Turning Biological Research into ‘Golds’

Warning: If you plan to see “The Twilight of the Golds,” closing next Sunday at the Pasadena Playhouse but then moving on to Poway and Santa Barbara, you may want to skip the next item.

The play, one of the most provocative productions ever seen at the Playhouse, takes a narrative twist that many playgoers may not want to know in advance.

Playwright Jonathan Tolins tackles an issue that hit the news in 1991 when neurobiologist Simon LeVay, at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, offered evidence of a possible biological cause for male homosexuality.

In the “Golds” program, Tolins takes note of “the controversial work of Dr. Simon LeVay” as part of the background of his play. In the play itself, Tolins asks what might happen if prenatal tests could determine that a fetus is gay. A couple ponders whether to have an abortion, while the woman’s gay brother argues against it.

Asked what he thought of “Golds,” LeVay said he found it “an intense drama” and said he admired Tolins for writing it. “It’s an issue people have to think about. But (Tolins) takes a more somber view than I do” of the effect of his research.

Referring to how the pregnant character keeps changing her mind about the abortion, LeVay said, “It wasn’t well worked out why she went through these changes.” The woman had to end up aborting, said LeVay, only because “that’s the spin (Tolins) had to put on the play. It’s a warning.”

LeVay rejects the gloom and doom of the play’s message. “I wouldn’t be in the business of doing research in this area if I thought it would have evil consequences for gay and lesbian people,” said LeVay, who is gay. However, he added, “there is always the capacity for the misuse of knowledge.”

According to LeVay, a prenatal test like the one in the play might be available within five years.

A CHANGE OF “ANGELS”: Five of the L.A. cast members of “Angels in America”--Stephen Spinella, Joe Mantello, Ron Leibman, Ellen McLaughlin and Kathleen Chalfant--will repeat their roles when the first part of the epic opens in New York on April 28.

There will be three replacements. David Marshall Grant, veteran of many L.A. productions, will take over Jeffrey King’s role as Roy Cohn’s Mormon protege Joe Pitt. As Joe’s rejected wife, Marcia Gay Harden will replace Cynthia Mace. And Jeffrey Wright will replace K. Todd Freeman as Belize, Cohn’s nurse.

Herb Alpert, the L.A.-based musician and record mogul, has joined the list of producers of the Broadway “Angels.” Alpert liked “Angels” enough at the Mark Taper Forum to bite when Margo Lion, with whom he had co-produced on “Jelly’s Last Jam,” invited him to join the production team.