THEATER / JAN HERMAN : ‘Grease’ Film’s Songs Slip Out of Stage Version

Notes from all over . . .

When the national touring version of “Grease” arrives in March at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, it will have an added song, “Since I Don’t Have You,” a 1959 doo-wop hit by the Skyliners that wasn’t in the original Broadway show.

The name of the tune is especially appropriate, because “Grease” will be missing the three songs most widely associated with it: “You’re the One That I Want,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and the title song.

Although they were not in the 1972 Broadway original either, they were part of the popular movie--and they were supposed to be inserted into the score of the touring revival, according to Fran Weissler, the New York producer who is financing it with her husband, Barry.

But London record executive Robert Stigwood--who produced the 1978 film and owns the rights to those songs--wouldn’t allow their use after he and the Weisslers parted company over disagreements involving control and casting of the current tour, she said earlier this week in a telephone interview.

“When we made the decision not to work with Robert, we knew we’d have to give up those songs,” Weissler said. “For about a week we were devastated. We kept saying, ‘My God, we need those songs.’ But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It forced us to dig in and do something new and fresh with the show.”

The “Grease” tour--featuring Rosie O’Donnell, Ricky Paull Goldin and Susan Woods--opened Thursday night in Wilmington, Del. It will move on to Boston, Washington and other cities before arriving in Costa Mesa. Then it will head to San Francisco and back to the East Coast for a Broadway opening sometime in May, Weissler said.

A nostalgic throwback to the ‘50s era of Elvis Presley and James Dean, the original “Grease” had its beginnings Off Broadway. When it transferred to Broadway, it became such a huge hit that it ran for nearly eight years without winning a single Tony Award.

But it was the movie version starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John and Stockard Channing that turned the show into a national musical icon. The soundtrack went to the top of Billboard’s pop-album chart and stayed at No. 1 for a dozen weeks in 1978. It also yielded four Top 5 singles, including the three songs missing from the current revival.

“You’re the One That I Want,” a duet by Newton-John and Travolta, reached No. 1 and breathed new life into Newton-John’s recording career. “Grease,” sung by Frankie Valli, also reached No. 1. And “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” a Newton-John solo, went to No. 3.

Weissler and her husband--who also produced the “Gypsy” and “My Fair Lady” revivals that came through the center on their pre-Broadway tours--don’t kid themselves about missing the “Grease” movie hits. They still would love to have them.

But unlike “My Fair Lady,” which underwent major improvements (including song presentations) after leaving the center, this “Grease” revival won’t be getting any fixes, Weissler said.

“What you see is what’s going to Broadway,” she said.

*

RECORD-BREAKER: The top-priced single ticket for the center’s Broadway Series will hit a new high this year, thanks to “The Phantom of the Opera.” The top ticket to the Andrew Lloyd Webber extravaganza, due at the center in July (with chandelier, but no name stars), will be a record-breaking $61.25. Ordinarily, $45 is the top.

Subscribers to this season’s series (who get only a small discount) don’t seem to mind, though. Their number has risen to 17,608 subscribers, according to a center spokesman. That’s up from last season’s 16,936.

*

RED ALERT: Playwright Robert Daseler, a South Coast Repertory discovery who hasn’t been heard from in several years, will have a new work, “The Red Room,” read Jan. 24 on the SCR Mainstage in the Costa Mesa theater’s NewSCRipt Series.

The title of the play refers to the color of the central figure’s living room.

“It’s about a woman whose husband has left her,” Daseler said. “She has acquired a house. After he leaves, she paints her living room. I guess it’s a sort of statement.”

Two plays by the Michigan-born playwright, who lives in Claremont, have been produced at SCR: “Dragon Lady” in 1989 and “Alekhine’s Defense” in 1990. The new script is the first he has penned since then.

“I just didn’t have the concentration for writing,” said Daseler, 48, whose wife died three years ago. They met during their undergraduate days at Pomona College in the late ‘60s. Now he is raising their two young boys.

SCR describes “The Red Room” as a series of conversations (among the former wife, her daughter and the former husband’s current live-in lover) that explores “the conundrums of women involved with contemporary men.”

But Daseler doesn’t think of himself as a theme writer. “I’m much more interest in character than either theme or plot,” he said.

*

BABY MILESTONE: Thursday night’s world premiere of “Teachers’ Lounge” at the Moulton Theatre in Laguna Beach was something of a milestone. John Twomey’s comedy is the first new play produced by the Laguna Playhouse in almost four years.

The most recent original work undertaken by the Playhouse was a huge production of “Manet,” the Mark Turnbull musical that premiered at the Moulton in May, 1989. The Playhouse also did a workshop staging of another Turnbull musical, “Dora Hand,” which had a summer run in 1985.

*

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Theatergoers with long memories may have a sense of deja vu when “Evita” opens next month at Plummer Auditorium in a Fullerton Civic Light Opera production. FCLO producer Griff Duncan says he’s bringing Julie Waldman in from New York for the title role.

Waldman, a Whittier native, played Evita nine years ago for FCLO. “She’s really terrific,” Duncan said when asked why he didn’t cast someone who hadn’t been seen before. “Last summer she was on tour with Michael Crawford, and before that she was on Broadway with Topol in ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ ”

*

IT’S A DEAL: Beth Hansen and George Quick, last seen together in “Christmas With Sal and Amanda Gecko” at Saddleback College’s Studio Theatre, are planning to bring a musical to the Gem Theatre in Garden Grove.

“We’ve set a deal for the end of March,” said Hansen, who also played a terrific Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd” last summer at Saddleback’s McKinney Theatre in Mission Viejo.

She and Quick are uncertain about just what musical they will do at the Gem, however, and have yet to decide on a title. But then nothing ever seems certain when it comes to the Gem, at least not since the company that manages it, GroveShakespeare, collapsed in all but name last year.

Grove artistic director Kevin Cochrane, who has confirmed the deal with Hansen and Quick, said he, too, is planning to mount a play at the Gem. His offering should arrive in February, he said, but he hasn’t decided on a title either.