‘Now You See It’ on the Bill, Now You Don’t

What’s behind the recent decision to substitute Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues” in place of Richard Matheson’s ambitious new play “Now You See It” as the show that will open the Pasadena Playhouse’s 2002 season in January?

“Events in New York threw us off our schedule,” said Don Loze, the producer who hopes to take “Now You See It” to Broadway. Although Loze is L.A.-based, pre-production work on the play, which combines magic and suspense and involves elaborate magic effects, was being done in New York, and “there was a three-week period [after Sept. 11] when things couldn’t get started.”

The Pasadena Playhouse is a subscription-based theater, he added, “and their business runs on a train schedule. We didn’t want to put that in jeopardy” because of delays in New York.

Loze declined to talk about the investors in the show’s later commercial run, but Sheldon Epps, artistic director of the playhouse, said that “Now You See It” investors “weren’t as forthcoming” with finances in recent weeks because of uncertainty about the commercial theater market. “They’re especially nervous about producing new material right now,” he said.

Matheson, the fantasy writer behind the films “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957), “Somewhere in Time” (1980) and “What Dreams May Come” (1998), said this might not be the right time for stories with suspense elements.

“Biloxi Blues” is a comedy about a young man’s basic training during World War II. Epps acknowledged that “the fact that certain resources didn’t come together presented us with an opportunity to make a timely choice that’s reflective of where the society is.” However, he said that if everything else had worked out, the playhouse probably would still be planning to do “Now You See It.”

Despite the setbacks, Loze still hopes to present “Now You See It” on Broadway next fall and said he is looking for “a theater that would like a show next July.” That excludes the Pasadena Playhouse, which has announced its 2002 season except for the final holiday show.

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GLOBE ARTIST PICKED: Thanks to a $1-million contribution from Donald and Darlene Shiley, Globe Theatres is launching a permanent artist-in-residence program. The first artist is playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, who will receive about $50,000 to be on hand next spring and summer, when the Globe will present two of his plays. First up is “Compleat Female Stage Beauty,” about the period when women were finally allowed onstage during the English Restoration, scheduled for March 31-April 27. It will be followed by “Smash,” Hatcher’s dramatization of George Bernard Shaw’s novel “An Unsocial Socialist,” May 26-July 6.

The artist-in-residence program isn’t just for playwrights. Directors, actors and designers are all eligible for future residencies.

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RAUCH WINS BIG: Bill Rauch, artistic director of Cornerstone Theater Company, is the only artist on a list of 20 winners of the Ford Foundation’s first Leadership for a Changing World awards program.

The winners, selected from more than 3,000 nominations, are “individuals and leadership teams that are getting results tackling tough social problems in communities across the United States,” according to the announcement from the foundation.

Winners receive $100,000 apiece to advance their work, plus $30,000 to strengthen leadership skills. Rauch is using part of his money for two-day workshops on every project in the company’s current Festival of Faith.

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PUBLIC REHEARSALS COUNT: Is “Hair” truly eligible for the Ovation Award for best large musical for which it was recently nominated? A letter writer to The Times asked that question.

The show had only 11 regular performances, including two previews, and Ovation rules require 12 public performances. However, the company had a dress rehearsal that was open to the public, and Theatre LA agreed to count this as part of the total, said Jon Lawrence Rivera, chairman of the committee that oversees the Ovations. *