Bringing Sound of Musicals to Glendale

Strange but true: A major new musical theater, operating with a $4-million annual budget, is about to open in recession-strapped Southern California. And it won’t focus on the old chestnuts that always attract an audience, but rather on work that’s new to Southern California.

“It has certain financial risks,” said Lars Hansen of his company’s venture at the newly renovated, 1,462-seat Alex Theatre in Glendale. “We’re not playing the Big 15. But we think of L.A. as a major, sophisticated market. We want to hire L.A. actors and build an indigenous production company. We’re not in the business of presenting road shows.”

Yet the Alex shows themselves will go on the road--to San Diego’s Spreckels Theatre and Fresno’s Warnors Theatre. It’s an idea that the Theatre Corp. of America, where Hansen is executive director, has tried out by taking its Pasadena Playhouse shows to venues in Poway and Santa Barbara.

The schedule isn’t completely revival-free. The middle show of the first season’s batch of three will be “Mame,” with Juliet Prowse. The Alex’s producing director Martin Wiviott produced a “Mame” with Juliet Prowse last summer in Lake Tahoe, and “she’s a strong enough reason” to do it again in Glendale, said Hansen.

But the season will open on Jan. 29 with “Sayonara,” a new musicalization of the James Michener novel. The now defunct, Pasadena-based California Music Theatre tried--and failed--to get “Sayonara” off the ground just a few years ago. But since then, it has been successfully produced in New Jersey and in a joint production of theaters in Houston and Seattle.

As a member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, along with the Houston and Seattle theaters, the Theatre Corp. will use design elements that were developed for that earlier production. The male lead, Joseph Mahowald, is also coming in from that production. Let it be noted that in the post-”Miss Saigon” era, all of the Asian roles will be played by Asians or Asian Americans.

The season’s third entry, “Fame,” is a musicalization of the story about a performing arts school, made famous by a TV series. Hansen said several other U.S. productions of the show weren’t successful, but he’s importing a Swedish team that did “an interpretation that knocked our socks off” in Stockholm.

The early ads for the Alex season focused on the theater, not the shows. One ad urged readers to “Make a Date With Alex.” Hansen said people needed to be informed about the theater before they were sold on the shows. For example, he wants people to know the Alex is closer in seating capacity to most Broadway houses than the larger L.A. theaters where Broadway shows traditionally play.

Theatre Corp. rented a store in the Glendale Galleria to spread the word further and to sell tickets before the Alex box office went into operation. Since it opened Sept. 1, the store has been so successful that it probably will remain open indefinitely, he said.

So far, 11,000 subscriptions have been sold, which Hansen said is “right on target.” This compares to a subscription audience numbering 23,000 at the Theatre Corp.’s Pasadena Playhouse.

The addition of San Diego and Fresno to the Alex circuit occurred after the programming decisions were made. In San Diego, the Theatre Corp. has essentially taken over the winter season of the foundering Starlight Musical Theatre and may yet take over the Starlight’s summer presentations at the alfresco Starlight Bowl. “We’re trying to figure out the economics of it,” said Hansen.

Other venues may be added next year. Hansen’s in talks with the new Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center and with officials in Oakland and Phoenix.

Because the Alex shows go on tour, the Actors’ Equity contract at the Alex is slightly more demanding than at the other musical theaters in Southern California. While civic light operas in Long Beach and San Bernardino and the new Theatre League series in Pasadena require 15 Equity members per production, the contract at the Alex requires not only the 15 but also a minimum of 75% of the cast to be in Equity.

SCHENKKAN SPEAKS: L.A.-based playwright Robert Schenkkan believes the quick departure of his “The Kentucky Cycle” from Broadway “reflects on the current economic situation rather than the play itself.”

He noted that five out of seven serious dramas that opened on Broadway this season have already closed. “Broadway is an equal opportunity unemployer,” he mused.

“There is nothing I would do differently,” Schenkkan added. Should his play have gone to London before New York? “A successful London production carries a cachet, but there was no offer on the table,” replied Schenkkan. “And a part of me felt that it’s an American play--it ought to open in New York first.”

Maybe the play should have opened in two widely separated installments, as “Angels in America” did, enabling critical huzzahs for the first part to pave the way for the second. “I never saw the two parts as separable,” Schenkkan replied. “To see just part one would be like leaving at intermission.” Besides, he pointed out that the separation of “Angels in America” into two parts, opening in two different seasons, “wasn’t a marketing decision. It was because (“Angels” playwright) Tony (Kushner) hadn’t completed part two.”

He also noted that “Angels” had the benefit of two favorable reviews by New York Times critic Frank Rich--in London and Los Angeles--before it came to New York, and that “it’s riding the crest of a sociopolitical wave that’s enormous.” By contrast, his “Cycle” got a mixed review from Rich, who left his powerful post 10 days later, to be replaced by David Richards, a critic who liked “Cycle.” “That’s just fate,” said Schenkkan, referring to the switch in critics. “What can you do?”*