Poway Performances to Give a Preview From Pasadena

The Pasadena Playhouse, which plans to produce its first season at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts this year, will give a preview of coming attractions July 7-10 with four performances of the new Richard Maltby Jr.-David Shire musical, “Closer Than Ever.”

The show, co-directed by lyricist Maltby and Steven Scott Smith reprises their original Off Broadway staging. It is already close to selling out in its current Pasadena Playhouse run. It’s a bookless musical featuring two men and two women taking stock of their lives through contemporary songs about love, passing time, single motherhood, fraying friendship, physical fitness and fatherhood.

Pasadena Playhouse Executive Director Lars Hansen describes the preview as a “say hello to the community sort of thing,” an opportunity for the community to get acquainted with the quality of work the company offers.

Of course, the Pasadena Playhouse would be delighted if these four performances were to boost season subscriptions at the Poway center. The company has already sold 502 subscriptions from an initial 1,000-piece mailing. But the big advertising campaign is scheduled to kick in with the July opening of “Closer Than Ever.”

The greatest challenge so far, Hansen said, has been getting San Diego acquainted with the 2-year-old, 815-seat Poway center itself.

This show “is just a way of helping everyone discover the new center. We happen to think that it’s not very remote at all. But we have encountered a lot of people in our marketing who have said, ‘Exactly where is the Poway Center for the Performing Arts?’

“We’ll be doing a lot of maps and a lot of directions.”

“Closer Than Ever” opened May 24 in Pasadena and will journey here on the heels of its six-week engagement there.

The Pasadena Playhouse’s six-play season in Poway will kick off with Preston Sturges’ “A Cup of Coffee,” Sept. 3-20, followed by Bob Randall’s “David’s Mother,” Oct. 29-Nov. 15, and the off-Broadway hit musical “Oil City Symphony,” Jan. 7-24, by Mike Craver, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk and Mary Murfitt, the creators of “Pump Boys and Dinettes.”

Each production will have a three-week run, with 22 performances in each run. For more information, call 818-356-PLAY.

Is somebody killing off the murder mystery theaters?

The Stardust Grill Room Murders at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley closed a few weeks ago; their phone number is no longer in service. “Knock ‘Em Dead” closed in January when Charly Brown’s bought the Reuben E. Lee restaurant that had housed the company.

But the Mystery Cafe (in two locations: the Imperial House restaurant in Hillcrest and the Lake San Marcos Resort) and Murder Mystery Weekend, best known as the Westgate Murders at the Westgate Hotel, are in their third years and both seem to be thriving.

Unlike the locally produced shows that closed, the Boston-based Mystery Cafe and Los Angeles-based Murder Mystery Weekend are part of national chains with very distinct but successful styles.

One big difference between the two is that Mystery Cafe serves up comic mysteries in between courses of a meal, with the actors doubling as waiters. Murder Mystery Weekend is interactive and suspenseful; some of the actors are indistinguishable from the audience being served the dinner. You never know if the person sitting next to you is a fellow mystery buff or the murderer.

Although they sometimes run indefinitely, Mystery Cafe shows generally run for about a year. (New scripts will come to all locations in January.) The scenarios for the Westgate Murders change monthly.

Another difference is the price tag. The Westgate Murders costs $59 a ticket--almost twice as much as the Mystery Cafe, where tickets are $32 to $37.

Mystery Cafe is doing so well that it is about to open at a new location in Arcadia in January. Producer Julia Holladay has also earmarked a monthly check from ticket sales, taking 50 cents for each ticket sold for “Rio Can Be Murder” at the Imperial House to help adopt 400 acres of rain forest. She calculates she will have donated $10,000 toward that cause by the end of the show’s scheduled 13-month run in December.

For more information on the Mystery Cafe, call 544-1600. For information on the Westgate Murders, call 294-CLUE.

PROGRAM NOTES: ‘Tis the time for season promotions. Patrons can make their own individual seat selections for the Festival ’92 season at the Old Globe Theatre from 4 to 6 p.m. June 18. The first 100 patrons to purchase a Festival ’92 subscription will also receive a complimentary ticket to that evening’s performance of “A . . . My Name Is Still Alice” at 8 p.m. Call 235-2250. . . .

Sledgehammer Theatre is bringing back its Repeat Offender policy. For $30, patrons get unlimited admission to all of Sledgehammer’s 1992 productions. The company also promises to throw in six First Offender cards (good for half-price admission) and premiere screenings at Landmark Theatres. Pay-what-you-can tickets will be available for Sunday and June 18 performances of Sledgehammer’s “Terminal Hip,” which opens Friday at St. Cecilia’s, formerly the Sixth Avenue Playhouse, 1620 6th Ave. Call 544-7800. . . .

“Felicidad Inc.,” a new play by Toby Campion, will be the final presentation in the Old Globe’s Play Discovery Program, 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage in Balboa Park. Tickets are $5 at the door for general admission and $4 for students and seniors. Call 239-2255. . . .

The Naked Shakespeare Company is presenting “King Lear” and “Romeo and Juliet” as part of its third annual San Diego All-City Free Shakespeare Festival Season in Zoro Gardens in Balboa Park. Call 295-5654 for times. . . .

The Theatre in Old Town will soon open two daytime productions that will run concurrently with “Beehive.” An original children’s theater production, “General Stories,” will open Tuesday and continue Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays throughout the summer. “The Mason Street Marm” opens Wednesday and will run Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays through the summer. General admission is $5; children 3 and under are free. Call 688-2494. . . .

CRITIC’S CHOICE

FUN FLIES FAST AND FURIOUSLY IN ‘RUMORS’

It’s a cream puff--but an irresistible one. Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” now being deliciously done by the North Coast Repertory Theatre, is a skillful farce kicked off when a couple arrive at a party--only to find the hostess missing, the host shot in the earlobe and mountains of food thawing on the kitchen counter without anyone in sight to prepare the feast. In short, it’s the dinner party from hell. The jokes start flying as the guests try to cover things up for the new arrivals. Director Daniel Yurgaitis and the 10-member cast are totally up to the ensuing antics. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday through July 25. At Lomas Santa Fe Plaza in Solana Beach. Call 481-1055.