S.T.A.G.E. Varies Its Yearly Ritual

S.T.A.G.E. (Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event), billed as the oldest annual AIDS benefit in the world, celebrates the work of a musical theater composer or composing team each year, with a long list of well-known singers contributing their services for the sake of the cause.

This week, the 15th annual edition features a couple of new variations on the formula. Three composers, not associated with one another, are the recipients of this year’s tribute, which is called “A.B.C.--Adler, Bock & Coleman,” in honor of Richard Adler, Jerry Bock and Cy Coleman.

Furthermore, even though Bock won’t be there because of a schedule conflict, his erstwhile partner, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, will join the celebration by performing “Sunrise, Sunset” and “Do You Love Me?,” two numbers from the team’s legendary “Fiddler on the Roof,” with Charlotte Rae. It will mark the first time a lyricist for one of the honored composers has performed at the event.

The string of shows by Bock and Harnick in the ‘50s and ‘60s included not only the invincible “Fiddler” but also the Pulitzer-winning “Fiorello!” (which will be revived in the Reprise! series at Freud Playhouse next November); the frequently revived “She Loves Me”; a couple of less familiar but widely respected musicals, “The Apple Tree” and “The Rothschilds”; plus a couple of shows that are generally considered duds.

The partnership broke up in 1970, when the two disagreed over the selection of a director for “The Rothschilds,” Harnick recalled. “If Jerry had not chosen to go his own separate way, there might have been another five or six shows”--and Bock & Harnick might be as well-known as Lerner & Loewe or Kander & Ebb, if not Rodgers & Hammerstein. “Every time I see one of our shows, I realize we had something special, and it saddens me.”

In a separate telephone conversation, Bock declined to talk about the breakup, but said he regrets that it happened and that he hasn’t lost his enthusiasm for Harnick’s work.

Harnick said he and Bock now have “an amiable relationship.” They see each fairly frequently for business purposes and got together to jointly supervise the use of their scores in a couple of revivals. However, they haven’t worked together on any new material. Recent efforts to bring them together for a show called “Miracles” were derailed when the show was canceled for other reasons.

Regarding his performance at S.T.A.G.E., the 74-year-old Harnick said that he is “passable” as a singer, especially if he doesn’t get nervous. But if he does, “it doesn’t matter because people think I’m a writer.”

Besides Harnick and Rae, some of the scheduled performers, under David Galligan’s direction, are Lucie Arnaz, Tyne Daly, Nancy Dussault, Davis Gaines, Betty Garrett, Marcia Mitzman Gaven, Malcolm Gets, Sharon Gless, Dorian Harewood, Gregory Harrison, Bill Hutton, Dale Kristien, Michele Lee, Hal Linden, Maureen McGovern, Jennifer Paz, Linda Purl, Jean Smart--and critic Rex Reed, who is slated to perform two Coleman songs. Coleman is not expected to attend, but Adler is.

It all takes place at the Luckman Theatre on the campus of Cal State L.A., Friday-Sunday. Information: (323) 993-7411.

THE HALL WAY: Thomas Hall, managing director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego for nearly 19 years--and a member of the Old Globe staff since 1978--will leave the theater on Aug. 1. Hall said that the theater’s pressing need now is for a managing director “who wants to spend 100% of his or her time raising money” as part of a major endowment campaign. Hall prefers to continue working as an active producer. Not that he has something specific lined up to follow the Old Globe, but he’s looking.

Hall, 47, produced more than 240 shows at the Old Globe and supervised $13-million worth of capital improvements. Under Hall, the theater retired a deficit caused by fires in 1978 and 1984, and the annual budget ballooned from $1.2 million in 1982 to the present level of nearly $11 million. Hall also played a role in the wider theater scene, serving from 1987 to 1996 as president of the League of Resident Theatres and from 1996 to 1998 as chairman of the California Arts Council.

A NEW CORNERSTONE: Thanks to a four-year, $550,000 grant from the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund, Cornerstone Theater Company has moved its headquarters from the 18th Street Arts Complex in Santa Monica to a 5,000-square-foot warehouse in downtown Los Angeles, at 708 Traction Ave. The space--which will be shown off at an open house Friday from 4 to 10 p.m.--will serve as office, rehearsal studio, storage and construction space, but not as a theater. Cornerstone isn’t abandoning its primary mission to work with volunteers within local communities. In the past, the company’s performing spaces were loaned, but the Wallace grant will help the group rent performing spaces--and establish a cash reserve. The group is maintaining a small, shared office in Santa Monica, but the L.A. building is much larger and more centrally located.