STAGE / NANCY CHURNIN : Globe to Launch ‘Falsettos’ Tour : Musical: Acclaimed Broadway hit features the story of Marvin, who leaves his wife and 12-year-old son for a gay lover.

The Old Globe Theatre will kick off the national tour of the acclaimed Broadway musical “Falsettos” as part of the theater’s winter season.

William Finn and James Lapine co-wrote the book for this bittersweet story of Marvin, who has left his wife and 12-year-old son for a gay lover and who struggles to build what he calls “a tight-knit family” as a father and friend. Through the course of show, Marvin’s family must face everything from Little League to a Bar Mitzvah to AIDS. James Lapine, who also directed the production that opened on Broadway in April, will direct at the Globe and on the subsequent tour. Casting and dates for the show have not yet been announced.

The Pasadena Playhouse will continue its season at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts in 1993 with Jonathan Tolins’ “The Twilight of the Golds,” March 7-21; Wendy Wasserstein’s “Isn’t It Romantic?” May 9-23, and Lawrence Roman’s comedy “Alone Together,” July 11-25.

“The Twilight of the Golds,” a new play that Pasadena will premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse before producing it here, is the story of a New York family named Gold. “Isn’t It Romantic?” is Wendy Wasserstein’s 1981 tale about a young woman’s journey to adulthood, as complicated by overprotective mothers and friends. The 1984 “Alone Together,” Roman’s first Broadway play since “Under the Yum-Yum Tree,” tells the story of parents trying to push their three thirtysomething sons out of the home.

For years, Don Ward, co-artistic director of Starlight Musical Theatre, has been talking about producing new work at Starlight. Shows have been proposed and dropped. Now Ward’s latest hopes are pinned on the future of “The Scarlett Pimpernel,” the new musical Starlight presented Monday. It was part of the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Producers’ (NAMTP) third annual Festival of First Stage Musicals in New York.

“It’s a crapshoot, but we have our fingers crossed,” Ward said on the phone from New York after the reading. Ward said he would like to produce the show as early as 1993, but everything depends on funding.

“The Scarlett Pimpernel,” based on the novel by Baroness Orczy, with book by Dave Wolfert and music and lyrics by David Shapiro, tells the story of a foppish English aristocrat in 1792 who lives a double life as the Scarlet Pimpernel, a daring rescuer of those sentenced to die in the French Revolution.

Because of the expense of mounting a new show, particularly one with period costumes, Starlight hopes one of the 72 members of NAMTP will be interested in co-producing the work.

“The response was very strong, but it’s not one of those things where everyone signs a contract and you have a production,” Ward said.

The festival, which featured 14 musicals presented by NAMTP members, also gave the Wards an opportunity to look at new work by other companies that they might co-produce. The subjects included a musical about Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, a work about dancer Josephine Baker, a modern retelling of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Mikado” (set in a Japanese mega-corporation) and a musical based on the novel “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”

Of greatest interest to Starlight, Ward said, was “Eleanor,” based on the life of Eleanor Roosevelt, with book by Jonathan Bolt, music by Thomas Tierney and lyrics by John Forster. Also “Lunch,” which tells five stories during the same New York lunch hour, with book by Rick Hawkins, music by Steve Dorff and lyrics by John Bettis.

A surprise on the list of NAMTP’s new musicals is “Heartbeats,” which received a full production by the Old Globe Theatre in 1990. Its presence, Ward said, indicates that the producers are looking for another company to help develop it. This year, only six of the 14 readings are (like “Pimpernel”) shows that have never been produced.

Starlight’s 1992 summer season was bleak, leaving the company $320,000 shy of balancing its $3.7-million budget. But the fiscal year doesn’t end until the end of the calendar year, and the company’s first winter season is selling better--so far. After 4 1/2 weeks, Starlight has signed up 5,497 subscribers, amounting to $499,114. The subscription goal is 8,000 subscribers, or $750,000, by the time “Annie Warbucks” opens Oct. 14 at the San Diego Civic Theatre, and 11,000 subscribers, or $1 million, when “Grease” opens in February.

Of some interest, too, is whether closing the winter season late--in May/June--with “Oklahoma” will be a good idea. The company’s goal is to de-emphasize seasons and produce year-round, with a show at least every other month.

While the politicians’ family values debate continues, the New Image Teen Theatre, which recently changed its name to Images: Theater for Young Hearts and Minds, is continuing to create shows with teen-agers about teens’ sexuality and social concerns.

The company will begin its 12th season with 10 short theater pieces Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Lyceum Stage in Horton Plaza. The work, a collaboration of the eight-member teen company with adult artistic director Annie Hinton, will tackle racism, AIDS, suicide, date rape, abortion, abstinence and sexually transmitted diseases.

From the Lyceum, Images will take the show by bus and truck to schools, Indian reservations, substance abuse centers, churches and training seminars across the county. The company’s season concludes in May at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company’s Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre.

Onetime San Diego comedienne Kathy Najimy, who has since moved on to roles in such films as “Sister Act” and “Soapdish,” founded the company in 1981 under the auspices of Planned Parenthood.

“We want to create pieces for kids to speak the truth,” Hinton, who heads the group now, said. In the process, the company has learned to stand up for its vision. One school was willing to have the group perform a particular skit if they took out the word “masturbation.” Hinton left the decision to her company. They refused to compromise, so the skit was deleted from that particular show.

Theater pieces change each year, and the inspiration comes from the kids, who develop their ideas through improvisation. Later Hinton puts the ideas on paper. Organizations then choose which skits they want performed.

Despite the current furor over abortion, the skit most often rejected last year by school administrators was one about condoms. Although Planned Parenthood statistics say that 58% of today’s teen-agers are sexually active, most schools tell Hinton that they can only do works that recommend abstinence. For information, call 231-6760.

One goes to Grassroots Theater’s double bill of Imamu Amiri Baraka’s nearly 30-year-old one-act plays “The Toilet” and “Dutchman” hoping to find their racial fury outdated. The hysteria of the 1964 “Dutchman” (an exaggerated duel of wits between a black man and white woman), does, thankfully, seem past its prime. But the realism of the racial group violence in the 1963 “The Toilet,” unfortunately is as relevant as ever.

The shows, produced here as part of Blackfriars Theatre’s Community Collaborations Outreach Program, have a curious history. In 1965, a double bill of “The Toilet” and “Dutchman” was shut down by the Los Angeles police after opening night. This year, Grassroots Theater’s double bill at San Diego State University was postponed because of the Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.

Keith Geller, who directed “The Toilet,” and Eric Wallach, who directed “Dutchman,” did fine work with young but intense casts on a bare-bones budget. But it is “The Toilet” that carries the show, simply because it’s better written.

In “The Toilet,” a bunch of black teen-agers congregate in the boys’ bathroom, fighting at first with each other and then banding together to beat up a white boy who sent one of their boys, Ray Foots, a love letter. Dajahn Blevins is fiercely believable as Ora, the leader of the bullies, and Seth Blumberg brings both dignity and rage to the part of the bloodied white boy. But Omar Paloma could bring more torture to the complex role of Foots, torn between wanting to do the right thing and sticking with his group. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, with Sunday matinees at 2, through Oct. 4. Tickets are $12-$15. At the Bristol Court Playhouse, 1057 1st Ave., San Diego, 232-4088.

PROGRAM NOTES: The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company will present “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” Jan. 19-Feb. 21 at the Hahn Cosmopolitan. Call 234-9583. . . .

The Great American Children’s Theatre Company will present a new adaptation of Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” as part of its 1993 tour. The show, which plays San Diego March 9-12 at Copley Symphony Hall, plugs a rather unusual promotion giveaway. With the purchase of 100 tickets, the company will send your group a “free volcano kit.” Call 1-(800)-852-9772. . . .

Can’t find a baby-sitter? That should no longer keep you from attending shows at La Jolla Stage Company. The company now offers child care for children 2-12 on the premises on the first Saturday and second Friday performance of each show in its season. The cost is $5 per family. Games, toys, sleeping mats and snacks will be provided. Call 459-7773.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

Last Chance for ‘Tommy’

“Tommy,” the La Jolla Playhouse’s stage adaptation of Pete Townshend’s 1969 rock opera, shouldn’t be missed.

The staging of the swiftly moving sets that encompass decades is a show in itself. Then there is the touching story of Tommy, a British boy who becomes autistic after seeing his father kill his wife’s lover. And finally, there is Townshend’s wonderful score, made famous by the Who.

Just one week is left to catch “Tommy” at $36 a ticket. From Oct. 2 to closing night Oct. 4, tickets will rise to $47.50. Performances are 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2, through Oct. 4. At Mandell Weiss Theatre on the UC San Diego campus, 534-3960.