Gaslamp Announces Season

The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company, which suspended operations for six months last year because of a deficit that approached $1 million, has announced an ambitious new season packed with premieres.

The deficit is still there, Gaslamp Managing Director Steve Bevans reports, but company spirits have been buoyed by the success of its still-running production of Terrence McNally’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.”

The show has already grossed $75,000, which is “more than any show we’ve done in 1990,” Bevans said.

Pulling in a subscription audience with this new season may be the key to the Gaslamp’s survival. Projected money from subscriptions is earmarked both to pay for the new season and to address the deficit.

The new season begins April 4 with the San Diego premiere of “A Shayna Maidel,” Barbara Lebow’s story of two sisters separated by the Holocaust and reunited after the war. It runs through May 12.

The season continues with the West Coast premiere of “Tales of Tinseltown,” a musical about a boy and girl who make it big in Hollywood, only to lose their fame but rediscover their values. The show, to be produced in cooperation with Sondra Gilman Productions, will runs May 30-July 7. Its book and lyrics are by Michael Colby and music is by Paul Katz.

“Only Kidding,” a West Coast premiere by Jim Geoghan, fills the third slot, Sept. 5-Oct. 13 with a story about two comics, one old and one young, that describes what people will do to make it in show business.

The San Diego premiere of “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” by Donald Margulies follows, Oct. 31-Dec. 8. It is the story of a woman who chokes to death on moo shu pork, but, refusing to stay dead, shows up at her house after the funeral.

A spot for a yet-to-be-named show to run Jan. 16-Feb. 23, will be followed by a production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” March 12-April 19.

Previews will begin two nights before each opening night.