Fans of Musicals Have to Learn a New Tune

Musicals remain the most popular genre of American theater. But the musical theater scene from Orange County to Santa Barbara looks very different than it did just a year ago.

The granddaddy among Southland musical theater companies, Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, has been converted into something called Broadway/L.A. The most prominent local musical production company, Long Beach Civic Light Opera, went belly-up, replaced in its huge venue by a series consisting mostly of well-worn, booked-in shows, including one nonmusical. And even Orange County Performing Arts Center’s musicals filled fewer seats last season.

Musical productions are more far-flung than in the golden age of Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. With performing arts centers in every corner of the map and the increasing professionalism of some neighborhood companies, it’s no longer necessary to venture to a central location to see a musical unless you must see the latest, hottest show. And these days, even the tours often play at least two Southland venues.

So what’s out there now for the musicals fan? The following comments focus only on large venues or regular subscription series that are exclusively devoted to musicals (or, as in the case of the new Long Beach series, almost so). Other theaters--such as the Ahmanson, La Mirada’s McCoy/Rigby series and many sub-100-seat venues--do musicals, but not as the staple of their diets.

The theaters are grouped by levels of professionalism, based on the type of Actors’ Equity contract used. At the top are the theaters or series that use wholly union casts.

THE ALL-PROS

Shubert Theatre (Century City; seats, 1,829): The Shubert is the only Southland theater devoted to long, open-ended runs of major musicals. (The Ahmanson, former home of “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Miss Saigon,” has been returned to its season subscribers.) “Beauty and the Beast” has survived three months of advertised warnings about “final weeks” and is scheduled at least through September. A theater spokesman said no other show is booked because no one is sure how long “Beauty” will keep going.

Broadway/L.A.: This Nederlander Organization series uses the Pantages Theatre (Hollywood; seats, 2,691) and the Wilshire Theatre (Beverly Hills; seats, 1,910). Descended from the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, whose membership rolls slipped to fewer than 10,000 from a high of at least 50,000, Broadway/L.A. expects to present more reliable seasons than in recent years. So far, officials report a 75% renewal rate, and a spokesman said demographic surveys show the audience is getting younger. Broadway/L.A. recently began offering a four-show option in addition to its standard six-show package; the shorter series excludes “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” because some potential customers reported that they had already seen those shows under the auspices of the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson series. The Broadway/L.A. audience comes largely from the same area that CTG/Ahmanson draws on: the Westside, the San Fernando Valley, Glendale, Silver Lake and Hollywood.

Broadway Season at Orange County Performing Arts Center (Costa Mesa; seats, 2,994): This is the primary Southland showplace for Pace Theatrical Group, a New York-based wing of a giant Houston-based company. This series won spectacular box-office success earlier in the decade, but last season--with the clinker “Stage Door Charley” and a Christmastime booking of “Kiss of the Spider Woman”--filled fewer of the seats (74%) than any season in the center’s history. Next season looks more promising; among its offerings are “Carousel,” “Sunset Boulevard” and two potentially pre-Broadway revivals, “Applause” and “Funny Girl.”

Broadway at the Beach at Long Beach Terrace Theater (seats, 3,062): This newcomer is another presentation of Pace Theatrical Group. In contrast to the Orange County bill of fare, Long Beach’s initial list looks stale, but Pace officials say there wasn’t much time to assemble the first list and subsequent seasons may grow bigger as well as better--to a list of six subscription shows instead of this year’s four.

At first, this season’s only surprise was a revival of a five-character nonmusical, “Deathtrap,” which left some wags wondering who will be lucky enough to get the binoculars concession in this gigantic hall. The series also included a booking of “A Chorus Line” that clashed with a prior booking of the show at Cerritos. After Cerritos sued, Pace agreed to bring “A Chorus Line” to Long Beach later and substituted the new revival of “Applause” this season. This added a second surprise, because “Applause” will have just played Orange County (see above), raising the question of whether Pace will be competing with itself. But Pace officials, citing demographic surveys, say that the two audiences are sufficiently separate and the double booking will provide more bang for the advertising buck.

Counting two bonus offerings besides the regular season, the Long Beach offerings include three oft-rehashed Lloyd Webber shows. One of them, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” is non-Equity. After Equity complained, Pace agreed to stop promoting “Superstar” in its “Broadway at the Beach” ads and brochures.

One other bone of contention: Pace’s winning of the Long Beach contract over a bid by the Nederlander Organization disgruntled local supporters of former Long Beach Civic Light Opera producer Martin Wiviott, now with Nederlander. Wiviott would have operated both Broadway/L.A. (see above) and the Long Beach series in a cooperative venture if the contract had gone to Nederlander.

Musical Theater series at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts (capacity varies): This series has only three items next season. One is a true anomaly, a touring production of “Gospel at Colonus,” the Lee Breuer show that combines Greek theater with gospel.

ALMOST ALL-PROS

The Broadway Series at Pasadena Civic Auditorium (seats, 2,961): Presented by Baltimore-based Baci Management, this series ruffled feathers at Actors’ Equity by scheduling a non-Equity production of “42nd Street” (produced by the Troika Organization, also from Maryland) as its opening attraction in October. If the booking isn’t changed, Equity pledges a picket line. All of the Pasadena titles are chestnuts, but at least the productions are new to the area.

Theater League at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Probst Center (seats, 1,800) and the Alex Theatre (Glendale; seats, 1,460): This is the only Southland producer operating on the full-fledged version of Equity’s Western Civic Light Opera contract, which requires at least 17 actors or three-fourths of each cast to be Equity members. Most of its shows use recognizable stars, in contrast to the semi-pros listed below. Based in Kansas City, Theater League has 33,000 subscribers, including audiences in Missouri, Arizona and Ohio in addition to the two subscriptions here. Theater League also tried to obtain the Long Beach contract (see above) that went to Pace.

LOCALLY BASED SEMI-PROS

Music Theatre of Southern California in San Gabriel recently agreed to use 10 Equity actors per show. Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera, Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities and San Bernardino Civic Light Opera must use at least seven Equity actors per show.

Santa Barbara is the biggest of this bunch. It reported a $3.8-million budget and 15,000 subscribers last year. The Redondo Beach-based South Bay group spent $1.8-million and enlisted 13,500 subscribers. The San Gabriel and San Bernardino groups were smaller.

Fullerton Civic Light Opera and Musical Theatre West in La Mirada are on an even lower Equity rung, but they have larger budgets and audiences than San Bernardino. Musical Theatre West in particular sometimes tackles new or unfamiliar shows.