Why ‘Bells’ Failed to Toll in Pasadena

What scuttled the Pasadena Playhouse production of “Bells Are Ringing”?

Previously announced for a Nov. 12 opening, the revival had the potential to place the playhouse in the ranks of the Southland companies (Center Theatre Group, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe Theatre) that occasionally serve as launch pads for Broadway musicals, using extra funds provided by the Broadway producers. A Broadway star, Faith Prince (who’s at the Ahmanson in “The Dead”), was slated to play the lead. The source of “well over half” of the nearly $900,000 budget for the Pasadena production was coming from the Broadway producers as “enhancement” money, said Lyla White, executive director of the playhouse.

But that money didn’t arrive on time, White said. A July 1 deadline for a deposit passed.

New York co-producer Mark Balsam said that disagreements arose between his company, Momentum Productions, and the playhouse over “liability issues” that he declined to specify. According to White, the issue was who would pay how much for cost overruns. She also added that Momentum simply hadn’t raised enough money yet.

Balsam acknowledged that “the time frame may have been too accelerated for us. We needed time to get our ducks in a row.” Director Tina Landau, for example, was committed to another project in Chicago from mid-August through mid-September. Other than Prince, who was committed to the project but not officially signed, the cast hadn’t been chosen. The plan for the show now is to do one or two East Coast tryouts before a hoped-for Broadway opening late next spring.

The parting of the ways with Pasadena was “not tawdry or argumentative,” Balsam said. “We just felt we were better served to wait a little while.”

White cited the playhouse’s recent history of rebounding from financial peril and said that playhouse officials didn’t want to get to the point where they had to move forward with the production even if the money wasn’t there. “We’re not willing to take a risk of that kind,” she said.

The playhouse had an understudy project waiting in the wings: a production of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” with the mother-daughter team of Shirley Knight and Kaitlin Hopkins. It has now replaced “Bells Are Ringing.”

The only potential problem with this, from a subscriber’s point of view, is that the summer-fall season of three plays was sold with the understanding that the final entry in the fall would be a musical--after two non-musicals, “The Good Doctor” (opening today) and “Ikebana (Living Flowers)” (opening Sept. 17). “Blithe Spirit” is no musical.

In the initial season announcement, three titles of new musicals were mentioned, but “Bells Are Ringing” drove them out of contention. Because musicals are almost always more expensive than non-musicals, enhancement money would be needed to bring any of the three back into contention, and there wasn’t enough time to raise it, White said.

Next year will certainly bring at least one musical, White said. And in the meantime, the playhouse is talking about doing a one-night evening of Noel Coward songs to accompany “Blithe Spirit.” It wouldn’t be part of the season, but the tickets won’t be high-priced, she said.

PROGRESS AT DOOLITTLE: The Ricardo Montalban-Nosotros Foundation, challenged last spring to come up with $2.1 million for the purchase of the Doolittle Theatre, has met the challenge, officials of the organization said last week.

An official with the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which will be the official buyer--before handing over the title and the bills to Ricardo Montalban-Nosotros--confirmed that she had seen verification of the amount.

Yet the foundation is being very hush-hush over who donated the money. “Three or four” individuals ponied up the purchase price, said the foundation’s attorney, Joseph Avila, but they all requested anonymity.

The deal still isn’t done. It awaits approval by the CRA board, which is scheduled to consider it Thursday. The City Council must then give its approval too.