A Fairy-Tale Ending for ‘Side Show’

Colony Theatre Company in Burbank will present the local premiere of “Side Show,” the 1997 Broadway musical about a pair of Siamese twins, in the slot that had previously been allocated to “Into the Woods,” Feb. 2 through March 24.

The company decided not to go “Into the Woods” after hearing that a possibly revised version of the show will open at the Ahmanson Theatre, under the supervision of the musical’s original creators, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, two days after the Colony’s scheduled opening date.

“Side Show,” by Henry Krieger of “Dreamgirls” fame and Bill Russell, has its devoted fans who feel that it was unjustly neglected in a Broadway season that also featured such big-deal musicals as “The Lion King” and “Ragtime.”

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DISNEY DIVISIONS: In 2000, Walt Disney Studios announced with some fanfare that its theatrical division would henceforth be called Buena Vista Theatrical Group Ltd. and would consist of two subgroups: Disney Theatricals and Hyperion Theatricals. The former would handle the established family-oriented hits, “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast,” while Hyperion would handle “Aida,” and other shows for somewhat older audiences.

In 2001, Disney changed its mind, with zero fanfare. Gone from the theatrical division are the names Buena Vista and Hyperion. The name is now simply Disney Theatrical Productions. The previous names were “too confusing,” said spokesman Chris Boneau, and the reviewers of “Aida” paid no attention to its Hyperion designation.

Stuart Oken and Alan Levey were recently promoted to executive vice president and senior vice president of Disney Theatrical Productions, respectively. They have run the day-to-day operations since 1997, under the watchful eyes of Disney Studios Chairman Peter Schneider and Disney Theatrical President Thomas Schumacher, who also doubles as the studio’s animation chief.

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GET OUT THE VOTE: In an attempt to enlist more public participation in the Ovation Awards, sponsor Theatre LA is asking for suggestions for its next career achievement award winner, to be presented in the fall at the Ovation ceremony.

Before you nominate yourself, please make sure that you haven’t already won. Theatre LA President Lee Wochner said that it hasn’t been decided whether previous winners will be ineligible, but added that he would be disinclined to award previous winners.

In recent years, those have included Ray Stricklyn, Jerome Lawrence, Terrence McNally, Ian McKellen, Stephen Sondheim, August Wilson, David Emmes and Martin Benson, and the late Robert Fryer and James A. Doolittle.

Before 1994, when the competitive Ovation Awards began, the Ovations consisted entirely of career achievement awards. At the first ceremony in 1989, awards went to Billy Barnes, Dorothy Chandler, Marla Gibbs, Charlton Heston, Jack Lemmon, Lu Leonard, Edwin Lester, Dick Lochte, Mary Martin, Luis Valdez, Mako and Joel Wachs, plus--in memoriam--John Allison, Gilmor Brown and Henry Fonda.

In 1991, the winners were Fryer, Betty Garrett, Gregory Harrison, the James Irvine Foundation, C. Bernard Jackson, Neil Simon, Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. The next year, the list included Tom Bradley, Gordon Davidson, Jon Gottlieb, the late Franklin Levy, Murray Mednick, John Raitt, Carmen Zapata and the Arco Foundation.

Suggestions should be submitted to larryaldrich@earthlink.net by Wednesday.

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EXPANSION TEAM: Theater League, the Kansas City, Mo.-based company that tours shows to Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza and Long Beach Performing Arts Center, is adding another regular Southland stop: Escondido’s 1,400-seat California Center.

Theater League will offer a world premiere there next fall: “Dear Sheldon,” a two-actor play starring Phyllis Diller, and written by Sam Bobrick and Julie Stein in the form of correspondence between a woman and her adult son.

It will play five performances, Nov. 23-25, before moving on to other Theater League stops. It’s not expected to play Thousand Oaks until fall 2002 and might also play Long Beach. Other titles on Theater League’s first Escondido series are tours of “Chicago” in September and “Cats” in June 2002, for which Theater League will serve only as the presenter, plus Theater League’s own production of “The King and I” in April 2002. Theater League’s casts are now all Equity; the percentage of Equity actors in the casts had been increasing year by year.