‘Woods’ Thins Out by One

The recent announcement that Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine will revisit “Into the Woods” in a new production, opening Feb. 4 at the Ahmanson Theatre, was bad news for Burbank’s Colony Theatre, which had announced its own production of the same show would open two days earlier.

As they looked into the matter, officials of the mid-size Colony realized that the two productions might not be the same show--Sondheim and Lapine’s new version may have substantial revisions. But that hardly mollified them.

So the Colony decided to change its plans. “It would not be sound business for us to do the old version, 20 minutes away from the new one,” said Colony producing director Barbara Beckley. “It might be interesting for critics and musical comedy mavens to make comparisons between the two, but Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Theatergoer aren’t going to go to two different productions.”

The Colony hopes to complete negotiations for a substitute musical this week.

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HALL’S TAKE: Another notable feature of the Ahmanson’s announcement of its 2001-2002 season was the absence of another entry in the series of Shakespeare productions that Sir Peter Hall has directed since 1999. When he announced the season, Ahmanson artistic director/producer Gordon Davidson attributed the missing Shakespeare and the missing Hall to the necessity for Hall to spend more time in England because of family responsibilities.

Reached in England, Hall confirmed Davidson’s explanation. But he added that his family’s needs coincided with Christopher Plummer’s withdrawal from a possible “King Lear” at the Ahmanson for what Hall called “scheduling reasons.”

Davidson has said that the next Ahmanson Shakespeare might not be Hall’s, but according to Hall, “this is simply a pause. I hope and expect to come back to the Ahmanson and direct there again in the future.”

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PASADENA PAX: The war is over between David Houk’s Pasadena Playhouse Associates--which owns the playhouse building--and the producing company within the building, Houk said last week. Lyla White, executive director of the producing organization, agreed.

With no fanfare, the two sides signed a settlement agreement earlier this year in which they dropped legal claims against each other and agreed to negotiate peaceably on remaining matters, such as the use of the upstairs Balcony Theatre. As part of the agreement, the producing organization--called the Pasadena Playhouse State Theatre of California--was able to move back into the building’s library, which it will use for archives and as a donor lounge, named after $1-million donors Padma and Rao Makineni.

The disputes between the two groups were many and byzantine, dating to the era in the mid-’90s when Houk’s own producing wing, Theatre Corp. of America, went bankrupt.

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WHO WAS THAT MASK MAN?: Someone broke into the Antaeus Company’s North Hollywood warehouse/rehearsal space on April 26 and stole 12 leather commedia dell’arte masks and another 12 hand-painted papier-mache masks for medieval mystery plays, all of which had been created by master mask-maker and Antaeus actor John Apicella and are valued at about $5,000.

“We don’t know if that means they have great taste, or if they were just kids who thought the masks were cool,” said Dakin Matthews, artistic director of the company

The thief also took hand and power tools. Anyone who has any information should call Antaeus at (818) 506-5436.

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CARPENTER AT GLOBE: Karen Carpenter is the Globe Theatres’ new associate artistic director--the first person to hold the title since Sheldon Epps left the Globe in 1997 to take over Pasadena Playhouse. Carpenter was a stage manager for 20 years, on Broadway and in resident theaters. She was on the faculty of Yale School of Drama for five years and founded a New York company called Insight Entertainment. She’ll stage “Vita & Virginia” at the Globe later this month.