Theaters Quietly Await ‘Forum’ Tour Decision : Stage: Performing Arts Center, La Jolla Playhouse would earn royalties if show went on the road. But group that would mount such a production has yet to make a decision, or even see the revival.

Although officials of the Orange County Performing Arts Center and La Jolla Playhouse have consistently downplayed their interest in a tour of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” which bows tonight in Costa Mesa, they have been waiting quietly for the Pace Theatrical Group to consider the possibility of mounting one.

Royalties from a tour--if it were profitable--would help offset the production cost of the current revival, variously estimated at between $500,000 and $600,000 and being shared equally by the Playhouse and the Center. Because ticket sales are not expected to match those costs, both nonprofit organizations are looking to contributions to make up the difference.

On Wednesday, Pace chairman Miles Wilkin said from his Florida office that he expects to evaluate “Forum” at the Center “sometime next week.” But he would not speculate about its touring chances. Pace, which co-presents the Center’s annual Broadway Series, produces and books national tours for more than two dozen theaters across the country.

Wilkin had indicated that he or one of his top associates would catch the show at La Jolla, where it ran for six weeks earlier this summer, with a view toward touring possibilities. However, neither he nor any other Pace executives turned up there to see it.

“Forum” played to standing-room crowds at the Playhouse’s 492-seat Mandell Weiss Theatre as part of its regular subscription season, averaging “106% of capacity,” Playhouse spokeswoman Constance Harvey said. But the show is not likely to do anything near that kind of business at the 2,996-seat Center, where advance-ticket sales have lagged. The show, which is being sold on a non-subscription basis at the Center, is scheduled for 13 performances through Aug. 26.

Despite Wilkin’s declared admiration for “Forum” director Des McAnuff--”I’m a great fan of his work”--Pace apparently has no sense of urgency about seeing the show at the Center either. Susan Wolf, Pace’s vice president of marketing, was there earlier this week and had planned to see “Forum” tonight but was called back to New York on Wednesday on the more pressing business of shooting a TV commercial for Pace’s upcoming tour of Ken Ludwig’s “Lend Me a Tenor.”

Before she left, Wolf said she was told that Wilkin would be seeing “Forum” during its “closing weekend” and noted that doing so was a routine obligation of the business. “We look at everything, just about everything,” she said. “It’s supply and demand, and we have a constant demand. But until we see a show, it’s hard to tell what we would do. Obviously a star vehicle is what we look for.”

This revival does not have a star with marquee value, although one could be sought for a tour. Even with a name star, however, “Forum” may not be a prime touring prospect. “The last ‘Forum’ that toured (in 1987) had Mickey Rooney, and it was not successful in my recollection,” Wolf said.

Pace’s lack of urgency is not in itself a sign that a “Forum” tour has been discounted, moreover. Pace has already locked in its touring shows for the upcoming season, so it has no immediate need to decide.