Producer Hopes ‘Oleanna’ Riles Patrons

When Paula Holt saw David Mamet’s “Oleanna” in New York, she says she “walked out of the theater with a group of people who were all shouting at each other.”

She hopes for a similar response when she produces the Los Angeles premiere of Mamet’s controversial play about sexual harassment and political correctness at the Tiffany Theater. “I’ll probably be picketed by half of the women’s organizations I belong to,” Holt said.

Holt stepped in to grab “Oleanna” when the Mark Taper Forum axed its own production of the play after a casting dispute with Mamet. Pending final approval by the original New York producers, she hopes to open it on Jan. 14, using the same director, William H. Macy, who would have done it at the Taper, as well as the actor, Lionel Smith, who was Mamet’s and Macy’s choice for the Taper.

The actress also intended for the Taper, Debra Eisenstadt, won’t be available for the woman’s role, for she has now committed that time slot to the touring production of “The Sisters Rosensweig” (scheduled to play the Taper’s sister theater, the Doolittle, next summer), according to her agent.

Macy said he hopes “Oleanna” will run for a year at the Tiffany. He believes the audience might appreciate it more in the smaller theater than at the Taper because it will be “absolutely in your face.”

Although 99-seat theaters aren’t required by Actors’ Equity to pay actors more than token fees, Holt plans to pay more than the minimum. If Macy had chosen to hold out for a production in a mid-sized commercial theater, he said, it would have entailed raising “a huge amount of money” quickly in order to do the show during the time he had previously reserved for the Taper production.

“Oleanna” will be joined on Feb. 7 by a separate production of an early Mamet play, “Lakeboat,” in the Tiffany’s second 99-seat space. “Lakeboat” will be produced by Mamet’s younger brother, Tony Mamet, who will also appear in it, along with Ed O’Neill of “Married . . . With Children” fame.

TWILIGHT OF “TWILIGHT”: “I don’t regret a thing,” said playwright Jonathan Tolins in the wake of the announcement that his “Twilight of the Golds” will close on Broadway today.

The play, which was born at the Pasadena Playhouse earlier this year, fared poorly with the New York critics and closes after 15 previews and 29 performances.

Tolins discerned “an almost strange streak of nastiness in the main reviews that’s hard to explain in relation to the reactions of the audiences, who loved it. I only hope all the people who saw it and liked it won’t change their minds.”

Hollywood Pictures bought movie rights before the play even left Pasadena. Will the belly flop on Broadway affect the potential movie, for which the screenplay is still being written?

“The studio laughed out loud at the reviews and reiterated their support,” Tolins said.

ELSEWHERE IN NEW YORK: As “Twilight of the Golds” closes, an even more prominent Los Angeles-developed production, “The Kentucky Cycle,” opens on Broadway today.

Meanwhile, there is one largely overlooked L.A. export to New York that’s doing just fine there: Sherry Glaser’s “Family Secrets.”

A long-running hit at L.A.’s Heliotrope Theatre in 1990, Glaser won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for her series of five monologues about members of her family. Now she’s doing even better Off Broadway. “How deftly she does it, and how uproarious the results,” wrote the New York Times critic. The Daily News critic called her show “hysterically funny and deeply moving.” Newsday’s review was more mixed, but the critic conceded the likelihood of “a long, laughter-producing run.”

But wait a second--when Glaser did her show here, she spelled her first name Sheri. Now it’s Sherry. A publicist for the show tracked her down in a restaurant and asked why. “ I is a rigid letter and y is symbolic of miracles,” she explained.

Whatever that means, the name change seems to be working.

FIREFIGHTERS’ TICKETS: The Laguna Playhouse, which narrowly averted being consumed in the recent Laguna Beach fire, is offering firefighters up to four free tickets to the 7 p.m. performance of “Oliver!” on Dec. 5. Any Southern California firefighter may get the tickets by presenting I.D. at the box office. Call first for reservations: (714) 494-8021.

“Shear Madness,” at Downstairs at the Improv in Santa Monica, has free tickets for firefighters to today’s performances at 3 and 7 p.m. Reservations: (310) 260-1511.