UC Irvine’s Enterprise Lands Gelbart’s ‘Mastergate’

The West Coast premiere of “Mastergate,” by one of America’s and Los Angeles’ most acclaimed playwrights/-screenwriters, Larry Gelbart, will take place at . . . UC Irvine, in a four-performance production largely cast with graduate students.

What’s wrong with that sentence? Shouldn’t this premiere be taking place at one of L.A.’s professional theaters?

“Nil” is the word Gelbart chose to describe the degree of enthusiasm engendered by “Mastergate” among the professional theaters of Southern California.

In 1989, when “Mastergate” premiered at the theater that commissioned it, the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote that “it may be the most penetrating, and is surely the funniest, exegesis of the (Iran-contra) fiasco to date.”

It’s set at a congressional hearing looking into the CIA’s use of a Hollywood studio to channel money to rebels in “San Elvador.”

Last year, Gordon Davidson of the Mark Taper Forum said that he had wanted to do the play in 1989, after its Cambridge production, but that Gelbart chose to take it to Broadway instead. Likewise, Bill Bushnell of the late Los Angeles Theatre Center said he had inquired about the rights but was told that they weren’t available.

In April of 1989, an official of the Kennedy Center in Washington reportedly told “Mastergate” producer Gene Wolsk that the center was “too dependent on the government” for a presentation of “Mastergate” there.

Gelbart recalled the incident last week with a quip: “It was like they were saying you can’t get laid in a whorehouse.”

Most of the critics praised “Mastergate” when it hit Broadway, later in 1989, but some complained that it was more of an extended sketch than a Broadway play. It closed after 68 performances.

The play was under consideration at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, but nothing came of it. It has been produced elsewhere, however, including the Burt Reynolds Theatre in Florida. It’s available.

Has its satire withered with time?

“It was inspired by Iran-contra, but it’s not about Iran-contra; it’s about language,” replied Gelbart. “It’s less a topical thing than a preview of coming attractions.”

Because Gelbart prefers to work without an agent, no one has actively looked for homes for “Mastergate.” However, with Gelbart’s credits (“MASH,” “Sly Fox,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum,” “Tootsie,” “City of Angels”), that hardly would seem necessary.

At any rate, the premiere is a coup for UC Irvine, which will present it in the 400-seat Village Theatre June 4-6.

CAMERON ON THE CASE: Planning an intimate “Phantom of the Opera” party?

Bring your baby when you buy the tickets.

This is the apparent moral of the tale told by Glenn C. Lukos, who wanted to throw a “Phantom” party for the employees of his small Laguna Hills consulting firm.

Lukos wanted 11 adjoining tickets. Impossible, he was told. A single individual can buy no more than five tickets over the phone or at the box office--a rule designed to prevent large blocks of tickets from being sold to scalpers. And the group sales office doesn’t handle groups of fewer than 20.

“As I understand it,” wrote Lukos in a letter to Stage Watch, “I can buy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20 or more tickets, but I cannot buy 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 or 19 tickets.”

Actually, there were solutions to his problem, he acknowledged, but he wasn’t willing to make the necessary sacrifices. If he broke up his party into separate parts of the hall, he could call Telecharge three times and order three blocks of tickets on the same night. Or he could drive from Laguna Hills to Los Angeles with two other people, each of whom would buy tickets adding up to 11. Or he could order 11 tickets by mail--but he was told it would take as long as two or three months to receive them.

Finally, he could resort to paying inflated prices at ticket agencies. As he saw it, anti-scalping rules were driving him into the clutches of scalpers.

But after Lukos wrote his letter, a miracle broke the logjam. His wife and their 5-month-old baby made the journey to Los Angeles, just to see what might happen if they asked for 11 tickets. Apparently a ticket seller took pity and accommodated them--without even asking the baby for his own credit card.

The tickets were in the balcony, but Lukos didn’t mind. The party was a success.

A spokesperson for the theater could offer no explanation of why the transaction was allowed to take place. Could it be because the baby is named Cameron, a name shared by Cameron Mackintosh, producer of “The Phantom of the Opera”?

To be safe, don’t bring just any baby when you buy those tickets. Bring one named Cameron . . . or Andrew Lloyd.