ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

TELEVISION

Leno to Perform Free Show in Las Vegas

“Tonight Show” host Jay Leno will give a free performance at the MGM Grand hotel-casino Saturday to help boost business on the Las Vegas Strip. Hundreds of employees have lost their jobs as hotel occupancies plummeted after the terrorist attacks.

The performance is open to Nevada residents and anyone with a Las Vegas hotel room key and an out-of-state driver’s license. “All I ask is that you tip your waiters and waitresses,” Leno said. “We have to turn this situation around.”

‘Cruise’ Hits Ratings Reef While ‘JAG’ Soars

Television viewers continue gravitating to the familiar as the new season gets underway, as Fox’s new unscripted series “Love Cruise” hit a ratings reef in its premiere Tuesday, while NBC’s new sitcom “Emeril” drew mediocre numbers opposite CBS’ military drama “JAG,” which climbed to its second-highest rating ever.

“JAG” delivered 17.8 million viewers, leading a solid night for CBS. The network also did well with its new drama “The Guardian” (15.5 million viewers, trailing only a one-hour “Frasier”) and “Judging Amy” (15.6 million, versus a respectable 13.6 million sampling ABC’s new Kim Delaney drama “Philly”).

By contrast, “Love Cruise,” about cabin-hopping singles, finished a distant fourth in its hour with only 6.4 million viewers. Fox fared somewhat better with “Undeclared,” a new sitcom that fell 13% off its lead-in “That ‘70s Show,” which, at 10.3 million viewers, easily beat “Emeril” (8.7 million), a series vehicle for chef Emeril Lagasse.

Revised final ratings for Monday also show that “Everybody Loves Raymond” had its most-watched episode ever, with 22.8 million viewers.

Number of Latinos Drops in Prime Time

In its second annual study, the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts reports that Latino representation on prime-time television fell 1% last season and comprised only 2% of all characters.

Of the primary recurring characters, Latino representation dropped from a total of 14 characters in 1999 to eight in 2000. To make matters worse, the report said, of “48 Latino characters on prime time, nearly 40% (18) were tertiary characters who were not relevant to the plot.”

THEATER

Stripped-Down ‘Monty’ Will Play the Kodak

Due to economic fallout in the wake of the terrorist attack, the touring production of “The Full Monty” will be a streamlined version of the Broadway show when it opens at Hollywood’s new Kodak Theatre after the Oscar ceremony in April.

The tour will go on hiatus to make the necessary changes at the end of its Chicago run in late October. Bookings in Washington and Philadelphia have been postponed.

“The Full Monty,” based on the hit movie of the same name, premiered in San Diego’s Globe Theater in June 2000.

Successor Namedat National Theatre

Stage, opera and film director Nicholas Hytner (“The Madness of King George,” “The Crucible”) has been named to succeed Trevor Nunn as artistic director of London’s prestigious National Theatre. His five-year term begins in April 2003.

Since his production of “Ghetto” in 1989, Hytner, 45, has directed some of the company’s biggest hits, including “The Wind in the Willows” and “Carousel.”