Two Major L.A. Theaters Are Looking for Leadership

Wanted: Managing directors for L.A.’s two most prominent theaters.

The Mark Taper Forum’s Stephen J. Albert announced last week that he will leave the Taper as of Sept. 1. His decision follows on the heels of Robert N. Lear’s recent departure from Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Albert is moving to Houston to become executive director of that city’s Alley Theatre, one of America’s oldest resident theaters. But beyond the specific temptations of the Alley, Albert also wanted out of Los Angeles.

“The reasons are tied specifically to quality of life issues,” he said, noting that his daughter suffers from asthma.

Albert will report directly to the Alley board, like the theater’s artistic director Gregory Boyd. “This will be a partnership in every sense of the word,” said the Alley’s new board president T. William Porter.

At the Taper, Albert was always in the shadow of artistic director/producer Gordon Davidson. But Albert turned aside any speculation that he was chafing in his subsidiary slot, and had nothing but praise for Davidson and the Taper staff, adding that he hopes Davidson will direct a production at the Alley.

Albert was, with Tom Ormeny, the founding co-president of Theatre L.A., the up-with-theater producers’ organization. He considers both the Taper and Theatre L.A. to be in good shape, as he departs. But he said L.A. theater “will always continue to struggle with ways to create a loyal, adventurous audience that makes going to the theater its first entertainment choice.”

Davidson said he will cast “a wide net” for Albert’s successor. Present staff will be included somewhere in that net, but so will plenty of other possible successors.

Other L.A. Exports: A couple of shows that opened in small Los Angeles theaters are moving up to Equity contract productions--in the cities where the plays are set.

“The Golden Gate,” Stephen Sachs’ adaptation of Vikram Seth’s verse novel about contemporary Bay Area folk, will open at San Francisco’s Zephyr I Theatre on Tuesday. Its world premiere was at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood last fall.

“The Chicago Conspiracy Trial,” one of the old Equity Waiver era’s greatest hits during a 1979-80 run at the Odyssey Theatre in West Los Angeles, will finally open in Chicago at the 250-seat Remains Theatre Co. on Sept. 22. Frank Condon will again direct.

One play that was conspicuous by its absence from this area, Vincent McKewin’s “Ad Wars,” will open in the 99-seat Other Stage at the Williamstown (Mass.) Theater Festival for a June 22-30 run. Pasadena Playhouse had scheduled “Ad Wars,” a satire about an advertising campaign for a new bomb, for last winter, only to drop it out of concern that it would be inappropriate during the Gulf War period.

Back at the Ranch: “The Will Rogers Follies” will arrive in Los Angeles, probably within a year, probably with star Keith Carradine. But exactly when and where are still up in the air.

Local interest in the show has perked up since it won the Tony for best Broadway musical last Sunday. But producer Pierre Cossette recalls a time when local moguls couldn’t have cared less.

Searching for investors, “I took it to every (Hollywood) studio, and I couldn’t get anyone to put 10 cents into it,” he said. Considerably more than 10 cents was necessary to mount it on Broadway; $7 million is closer to the mark.

The only contributions from the TV-movie industry were his own $1,750,000 (Cossette has produced television in Hollywood for 35 years and lives in Malibu) and $2 million (plus more for TV rights) from a Japanese TV network.

The Nederlander Organization also invested in the show. “All things being equal,” said Cossette, the show is likely to play one of the Nederlander-managed theaters (the Pantages or the Wilshire; the Fonda would be too small), but Cossette said he’s open to other possible L.A. venues if they offer clear advantages.

“We assume they’ll give us the first shot at it, but there’s nothing in writing,” said Nederlander vice president Arthur Rubin.

The show’s New York co-producer Martin Richards expressed a preference for the Wilshire over the Pantages but added, “I also like the Shubert.” Richards predicted an L.A. opening by the beginning of 1992; Cossette expects the show to touch down here by next May.

‘Caesar’ Changes: Delroy Lindo has left the role of Cassius in “Julius Caesar” at the Mark Taper Forum in order to shoot a film. By replacing him with Peter Francis James, the Taper retains the non-traditional casting of the role; like Lindo, James is black.

Lisa Banes has left the roles of Portia and Lucilia in “Caesar” for personal reasons, to be replaced by Marie Chambers and Diane Robinson, respectively.