Masterful Sales for Pageant

Maybe it was leftover buzz from last year’s show, when some fans demanded refunds while others enjoyed new pieces, such as Salvador Dali’s version of the Last Supper. Or maybe it was the addition of rock ‘n’ roll riffs lofting from the once strait-laced orchestra pit.

Whatever it is, opening-day ticket sales for next year’s Pageant of the Masters have broken records--more than doubling last year’s first-day numbers. On Dec. 1, first-day sales were $140,000; last year’s were $61,000, according to Pageant spokesperson Sharbie Higuchi. Ticket prices remained the same for 1999 and 2000.

And what has changed with Laguna Beach’s time-honored presentation of “living pictures”?

Diane Challis Davy.

Challis Davy, 42, has risen from volunteer to pageant director, taking over in 1995 after having participated in nearly every task since 1980. She has done it all: sewn costumes, assisted the director, painted sets and directed the show from the booth.

It took Challis Davy a few years to make the radical changes, and now they’re here to stay. “I’m gradually going to try out new things on the audience.”

Her ideas, she says, have come from years of observing from the wings and “dreaming about what I could do differently.”

Her No. 1 directive was picking up the pace. And, boy, did she.

Last year, Challis Davy introduced rock ‘n’ roll riffs and scenes re-creating abstract Picasso; booted some masters for a segment on car hood ornaments; and opted for Salvador Dali’s hyper-realistic “The Sacrament of the Last Supper” over Leonardo’s masterpiece “The Last Supper”--the show’s signature finale for all but one of 67 years.

“People were either passionate for it or passionately against it,” she says.

Angry letters arrived, and some patrons demanded refunds. But Challis Davy shrugs it off.

“You can’t just have a whole show on Impressionism,” she says. “We’re willing to put in pop art here and there to spice up the program. But, overall, what we’re doing is showing our tremendous appreciation of art.”

A shot in the arm was needed.

In the 1990s, attendance had started to dip. Blame the poor economy, or the show’s reputation in its heyday as a once-hard ticket to come by, but Challis Davy thinks maybe folks were just bored.

“A lot of our patrons were admitting that they only saw the show every five years or so because it was basically the same each year.”

Not anymore. Challis Davy’s shows change themes each year.

This year’s offering, “California Dreamers: Artists, Explorers, Innovators and Visionaries,” will include still representations of San Juan Capistrano mission’s Serra Chapel Altar, the California Gold Rush, the Laguna Art Museum’s “Fishing in Laguna” and masterpieces from the J. Paul Getty and the Norton Simon.

“The traditionalists will be very happy this year,” Challis Davy says. “The show will be more nostalgic” and less radical.

But expect some surprises, she says--maybe some surf rock, a David Hockney or music by Native American singers.

“It’s a curious piece of theater,” she said. “It only works in Laguna Beach.”