For La Mirada, Commercial’s the Word

Last season the Broadway series at La Mirada Theatre presented a number of local premieres--and lost $100,000, said Artistic Director Scott Rogers. In previous years, the lowest profit had been $160,000.

Some of the season’s woes were related to timing. The first world premiere in the history of the series, “Tin Pan Man,” had the misfortune to open on the weekend of the Los Angeles riots. The recession didn’t help.

Then there was the conservative La Mirada audience. The season’s one relatively familiar entry, “Other People’s Money,” “drew more complaints about language than we’ve had in 15 years,” said Rogers. One letter was signed by 11 subscribers, all canceling their subscriptions over the dirty words.

“I called them and told them we’d clean up our act,” said Rogers. “Now we’re going back to the safe commercial stuff.”

So next season will include “The Cocktail Hour,” “The Sunshine Boys,” “Harvey,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” and a show that Rogers couldn’t mention, for contractual reasons, as long as it’s still playing in Los Angeles. (Hint: The title is not “Lost in New Rochelle.”)

BATTLING BAR MITZVAHS?: Don’t confuse Barry’s bar mitzvah with Bernie’s.

“Barry Moses’ Bar Mitzvah,” to be presented in a ballroom of the Hyatt Hotel on Sunset in West Hollywood, is an interactive production set at a bar mitzvah--which is to say, audience members will be seated at round tables and may be drafted into the dialogue and the dancing, not to mention the buffet.

But this event has nothing to do with another interactive, staged bar mitzvah, “Bernie’s Bar Mitzvah,” which played in New York earlier this year.

The producer/director/co-writer of the L.A. production, Mansour Pourmand, said his inspiration for the production stems from his own son’s bar mitzvah, not Bernie’s. But he did see “Bernie’s,” and he discussed the difference: “That was a documentary re-creation. Ours is more of a play”--indeed, in the plot of his play, the lavish bar mitzvah is financed by mob money, which becomes evident when an uninvited gangster shows up.

Pourmand’s production, opening on Sept. 22, will use an all-union cast (under an Equity letter of agreement)--unless you count the 140 audience members as extras.

INNER CITY WATCH: Spike Lee’s upcoming movie about Malcolm X won’t be the only examination of the controversial leader scheduled for this fall. Inner City Cultural Center will present the one-man “Brother Malcolm X,” by Los Angeles playwright Frank Greenwood, at the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood Nov. 6-29.

The booking was timed to coincide with the interest in Malcolm X that’s being stirred up by the movie, said Inner City Executive Director C. Bernard Jackson. Duane Shepard will play Malcolm.

Preceding the Malcolm X play will be an Oct. 28-Nov. 1 run of two shows, “Big Butt Girls/Hard Headed Women” and “I Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine,” by San Francisco performers Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor.

Meanwhile, a play by Jackson himself will be presented next season--but not by Inner City. Bilingual Foundation of the Arts will produce “B/C” “in collaboration with” Inner City. The story of two women who form a bond between Latino and African cultures, it will be presented in English and Spanish.

It’s intended to be one of two plays that the Bilingual Foundation will present in the municipal theater center on Spring Street--if the City Council approves a funding package that allows performances to continue there next year. Tentative dates are Feb. 23-March 21.