‘Phantom’ Figures, Friends to Stage LATC Fund-Raiser

D.C. Anderson plays Monsieur Reyer, the man who directs the rehearsal in the opening scene of “The Phantom of the Opera.” It’s a fitting role for someone who is organizing a show among his colleagues in support of Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Liz Torres and Kirby Tepper are among the performers who are scheduled to join Davis Gaines, Dale Kristien and other members of the “Phantom” cast at “Phantom and Phriends,” the benefit Anderson is planning for Monday evening at LATC’s Tom Bradley Theatre.

Anderson was an LATC subscriber during the six months between his arrival in Los Angeles and his opening in “Phantom” in 1989. Since then, he occasionally attended LATC shows on Sunday nights, when “Phantom” is dark; he especially liked “Strong-Man’s Weak Child” and “Stevie Wants to Play the Blues.”

When the initial news reports of LATC’s cash crisis broke on Aug. 1, Anderson realized there was something he could do to help. He posted a sign-up sheet backstage at “Phantom,” urging his fellow cast members to help him put on a show.

He figured that even if LATC collapsed, money would still be needed to pay off the theater’s debts.

Anderson himself has performed at the Gardenia and Rose Tattoo nightclubs and will sing several selections on Monday. Tickets, which include a reception in LATC’s lobby, cost $100 and $50. Information: (213) 627-6500.

OVERDUE “BABIES”: Los Angeles Civic Light Opera subscribers were informed in May that “Sugar Babies II” would be the second show of their season, with previews beginning July 30 at the Pantages Theatre.

The due date passed, and the “Babies” are still in the womb.

That’s because “Jerry’s kids” take priority, according to “Sugar Babies” co-producer Arthur Rubin. The star of “Sugar,” Jerry Lewis, is tied up with his annual Labor Day telethon, which raises money to fight muscular dystrophy.

Rubin said “Sugar” will begin rehearsals after Labor Day and is currently booked into San Francisco in October and Chicago over the holidays. But he added that he would somehow like to open it in Los Angeles before the San Francisco engagement.

The final entry in the LACLO season was supposed to be the revue “Black and Blue,” but it now seems to be off the list for this year. An official with the company that will book the “Black and Blue” tour, if there is one, said it probably wouldn’t start until late spring. Its creators have been involved with other projects in Europe.

So what will make up the rest of the LACLO season? The leading contenders are “Man of La Mancha” with Raul Julia (which, as previously reported, is booked into the Pantages in November and December) and “Paint Your Wagon” with former “Les Miserables” star Gary Morris, expected early next year, and previously talked about as part of next season.

Subscribers will reportedly receive a letter any day now, with further details.

WILL IT PARK IN HOLLYWOOD?: Jason Robards and Judith Ivey will star in a Broadway-bound production of Israel Horovitz’s “Park Your Car in Harvard Yard,” and talks are under way in an attempt to bring the show to the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, perhaps next January.

It would be a return to L.A. for the two-actor play, which was introduced in a staging at Los Angeles Actors’ Theatre (the predecessor to LATC) in 1982.

ACTORS ALLEY MOVES UP: Actors Alley, the North Hollywood-based company, plans to move from 99-seat status to an Equity contract for two productions during its coming season.

The site will be the 479-seat Gindi Auditorium at the University of Judaism, which will co-produce the two shows. Scheduled are Ira Levin’s “Cantorial,” Dec. 14-18, and Susan Sandler’s “Crossing Delancey,” May 9-13. Both productions will move to Actors Alley after their engagements at the Gindi, which is on Mulholland Boulevard in the Santa Monica Mountains.

“Cantorial” is about a mixed-marriage couple who buy an abandoned synagogue with plans to convert it into modern apartments. “Crossing Delancey,” which relates the romance between a young New York intellectual and a pickle seller from a more traditional Jewish background, is best known from the movie version, which starred Amy Irving.

“The plays had to be relevant to the Jewish experience,” said Actors Alley artistic director Jeremiah Morris, “but they (university officials) were very lax about what the connection had to be.”

SIFTING THE ASHES: July 24 was not a good day for smaller theaters in Hollywood. Separate fires caused considerable damage to the buildings housing the Stella Adler Theatre and the McCadden Place Theatre, which has two spaces, the Hollywood Actors Theatre and the Lex.

But the theaters are slowly returning to life. At the Stella Adler, only the lobby was damaged, and “The Signing” and “Close-Up” are expected to reopen soon. At the Hollywood Actors Theatre, where “Cahoots” and “Goodbye Freddy” were just about to open when the fire struck, the shows have now been rescheduled for November, following an October fund-raiser that will raise the money to mount them again. The Lex was not badly damaged.

SIMON SAYS: “I would probably say yes, but they really should ask,” said Neil Simon. He was referring to the producer and director who updated his “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” for their staging at the Tiffany Theatre without asking his permission.

Producer Dennis Russell and director Nicholas Siconolfi told Stage Watch that they changed “no more than 19 words”--including such updates as “hip” for “groovy” and “China Club” for “Coconut Grove.” Simon said he wouldn’t object to such brief changes.

However, the producers also deleted some passages. One monologue was cut from 3 1/2 pages to 1 3/4 in order “to match the mores of the ‘90s,” said Siconolfi.

“That I would object to,” said Simon.

The playwright doesn’t plan to do anything about the unauthorized changes--”it’s not that major an issue, and it’s such an old play. . . . But I do take exception to it, if only on principle. It’s bad enough to tinker with dead playwrights’ work, but this is worse.”

PADUA UPDATE: The Padua Hills Playwrights Festival has extended its run at Cal State Northridge one more weekend, but with a slightly different configuration of shows than those presented so far.

The Thursday-Friday bill of fare will consist of “Fetters,” by Robert Hummer, “The Interpreter of Horror,” by Kelly Stuart and “The Promotion,” by John O’Keefe. All of these plus “The Tight Fit,” by Susan Mosakowski, will return next Saturday and Sunday. Tickets cost $15 for the three-play evenings, $20 for the four-play bill.

Tonight, meanwhile, is the final performance of Murray Mednick’s “Heads,” on a bill with the Stuart and O’Keefe plays.