LACLO Scratches ‘St. Louis’

You won’t meet “Meet Me in St. Louis” in Los Angeles.

The Broadway show, which was scheduled to begin its national tour here as part of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera season, is now opening--more appropriately, perhaps--in St. Louis on April 30, with Debby Boone in the Judy Garland role and Paul Blake of Beverly Hills directing and producing. It has been revamped since the New York staging, with new choreography by Donald Saddler.

Southlanders will still be able to see it in a May 14-19 engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, but it doesn’t look likely for either Los Angeles or Long Beach--the two cities which had been announced, at one time or another, as the anticipated start of the national tour.

When the show was slated as one of three entries in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera season, it was under the auspices of different producers. The new producer and the Nederlander company, which operates the LACLO, failed to reach an agreement.

Stay tuned for news of a replacement for LACLO subscribers.

‘Other People’s’ Move?: Plans are under way to move Pasadena Playhouse’s just-opened production of “Other People’s Money” to the Westwood Playhouse, after it closes in Pasadena on April 28. A mid-May opening and an open-ended run are being discussed.

The Westwood could use a long-running hit. Despite mostly favorable reviews, the theater’s last booking--Avner the Eccentric--closed prematurely March 10, after an extension into April had just been announced. One reason for the show’s early demise was the March 8 riot that occurred several blocks away in connection with a screening of the movie “New Jack City.”

“It certainly influenced our decision,” said “Avner” co-producer Michael Catalano, who added that he and his partner are trying to line up another local venue for Avner.

That’s the Ticket: It may sound like a fabrication of the pathological liar on “Saturday Night Live,” but it’s true: Jon Lovitz, who played that character on the late-night NBC-TV series, will appear as the schoolmaster Kulygin in La Jolla Playhouse’s “Three Sisters,” opening May 12. Phoebe Cates, Nancy Travis and Robert Picardo are also in the cast.

Not to be Confused With ‘My Mother, the Car’: What’s a Bronx mother to do, when her husband and son have both signed up for the Israeli army? Go to Israel to help out, of course; give the army a mother’s touch.

That’s the set-up for “My Mother, the General” (in Hebrew, “Imi Hageneralit”), an Israeli comedy that will open in a Hebrew-language production at the 380-seat Las Palmas Theatre in Hollywood on May 15, with the possibility of switching to an English-language production after four weeks.

The 1973 play, to be directed by its writer Eli Saghi, has been produced in 14 countries and six languages (it’s in Finland right now), but the only previous U.S. production was in Yiddish in New York. An English-language production was performed in Australia, but that script is being updated for the possible English-language production here.

Taper Stay-at-Homes: With the United States no longer fighting a war, is there any chance the Mark Taper Forum could re-schedule its summer tour to England and Scotland?

When Taper officials canceled the tour, they cited dangers for Americans traveling abroad and the war-related sag in the British box office. The tour would have brought “Julius Caesar” and “Stand-Up Tragedy” to Great Britain, in exchange for the appearance of England’s Renaissance Theatre Company at the Taper last year.

But the British venues are no longer available, because their operators booked “whatever was second in line,” said a Taper spokesman. “We missed the moment, but now we’ll look for another moment”--with a different repertoire.

Beginning April 7, the Stage Watch column will appear in Sunday Calendar.