What’s Coming in ‘98:

LIVE THEATER

The Loretta Theater, which will include a 99-seat and a 65-seat theater at 2437 Main St. in Santa Monica, is scheduled to open in late July. The theater will be housed in a Frank Gehry-designed building in the city’s Ocean Park district. The board of directors includes playwright Beth Henley, who received the Pulitzer Prize in drama and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best American play for “Crimes of the Heart,” as well as Ed Harris, Holly Hunter and Amy Madigan. (310) 399-5929.

Madrid Theatre. A one-time vaudeville stop and later an adult film theater that was knocked out of commission by the Northridge earthquake, the 499-seat Madrid Theater is scheduled to open May 1 on Sherman Way in Canoga Park as part of an earthquake revitalization project of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. The theater will be operated by the Los Angeles City Cultural Affairs Department, will stage drama and dance, will exhibit art films and will be convertible to a 247-seat theater for smaller productions. Information available through council member Laura Chick’s office, (213) 485-3486.

Magicopolis Theater. Former magician Steve Spill and marketing executive Marvin Melaten plan to open their City of Magic at 1418 4th St. on the Promenade in Santa Monica this summer. Spill says Magicopolis will include two theaters, a smaller room for “close-up sleight-of-hand” and a larger stage for “floating ladies” and other tricks performed on a grander scale. (310) 305-0336.

FAMILY ATTRACTIONS

New Tomorrowland at Disneyland. Coming in spring will be a total renovation of Tomorrowland, one of the Anaheim park’s eight themed lands. It will feature a 3-D ride on rocket cars of the future “at speeds exceeding those of most roller coasters,” an interactive technology pavilion, all-new design and landscaping, and a new Astro Orbitor at the entrance, where guests can pilot their own spaceships through a simulated cosmos. Other new features will include a new “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” show, plus a redesign of building facades and landscaping “to resemble a classic future environment inspired by the vision of futurists like Jules Verne.” (714) 781-4448.

California Science Center. The former California Museum of Science and Industry has reinvented, expanded and renamed itself with a whole new set of exhibits, including a new Imax 3-D theater, scheduled to open in February, and a high-wire bicycle where visitors can pedal across a guide wire four stories above the floor. The bicycle is rigged with a counterweight to keep the rider from flipping over, and there is a harness for the rider and a safety net below. The new exhibits, which are the first of three planned phases, represent a $130-million investment of private and public funds. Numerous features and exhibits have been added, and Exposition Park has been revitalized for picnics, sports and other gatherings. (213) 744-7400.

The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific at Aquarium Road and Shoreline Drive is scheduled to open in June and is being billed as “the first world-class aquarium to be developed in Southern California.” The 157,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor exhibits will include a “Kids Cove,” a sort of aquatic version of a children’s zoo, along with an underwater tunnel where visitors can stroll among the sharks, a tank where visitors can swim with the fish, one of the world’s largest coral reef exhibits and a walkway through a surging channel of water at the base of a glacier. The $117-million aquarium, available after hours for private functions and special events, is part of Queensway Bay, a 300-acre project along the waterfront that will include a number of other entertainment venues and retail shops to be developed at the site in 1998 and in coming years. (562) 570-6623.

Rainbow Harbor. Scheduled to open adjacent to and at just about the same time as the Aquarium of the Pacific, the $40-million Rainbow Harbor project will be a combination tourist attraction and shopping center. The harbor will feature historic ships that visitors can tour, dinner cruises, whale-watching tours, harbor tours, para-sailing, dive boats and fishing charters. (562) 570-6623.

Former Russian submarine Scorpion. This former Soviet sub and Cold War artifact, decommissioned in 1994, is scheduled to dock in June as a tourist attraction next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Scorpion was the Soviet code name for the Foxtrot-class craft formally known as the Povodnaya Lodka B-427. An Australian group bought it after it was decommissioned and moved it to Sydney, where it has been on display for two years. It is slated to remain in Long Beach for up to five years. (562) 435-3511.

Club Disney. The second of Disney’s new “family play sites” for children and their parents is scheduled to open Jan. 10 at 1581 Eastland Center Drive in West Covina. (The first Club Disney opened last year in Thousand Oaks.) Guests can dress up as their favorite Disney characters at Fantasy Fashion Show, romp at a Pooh ‘N You attraction, create their own characters in a Character Creations art studio, munch Disney-themed food at the Club Cafe and shop at the Clubhouse Shop retail store. (909) 272-1888. Recorded club information: (626) 938-1480; party reservations at 1-888-CLUB-DIS.

PERFORMING ARTS

Royce Hall at UCLA campus. Another cultural victim of the Northridge earthquake, Royce Hall has been repaired and refurbished and will reopen April 4 with a program honoring Ginny Mancini, Lew Wasserman, Harold Williams and John Wooden. Performers at the reopening program will include Carol Burnett, James Galway, John Lithgow and Paul Reiser, among others. The reopening program also will be designed to focus attention on the arts at UCLA and raise funds for the arts at the university. It will include highlights of the history of the Romanesque Royce Hall, which was built in 1929 as one of the first campus structures and has hosted some of the world’s foremost performing artists over the years. (310) 794-8952.

Herbert S. Zipper Concert Hall. The new Colburn School of Performing Arts, 200 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles (next to MOCA), plans to open a 416-seat concert hall this summer. The Herbert S. Zipper Concert Hall will feature acoustics especially designed for solo recitals, chamber orchestras and other performances intended for more intimate settings. (213) 743-2306.

The Getty Center. L.A.’s new $1-billion cultural center will present a series of events under different headings. The first of six outdoor family festivals, produced by Community Arts Resources, is scheduled for Feb. 28 and 29. Each festival will include performances and workshops designed to reflect the breadth of the Los Angeles artistic community. “Friday Nights at the Getty,” beginning Feb. 6, are planned as a way for young adults to sample the best of L.A.’s music, dance, theater--and for discussions, lectures and film screenings, along with a chance to view the new galleries. The center will offer live performances, some in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium, others outdoors. The first year will include the “Sounds of L.A.” series of free concerts featuring local music masters. A summer series in the Museum Courtyard will complement the opening of the exhibition “Beyond Beauty,” and other performances will be presented in collaboration with other programs of the Getty Trust. (310) 440-6616.

MOVIE THEATERS

Rialto Theatre, South Pasadena. Operators of this venerable Spanish Baroque-style movie house say it can’t survive financially as a one-screen theater, so they plan to convert it into a five-screen theater complex, pending project approval from city officials. No date has been set for the opening. (310) 312-2323.

Laemmle Theatres, Pasadena. The small Laemmle chain plans to open a seven-screen, 1,200-seat complex, plus an adjacent restaurant and coffeehouse on Thanksgiving Day near the city’s playhouse district. The theaters will specialize in art films and foreign films in a setting much like Laemmle’s Sunset-5 complex in West Hollywood. (310)-478-1041.

Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood. The American Cinematheque, a nonprofit film exhibition and cultural group that currently screens films at Raleigh Studios and other L.A. venues, is scheduled to open its permanent home in the fall after completing renovations at the historic Egyptian Theatre, once owned by theater impresario Sid Grauman and the first film theater on Hollywood Boulevard when it was opened in 1922. The Cinematheque presents weekly screenings of films, ranging from classics to the avant-garde, including rare works and special prints, along with discussions by filmmakers and critics. Upon the opening of its permanent home, the Cinematheque will offer daily year-round programming for residents and tourists. (213) 466-3456.

CLUBS, RESTAURANTS

Tempest supper club. Scheduled to open in January at 7323 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, Tempest is a re-creation of the restaurant, bar and nightclub formerly located in the Beverly Center. A venture of veteran L.A. club operator Michael Najjar and caterer David Slay, the club will offer entertainment ranging from live bands to recorded music and disc jockeys, seven days a week until 4 a.m. Celebrity-spotters may get a chance to see Francis Ford Coppola, who is referred to as a “Najjar supporter” and one of a number of former Tempest habitues expected to follow Najjar to the new spot. (213) 385-5662.

The Sky Room. This storied nightclub atop the former Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, a reputed hangout for spies, celebrities and military personnel during World War II, is scheduled to reopen in January, “refurbished to its original Art Deco splendor.” The new Sky Room will feature fine cuisine and big-band dancing to live music, sans spies. Information: Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, (562) 436-3645.

The Coconut Club. Merv Griffin’s Beverly Hilton will open its Coconut Club Jan. 16 with the big-band music of Jack Sheldon and will follow it every weekend with ballroom dancing in “a glamorous nightclub setting reminiscent of the old Mocambo, Ciro’s and especially the Coconut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel.” It is described as a “surreal tropical setting” with tables, banquettes, romantic oversized private booths, a cigar room, a VIP area and a privatecanopied entrance for limousine drop-off. Entertainer Griffin, in a promotional piece on the club, promises a return to “the great supper clubs of yesteryear.” (310) 285-1358.

URBAN CENTERS

City Mills, city of Orange. This latest Southern California entry from the Mills Corp., developer of the enormous Ontario Mills shopping center, is scheduled to open in the fall at the site of the former the City shopping center. The $165-million center will include up to 12 anchor stores and 100 specialty stores as well as “high-energy entertainment-dining and family-oriented community events, with more entertainment venues than Mills Corp.’s traditional centers like Ontario Mills.” Among the entertainment offerings will be a 30-screen AMC Theatres multiplex. (714) 753-1111.

Long Beach Towne Center. This new center at Carson Street near the 605 Freeway is a $70-million shopping and entertainment complex on the 82-acre former site of the Long Beach Navy Hospital. Scheduled to open in the fall, it will include a 26-screen Edwards Cinemas complex with 5,000 stadium-style seats, plus nearly a million square feet of shopping space, including big-box retailers like Sam’s Club and Staples and other stores and shops. Information: city of Long Beach, (562) 570-6782.

Glendale Marketplace. A new two-story development scheduled to open in the spring adjacent to the Glendale Galleria on Brand Boulevard at Broadway, Glendale Marketplace will be a $50-million retail and theater complex in a setting reminiscent of a European shopping village. The project will include the WOW! multimedia store (a joint venture of the good guys! and Tower Records) and a Mann Theater multiplex. Other tenants will include numerous upscale retail shops, restaurants, kiosks and street-side activities. (818) 706-1840.

Irvine Spectrum Entertainment Center, Phase II. The second phase of the Irvine Spectrum’s popular entertainment center at the intersection of the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways is slated to open in July. It will double the size of the entertainment and shopping area to about 500,000 square feet. The center already includes a 21-screen Edwards theater complex that features a 3-D Imax theater. Additions will include a Dave & Buster’s, a thirtysomething-oriented place for eating, billiards and the second West Coast site opened by the national chain. (Its first was at Ontario Mills.) Designed to keep customers entertained while they’re eating and vice versa, it bills itself as an “eatertainment” venue the size of a football field. (714) 789-9180; (714) 753-1111.

Northridge Fashion Center. A 10-screen Pacific Theatres complex, several new restaurants and a Borders Books mega-store scheduled to open in July at this existing shopping center represent one of the best examples of how shopping malls are trying to reinvent themselves as entertainment-oriented destinations. (818) 885-9700.

The Plant, Van Nuys. This new shopping and entertainment center is scheduled to open this summer on a 35-acre portion of the former General Motors auto assembly plant. It will include a Mann Theaters 16-screen multiplex, Home Depot, Babies R Us, restaurants and other retailers. (714) 720-8407.

Town Center, Valencia. A 12-screen multiplex and an Imax 3-D theater are scheduled to open in the fall at the $100-million Town Center Drive, a half-mile-long pedestrian-oriented center next to the Valencia Town Center regional mall. The theaters will be part of a 100,000-square-foot entertainment and shopping center. Information: Newhall Land and Farming Co., (805) 255-4247.

Kaleidoscope. Scheduled to open this summer at the Santa Ana Freeway and Crown Valley Parkway in Mission Viejo, the $55-million Kaleidoscope center is described by developers as a “lifestyle-entertainment center” that will offer community events and special performances in addition to an Edwards Stadium Cinemas 10-screen theater, European-style market, restaurants and specialty shops in a 215,000-square-foot center. (714) 720-8407.