GLENDALE : Alex Theater Officials Weigh Legal Options

Glendale officials and a nonprofit group overseeing the operations of the historic Alex Theater said Friday they were not surprised that a company being sued for balking on its contract and canceling 11,000 subscribers’ tickets has filed for bankruptcy protection.

“We anticipated that bankruptcy was a possibility for some time. Their attorneys had been talking about it,” City Atty. Scott Howard said of Theatre Corp. of America’s announcement that it is $9 million in debt and seeking protection from creditors.

The Pasadena-based company, which has run the Pasadena Playhouse since 1981, backed out of a five-year deal to run the Alex in mid-1994 after only six months and took an estimated $1 million in ticket-holders’ money with it.

Howard is representing the Alex Regional Theater Board in a lawsuit to recover the money. He said it is not yet clear whether the suit will be nullified by the bankruptcy action.

“We will now become a creditor, and their plan for reorganization will have to be reviewed by us and ultimately approved by the bankruptcy court. But the bankruptcy filing could be dismissed, so it’s premature to guess what will happen,” he said.

Neither Theatre Corp. President David Houk nor attorneys for the firm returned calls Friday. Houk told The Times on Thursday that the firm was seeking bankruptcy protection to stave off creditors while it restructured, and that programming at the Pasadena Playhouse would not be affected.

John Hedlund, president of the nonprofit theater board, said if the bankruptcy filing stymies efforts to recoup the subscribers’ money through the courts, then the group may be forced to find other ways to reimburse ticket-holders.

“One of the reasons we haven’t done anything else for the subscribers up until now was that we didn’t want to jeopardize the lawsuit,” Hedlund said. “Now we may have to be more creative to see if there isn’t something else we can do for them.”

City officials said an unknown number of ticket-holders have already exchanged their tickets for shows at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Theatre Corp. officials have said their financial troubles were caused by the company’s failed expansion into five other cities. Pasadena productions were shown in Santa Barbara and Poway starting in 1992, and last year’s season of musicals that originated at the Alex toured theaters in San Diego and Fresno. Those musicals cost more than anticipated and sent the company into debt, officials said.

Since Theatre Corp.’s departure, the Alex has been run on an interim basis by the Terry Hill Entertainment Group of Woodland Hills. Theater officials said they are in the process of hiring a permanent manager for the venue, the selection of which may be announced within a week.