Only a Select Few Saw the ‘Butterfly’ Spread Its Wings

The Scene: The L.A. premiere of the Tony Award-winning drama “M. Butterfly” Wednesday at the Beverly Hills’ Wilshire Theater. A party followed at the Roxbury club on the Sunset Strip. The play is based on the true-life, 20-year affair between a French diplomat and a Beijing opera singer, who turned out to be not only a spy but also a man. “It was dark and she was very modest,” is one of the diplomat’s explanations.

Who Was There: Among the opening-night crowd at the theater were Paula Abdul, Helen Slater, Peter Falk, Robert Morse, Jean Stapleton, Carol Channing, Joan Chen, Richard Grieco, Shelley Winters, Lesley Ann Warren and Lucie Arnaz. Few celebs made it to the party--it was late and too far away. But the cast--including stars Philip Anglim and Alec Mapa--and playwright David Henry Hwang were on hand.

Brando Always Avoids Opening Nights: “I looked out from the stage,” said Mapa, “and the only star I could see was the guy on ‘Doogie Howser, M.D.’ ”

Hollywood Moment: Pia Zadora received two calls on her portable phone during the first act.

Quoted: “The way people react to the play is a great index of their own comfort or discomfort with the very notion of what makes a man and what makes a woman,” said Anglim.

Also Quoted: Mapa joked about how he could appear on “Geraldo” with his co-star for a segment on “Asian Cross-Dressers and the Men Who Love Them.”

Fashion Advisory: Floral-print wide ties have reached the saturation/epidemic/glut level. They should be showing up in the K mart bins momentarily.

Chow: A buffet with pasta, grilled chicken and baked halibut. The food was good, and they used real plates and silverware, but there were few places to sit. There was much food/silverware/napkin juggling.

Overheard: “Didn’t this happen to that guy who used to pitch for the Dodgers?”