Where Will Lloyd Webber’s ‘Sunset’ Set in L.A.?

Andrew Lloyd Webber took a tour of some of L.A.’s most prominent theaters late last month, seeking the best site for his new show, “Sunset Boulevard,” based on the Billy Wilder movie.

Last month, the composer told the opening night audience at “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” in New York that “Sunset Boulevard” would open in the United States before England. Knowledgeable sources say L.A. is the likeliest city because Lloyd Webber has an emotional investment in the idea of opening the show in the city where it’s set--though it could create logistical problems because of the distance between L.A. and the composer’s base in London.

Among the theaters Lloyd Webber visited were the Shubert, the Ahmanson, the Pantages and a surprise entrant, the Wiltern, which hasn’t hosted a long run of a big musical in recent memory. The general manager of the Wiltern, Rena Wasserman, said a Lloyd Webber show would be such a godsend for the theater--indeed, for the entire riot-damaged neighborhood near Wilshire and Western--that she would gladly sacrifice the flexibility of booking anything else for months or years.

And there may be a conflicting priority at the Ahmanson: Center Theatre Group president Lawrence Ramer said he still wants to do the long-awaited $13 million, 15-month renovation of the Music Center facility after “The Phantom of the Opera” closes, whenever that might be. That may not dovetail with Lloyd Webber’s itinerary.

At this point that itinerary remains vague. Asked if he had any idea when “Sunset Boulevard” might get off the ground, one of the prospective landlords said: “It could be tomorrow, it could be five years from now.”

Selection of a director is expected to precede selection of a theater or a cast, but one fact is known: Lloyd Webber told a New York audience that Michael Crawford, at his side that night, would not play Norma Desmond.

As to reports that the show might require the construction of an onstage swimming pool, one of the theater proprietors would say only that “Whatever Andrew wants, Andrew gets.”

NO PSYCHOS, NO PIGS: You’ve heard of the “new” Gershwin musical, “Crazy For You.” Now it’s time for a “new” Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, “State Fair,” opening Wednesday in Long Beach.

Although the legendary songwriters haven’t returned from the dead, some of their work has. “State Fair” exhumes not only the six songs that were used in the 1945 movie of the same name, but also eight songs that either were castoffs from more famous R&H; shows or were actually used in some of their less celebrated collaborations.

James Hammerstein, son of Oscar II and an unofficial dramaturge on the current production, said “State Fair” “doesn’t take itself as seriously” as the well-known R&H; shows: “No psychopathic farmhands, no suicides. People don’t die.”

It’s a simple story about young love at the Iowa State Fair, where the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye . . . oops, wrong R&H; show.

Would his father approve of something so frivolous? Rodgers and Hammerstein sometimes tried to write more light-hearted shows, he replied--”Me and Juliet,” for example--but “it didn’t come off.”

This isn’t the first time someone had the idea to stage “State Fair.” James Hammerstein himself directed another version 22 years ago in St. Louis.

In that one, he recalled, “I was doing an intimate story in a 12,000-seat football field.” It wasn’t a hit, and Hammerstein said he hasn’t thought about it in recent years. But he does remember the pigs.

To accommodate a subplot about two prizeworthy pigs, Hammerstein auditioned actual pigs, only to discover they weren’t obedient enough. So he finally used actors in pig costumes. The Long Beach production merely mentions the pigs, without showing them.

The management is also introducing a bit of homespun “environmental” staging with its own “midway” on the courtyard outside the Terrace Theatre for one hour prior to each weekend performance (Fridays through Sundays), featuring clowns, jugglers and 10 midway-style games. Homemade fruit pies, jams or jellies and pickles can be entered in a contest to be judged next Saturday, with every entrant receiving a ticket to that day’s matinee and first place winners getting season tickets. Information: (310) 435-7605.

The midway will serve as an LBCLO fund-raiser as well as a historical flashback for Long Beach--once nicknamed “Iowa-by-the-Sea” for the large number of Hawkeyes who moved there in the “State Fair” era.