Theaters Dark but Business at Video Rental Shops Booms

Art may offer solace in times of crisis, but in Los Angeles last weekend, people had to find comfort elsewhere.

The unprecedented citywide curfew forced the cancellation or postponement of virtually every live performance of music and theater, while movie theaters were mostly dark and museums and art galleries also shut their doors.

For the cash-starved arts community, the state of emergency caused as-yet uncalculated financial losses, but monetary worries took a back seat to concerns about safety for performers, audiences and works of art.

Moviegoing throughout the Los Angeles area, as well as across the United States, was sharply down during the weekend, while business at video rental stores boomed.

No official box-office estimates were available on Sunday, as key tracking businesses in Los Angeles and the film studios suspended operations. But sources in the film industry said attendance was noticeably off, even outside Los Angeles.

For performing artists, disappointments abounded.

The 34-member Miami City Ballet, headed by one-time dance superstar Edward Villella, was scheduled to conclude its season this weekend by appearing in Los Angeles for the first time since the company was established in 1986. Friday and Saturday night performances at UCLA’s Royce Hall were canceled.

“We’d been so looking forward to dancing here and it was so disappointing to have something so beyond our control squelch our plans,” said Elyse Borne, principal ballet mistress, who thought about the scenes of Atlanta on fire in “Gone With the Wind” as she traveled by bus from Los Angeles International Airport to her parents’ home in West Hollywood.

The Forum was left dark as hard rock stars Van Halen postponed their Saturday and Sunday night shows, traveling instead to perform in San Diego Saturday night. Lights were also out at the Universal Amphitheatre, which was scheduled to present Harry Connick Jr., and at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim, where Bill Cosby was to perform. Phyllis Hyman canceled at the Wiltern Theater, as did Radio Free Europe at the Roxy and Fallen Wall at the Whiskey.

For arts companies that rely on subscriptions sales, losses from canceled performances will be staunched if tickets can be exchanged for later performances.

Center Theater Group artistic director Gordon Davidson said “every effort will be made to exchange tickets for any date that people want” for performances of “It’s Only a Play,” “Richard II,” and “Phantom of the Opera.” But ticket holders for the hugely successful “Phantom” will probably have to be patient, he noted, adding, “If people require refunds, we will accommodate them.”

Davidson, who also canceled a 25th-anniversary benefit gala for the Center Theater Group, said performers and stage crews were under contract for performances this weekend, so those costs will need to be addressed. “I don’t know literally what you call them, but we need to look at act-of-God clauses,” he said.

He said managers of his theaters, including the Ahmanson, the Doolittle and the Mark Taper Forum, will meet today to assess their losses.

In some cases, visiting companies will have to share the costs of canceled performances.

“My understanding is that an act-of-God, no-fault cancellation leaves each of us--the sponsor and the company--responsible for our out-of-pocket expenses,” said Michael Blachly, acting director of the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts, sponsor of the Miami City Ballet engagement. “However, we intend to do whatever we can to prevent the company from being unduly penalized--to minimize what it costs them.” He said he hopes to bring the company back this summer.

Also hard hit were museums, which count on weekends for their biggest crowds. Dawn Setzer, spokeswoman for the Museum of Contemporary Art, said normal attendance for the four days the museum was closed would have been about 7,500; she estimated revenue losses at $16,000.

A number of art galleries closed and canceled openings scheduled for Friday and Saturday nights, with some rescheduling for Sunday afternoon. One gallery owner--Sue Spaid--took the precaution of removing all the artwork from her store on Beverly Boulevard Thursday, returning it in time to open Sunday.

Jack Rutberg Gallery on N. La Brea Avenue was the only gallery that reported damage--a couple of bullet holes in windows and graffiti.

A spot check Sunday at movie theaters around the city showed that some were open for only short periods in the afternoon. The AMC Century 14 in Century City was closed by about 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday and business was described as lighter than normal.

John Krier, owner of Exhibitor Relations Co., which compiles box-office data from around the nation, said business fell “off drastically” during the weekend. “Business was off even outside this (Los Angeles) area,” he said, citing violence and curfews elsewhere in the nation.

The big beneficiary appeared to be video stores, many of which opened for many fewer hours than normal yet reported soaring business.

“Business has been about the same dollarwise, even though we’re closing seven hours earlier than usual,” said Jerry Lawson, weekend supervisor of Tower Record/Video on Sunset Boulevard.

“We’re doing about twice what we normally do,” said Robert Brewer at Videoactive in Silver Lake. “People want to stay in and they want something to do. Either they’ve been renting really escapist stuff, or disaster themes.”

Even though the curfew hit them in the pocketbook, the entertainment community never questioned the need to put safety first, according to concert promoter Brian Murphy, president of Avalon Attractions.

“The safety of the fans was the first and foremost consideration for most promoters, venue owners and artist managers,” Murphy said. “Nobody wanted to expose the fans to any potential danger.”

Avalon postponed ticket sales for upcoming concerts, including a huge Cure show at the Rose Bowl set to go on sale Saturday. “It just didn’t seem to make a hell of a lot of sense to line hundreds of kids up with money in their pocket at every Ticketmaster outlet and hope nothing would happen,” Murphy said.

Elsewhere in the entertainment community, actor-director Edward James Olmos led the cleanup effort and other entertainers began opening their checkbooks. Barbra Streisand pledged to contribute $100,000 to help rebuild the burned-out areas and find long term solutions to the city’s problems.

The first $50,000 will go to the First AME Church Emergency Relief Fund/Women’s Missionary Society in South-Central Los Angeles. In a statement, Streisand said she is “outraged by the Rodney King verdict and the racism that has led to this violence . . . I add my voice to those who are desperately calling for a new urban policy and adequate social program.”

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Diane Haithman, Chuck Philips, Lewis Segal and Shauna Snow.