Outbreak of War Takes a Toll on Arts : Attendance: Patronage is down at a number of venues; some events are canceled. Some performers, theaters share hopes for peace with audience.

The terribly real dramas of the Persian Gulf played out in different ways Wednesday night in Southern California theaters and entertainment complexes.

For some it was a time for dedication and deliverance.

For others it was business as usual . . . almost.

Gordon Davidson, artistic director of the Center Theatre Group, dedicated the Wednesday performances at the Mark Taper Taper Forum and Doolittle theaters to peace.

Before the evening’s performance of “The Wash” at the Taper and after the curtain call at the Doolittle’s opening of “The Vortex,” Davidson spoke briefly to the audience, saying he was dedicating “this performance and all the performances it takes to a quick and lasting peace.” At the Doolittle he also thanked the audience for leaving their television sets for the “communal” experience of the theater.

At the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Wednesday-night performance of “The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice,” 30 seconds of silence were observed before the play began, followed by the stage manager’s announcement: “We dedicate this evening’s performance to the peace efforts all around the world.” The same message was given at “Hip-Hop” Tuesday night before military operations against Iraq began.

Many theaters reported somewhat larger numbers of “no shows” at the box office Wednesday night.

The LATC said there was “an unusual” 50% no-shows for Wednesday night’s performance of “Hip-Hop,” which had been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. “Blues in the Night” had 56 no-shows (the theater seats approximately 500).

At South Coast Repertory Theater’s premiere of “Pirates” in Costa Mesa, box-office figures indicated 10% no-shows. “Love Letters” at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills reported a normal number of no-shows, as did the Mark Taper Forum.

Business was normal at the higher-priced Los Angeles theaters. There were no reports of no-shows at the Shubert where “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway” is playing and none at the Ahmanson’s production of “Phantom of the Opera.” “We got some calls asking if the performances were canceled,” reported one Shubert official. “But at these prices it was unlikely we’d get cancellations.”

The Westwood Playhouse however, reported selling twice the normal of walk-up tickets for its production of “Yiddle With a Fiddle.”

At least two events were canceled because of the breakout of the war. Steven D. Lavine, president of CalArts, canceled Wednesday night’s “Dance in the City of Angels” lectures at the Pacific Design Center. “Everyone was agreed,” he said, “that as embattled as dance is, a real battle takes precedence. . . .”

Steven Brezzo, director of the San Diego Museum of Art, was preparing a lecture for corporate members of the museum when he heard that war had broken out. The lecture’s subject: war as a subject of visual art. “There was no point in going ahead with it,” he said. “We’ll give the lecture another time.”

Movie houses along the West Coast generally reported business almost as usual. A spokesman for Pacific Theaters said business wasn’t off as much as his firm had expected. He reported some slight drops in attendance and some increases, especially at drive-ins. Laemmle Theaters reported a 20% drop in weekday sales. United Artists Theater Circuit said business was down 20% Wednesday night at its 2,500 screens. Nationally, according to John Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations Inc., movie attendance was off 30% in the Midwest, 10% in Texas and the Southwest and unaffected in the mountain states.

Los Angeles area-restaurant business was mixed.

Sophie Healy of Champagne said cancellations began almost as the war news began. She reported almost a 40% drop. Remi in Santa Monica, which normally serves 200 dinners on Wednesday, served only 90. Business was off almost half at the Atlas Bar & Grill. Spago reported 20 cancellations, a spokesman explaining that “all news people like Tawny Little canceled for obvious reasons.” However, Border Grill’s Kevin Finch said he was surprised that all of the large groups booked at his restaurants did show.

In other venues, Wednesday night was a time for personal messages.

At Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, African-American performer Keith Antar Mason led his group, the Hittite Empire, in a performance that he said questioned the involvement of black Americans in the Persian Gulf War. Mason passed around a container with thick, red liquid and asked audience members to commemorate “the blood that was spilled today.”

At his UC Irvine concert, Corky Siegel ended his performance with his unscheduled “The Sky Will Fall,” a song for peace and brotherhood.

At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, pianist Jeffrey Biegel dedicated a performance of “Conversations” with the hope “the people at war today will also have mutual conversations and harmony.”

At San Diego’s Playwrights Project’s festival of five one-act plays by young writers, founder Deborah Salzer told the audience that “our storytellers are young adults. We celebrate them and we pray for peace.”

Contributing to this article were Janice Arkatov, Nancy Churnin, Sylvie Drake, David J. Fox, Susan Freudenheim, Oscar Garza, Diane Haithman, William Kohlhaase, Timothy Mangan, Jack Mathews, Laurie Ochoa and Chuck Philips.