorston, Barbara and Karl ZoBell, Evelyn Truitt with Old Globe Theatre executive producer Craig Noel, and former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle with his wife, Carrie.

For Dorothea and David Garfield, the playhouse event marked their second party on the UC San Diego campus in three days.

On Saturday, Dorothea chaired the 18th annual Chancellor’s Associates Dinner Dance, given for about 340 major university supporters in the courtyard and ballroom of the Price Center. She chose a somewhat calmer approach that called, during the outdoor reception, for nothing more than a pair of musicians perched on a central elevation.

“I really have no theme tonight, I just thought it would be fun to have a little calypso music,” Garfield said, adding “But not enough to make anyone nervous!”

The steel drums nonetheless aided digestion of both the smoked salmon canapes and of the pink champagne offered by waiters stationed along the length of the decorative stream and waterfalls that descend into the circular plaza.

The Chancellor’s Associates dinner has grown over the years into one of the major events on the summer calendar. The group now numbers a Who’s Who collection of 441 county residents, about 60 of whom are UCSD graduates; each donates a minimum of $1,500 annually to an unrestricted fund that Chancellor Richard Atkinson may use for special programs and projects.

Associate’s chairman Murray Galinson said that the group’s creation of a discretionary fund for the chancellor’s use is “essential at a time when the state is becoming increasingly frugal.”

In the formal presentation that followed the dinner, Atkinson told the crowd that the Associates provide the university with “flexibility and with seed money to start new ventures.” Atkinson also presented distinguished service medals to James DeSilva, patron of the Stuart Collection of Sculpture; posthumously to Dr. Jack Farris, the late Associate Dean of Community Affairs at the UCSD School of Medicine (Carolyn Farris accepted the award), and to Shirley and David Rubel, respectively the former Presidents of the School of Medicine Auxiliary and the UCSD Cancer Center.

The formal program continued with the announcement of the selection of Dixie Unruh as vice chairwoman of the Associates. The first woman to be named to the slot, the former board president of the Old Globe Theatre will eventually graduate to the chairmanship.

Atkinson was nearly screened from sight by 6-foot-high floral arrangements that tapered up to pairs of flame-colored torch ginger; underneath these towers of flowers, waiters served a dinner of lamb loin in mustard sauce and poached pear with custard and raspberry sauces. The Bill Green Orchestra regularly enticed the crowd of movers and shakers to get up and shake a leg or two.

The guest list included Harriet and Richard Levi, Jeanne Lawrence, Dorene and John Whitney, Emmy and Bud Cote, Sheri and Ben Kelts, Lee and Larry Cox, Polly Puterbaugh with fiance Elie Shneour, Anne and Sam Armstrong, Mary and Jim Berglund, Peggy and K.C. Chan, Fredricka and Robert Driver, Alison and George Gildred, Pauline and Stanley Foster, Flo and Leo Henrikson, Theresa Latosh with Donald McVay, Joany and Bob Mosher, Darlene and Donald Shiley, Helen and Jose Tasende, and Dorothy and Kenneth Hill.