‘Chorus Line’ to Lead Performing Arts Center’s Broadway Series

Productions of five Broadway musicals, including the first touring versions of two current hits and the “farewell” tour of the longest-running show in Broadway history, have been announced by the Orange County Performing Arts Center for next season.

Beginning with “A Chorus Line” in November, the Center’s 1990-91 Broadway Series will include “Grand Hotel” in April, “Meet Me in St. Louis” in May, “Les Miserables” in June and “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway” in July.

The series, to be announced today in a prepared statement, is being touted by Center officials as a coup because of the acclaim garnered by the original productions and the fact that key artistic personnel will remain connected with several of the costly touring versions.

Center officials also point to what they call the relatively fresh currency of the shows, which has not always been the case at the Center.

Tommy Tune, who won two Tony Awards earlier this year for directing and choreographing “Grand Hotel” on Broadway, will re-create the $5-million musical for the road production, which itself will cost several million dollars to launch, according to a spokeswoman for the tour’s New York producers. It is expected to go on the road in November, beginning in Tampa, Fla.

“Grand Hotel,” which won three other Tonys besides Tune’s (though not for best musical), opened on Broadway eight months ago and is still running. Set in a luxury Berlin hotel in 1928, it tells the story of a lonely ballerina and her jewel-thief lover and is based on both the novel and play by Vicki Baum that also inspired the famous 1932 movie starring Greta Garbo and John Barrymore.

Jerome Robbins, who won a 1989 Tony for directing “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” has re-created his Broadway production (which is still running) for a multimillion-dollar touring version, to commence a four-month engagement at Los Angeles’ Shubert Theatre in October. The show will then go to Japan for several months and will return to this country on an itinerary that will bring it to the Center next summer.

“Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” which garnered a total of six Tonys (including best musical), is a song-and-dance anthology of numbers taken from the director-choreographer’s work in shows dating back to the 1940s.

The producers acknowledge that Tony Roberts, who will star in the Los Angeles and Tokyo productions (as he did on Broadway, replacing Tony-winner Jason Alexander), has not yet committed to touring with the show on its return to the States. Nor have Debbie Shapiro and Scott Wise, who will re-create their Tony-winning featured roles in Los Angeles and Tokyo.

The national farewell tour of “A Chorus Line,” which closed in New York in April after a record 6,137 Broadway performances, will retain the services of Laura Gamache, who starred in the production for the past year in the key role of Cassie.

Although Michael Bennett’s 1976 Tony-winning musical has become familiar to theatergoers nationwide through previous tours, a Hollywood movie, various professional stagings and uncounted amateur versions, both the tour producers and Center officials claim that theatergoers will flock to their production, which begins touring Oct. 1 in Cupertino.

“Meet Me in St. Louis” is expected to cash in on nostalgia for the 1943 movie by Vincente Minnelli that is best remembered for Judy Garland’s performance. It’s a period piece, about the domestic adventures of an all-American family living on Kensington Avenue in turn-of-the-century St. Louis. The score, considerably expanded from the movie’s, includes such tunes as “The Boy Next Door” and “The Trolley Song.”

The $4.2-million touring version of “Les Miserables” coming to the Center has been on the road since November and currently is playing in San Antonio, its 67th booking. By the time it reaches Costa Mesa it will have played in 100 theaters around the country, according to a spokesman for the tour.

Subscriptions to the five-show series range from $95 to $209, up from last year’s prices of $90.50 to $195). Single tickets for weekend performances also will go up, and will cost from $21 to $42 (last year the range was $19 to $40). Performances on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays will cost from $19 to $40.

The Schedule

“A Chorus Line,” Nov. 13 to 18.

“Grand Hotel,” April 2 to 7, 1991.

“Meet Me in St. Louis,” May 14 to 19.

“Les Miserables,” June 18 to 23.

“Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” July 23 to 28.