Bashing L.A. Theater Is a Tired Pursuit

I was disappointed to find that Peter Schneider’s voice of disenchantment about the state of Los Angeles theater was the best that Laurie Winer and The Times could give readers (“On and Off the Stage,” Calendar, Jan. 2).

Instead of my delving into a Q & A on the variety and range and depth of shows taking place throughout Greater L.A., instead of my reading up on ways to improve the state of the art, I found myself confronting a steaming pile of negativity topped off by that old belief that Los Angeles theater’s never-ending place is in the back seat of the movie business bandwagon--served up from the mouth of the theatrical production head of one of that wagon’s lead drivers, the Walt Disney Co.

*

While L.A. theater’s inferiority status may not be an untrue assessment, it is getting to be a very tired one--and a stand that can be countered with a simple look around. On any day of the year, theaters great and small throughout the region offer one of the broadest and most eclectic mixes of productions to be found anywhere in the world, and 1997 proved to be one of Los Angeles theater’s best years ever.

Yet Schneider doesn’t see it that way. To him Los Angeles is little more than a theatrical wasteland where audiences must be primed by New York premieres before they’ll pump big dollars into big-time productions that make a temporary home here. He points to the bringing of “Ragtime” to L.A. before New York as ample evidence, stating that it’s only taking in half of what it could be making had it opened in the Big Apple.

He sees fit to lambaste the L.A. theater scene by pointing to a lack of profitability and organization. Schneider even goes on to say that the very thought of bringing Disney’s latest dramatic endeavor, “The Lion King,” to town for any kind of extended run makes him “very nervous.”

*

What a shame. That commerce checkmates art should come as no surprise. What should be a surprise is that leaders such as Schneider are simply accepting that outcome instead of trying to change it. In making the bottom line the status quo, Schneider reduces himself from king to that of a gate-keeping pawn in the theatrical game--and it’s L.A audiences who stand to get rooked.

L.A.’s theatrical community is a fragmented beast. We have no off-off Broadway to off-Broadway to Broadway flow-through generating a search for the “next big thing.” But we should. In my daydreams, I see artistic directors from mid- and large-sized venues taking in shows like “The Cave Dwellers” at the 24th Street Theater near USC, or “Three Songs” at the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena, with an eye toward moving those productions to their houses and their larger audiences.

A naive and idealistic viewpoint? Maybe, but for L.A. theater to thrive, we need to move beyond the likes of the nay-saying negativity. It’s too easy to shrug our shoulders and agree with Schneider when he says going to a show in L.A. is “not as much fun as going to the theater” in New York.

Instead of apathetically demeaning Los Angeles theater, we need to be actively promoting it.

William Campbell is a freelance performing arts journalist and creator of www.laonstage.com