STAGE’Jeffrey’ Moves to Big Screen: In one...

STAGE

‘Jeffrey’ Moves to Big Screen: In one of the fastest transitions from theater to film in recent years, the Off Broadway hit “Jeffrey,” seen in L.A. recently at the Westwood Playhouse, has been optioned as a movie by one of its stage producers and will begin shooting in New York in July. It will be produced by the play’s co-producer, Mitchell Maxwell, in association with “Jeffrey” playwright Paul Rudnick, who completed the screenplay last week. “Because no studio would buy ‘Jeffrey,’ we bought it and have made a deal with Paul Rudnick to write it and have him co-produce it with us,” said Maxwell, who heads the production company Workin’ Man Films. Maxwell said the movie version of “Jeffrey,” a comedy about a gay man who chooses celibacy so he won’t get AIDS, would be aimed primarily at the art-house circuit.

* Broderick’s Turn ‘to Succeed’: Matthew Broderick will star in a revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” to be directed by Des McAnuff in his swan song as artistic director at the La Jolla Playhouse, Oct. 30-Dec. 4. Other new additions to the La Jolla season include Marivaux’s “The Triumph of Love,” in a new translation by James Magruder, to be directed by Lisa Peterson in repertory with the previously announced “Therese Raquin,” June 19-Aug. 14, and the West Coast debut of Canadian clowns Mump (Michael Kennard) and Smoot (John Turner) in “Ferno,” Sept. 4-Oct. 2.

*The Reviews Are In: New York critics liked the staging by Oskar Eustis, the Mark Taper Forum’s associate artistic director, of Philip Kan Gotanda’s “Day Standing on Its Head” at Manhattan Theatre Club, but they didn’t think much of the play itself. Gotanda “tries to do way too much in this stylistically overloaded--but frequently haunting--one-act portrait” of a man’s midlife crisis, wrote Linda Winer in Newsday. And Ben Brantley of the New York Times found “disappointingly few original insights.”

QUAKE RELIEF

KVEA Plans Telethon: Spanish-language station KVEA-TV Channel 52 will air a 14-hour live telethon Feb. 6 to benefit the victims of the Jan. 17 earthquake. Called “Los Angeles Estamos Contigo” (“Los Angeles We Are With You”), the telethon will run from 10 a.m. to midnight and feature performances by local and internationally known celebrities.

Laugh, Dance Away Troubles: Igby’s Comedy Cabaret is offering a respite from earthquake-induced freeway congestion with a free “Rush Hour Comedy Break,” featuring stand-up comics, every Wednesday through Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. Igby’s is at 11637 W. Pico Blvd., near the 405 and 10 freeways. . . . Actors Esai Morales and Gabrielle Carteris will host a dance party to benefit the American Red Cross Earthquake Relief Fund tonight at downtown’s Glam Slam nightclub at 333 S. Boylston St. Celebrities scheduled to attend include Rosie Perez, the Pointer Sisters, Herbie Hancock, the group Shai and stars from “General Hospital” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” The event begins at 9 p.m. and admission is $20.

RADIO & TV

KCRW Asks for Funds: Radio station KCRW-FM (89.9) has issued a plea for listener donations, saying it must raise $200,000 a month to stay on the air until April, at which time it will hold its on-air subscription drive. The drive, originally scheduled for Feb. 3-11, was postponed, station management says, because the 700 volunteers needed for the effort are too taxed from complications from the Jan. 17 earthquake.

* Clinton’s Viewership Declines: Television ratings for President Clinton’s Tuesday night State of the Union Address were 23% lower than when he outlined his economic plan to a joint session of Congress last February, according to statistics released by A. C. Nielsen Co. Although national figures won’t be available until next week, Tuesday’s speech averaged a combined 33.4 rating on the ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox networks in the 29 major markets. If that figure holds up in the national ratings, it would mean Clinton was seen in about 31.5 million homes. The speech was also carried by various Public Broadcasting Service, independent, cable and Spanish-language stations throughout the nation, whose ratings figures were not available.

QUICK TAKES

Bruce Springsteen has donated $45,000 to a South Philadelphia playground featured in the video of “Streets of Philadelphia,” the song he recorded as the opening anthem for the movie “Philadelphia.” The money will heat a building at the playground and buy lights for an outdoor field. . . . “Mrs. Doubtfire” star Robin Williams will be honored as male star of the year at the NATO/ShoWest annual film exhibitors convention in Las Vegas on March 20. Williams was also the top pick to host the March 21 Academy Awards telecast, in a public phone poll conducted by “Entertainment Tonight” and TV Guide. Thirty-seven percent of respondents chose him over runners-up Johnny Carson, who had 26% of the votes, and Whoopi Goldberg, with 14%.