STAGE / NANCY CHURNIN : Drew Earns an Encore at Starlight : Theater: His mission as interim general manager is to get the company out of debt.

Leon Drew, who retired as the San Diego Civic Light Opera’s general manager in 1988, has returned to the company as an interim general manager. He replaces outgoing executive director and chief executive officer C. E. (Bud) Franks.

Drew’s job, besides the day-to-day running of the operation, is to devise a three-year-plan to get the company out of its current financial hole, said Jim Bowers, president of the company’s board of trustees.

The company may face a deficit of as much as $500,000 at the end of the year--the largest in its history. A financial turnaround is imperative if the company is to survive, Bowers said.

Drew’s previous tenure was from 1982-88, when he worked with the current artistic directors, Don and Bonnie Ward, to build a healthy reserve.

“The major contribution I made was to raise the sights of the organization and, with Don and Bonnie Ward’s support, help change the standards of the productions,” Drew said. “That resulted in ticket and subscription sales.”

Drew, reached Monday at the Civic Light Opera office, said he needs at least a week before coming up with specific objectives. But he said he has confidence that the company can overcome the recession, which has been blamed for poor ticket sales at many companies in town.

“If your product is good and you market it properly, there’s an audience for entertainment--always has been and always will be,” Drew said. “All you have to do is look at ‘Forever Plaid’ and see that they don’t have a problem.”

Drew, a former vice president of the five CBS television stations based in Los Angeles, came to San Diego to retire in 1976. The Solana Beach resident came out of retirement to work as director of information services at Sea World, joined the board at the San Diego Civic Light Opera and took on the job of general manager when Howard Stein resigned in 1981.

“My true desire is to see Starlight last,” Drew said. “I think Starlight and the city of San Diego have a legacy. When it started to look like things were going to disintegrate, I became very active for the first time. Now the board has suggested that maybe I could be of help, and, hearing what the circumstances were, I agreed that I could be and was willing to make the effort to try to be.”

Just prior to Drew coming on board, the San Diego Civic Light Opera finalized an upcoming three-play summer season at the Starlight Bowl.

The summer shows will run June 3 to Sept. 19 with the San Diego premiere of “Hurry! Hurry! Hollywood!,” a spoof of lavish Hollywood mega-musicals that received its world premiere at La Mirada Musical Theatre’s La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in October; “My Fair Lady,” and a revival of “Good News,” rewritten and re-conceived by San Diego Civic Light Opera with the Wichita Music Theater in Wichita, Kan.

“True”, starring Robert Morse, has been canceled at the San Diego Civic Theatre. The San Diego Playgoers presentation was originally slated for Jan. 5-10, and later rescheduled for Jan. 2-8. “It turned up on PBS last week,” said Stan Seiden, president of Nederlander West Coast, which produces the San Diego Playgoers series. “We didn’t feel it was prudent to bring it in after it was on free television. We will probably bring it back next year.” San Diego would have been the first stop of a national tour of the show.

This is the second cancellation for the San Diego Playgoers this winter; the organization, previously canceled the December presentation of “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” starring Michael Crawford, also at the Civic Theatre. That cancellation was due to the fact that the show was rerouted and is still on the East Coast.

Jeff Daniels, known for his roles in “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and “Arachnophobia,” will star as the Vietnam veteran in the Old Globe Theatre’s California Jan. 21 premiere of Lanford Wilson’s Broadway-bound “Redwood Curtain.” Sun Yun Cho will co-star as Geri, a 17-year-old piano prodigy born of a Vietnamese woman and an American soldier, but adopted in America, where she seeks her elusive biological father. Broadway veteran Debra Monk co-stars as Geri’s adoptive American aunt in this three-character drama.

The show, which closes here Feb. 28, is scheduled to open in New York on March 29 at the Brooks Atkinson Theater.

Sweetooth Comedy Theatre, named after the desserts it serves at intermission, will return to the Maryland Hotel in downtown San Diego for the third year in a row with a six-play season:

* Joe Orton’s “Loot,” a black comedy about money hidden with a corpse, Jan. 8-Feb. 13.

* Brendan Behan’s “The Hostage,” about Ireland and the IRA, March 12-April 17.

* Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” a comedy inspired by Simon’s early years, May 14-June 19.

* Shirley Lauro’s “Piece of My Heart,” a San Diego premiere about the lives of nurses who served in Vietnam, July 16-Aug. 21.

* TBA, Sept. 17-Oct. 23.

* “Dames at Sea,” a musical spoof, Nov. 19-Dec. 31.

PROGRAM NOTES: Hal Holbrook has not yet signed on the dotted line, but he has been asked to do “King Lear” at the Old Globe Theatre this summer and he has accepted, a spokeswoman for the Globe said. . . .

Creative Response of the Arts Inc., an organization raising money to help people with AIDS, will host its second annual fund-raising effort “Together Again. . .” featuring performers with local ties, April 19. Will Roberson is directing. The proceeds go to local AIDS organizations. . . .

The San Diego Chinese Center will bring its third installment of the Monkey King story to the Lyceum Space on May 18-21, this time in association with Young Audiences of San Diego. The show, “Monkey King and the Mountains of Fire!,” features live music, kung fu choreography and authentic Chinese puppets and costumes. Call 232-2818. . . .

Old Globe associate artist Richard Easton will give a single performance of W. H. Auden’s “For the Time Being: (A Christmas Oratorio)” on Dec. 18 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, 5th Avenue and Nutmeg Street in San Diego. The Early Music Ensemble, a quintet of San Diego-based singers specializing in Renaissance music, will accompany the dramatization. Call 298-7261 for more information. . . .

The San Diego Theatre League is selling ARTS PASS gift certificates, good for whatever show the recipient wants to see at nearly 60 performing arts venues throughout San Diego County. The certificates are sold in $10 increments and are accepted at the Times Arts Tix booth at Horton Plaza for half-price day-of-performance tickets. Call 238-0700. . . .

The Fault Line Players, a comedy improvisation group, will perform at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Ruse at the Marquis Theatre. Call 295-5654. . . .

Mark Hofflund, literary manager of the Old Globe Theatre, will leave his position in January to take on the post of managing director of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise. . . .

The MiraCosta College Theatre will hold its annual fund-raising event Friday, with dinner followed by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Proceeds will go toward Theatre Foundation Scholarships. Call 757-2121, ext. 435.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

SWEETNESS AND MIGHT

The San Diego Repertory Theatre packs passion into Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” by shaking up this sweet old standby with the fervor of gospel music.

The show is subtitled “The Musical Gospel According to Dickens,” and it is an exuberant experience that remains faithful to the heart of the play while adapting much of the narrative to original gospel melodies, passionately sung by various soloists and an on-stage, 10-voice choir punctuating the action. It could use some pruning, but the show’s pleasures far outweigh its failings.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays, except Dec. 24 and 25. There are 2 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays and Dec. 16 and 24, with a 7 p.m. performance Dec. 24. No performance on Dec. 25. Ends Dec. 27. Tickets are $20-$25. At the Lyceum Stage, 79 Horton Plaza. 235-8025.