Lakers’ Gift Keeps Win Streak Going for La Jolla Playhouse

The La Jolla Playhouse, which is riding high right now with the success of the just-extended “Tommy” and the well-reviewed, recently opened “What the Butler Saw,” has more good news around the corner.

The Los Angeles Lakers will play one preseason game in San Diego against the Sacramento Kings on Oct. 23, and Playhouse trustee Jerry Buss, who happens to be the owner of the Lakers, will donate 1,500 prime tickets to the Playhouse.

John Black, public relations director for the Lakers, confirmed Tuesday that the Playhouse will get to package and sell those tickets at the San Diego Sports Arena as a fund-raiser.

Buss, who has a home in San Diego County, came on the company’s board of trustees in June of 1991--he first became acquainted with Playhouse Artistic Director Des McAnuff after seeing the 1990 production of “Twelfth Night.” Buss also provided some underwriting support for “The Glass Menagerie,” the Playhouse’s first show this season.

Mark Loigman has temporarily replaced Steve Bevans as managing director of the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company as of July 21. Loigman will continue in the post for at least the next three months, with the possibility of the appointment becoming permanent.

“I’ve got three months or so to just keep things moving in the right direction, and then, during the three months, we’ll discuss the future,” Loigman said from his office at the Gaslamp. “I think that I can see myself staying here. I think that the Gaslamp is viable, and I think I can move it in the right direction.”

Loigman’s background is in production, and he worked as a production manager on “80 Days” at the La Jolla Playhouse and as a technical director on the televised production of “The Skin of Our Teeth” at the Old Globe Theatre.

Most recently, he’s worked in commercial design merchandising and display.

Under Bevans’ two-year tenure, the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company managed to reduce its life-threatening debt of about $1 million down to about $850,000. While that’s still high for a company with a budget of $850,000, Bevans and the Board were confident enough to announce a new season of five plays that will begin Sept. 15 at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre.

The Gaslamp is currently presenting the Lynda Sterns-Fresh Dish production of Marga Gomez’s “Memory Tricks,” which is selling at about 65%-70% capacity, with some nights selling out.

“The Gaslamp has been somewhat rocky,” Loigman said early this week. “And one of the things I’m trying to do is move on, not worry about what happened a year ago or so and really try to push things positive and forward and make sure what’s going on on stage is going to happen.

“Obviously, I’m taking a risk, and there are some people who could be content to sit in the corporate world and let it go by. I’ve always believed in the arts. I really want to make a difference and trying to guide the Gaslamp is a way of doing that.”

Susan Arnout Smith, a resident of San Diego since January, made a splash at the O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference July 6 with her first screenplay, “Different.”

She was selected from more than 1,100 applicants to participate in the Center’s 28th annual conference.

A television reporter and anchor turned National Public Radio commentator, playwright, and now screenwriter, Smith, 43, spent months in three cities researching her story of a young girl of normal intelligence being brought up by mentally disabled parents.

“It’s the story of how the couple struggles to be accepted by people like us and how their daughter finally comes to terms with her parents being different,” Arnout said on the phone from Waterford, Conn., where the conference is held.

Arnout got the idea from a story she’d done as a reporter in Anchorage, Alaska. But she found that the tough part of the research was just getting access to the mentally disabled community.

“To get into this community you have to have a guide, and in order to have a guide the guide has to trust you. What they were interested in mostly was knowing that I was a safe person to talk to and that I was going to treat them with dignity and respect.”

Arnout ultimately got her guide, and, by the end of her research, she had attended a dance for developmentally disabled adults, participated in a dating skills group and followed their childbirth classes.

“I’ve interviewed three generations of normal grandparents, disabled parents and normal grandchildren.”

In the end, she said, she was enormously impressed by “the courage they use day by day to do the simplest of things.

“They have exactly the same dreams as we do, the only difference is that they don’t have the same voice.”

PROGRAM NOTES: “A...My Name Is Still Alice,” the new revue that premiered at the Old Globe Theatre May 14-June 21, will be staged by Second Stage, an Off Broadway nonprofit subscription house Oct. 13-Jan. 3. . .

Pia Zadora is offering a half-price discount to her new autobiographical musical, “Too Short to Be A Rockette!,” for people who bring three non-perishable food items to donate to the San Diego Food Bank. The discounts are offered for tonight’s preview performance at 7:30 p.m. and for the 3 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday. There will be a collection box in the lobby of the Spreckels Theatre, where the show opens Friday at 8 p.m. and runs through Aug. 9. Tickets are normally $12.50-$32.50. To order, call 278-TIXS or call 235-9500 for further information. . . .

Mark Harelik, who co-wrote “Lost Highway: The Music and Legend of Hank Williams” with director Randal Myler, will portray Williams Thursday-Sunday evenings at the Lowell Davies Festival Stage, where the show will run Aug. 28-Oct. 4. Broadway and television actor Michael Bryan French will play Williams on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The cast also features Kathy Brady, Stephanie Dunnam, Richard McKenzie, William Mesnik, Mick Regan, Sharon Schlarth, Ron Taylor and Dan Wheetman, all making their Old Globe debuts. Call 239-2255. . . .

The San Diego Theatre League will offer three interpreted shows for the hearing-impaired in August: the La Jolla Playhouse’s “Tommy” will be interpreted Aug. 1 at 2 p.m. at the Mandell Weiss Theatre (tickets especially for the hearing impaired have been reserved for this otherwise sold-out performance) followed by the Old Globe Theatre’s “Interior Decoration” Aug. 19 and Starlight Musical Theatre’s “Camelot” Aug. 25. Each show will be preceded by a discussion and tickets will be discounted by at least 50% for the hearing impaired. Tickets can be purchased from the San Diego Theatre Foundation by writing 701 B St., Suite 225, San Diego, CA 92101 or calling 238-0700 during business hours. . . .

The 49-seat Fritz Theatre at 338 7th Ave. has its own little hit on its hands with David Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” which opened April 10 and still plays to half-houses. “Sexual Perversity” runs Friday and Saturday nights at 10 p.m. It follows the theater’s currently running “Lilies of the Field” Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. Actor Duane Daniels, the artistic director of the Fritz, is also keeping the house busy Monday-Wednesday with two one-acts by Luis Valdez, “Los Venditos” and “Las Dos Caras Del Patroncito” (Translations: “The Sell-Out” and “The Two Faces of the Boss”), both in English. Call 233-7505.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

‘TOMMY’ IS GOOD THEATER

Never mind the hoopla. When you come down to it, “Tommy,” at the La Jolla Playhouse is simply a good show about a little boy who struggles to find himself through a painful upbringing. Yes, the technical effects are dazzling and the music is great. But what makes this a piece of theater--rather than a Who concert--is director Des McAnuff, who co-adapted the Who’s Tommy for the stage with Pete Townshend, who wrote it. The production captures the painful journey of a lost boy who becomes a myth-like celebrity--and gives insight into what he must do to become a man again.

The show is already sold out through Aug. 30 and has just been extended through Sept. 13. Performances are 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2. Tickets for the extension are $29-$36. At the Mandell Weiss Theatre on the UC San Diego campus at Torrey Pines Road and La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla, 534-3960.