Glendale Sues Ex-Alex Theatre Managers : Court: City says company owes it $1 million. Operators broke promises to produce splashy shows to make the renovated Art Deco landmark self-supporting, according to the lawsuit.

Glendale filed suit Tuesday against the management company that once operated the city-owned Alex Theatre, accusing the company of fraudulently selling 11,000 season tickets to musicals the operators knew “they would be unable to deliver” and demanding the company return more than $1 million.

The city said in its lawsuit that the Theatre Corporation of America, which also manages the venerable Pasadena Playhouse, had promised Glendale it would produce splashy musicals and other major entertainment events at the Alex, a 1925 Art Deco theater that reopened this year after a major renovation.

Glendale officials have said that TCA assured them the Alex could be operated at no cost to the city.

But city officials say that in July, shortly after selling subscription tickets for a three-musical series, TCA informed them that most of the money collected had gone toward paying previous debts and that the remaining funds would not be enough to produce even one of the shows.

The agreement between the city and TCA was formally severed in August. In the suit, filed in Glendale Superior Court, the city accuses the theater company of breach of contract and asks for a full accounting of funds collected and spent by TCA. The city believes the amount TCA owes Glendale “exceeds the sum of $1 million,” according to the suit.

TCA officials could not be reached for comment.

Also Monday, there was more bad news for the city concerning the Alex. A volunteer board that now oversees the theater’s operation announced that a touring production of “Dreamgirls,” which was supposed to open there later this month as one of the replacement shows in the subscription season, had to be canceled. The touring company could not secure the local rights to the musical, the volunteer board announced.

The city had hoped the 1,400-seat Alex, which cost the Glendale Redevelopment Agency $837,000 to buy and another $6.5 million to renovate, would rejuvenate night life in downtown Glendale. Although consultants had told city officials that a performing arts venue of its size could not be operated without subsidy, TCA assured city officials it could get along without city funds.

In a major expansion of its theatrical operations, TCA planned to produce musicals at the Alex and then send them on tour to theaters in San Diego and Fresno to spread out the costs and increase the chances for profits. TCA also promised an aggressive campaign to build a substantial base of season ticket buyers.

For its first series of three musicals at the Alex, which began in January, TCA sold 14,000 subscriptions and the operation seemed to be thriving. But city officials said they were later told that the musicals had gone far over budget and that the tour plan did not work as well as hoped.

Shortly after the sale of 11,000 subscriptions for the second group of shows, TCA told the board of its financial troubles. The board, which had been raising funds to establish an endowment for the theater, lent TCA about $100,000 just to get the first show of the series on the boards.

That musical, “Fashion,” was a critical and box-office disaster, and it caused a final rift between the city and TCA. The theater board is now searching for two shows to fill out the season for subscription ticket-holders.

The suit demands that TCA turn over to the city subscription money collected for the second series of shows and also repay the loan from the board. The suit also alleges that TCA has failed to turn over, as required, about $30,000 in donations collected from subscription ticket buyers for the theater board.