‘Substance’ Brings Out the Stars

“This is inconveniently close,” murmured one guest arriving at Stepps restaurant in the Wells Fargo Center for the party after the opening of “The Substance of Fire” at the Mark Taper Forum.

The invitation said the after-theater party was “one and a half blocks south of the Music Center,” but this is one of those downtown spots where you can’t walk from Point A to Point B.

The complaining guest must have been a Hollywoodite unused to negotiating the underground parking lots of downtown, or perhaps a New Yorker, who believed 1 1/2 blocks meant you could just stroll over. Not true: These 1 1/2 blocks required a car.

Jon Robin Baitz’s acclaimed play and the performances of such admired actors as Ron Rifkin and Gena Rowlands had brought a starry crowd to the Taper and though some, like Michelle Pfeiffer and steady companion David E. Kelley, didn’t make it to the party, most did, particularly a strong cheerleader group from the William Morris Agency where Rifkin’s brother Arnold heads up the motion picture division.

Rowlands wasn’t short on family support either with both her daughters Zoe and Xan Cassavetes in attendance. There was much hugging and kissing, in the spirit of the Clinton White House. “Who, us argue?” teased one Rifkin brother or the other. As they embraced, Brenda Vaccaro noted “there’s a real family of theater spirit here.”

The Taper’s artistic director, Gordon Davidson, was just back from the inauguration, where, he said, the highlight for him had been to attend the luncheon for inaugural poet Maya Angelou.

As Lisa Pelikan held places in the long food line at the buffet counter, her husband, Bruce Davison, enthused about a fax he had received from Russia informing him that the AIDS-themed film “Longtime Companion,” in which he starred, was being shown there on national television along with AIDS education messages.

“My prime thing is to grab us a table,” said Helen Mirren as she surveyed the crowded restaurant, a suitable comment from the actress who is reprising her role as the tough-minded woman detective in the British-made “Prime Suspect” for PBS.

Others in the crowd included director Henry Jaglom and his wife, Victoria Foyt, Doris Roberts and Mirren’s companion, director Taylor Hackford, who reminisced with Davidson about a play, “Afternoon Tea,” in which Rifkin had acted about 20 years ago.

“Did you talk about the night someone in the audience hated it so much he came up on stage to say so?” asked Rifkin, joining the conversation.

“Yes, I did,” Davidson said, happy in the knowledge that this night was definitely a change for the better.