Center Hurt by Economy, Gulf Crisis, Director Says : Programming: Orange County’s Thomas R. Kendrick also cites risky fare. ‘We didn’t have a crystal ball.’

County Performing Arts Center executive director Thomas R. Kendrick blames the economy and world events for dismal box-office showings at his hall this summer and fall.

But he does acknowledge that several of the programming choices that ended in financial failure were chancy undertakings, even under normal circumstances.

“The wall came down” on the Australian Ballet in early August, Kendrick said, despite the excellent reviews the company had received in New York and Washington.

“We woke up in the morning and Hussein had invaded Kuwait. (Ticket sales) stopped, just about like that. It just didn’t move. And then it deepened. During the summer we used to go out there and wonder where all the people had gone, (if) they really had gone to the beach. And maybe they did, because the beach didn’t cost money.”

In addition to the $250,000 loss (called a “subsidy”) budgeted to underwrite the ballet, the center lost $26,000 in ticket sales.

Two weeks later came a co-production with the La Jolla Playhouse of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” which also was well-reviewed. But again, there was bad news.

“That was the troop commitments, the beginning of the budget crisis buildup,” Kendrick recalled. “It all hit in there. That wall that had come down the day after the Kuwaiti invasion just stayed there and got worse.”

Kendrick said that “Forum’s” failure cost $400,000, including the center’s production investment.

“There’s no argument that (“Forum”) was being done in the summer, which is risky,” Kendrick admitted. “There was no subscription, which is risky, and there was no star--it had all those things against it. . . .”

But, he continued, “the success was so extraordinary in the summer of 1989 that it gave us the impetus to go forward in 1990. Remember, we didn’t have a crystal ball of what the economy would be in 1990.”

The New York City Ballet, which sold out in its last appearance at the center, sold only 85% of the seats in late September. “I don’t consider that any kind of triumph,” said Kendrick, noting that the subsidy for the New York Ballet was even larger than that for the Australian Ballet.

There were still more losses in October when Britain’s D’Oyly Carte Opera Company performed “Pirates of Penzance” and “The Mikado.” Just over half the seats were sold, despite good reviews.

The major bright spot, Kendrick said, is that the current Broadway series closed out subscriptions at 78% of capacity, with almost no promotion. “It was a strong series,” Kendrick explained. “It had the element of a sure thing. . . . People are buying the sure thing. They are buying what is safe. “

BOX-OFFICE LOSSES

“A Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum”: $400,000

Australian Ballet: $276,000

New York City Ballet: $209,000Source: Orange County Performing Arts Center