No Bonanzas for the Taper or La Jolla

Now that “The Who’s Tommy” and “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” are the talk of the Tonys--with 11 and 9 nominations, respectively--their hit status can only grow. Tony nominations can make “a tremendous difference” at the box office, said Charles Dillingham, managing director of the Mark Taper Forum, which is co-producing “Angels” on Broadway.

Does this mean that the theaters that nurtured these hits--La Jolla Playhouse and the Taper, respectively--can expect some financial return?

Don’t hold your breath, advise Dillingham and his La Jolla counterpart.

La Jolla will receive one-half of 1% of the gross as a royalty from “Tommy.” In a recent week, the gross was $500,000, so this could translate to $2,500.

But La Jolla managing director Terrence Dwyer emphasized that the share is subject to temporary reductions that the pool of royalty holders may agree on, in order to reduce weekly running costs----and La Jolla has no say in these decisions, for it’s only a “passive” royalty holder. As the originating theater, La Jolla also gets “a small share” of the net profits, said Dwyer, “but we don’t anticipate seeing any of that for months or years.”

The theater can use its “Tommy” proceeds only for debt reduction, by order of the La Jolla board. Because La Jolla’s debt is more than $1 million, Dwyer estimated that it might require 20 years of “Tommy” revenue to retire it.

The Taper is a co-producer of Broadway’s “Angels in America,” unlike La Jolla’s relationship with “Tommy,” so the Taper’s share of the profits is potentially greater. But “what that means is impossible to say” at this point, said Dillingham. “You could have 50% of the profits and never see a dime.”

“Angels” profits certainly aren’t expected soon. Playwright Tony Kushner hasn’t even finished re-writing Part 2 of the play, “Perestroika,” so no one is sure how much it will cost when it’s mounted on Broadway next fall--and running costs on “Millennium” are “more than we had originally hoped,” said Dillingham. When/if profits do appear, the Taper will then get “a differing percentage depending on differing kinds of profits. It’s complicated.”

He also noted that co-producer Rocco Landesman had been quoted as saying that the “investors” in “Angels” were actually “donors.” However, the Taper has not invested--or donated--any money beyond its costs for the L.A. production.

The Taper will receive a minimum of $200 a week in royalties--and that figure can rise, depending on weekly operating profits. Dillingham wouldn’t disclose what percentage of the royalty pool is the Taper’s, but he acknowledged that the Taper’s deal--as a co-producer and “active” royalty participant--could be more profitable than La Jolla’s.

Broadway success may bring other rewards as well. Taper artistic director/producer Gordon Davidson said that the awards and nominations for “Angels,” on top of last year’s Pulitzer for “The Kentucky Cycle,” create “a keen awareness” of the Taper, expressed by myriad congratulations for “being on a roll.” He hopes this interest will inspire more artists to bring the Taper their ideas and more theatergoers to try out the Taper offerings.

SEASON SCUTTLEBUTT: When Taper subscribers received their renewal brochures recently, the season matched the one outlined in Stage Watch a couple of weeks ago. But there also were a couple extra fillips.

“We hope” that Eric Bogosian’s “Dog Show” will have a limited run at the Taper in November and that the comedy trio Culture Clash “may come to us for the holidays,” wrote Davidson. These would be bonus options in addition to Peter Sellars’ Sept. 26-Oct. 24 staging of “The Persians,” preceding the regular four-play series.

Last week Davidson added that negotiations on the two projects are “pretty damn close” to completion.

Meanwhile, it looks quite possible that the one gap in the Taper schedule--the regular season’s opening slot from Jan. 16-March 13--may be filled by Lisa Loomer’s “The Waiting Room.”

In the renewal brochure, that slot was billed as “A New Work Festival Surprise,” referring to the Taper’s New Work Festival of workshops held each fall. Final selection hinges on “continuing work on this year’s Festival highlight,” according to the brochure. It was like a challenge to guess the identity of that “highlight.”

Williamstown Theatre Festival provided a clue last week. A press release for the Massachusetts company announced that Loomer’s “The Waiting Room,” a New Work Festival entry last fall, is scheduled for a production in Williamstown July 28-Aug. 8 and then will be produced at the Taper “after the festival’s presentation.”

Festival artistic director Peter Hunt said that his associate artistic director, Rachel Davidson--Gordon Davidson’s daughter--was “intrigued” by the Loomer play at the Taper New Work Festival. The plan is for David Schweizer, who directed the play in its L.A. workshop, to carry on with it in Williamstown, then return it to L.A.

Loomer confirmed that the Taper has optioned her play but said “they’re not definite with me” about whether it will actually be scheduled. Gordon Davidson told Stage Watch last week that “The Waiting Room” will eventually land on the Taper mainstage, but “whether it’s this season or not is a matter of logistics.”

The play is set in a modern doctor’s waiting room, but its characters include a 17th-Century Chinese woman with bound feet, a corseted 19th-Century woman and a contemporary woman with silicone implants. It was described in the Williamstown release as an “exploration of the beauty myth”; Loomer said it’s about “sexual and medical politics and cancer.”

Whatever its precise theme, it sounds as if it would add a woman’s voice to a season that’s otherwise shaping up as all-male (Aeschylus, Chekhov, Valdez and Kushner).

FROM “ANGELS” TO “ZULU”: In the Taper’s “Angels in America,” K. Todd Freeman played a nurse who loathes his patient Roy Cohn (Ron Leibman). But when “Angels” went to Broadway, Freeman chose to appear in “The Song of Jacob Zulu” instead. Last week Freeman’s performance got a Tony nomination for leading actor--and his competition includes Leibman. The only hitch, Freeman’s out of a job--the play has closed.