The Curtain May Go Up on These Plays at Old Globe

There may be some surprises in store at the Old Globe Theatre in November and December.

While the theater’s summer season ends Oct. 20 on the mainstage and Nov. 3 on the Cassius Carter Centre Stage, two shows are under consideration for the end of the year: “Falsettoland,” the third installment in William Finn’s musical trilogy about a sexually ambivalent man named Marvin, and a Christmas pastorale currently being written in-house by Raul Moncada, the Globe’s multicultural program associate.

One of the producers for “Falsettoland” is Steven Suskin, who will visit the Globe in his capacity as associate New York producer of “Forever Plaid,” which the Globe is staging July 18 to Aug. 25. Suskin, speaking from his New York office, said the subject of “Falsettoland” first came up while he was in negotiations with the Globe for “Forever Plaid.”

The plan is for the Old Globe and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles to do back-to-back productions with the same seven-person cast this fall and winter. The show would be

directed by James Lapine, who directed the off-Broadway productions that ran from June, 1990, to last January-- first at Playwrights Horizons and then at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Thomas Hall, managing director of the Globe, confirmed in an interview last week that there have been “brief discussions” and that “we are certainly interested.”

“Falsettoland,” the story of a man who leaves his wife and child for a gay lover, is the third part of a trilogy that began with “In Trousers” and “March of the Falsettos,” both of which have been presented in Los Angeles. The New York production of “Falsettoland” has received raves from the New York Times, Newsday, the Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune.

The story tells of Marvin’s struggle to cope with his son’s bar mitzvah, a reunion with a man he loves and the reality of AIDS. The show recently won a Dramatists Award for music and lyrics as well as an Outer Critic’s Circle award for best musical.

As for the Christmas show, Moncada described it as an original adaptation from the Mexican pastorale tradition. Instead of focusing on the Nativity, he explained, pastorales focus on the sometimes comical mishaps of the shepherds trying to reach the manger. The plot will be in English, the Christmas carols in Spanish, and the emphasis will be celebratory, possibly with pinatas and some of the action spilling into the Old Globe courtyard.

Moncada said he has just finished the first draft and is “getting an excellent sense that it’s going to be done.”

If the project goes ahead, it will be co-directed by Old Globe Executive Producer Craig Noel and William Virchis, producing artistic director of Teatro Mascara Magica.

Also possibly on its way to San Diego, but as one of the Nederlander Organization’s San Diego Playgoers offerings, is “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.”

Stan Seiden, president of the organization on the West Coast, confirmed from his Los Angeles office that he is in negotiations to bring the show to the San Diego Civic Theatre sometime this summer. Whether or not “Phantom of the Opera” star Michael Crawford will come with the piece “is something we don’t know at this point,” Seiden said.

If the show is confirmed, it should complete the San Diego Playgoers summer season, which already includes “Grand Hotel,” which will run Aug. 13-18, and “Les Miserables.”

The enormously popular, Tony-winning “Les Miserables,” a $4.2-million touring production by the “Miss Saigon” team of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, has already been extended for a week, lengthening the run from July 9-20.

Want an advance listen to some Broadway musicals yet to play here? Songs from “Grand Hotel,” “City of Angels” and “Aspects of Love” have all been incorporated into Point Loma High School’s “Journey of a Lifetime,” the school’s 15th annual original theatrical production.

The show, a story about businessmen and women who take a fantasy vacation, runs Friday and Saturday as well as May 22-25 and 29-31, all at 7 p.m., and features a cast of 100 students. The students have written, directed and designed the show, built the sets and handled the publicity. Proceeds from the $5 tickets will go to finance next year’s production. The show is presented at the school, 2335 Chatsworth Blvd. Call 223-3121 for tickets and more information.

PROGRAM NOTES: Those concerned about the fate of the Balboa Theatre can show support for the landmark by attending the second annual Balboa Theatre Festival Days beginning at 5 p.m. Friday at the theater. More than 50 local singers, actors, jugglers, musicians, clowns and dancers will provide entertainment throughout the 10-day event. Tickets are available now at Ticketmaster locations. . . .

Tickets are also now on sale for the La Jolla Playhouse pay-what-you-can matinee of “Three Sisters” at 2 p.m Saturday. . . .

Yes, there is life after Neofest. Coming up at Sushi Performance Gallery: Michele Rabkin in “America’s Sweetheart,” a one-woman show about pop singer Connie Francis, May 24, and David Cale in his newest monologue, “Deep in a Dream of You” for three weeks, June 13-30, with 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. shows on Saturdays. . . .

The Ruse’s Naked Shakespeare Company will return to Balboa Park’s Zorro Gardens for two free presentations: “The Tempest,” opening June 8, and “Julius Caesar,” opening July 20. All performances, which will run in repertory through Sept. 22, are at 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. . . . The Bowery Theatre will produce “The Puppetmaster of Lodz,” which had been canceled this season, as part of the theater’s 1991-1992 season. . . .

Starlight Musical Theatre has canceled the 10 a.m. May 28 performance for children at the San Diego Civic Theatre due to lack of participation by San Diego County and city schools. Tickets were $10; a theater spokesperson speculated that the price was too high for the students and the schools . . . .