‘Hamlet’ Sequel to Inaugurate La Jolla Theater

It’s a mix of new works and old faces at La Jolla Playhouse in 1991, including the world premiere of a Lee Blessing play, “Fortinbras,” billed as a comic sequel to “Hamlet.”

“Fortinbras,” the season’s second of six plays, will inaugurate the Playhouse’s 400-seat Mandell Weiss Forum, still under construction, running June 23-July 28.

A new play with music, Eric Overmyer’s “The Heliotrope Bouquet by Scott Joplin and Louis Chauvin,” will follow at the Forum Aug. 11-Sept. 15.

The Mandell Weiss Forum, which is to be a state-of-the-art thrust stage, will replace the 248-seat Warren Theatre, which the Playhouse used as a companion to its primary facility, the 492-seat Mandell Weiss Theatre.

Meanwhile, opening the season in the Mandell Weiss Theatre will be Anton Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters,” May 12-June 16.

Next up in the larger theater will be Bill Irwin’s “The Regard of Flight” and “The Clown Bagatelles,” July 7-Aug. 11, and Athol Fugard’s “A Lesson From Aloes,” which will mark the South African playwright’s West Coast acting debut, Aug. 25-Sept. 29. Fugard will also direct.

A second version of a musical “Elmer Gantry,” based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis, will conclude the season in the larger auditorium, Oct. 20-Nov. 24.

Most of the writers and all of the directors will be familiar faces. Blessing’s “Fortinbras” marks his fourth job at the Playhouse, his third time with a play commissioned by the theater.

Irwin’s visit, too, is his fourth. He previously performed in “The Sea Gull,” “A Man’s a Man” and “The Three Cuckolds.” He did “The Regard of Flight” at Taper, Too in Los Angeles in 1983.

Fugard directed “My Children! My Africa!” at La Jolla last year in a staging that re-opens at Los Angeles Theatre Center Feb. 21. “Elmer Gantry” composer Mel Marvin created the music for La Jolla’s “The Cherry Orchard” last year (and for “Babbitt: A Marriage” at the Mark Taper Forum in 1987). Stan Wojewodski Jr., who directed Overmyer’s “Don Quixote de La Jolla” last year, will direct Overmyer’s new “Heliotrope.”

The familiarity of these faces is no accident.

Artistic director Des McAnuff--who will, for the first time, direct three shows in the season, “The Three Sisters,” “Fortinbras” and “Elmer Gantry”--said the season came about by putting choices in the hands of the artists.

“That’s certainly true with Lee, Athol, Eric, Stan and Bill for this season. These are the projects that they wanted to do,” said McAnuff.

McAnuff added that Fugard has indicated to him that he will direct the American premiere of his newest show, which is as yet untitled, at the Playhouse in 1992.

“We hope that happens,” said McAnuff. “We hope that he sees this as his American home.” Fugard was unavailable for comment.

“Elmer Gantry,” a story about a con-man turned evangelist, comes with an odd history.

The musical, with a book by John Bishop and lyrics by Bishop and John Satuloff, ran at Ford’s Theatre in Washington for 17 weeks in 1988 to excellent reviews and enthusiastic audiences. There was talk of the show going to Broadway, but it never got there. The director, David H. Bell, quit the project after citing artistic differences with Ford’s executive producer Frankie Hewitt.

The play sat untouched until Marvin, the composer, brought up the idea of McAnuff taking it on during the production of “The Cherry Orchard.”

“It’s a promising work,” said McAnuff. “We’ve already been meeting on changes in the score and the book. There will be a new cast and a new physical production.”

Does that mean the hope for a Broadway production is still alive?

“We try not to think about that until we at least get the thing opened. I would expect as with most musicals, the authors have dreams of seeing a life for it. Whether that means Broadway, I don’t know.”

Ustinov En Route: “An Evening With Peter Ustinov,” a one-man show that was well-received in London last March, will play the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood for five weeks, opening June 18.

Long Beach Watch: The Long Beach Center Theatre is slowly coming back to life as a theatrical venue.

The 862-seat theater in the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center has seldom been used as a playhouse since its infancy in 1978-79. When a new group called Long Beach Repertory Theatre attempted to stage a play there last year, the group’s primary funding source got cold feet and the production was canceled.

But now, Long Beach Civic Light Opera, which stages most of its productions in the adjacent 3,000-seat Terrace Theatre, has announced plans to present “a recognized star in a well-known contemporary play” at the smaller Center Theatre for three weeks in late May and June.

Titles under consideration are “Agnes of God,” “The Rainmaker,” “The Miracle Worker” and “Wait Until Dark,” said LBCLO producer Barry Brown.

The play will be the first non-musical presented by the group, and LBCLO officials hope that it will inspire subscribers to sign on as “charter members” or “founding members” of Center Theatre Projects, a LBCLO wing that will expand into a full Center Theatre season in 1992, if all goes according to plan.

Executive director Pegge Logefeil said that the play’s budget will be designed “so we can make money with it.” LBCLO staged a summer season of musicals in the Center Theatre in 1980, but the group was still a community theater then, with much lower expenses. “Now that I see the difference between a play budget and a musical budget, plays are definitely the way to go” in the smaller theater, said Logefeil.

LBCLO will also sponsor staged readings of two new plays and two new musicals in the Center Theatre during a New Works Festival Aug. 9-11. Submissions are being accepted until May 1.

Finally, the Center Theatre will host the West Coast premiere of David H. Bell’s musical version of “A Christmas Carol,” probably Dec. 1-26. LBCLO officials hope it will become an annual event, as it has been since 1987 at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. It will feature a “celebrity Scrooge.”

Bell is the same director who initially staged “Elmer Gantry” (see above). His staging of “Chess” played Long Beach last year.

Ebony Benefit: Eartha Kitt will perform a benefit concert for Ebony Showcase Theatre and Cultural Arts Center on Feb. 17 at 3 p.m. at the Washington Boulevard theater in Los Angeles. Tickets are $37.50. Information: (213) 936-1107.

Foreclosure proceedings on the theater began when a mortgage payment was missed Friday. An emergency fund-raising campaign is under way; composer Quincy Jones contributed $25,000.