THEATER NOTES : Long Beach CLO Vacancy, ‘Everyman’ at the Mall

After four years as producer of Long Beach Civic Light Opera, Southern California’s most professional musical theater production company, Barry Brown left last week “to free myself up so I can devote more time to raising money to fight AIDS,” he said in an interview.

Brown had been producing and directing at least three AIDS benefits a year, he said, but that number has fallen, and he wants to do more. He also plans to produce commercially--he recently bought the stage musical rights to “The Turning Point.”

He said he’ll continue at Long Beach as a consultant “on all creative aspects of each of the shows,” but it’s not clear how long that’ll last. The organization is accepting resumes for a new producer, who presumably will want to run his or her own shop.

One name that arises whenever anyone thinks about who might lead Long Beach is Martin Wiviott--who led the organization from 1983 to 1989 and is widely credited with taking it to the top of the local field. In May, Wiviott was laid off by Theatre Corp. of America, where he produced the first season at Glendale’s Alex Theatre before that company ran out of money and withdrew from the Alex.

Reached at home in Orange County, Wiviott said that he would be interested in the Long Beach job, and “there have been conversations, but nobody has officially asked me. You can’t go to dinner if you’re not invited.”

Jane Netherton, the company’s designated spokeswoman, said that the selection process will take 30-60 days, and many names are being considered. The final decision probably won’t be made until after new board president C.T. Walz takes over next month.

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ETERNITY AT A MALL: In Southern California, where will you find “Everyman”? At the mall, of course.

Cornerstone Theatre is bringing the 15th-Century morality play to Santa Monica Place, beginning Thursday. Starting at 9 p.m. weekdays, 7 p.m. on Sundays--just after the stores close--Everyman will suddenly find himself confronted with Death in an elevator. Audiences will follow him around the mall as he tries to enlist Goods (a store mannequin), Kin, Strength, Knowledge and Beauty to die with him.

Shishir Kurup and Bill Rauch are directing an all-professional company (unlike the many Cornerstone productions that use amateurs). It may not be what the creators of the original, very Christian “Everyman” had in mind--there is more than one god in this version. And one wonders what the first “Everyman” audience would make of audience instructions like these:

“Meet on Level 2 directly above Eatz (the food court), near Mrs. Fields and Everything’s $1. Wear comfortable shoes.” No pumps allowed in the afterlife.

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“STAR” WARS: Dale Wasserman, best known for “Man of La Mancha,” pulled the world premiere rights of his new musical “Western Star” from Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera and bestowed the show on Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities.

Santa Barbara had the rights for 15 months, said Wasserman, and “they made no progress. The director, the designers weren’t chosen. They were accomplishing nothing on schedule.”

A Santa Barbara CLO spokeswoman replied that differences arose between Wasserman and the management “in selecting the team to put on the show. It was difficult to agree on the key players in a timely fashion.”

“Western Star” will now be presented June 7-18, 1995, at the South Bay group’s 1,425-seat Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. And South Bay will also produce a staged reading of the show at the annual Festival of New Musicals, sponsored by the National Alliance for Musical Theatre in New York.

The two organizations are dueling on another front as well. Both are opening their seasons with “Hello, Dolly!”