Play That Premiered Here Still Packs Topical Punch

The timing was auspicious for Ethan Feerst, executive director of Sledgehammer Theatre, to meet with producer Michael Frazier, who was interested in staging the San Diego theater’s “7 Blowjobs” in Chicago.

It was Feb. 22, the day the news hit of John E. Frohnmayer’s resignation as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Frohnmayer was reportedly pushed out by President Bush in response to political pressure from conservative Republican challenger Patrick J. Buchanan.

“7 Blowjobs,” fittingly, is playwright Mac Williams’ satire about the fierce fight to undermine the NEA by its political opponents in Congress. Sledgehammer gave the show its handsome, biting world premiere in October, 1991, and extended the show into January.

Wellman turned out to be prophetic as he depicted a corrupt politician (a fictitious “Senator Bob”) who gets the idea of using charges of pornography to deflect public attention from his own foibles and failings.

While negotiations continue for Sledgehammer productions of the show in Chicago and Boston, the Soho Repertory Theatre in New York plans to mount an independent production of the play next month.

Sledgehammer is currently rehearsing “Kaspar” by Peter Handke for an April opening. It’s too bad, however, that Sledgehammer can’t bring back “7 Blowjobs” one more time. All patrons of the arts should heed Wellman’s warnings before the NEA follows Frohnmayer’s path to oblivion.

The San Diego Playgoers series may come under an attack from Actors Equity for its inclusion of “Ziegfeld: A Night at the Follies” in its upcoming season.

Unlike the other Broadway touring shows that are scheduled, “Ziegfeld: A Night at the Follies” is a non-Broadway non-union show that has been touring the country since 1990. That means it costs less to present.

Given the sharply rising costs of union shows, producers confide that we may see a proliferation of such shows as “Ziegfield.”

George Ives, Actors’ Equity Western regional director, said he wouldn’t object if the show were sold to patrons in a separate package, but it should not be “tied in with a bunch of professional shows and sold as that kind of product when it isn’t.”

Of course the likely reason it is being included in the subscription package is that the show’s lower cost would offset the higher costs of the other shows for the series, which is being presented by Los Angeles-based Nederlander Companies (West).

The rest of the Playgoers season, however, is vintage Broadway. It already includes Peter Shaffer’s “Lettice & Lovage,” starring Julie Harris and Roberta Maxwell and directed by the show’s original Broadway director, Michael Blakemore, the week of July 7; “Once on This Island,” Aug. 18-23; “The Secret Garden,” Aug. 25-30 and “Les Miserables,” which will return to San Diego Sept. 15-20, to be followed by another week if sales warrant. Other shows are likely to be added,

San Diego gave “Les Miz” a record-breaking two week outing on its appearance here in July of 1991, but it just got topped by Boston last week.

The show’s net profit in Boston, after commissions, was $895,422 for the first week, followed by $1,028,364 for the second week. And that was for the show’s third outing there, according to the show’s engagements manager, Steven Schnepp. Tickets go on sale for “Les Miz” April 19.

Mark Houston, best known as a co-author of the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s long running “Six Women With Brain Death or Expiring Minds Want to Know,” has written a new musical about mid-life crises. Set in a bowling alley, it’s called “Changing Lanes” and is under consideration for the Rep’s upcoming 1992/1993 season along with “Sweeney Todd,” “Spunk,” “The Dybbuk,” “The Chairs,” “From the Mississippi Delta,” “The Queen’s Garden,” “The Threepenny Opera” and a Teatro Sin Fronteras project involving Latins Anonymous, Culture Clash or El Teatro Campesino. Two confirmed shows in what is likely to be a seven-play season will be a jazz version of the Spanish Golden Age classic “Life’s a Dream” and, of course, the company’s annual “A Christmas Carol.”

The University of San Diego Theatre Arts program will beat B-Attitudes to be the first to present American production of Odon Von Horvath’s “Faith, Hope and Charity” by three days.

But B-Attitudes is still advertising its production as the American premiere because it has the legal rights to do the American premiere, said B-Attitudes producer Holly Becker. Marilyn Bennett, who is directing the show for USD, was not available for comment.

So it looks as if San Diego will get all the “Faith, Hope and Charity” it needs, with USD’s version playing April 2-11 at the campus’ Shiley Theatre and the B-Attitudes production running April 5-26 at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse.

Meanwhile, Michael Roth, resident composer at the La Jolla Playhouse since 1983, has joined the B-Attitudes team. Local set and costume designer Jack Taggert has also signed on as sound designer.

PROGRAM NOTES: “Beehive,” the Theatre in Old Town’s high-spirited musical hit, has been extended through April 18. . . . “Ruby’s Bucket of Blood,” the Rep’s steamy tale of romance and disaster in New Orleans bar, has been extended through March 28. . . .

Teatro Mascara Magica, in association with El Teatro Campesino, will present “Simply Maria” and “How Else Am I Supposed to Know I’m Still Alive?” March 20-22 at the Educational Cultural Complex. Call 474-5270 or 527-5256 for reservations. . . .

The San Diego Chinese Center will present “Monkey King and the Spider Women” April 3-5 at the Lyceum Stage in Horton Plaza. Call 235-8025 or 234-4447. . . .

There will be open auditions for the world premiere workshop production of the San Diego Rep’s “Life Is a Dream” Sunday-Tuesday at Mayan Hall on the Southwestern College Campus from 7-10 p.m. . . .

Half-priced tickets for seniors age 60 and over are available for the March 28 matinee of the Old Globe’s world premiere of the Jack Heifner comedy “Bargains.” Tickets can be purchased at the Senior Center, City Administration Building, 202 C St.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

SEARING STORY OF A SURVIVOR

A man confronts sanity and finds it wanting in “The Puppetmaster of Lodz.” Robert Zukerman gives a devastating performance as a Holocaust survivor living in a world of puppets in Blackfriars Theatre’s searing production of this play. Performances are 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 through April 12 at 1057 1st Ave., 232-4088.