No Exports, Many Imports in L.A. Civic’s Season

What happened to the highly touted rejuvenation of Los Angeles Civic Light Opera?

In mid-1990, Martin Wiviott and Keith Stava were hired away from Long Beach Civic Light Opera to run LACLO. The Nederlander Organization, which owns LACLO, reportedly committed up to $7.5 million for production under the new leadership, who pledged they would return L.A. Civic Light Opera to its glory days as a creator of musicals.

But so far, the only locally produced show seen by LACLO subscribers was a “Cinderella” soon after Wiviott and Stava took over. And take a look at next season.

It consists of three East Coast-bred road companies. One of the shows is a non-musical, “A Few Good Men”; the others are “Once on This Island” and “Ziegfeld: A Night at the Follies.”

It’s likely that “Ziegfeld” won’t use union actors--which would be a first in LACLO history, according to Actors’ Equity Western Regional Director George Ives. Since “Ziegfeld” began touring in 1990, it has not used union actors or musicians, said a spokesman for its producer, the Rockville, Md.-based Troika Organization. However, the show is now on hiatus and may use union actors when it returns.

“That’s one of the questions that’s on the table,” said the producers’ spokesman.

“It hasn’t been put on our table,” responded the union’s Ives. “The (LACLO) subscribers don’t expect a non-union show at the Pantages.”

At press time, the union planned to run ads in the trade papers, protesting the “Ziegfeld” booking and urging theatergoers to avoid buying LACLO subscriptions, instead purchasing individual tickets to the two union-sanctioned LACLO shows. Ives said “Ziegfeld” will be picketed if it opens at the Pantages without a contract.

Asked if there was anything that would prevent LACLO from presenting a non-union “Ziegfeld,” Nederlander Companies (West) president Stan Seiden replied, “Nothing whatever.”

He said Equity should have raised its objections earlier, when the show first began to tour. “Why do they wait until it hits a key city? If Equity objects to it in Los Angeles, they also should object to it in Des Moines.” (In fact, Equity did complain about a booking of “Ziegfeld” in Texas, said Ives.

Regarding the larger issue of the dearth of locally produced LACLO shows, Seiden blamed the lack of product. “Where are the new shows?” he asked.

He also noted that the one LACLO show produced by Wiviott and Stava, “Cinderella,” lost $500,000. “Don Juan in Hell,” another show produced by the same duo for the Nederlander Organization, though not for Civic Light Opera, also fared poorly.

But Seiden added that Wiviott and Stava are still working on plans to stage “Paint Your Wagon,” despite previously reported delays, as well as their own renditions of “Sophisticated Ladies,” “Charley’s Aunt,” “Sugar Babies 2,” and the sequel to “Annie,” now titled “Annie Warbucks.”

The revamped “Annie Warbucks,” known as “Annie 2” in earlier incarnations in Washington and Connecticut, opened Feb. 5 at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre in Lincolnshire, Ill. and will move to another Chicago-area theater. A tour that might originate in or at least include Los Angeles is “in the talking stage,” said the show’s co-producer/director/lyricist, Martin Charnin. But he declined to say more until details are firmer.

SCRIPTS WANTED: Scripts of unpublished plays that have been produced in Southern California theaters are wanted by the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre’s Southern California Theatre Collection, to be housed at the downtown Los Angeles Public Library.

The collection will operate under “reference only” rules: scripts will be bound and available for reading at the library, but they won’t be circulated or duplicated. A database and print catalogue for the collection will be distributed to libraries throughout the country.

Playwrights should submit a brief biography or resume that would enable library users to contact them or their agents. A documented production history (reviews, programs) and a short synopsis are also required.

Librarian Tom Harris noted that most plays aren’t published without productions in New York, London or at major resident theaters. But most of the original plays produced in Los Angeles emerge from smaller theaters. The Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre has provided a $77,000 grant to put together the collection.

Information: (213) 612-3293.

PAY WHAT YOU CAN: You may choose your own ticket price for the 7 p.m. performance of “Two Trains Running” next Sunday at the Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood. Tickets are available at the box office starting at noon that day and must be bought with cash, no more than two per person, subject to availability.

Information: (213) 972-7372.