Big Plans for a Dark (New Year’s) Night

Though New Year’s Eve is on a Monday next week--normally a dark night for theaters--a number of shows will offer special performances to ring in 1991:

* At the Santa Monica Playhouse, Jerry Mayer’s “Aspirin and Elephants” plays twice: the 6:30 p.m. performance ($35) includes hors d’oeuvres, champagne, party favors and noisemakers; the 9:30 show ($50) adds a midnight buffet.

* The Groundlings host “Best of the Groundlings”; the $60 charge includes a buffet and champagne.

* Sheri Glaser’s “Family Secrets,” at the Heliotrope Theatre, plays at 7 p.m. ($25, including champagne) and 10 p.m. ($35, with champagne, hors d’oeuvres, and party).

* Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara appear as the mismatched bluebloods in A. R. Gurney’s “Love Letters,” at the Canon Theatre, at 7 and 10 p.m. The $50 price tag includes sparkling cider.

* The Globe Playhouse opens Shakespeare’s “The Rape of Lucrece,” followed by champagne and an open forum with the cast. Ticket prices range from $8.50 (“seniors and unemployed actors”) to $25.

* Besides the customary free-flowing champagne and buffet at “Tamara” at Il Vittoriale, patrons will be treated to music and dancing, psychics and tarot card readers, balloons, streamers, party favors and the traditional clock countdown to midnight. Tickets are $150 per person.

Other shows playing on New Year’s Eve--but without special refreshments--include “The Phantom of the Opera” at the Ahmanson Theatre, featuring the return of Michael Crawford (7 p.m.); “Finkel’s Follies” closing at the Westwood Playhouse (5 and 9 p.m.); “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway” at the Shubert Theatre (8 p.m.); and Penn and Teller’s “Refrigerator Tour” at the Wiltern Theatre (7 and 11 p.m.).

For Christmas cheer, the Doolittle Theatre is offering $10 tickets for the Dec. 25 performance of “The Heidi Chronicles,” with Stephanie Dunnam in for the departed Amy Irving.

GET REAL: Before we forge into the new year, a wrist-slap to a few local theater producers for indulging in some ill-conceived puffery.

Recent press releases for the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera refer to the organization as “last year’s regional Tony finalist” and “the only dedicated musical theatre finalist for the 1989 national Regional Tony Award.”

There are no such animals. Any of the 200-plus members of the American Theatre Critics Assn. may suggest names of theaters for the regional Tony, and at least one member apparently suggested SBCLO last year. But ATCA recommends only one theater for the honor each year, without naming “finalists.” It’s safe to say that SBCLO--which presents traditional musical revivals with largely non-Equity casts--was hardly up there slugging it out with the eventual winner, Seattle Repertory Theatre.

The Tony committee in New York makes the final decision, customarily accepting the critics’ recommendation.

Speaking of critics’ recommendations, a recent trip to “A Peasant of El Salvador” at the Dynarski Theatre found a legal-sized flyer in the lobby, plastered with a Times banner, and below it, reprints of four local reviews. Two, from The Times and the L.A. Reader, were positive. Another two, from the L.A. Weekly and Drama-Logue, appeared positive. On closer inspection, however, the latter reviews proved to have been cut and pasted together--with all negative comments neatly trimmed out.

From the Drama-Logue “review”: “ . . . the cast is youthful and attractive and thoroughly persuaded by their cause. In this harmonious company there is not a moment of doubt, not a hint of real. . . .”

Here’s that portion of Bruce Feld’s actual review: “(The show’s) childlike attempts to grapple with political and ethical themes are, paradoxically, rendered even more juvenile because the cast is youthful and attractive and thoroughly persuaded by their cause. In this harmonious company there is not a moment of doubt, not a hint of real dramatic conflict. There is, however, a constantly smug presentation of the kind of self-righteousness that gives martyrdom a bad name.”

Moving on to “A Pinch of Pinter With a Twist” at the Rose Theatre, in the program director-producer Leslie Byrne writes grandly of her new relationship with playwright Harold Pinter: “I made history when his office called from London requesting updates on rehearsels (sic) and the shows (sic) progress.” History?