STAGEChange of Pace: Actor John Goodman, best...

STAGE

Change of Pace: Actor John Goodman, best known as the long-suffering husband Dan Conner on the TV show “Roseanne” and as Fred Flintstone in the movie about those fun-loving cave dwellers, will portray Falstaff at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego this summer. Goodman will star in William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2,” Old Globe artistic director Jack O’Brien announced. The two plays, compiled by Dakin Matthews, are slated for the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in Balboa Park July 1 through Aug. 5 with previews June 25-June 30. Goodman, who recently portrayed Louisiana Gov. Huey P. Long in a television movie, has appeared in the Bard’s works at the New York Shakespeare Festival.

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Trouble on the ‘Boulevard’: Glenn Close, currently starring in “Sunset Boulevard” on Broadway following a successful run at L.A.’s Shubert Theatre, fired off an angry letter to show composer-producer Andrew Lloyd Webber saying she is “furious and insulted” that a representative of Lloyd Webber’s company provided inflated box-office figures to the press, implying that ticket sales remained the same during Close’s two-week March vacation when the Norma Desmond role was taken over by understudy Karen Mason. According to Monday’s Daily Variety, Close said the misinformation implied that her “contribution to the show is nothing.” The flap represents yet another chapter in the show’s troubled history: Close took the role on Broadway even though the production had a previous contractual commitment to Patti LuPone, sparking a legal battle. And “Sunset” folded abruptly in Los Angeles when Lloyd Webber’s team decided Close’s replacement, Faye Dunaway, couldn’t carry the part. Close’s publicist, Catherine Olim, confirmed Variety’s report but stressed that Close’s letter was “a private letter from Glenn to Sir Andrew” and not meant as a public statement.

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Playhouse Cuts Debt: The La Jolla Playhouse, which entered its 1993 season with an accumulated deficit of $1.85 million, will announce today that it has reduced that debt by $854,337 in just two years, dropping its red ink below $1 million for the first time since 1989. Of that reduction, $636,950 occurred in the 1994 season, which played to 91.3% capacity and featured “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” which succeeded admirably at the box office.

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British Theater Opens the Envelopes: “She Loves Me,” a revival of the 1963 musical, and “Broken Glass,” the Arthur Miller play that flopped on Broadway last season, were big winners at the 1995 Laurence Olivier Awards presented Sunday in London. The awards honor theater, opera and dance. “She Loves Me” dominated the honors for musicals. The best play award for “Broken Glass,” set in 1930s Brooklyn, was testimony to the stature of Miller in England and contrasted with the cold reception the play got in the United States. “He said, ‘Just thank England,’ ” said director David Thacker, accepting the prize on Miller’s behalf.

TELEVISION

Focus on Women’s Issues: Blair Brown and Toukie Smith will host “Talk It Over,” Lifetime Television’s new women’s talk and advocacy series. It will premiere April 26 at 11 p.m., and then will air regularly Saturdays at 11 a.m. beginning May 6. Brown has appeared in varied roles on television (“The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,” on NBC and Lifetime), film (“Altered States,” “One Trick Pony”) and stage (currently starring in the Lincoln Center production of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”). She also hosts the National Public Radio series “The Poet’s Voice.” Smith is an actress (“Miami Vice,” “A Rage in Harlem”), restaurateur and former model. Both women have been active in social causes.

QUICK TAKES

Legendary vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, 86, was hospitalized in New York in stable condition after suffering a mild stroke, a publicist said Monday. Hampton, who had a serious stroke three years ago, reportedly was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital on Friday night after he felt dizzy and his speech got slurred. . . . The family of the late Princess Grace of Monaco--once actress Grace Kelly--wants her ancestral home in remote western Ireland to become a memorial to the former screen star. Tourism officials in Newport, County Mayo, said Monday they hope to transform her grandfather’s crumbling 19th-Century cottage into an international attraction. . . . Poland has awarded its Golden Duck Prize, the equivalent of an Oscar, to the American film “Forrest Gump” in the best foreign film category, PAP news agency said Monday. The film “White,” a Franco-Polish co-production directed by Poland’s Krzysztof Kieslowski, won the prize for the best Polish film. Kieslowski had been nominated as best director for “Red,” in last week’s Academy Awards, but lost to Robert Zemeckis, who won for “Forrest Gump.” . . . Two-time Oscar winner Jessica Lange, named best actress this year for “Blue Sky,” says she’s moving back to her home state of Minnesota, according to a wire service report from Minneapolis. “Most of my family lives back there, and my extended family,” said Lange, a native of the northeastern Minnesota town of Cloquet. “I have a cabin in the woods near Cloquet that I love,” she said. . . . Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger and Geraldine Chaplin are expected to attend a screening tonight at 7:30 of a newly restored print of David Lean’s classic “Doctor Zhivago,” in which they starred 30 years ago. The screening will be at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The restored version opens Friday at area theaters.