TELEVISION - Nov. 6, 1993

Taking It to the Streets: NBC is reportedly taking the “Today” show back to its roots--a street-level New York studio with big plate-glass windows so that passersby can stop and stare at Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel as they conduct interviews. Current plans also call for the network’s Wednesday night show “Now With Tom Brokaw & Katie Couric” to be broadcast from the new multimillion-dollar studio, which is to be ready by next summer. The studio will be across the street from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where NBC is located. “Today” occupied window studios in the same building in its early years, from 1952 to 1958. Although NBC News won’t confirm the plans, the announcement will reportedly be made official at a Monday press conference.

ART

Market Seems Back on Track: Sotheby’s sold all the lots in a private collection of 88 works by Picasso for $32 million Thursday, ending two days of auctions of Impressionist and modern art on a high note. In a night that made up in enthusiasm what it lacked in high drama, the New York auction house managed to raise $1 million more than the pre-sale high estimate, with eight works going for more than $1 million apiece. The success of the Picasso sale and two days of solid Impressionist and modern art sales means that Sotheby’s has now earned $93 million, the highest total in its biannual auctions since the art market collapsed in 1991.

* Art Works Saved: Artist Peter Alexander has lost his Las Flores Canyon home to the Malibu fire, but not his artworks--most of which are safely stored in his Venice studio. After ensuring the safety of his housemate and dog Henry, Alexander managed to cart away several drawings that were in the house before it burned. “What’s interesting is when push comes to shove, you look around and say: ‘It’s all just a bunch of stuff--the only thing that’s really worth anything is a few pieces of art,’ ” he said.

POP/ROCK

Off to a Bad Start: After four years at the top of the charts, Mariah Carey finally began her first concert tour this week, but the critics said she’s still not ready. The 23-year-old pop diva performed Wednesday night for 9,400 fans in the 16,000-seat Miami Arena. “Carey simply isn’t ready for big-league venues. She also lacks the stamina, stage presence and most importantly, the song catalogue,” said the Sun-Sentinel of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Carey fared about the same in the Miami Herald: “Her rapport with her band was nonexistent. And as for her rapport with the audience, let’s just say she was able to slide by on goodwill.” “Still,” the newspaper said, “she had her moments when potential and ability stabbed through brilliantly, like lightning through the clouds.”

STAGE/DANCE

‘Nutcracker’ Switch: The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts will present the Moscow Classical Ballet “Nutcracker” from Dec. 22 to 26, instead of the previously announced Maly Kirov Ballet “Nutcracker” from St. Petersburg. Though contracts were reportedly signed by both parties in March, the center recently learned that the St. Petersburg company would not be available. Moscow Classical Ballet, directed by Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilyov, last danced in California five years ago.

* ‘Hair’ Loss, Late ‘Angels’: The London revival of the 1960s hit musical “Hair” is closing Nov. 20 after just two months. The $2.3-million show, celebrating the free love, anti-war culture of the late ‘60s, opened in a blaze of publicity in September in its first full-scale revival in 25 years. But producers said the show was losing $14,800 a week, despite the 26-member cast taking a pay cut of one-third last month. . . . Meanwhile, the scheduled Broadway opening of “Perestroika,” the second part of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” epic, has been postponed from Nov. 18 to Nov. 23. Co-producer Paul Libin said the artists needed more time.

QUICK TAKES

Actor Omar Sharif, 61, left a London hospital on Friday, 11 days after a heart-bypass operation. . . . Cinematographer Conrad Hall, who won an Oscar for his work on “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” will receive the 1994 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers on Feb. 27 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. . . . Martin Lee Gore, keyboardist for the pop group Depeche Mode, was jailed in Denver for several hours Thursday for refusing to lower the volume. Gore, 32, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a $50 fine after guests at Denver’s Westin Hotel complained loud music was keeping them awake. . . . Michael Jackson’s tour continues to be plagued by problems, with the pop star postponing three Mexico City concerts because of a bad tooth that required surgery. Jackson had also missed concerts in Peru and Chile. . . . Because of the Malibu fires, all five weekend programs of the KCRW-produced “Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story” have been moved from the J. Paul Getty Museum to the Mayfair Theatre at 214 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica.