Culture Clash Sending Out a Riot Signal With ‘S.O.S.’

Los Angeles theater’s first major production directly inspired by the April riots shows up this week.

Called “S.O.S.,” it’s a creation of the Latino comedy troupe Culture Clash, to be performed at the Japan America Theatre Thursday through Saturday, with the possibility of an added performance on Sunday.

“The wake-up call has been given, and it’s time to deal with the issues at hand,” declared Richard Montoya, one of the Clashers. The group had “three or four” other projects on the burner, including a long-anticipated Columbus quincentennial show, “and then this blew up.”

“We don’t have a cure-all,” said Montoya. “But maybe those (riot) flames never should be completely extinguished. They should be harnessed into something tangible.”

Montoya estimated that 60% of the show is directly related to the riots and that 98% of it is new material. Some of it may be a combination of old and new; for example, “Julio Iglesias (a veteran of former Culture Clash shows, played by Clasher Herbert Siguenza) may show up and say some politically incorrect things.”

The presentation is billed as part of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center’s Celebrate California series, “which celebrates multicultural diversity through the arts,” according to a press release. Yet Montoya said the tag line of the show is “Multiculturalism Is a Burned Out Mini-Mall.”

The group is rehearsing in facilities at the Mark Taper Forum, which has commissioned a piece from Culture Clash. “The hope is that (“S.O.S.”) will be developed further in the fall,” said a Taper spokesman.

As the schedule stands now, however, this extremely L.A.-oriented piece will be seen in San Francisco more than in L.A. It’s slated to travel to San Francisco’s Magic Theatre for a Sept. 2-20 run.

Does “S.O.S.” stand for anything, beyond its obvious meaning as a distress signal? Montoya promptly rattled off a list: “See Our Showcase,” “Sink or Swim,” “Sick of Sitcoms,” “Save Our City” (about that last one, it’s the thought that counts).

ECLIPSE DU SOLEIL: Forget those ambitious plans to bring “Les Atrides,” the latest project of Le Theatre du Soleil, to Los Angeles.

The four-play cycle of ancient Greek tragedies, from the same French company that became the darling of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles, will be seen in Montreal and New York this year, but not here.

Center Theatre Group’s Gordon Davidson, who was among those leading the campaign to bring the group here, said the enterprise would have cost about $1.3 million, of which about $500,000 was expected back in box-office revenue. But “we didn’t even get close” to raising the additional $750,000.

The April riots dried up “any possibility of additional money,” he said. “Any resources that might be tapped are likely to go to the community.”

Davidson said he had hoped the Getty Trust would contribute up to half of the necessary funds, because of the connection between its interest in ancient art and the Greek dramas. He was rejected. “They choose not to support performance,” he said--a stance confirmed by a spokeswoman for the trust--”but we saw this as more than performance. We saw it as scholarship and research as well.”

“TONIGHT” ON STAGE: The Jay Leno era of “The Tonight Show” has an eye on the theater.

You can tell from the opening sequence, which depicts a series of old-fashioned curtains parting. But the bookings are also beginning to reflect an interest in “legit” acts.

Recently, two stars and a chorus line from the Broadway revival of “Guys and Dolls” flew to Burbank and did a couple of numbers. From the other end of the theatrical spectrum, the avant-garde performers Blue Man Group did their act a few weeks ago.

“To me, the theater is where everything started,” said Leno’s executive producer, Helen Kushnick. She said she’s trying to “go back more to entertainment instead of promotion” and book “what’s good, not necessarily what’s popular.”

Kushnick, a “born and bred” New Yorker, said she seldom gets out to the theater in Los Angeles. Anyway, “The Tonight Show” is not about New York or Los Angeles, she said, “it’s about the country.”

But Kushnick pledged to attend more L.A. theater. And, she noted, she does have talent coordinators whose job is to cover the local scene. She declined to provide names, lest they be inundated with phone calls.