Half-Price Ticket Booth Now Online

Theatre LA is back in the business of selling half-price, same-day tickets.

This time around, as promised last year, the tickets are for sale at the organization’s Web site: https://www.theatrela.org. The new system replaces the half-price ticket booth that Theatre LA operated from 1997 to 1999, first at the Beverly Center and then at Jerry’s Deli in West Hollywood.

The new Web Tix sales began Feb. 17, but the first two weeks have been a tryout period, said Steve Clopper, Theatre LA’s manager of ticket services.

Some of the large theaters had not yet been approached for tickets as of Tuesday, and a “closed” sign was up on the Web site early Tuesday afternoon.

Regular hours, from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, will be kept beginning this week, Clopper said. Weekend tickets can be purchased on Fridays. With the expected addition of tickets from the large theaters, most of which participated in the previous ticket booth, “it will take off like wildfire,” Clopper predicted.

The amount charged to your credit card will be somewhat higher than actual half price. For tickets that normally cost less than $15, a $2 service charge will be added to the half-price fee. For tickets usually priced from $15 to $40, the service costs $4; tickets that regularly cost more than $40 will be sold at half price with a $6 service charge.

A confirmation voucher will be e-mailed to every ticket buyer. That voucher should be printed out and presented at the box office on the day of the performance.

A list of each day’s available shows will be posted on the Web site. It also will be e-mailed, for free, to anyone who signs up at the Web site. No telephone orders will be taken.

For those who aren’t yet online, Theatre LA suggests using the computers and printers at public libraries.

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THE S FILES: Musical theater creators Charles Strouse, Arthur Schwartz and Stephen Schwartz will be honored at this year’s S.T.A.G.E., the annual Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event, Friday through next Sunday at the Luckman Theater at Cal State L.A.

Director and co-producer David Galligan said the fact that the trio shares the same last initial is a coincidence. His goal in choosing the three was to offer a mix of “classic standards” (Arthur Schwartz), “brassy Broadway” (Strouse) and “hipper Broadway” (Stephen Schwartz).

Strouse (“Bye Bye Birdie,” “Applause,” “Annie”) will be on hand for all three performances, and Stephen Schwartz (“Godspell,” “Pippin,” “Working,” “Children of Eden”) is expected to attend Friday. Arthur Schwartz (“The Band Wagon,” “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”) died in 1984.

An all-star cast is expected, and comedy writer Bruce Vilanch will receive an award. The beneficiaries of this year’s proceeds are Being Alive and the Jeffrey Goodman Special Care Clinics, as well as other HIV/AIDS services at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center. S.T.A.G.E. is billed as the oldest annual AIDS benefit in the world; this is the 16th edition.

Information: (323) 665-0857.

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AGIA AT LATC: August Wilson’s movement to strengthen African American theater, the subject of a 1998 town hall discussion at Los Angeles Theatre Center, will return to LATC next weekend for two days of public forums, preceded by a three-day retreat in Watts for key participants. The event is sponsored by the African Grove Institute for the Arts.

Wilson helped found the organization and serves as its chairman, but he is not expected to attend. However, the participants will include actor-playwright-director Ted Lange; playwright Silas Jones; Pomo Afro Homos founder Brian Freeman; performer Idris Ackamoor; Ernest Dillihay from L.A.’s Cultural Affairs Department; UCLA professor Beverly Robinson; and others. The group’s president, Victor Walker, a Dartmouth professor, will deliver the keynote address.

Registration for the public forums is $35. Information: (213) 485-1684.

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MUSICALS BACK ON KGIL: KGIL (AM 1260), which toyed with the idea of an all-show-tunes format in 1997-98, is back with one cast album each weeknight from 6 to 7.