THEATER NOTES : ‘Apple’ Will Ripen at Tiffany

L.A.’s sub-100-seat theaters usually aren’t considered Broadway tryout sites.

But one of them, the Sunset Strip’s Tiffany, is about to become one. “The Apple Doesn’t Fall,” which will play Feb. 15 through March 31 at the Tiffany, is slated to move directly to Broadway. New York previews begin on April 5 at the 924-seat Lyceum, with an opening slated for April 17. Leonard Nimoy will direct the mother-daughter drama, starring Florence Stanley and Margaret Whitton.

The new play’s general manager, Leonard Soloway, was quoted in this column just a few months ago saying that “Party,” which he co-produced in a 298-seat configuration at the Henry Fonda Theatre, could never gross enough money at a 99-seat venue to justify the investment. He hasn’t changed his mind. But in this case, “The Apple Doesn’t Fall” has a producer who is willing to take a big loss at the Tiffany.

Chase Mishkin, who’s putting up all the money for the Los Angeles run, said that the tryout has to be in Los Angeles because she wants the playwright, Trish Vradenburg, to be on hand during the process, and Vradenburg’s other professional commitments keep her here.

Mishkin decided against doing it at a mid-sized theater, she said, because the costs are greater and she still wouldn’t be able to get her money back because of the limited run. She believes the Tiffany is “the best” of the sub-100-seat spaces. The jump to the much larger Lyceum in New York won’t be drastic, she said, because its configuration is “cozy. When [the actors] get in the dark at the Lyceum, it’ll feel like the Tiffany. They won’t see the balcony.”

Wait a sec. Aren’t actors paid peanuts at sub-100-seat houses? If Broadway tryouts can be produced on Actors’ Equity’s 99-Seat Theater Plan, why doesn’t every producer do it that way and save a lot of money?

Foreseeing that possibility, Equity doesn’t allow Broadway-bound producers to use the 99-Seat Theater Plan (or New York’s showcase code).

For “The Apple Doesn’t Fall,” a special contract was drawn up that requires the same wages to be paid at the Tiffany as will be paid in New York. Mishkin also will make contributions to the union’s pension and welfare plan during the Tiffany run. However, in a concession because of the venue, the union waived the normal Broadway requirement for an assistant stage manager and understudies. And the producers won’t have to reach agreement with other unions at the Tiffany, as they would at most standard Broadway tryout sites.

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99-SEAT MEET: Speaking of Equity’s 99-Seat Theater Plan, two proposed changes in it are on the table at a membership meeting Friday.

At the last membership meeting on Oct. 13, attended by only 55 Equity members, a controversial proposal was made to lower the number of any production’s permitted performances on the plan, from 80 to 24. The meeting also endorsed a measure strengthening the contract that replaces the plan when a production goes beyond the allowed 80 performances.

The moves took the many producers in sub-100-seat theaters by surprise, but they have since begun to marshal opposition to the proposals.

A Nov. 5 letter went out urging the troops to rally, signed “Veterans of W.W.I”--a reference to the “Waiver Wars” that raged in the L.A. ranks of Actors’ Equity in 1986-88. A group with representatives from at least 20 theaters has met at least six times to discuss strategy, said spokesman Michael Wadler.

By the terms of a treaty that ended the Waiver Wars, a committee representing both sides must review proposed changes in the 99-Seat Plan. Although a meeting of this review committee is in the works, it’s not clear that it will take place before Friday.

Equity does plan to distribute a survey about the 99-Seat Plan, asking how it’s working and what changes, if any, should be made. Copies probably will be available at the membership meeting.

Wadler said that his forces will concentrate on educating Equity members who have forgotten or never knew the issues surrounding the 1988 birth of the 99-Seat Plan. He hopes that many Equity members will attend the meeting “not to confront but to demonstrate that there is a large constituency of Equity members who work within the plan and care about it.”

“We have only ourselves to blame,” he added, referring to producers who were surprised by the proposed changes. “We took our eye off the ball. This may turn out to be a wake-up call.”

Equity Western Regional Director George Ives has not yet reached an opinion on the proposed changes. But he said that the meeting on Friday may help reveal “whether we’re declaring war again or whether there is some mutually acceptable point of agreement.”