Stages of Confusion and Change

Almost every night, a few Mark Taper Forum subscribers show up at the Taper in downtown L.A. to see the current season entry, “My Old Lady,” only to discover that “Flower Drum Song”--which they already saw--is still playing.

In November, when the hit “Flower Drum Song” was extended through today, the Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood was drafted into service as a substitute location for “My Old Lady.” Letters to subscribers asked them to return their original Taper tickets for “My Old Lady” to avoid any confusion, but only 64% did so.

Regardless of whether the Taper tickets were returned, Doolittle tickets to “My Old Lady”--which opened Jan. 4--were sent out. But apparently not everyone got the message. Anyone who shows up at the Taper to see “My Old Lady” is offered the chance to rebook another performance.

It’s not as if the Doolittle is terra incognita for audiences of the Center Theatre Group, which runs the Taper. The group co-owned the Doolittle with UCLA in 1985 and 1986, presenting shows there that included Taper season offerings. After UCLA assumed sole ownership, Center Theatre Group returned as a tenant, sending its Ahmanson Theatre subscribers there from 1989 to 1995, while the Ahmanson was occupied by “Phantom of the Opera” and renovations.

In 2000, the Doolittle was bought by the Ricardo Montalban Nosotros Foundation, which is turning it into a Latino-oriented theater. Last year, the Doolittle hosted a production of “Selena” that paid rent but lost a lot of money. Other tenants who are willing to risk an extended run in the 1,000-seat theater have been hard to find.

So when the Taper looked for an alternative site for “My Old Lady,” a move to the Doolittle looked mutually advantageous to Center Theatre Group and Montalban Nosotros.

It was helpful in more ways than Nosotros President Jerry Velasco initially envisioned. The Taper brought technical staff members who knew the facility well and spotted some improvements that needed to be made: painting, patching, cleaning, carpeting, plumbing. They replaced an unsafe pipe that crossed the stage, Velasco said. “Instead of them asking me where things were, I was asking them.”

Nosotros paid for a few of the improvements, and the cost of new carpeting was split, Velasco said. But he estimated that Center Theatre Group spent at least $40,000 on the improvements. That organization’s general manager, Douglas Baker, said only that the cost was “significantly more than a few thousand dollars.” The foundation gave Center Theatre Group a discount of one-third off what it hopes will be its eventual rental rate.

A brief run of “Paquito’s Christmas” at the Doolittle was moved from Dec. 14-24 to Dec. 7-17 to accommodate the “My Old Lady” schedule, Velasco said, but in return “Paquito’s Christmas” was able to use some of the Taper’s lights.

After “My Old Lady,” the foundation hopes to renovate the face of the theater back to its 1927 appearance, when it was called the Vine Street Theatre. Then the plan is to rename the venue after Montalban, in time for what Velasco hopes will be the grand opening of a new production of Luis Valdez’s “Zoot Suit” later this year. But “Zoot Suit” is still just in the talking stage at this point, Velasco said.

Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson disputes the necessity of redoing the current facade, which dates to the UCLA/Center Theatre Group takeover of the theater. It provided an improved marquee and, with its high-tech metallic look, was “a nod to modernity,” he said--even though it drew some critical brickbats.

“I had hoped that if I scraped the walls back, I would find the look of a wonderful 19th century theater,” Davidson said, “but it isn’t there.”

“I don’t like all that metal,” Velasco responded. “And some people feel that the original is still there, plastered over.” He said that a new facade might cost $400,000 but said he is confident the sum could be raised. However, Velasco said the foundation is also considering a proposal “to put neon on the pipes for an Art Deco look” that would cost only about $40,000.

PANTAGES FOR “PRODUCERS”?: All current signs point to the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood as the future home of the L.A. run of “The Producers.”

The producers of “The Producers” refuse to comment, perhaps because they don’t want to appear to be rushing “The Lion King” out of the Pantages.

However, Center Theatre Group producer Davidson said the Pantages won the bid over his own Ahmanson Theatre because the grosses would be higher at the 2,700-seat Pantages than they would be at the 2,100-seat Ahmanson. He said the current desire of the producers of “The Producers” is to play 30 weeks here--a chunk of time that would pose some problems not only for the Ahmanson, which has a subscription season to manage, but also for the 3,500-seat Kodak Theatre, which is programmed primarily around shorter runs.

A few days ago, “Lion King” producer Disney Theatrical partitioned off the rear mezzanine of the Pantages, temporarily reducing capacity from 2,704 to 2,261, in what it described as an attempt to extend the run of “The Lion King” for another year by reducing supply--which could delay the arrival of “The Producers.”

COLONY SEASON: The Colony Theatre Company has scheduled more adventurous programming than usual for its first season using the full 276-seat capacity of its new home at Burbank Center Stage.

The season will open June 1-30 with the premiere of “Beautiful in the Extreme,” a play about Lewis and Clark, by Leon Martell, best known for his associations with the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival and the comedy troupe Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre.

Next will be the L.A. premiere of the recent Broadway revision of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” running Aug. 10-Sept. 8.

The L.A. premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Fuddy Meers” is slated for Oct. 19-Nov. 17. For the last two years in a row, “Fuddy Meers” was on American Theatre magazine’s annual list of the 10 most produced plays (not counting Shakespeare and “A Christmas Carol”)--and it was the only play on the lists that had not been scheduled for an L.A.-area production.

“The Laramie Project,” based on research in Wyoming after the killing of Matthew Shepard and seen last summer at La Jolla Playhouse, is scheduled for its L.A. premiere Feb. 8-March 9, 2003 at the Colony.

A fifth show, April 12-May 11, 2003, has yet to be picked.

Colony producing director Barbara Beckley said the fact that the Colony now uses Actors’ Equity contracts has opened up the rights to plays that would not otherwise have been available, such as “Fuddy Meers” and “The Laramie Project.”

URBAN BROADWAY SERIES: David E. Talbert, a writer and producer of many of the African American touring shows that have played major markets in recent years, is launching a new Urban Broadway Series that he hopes will win subscribers in five cities, including L.A.

Talbert will present his shows in theaters owned or managed by Clear Channel Entertainment, including L.A.’s Wiltern, which has previously been the site of Talbert’s shows. The series will open with a romantic musical comedy, “Love Makes Things Happen,” beginning in Baltimore and scheduled for April 29-May 12 at the Wiltern. Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds will be the executive producer, along with Talbert.

Talbert said that film director Robert Townsend will co-write and stage “If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time,” described as “a gospel whodunit,” which will start touring in the fall.

A subscription series of the next three offerings will begin in early 2003. The other cities, besides Baltimore and L.A., are Washington, Philadelphia and New York.

Talbert moved to L.A. last summer because of his increasing involvement with the Hollywood scene, he said. Another L.A. figure, not part of the Hollywood scene, is also part of the Urban Broadway Series. Bishop Noel Jones, an L.A.-based Pentecostal minister, is an investor and will monitor the content of some of the shows “to make sure they’re spiritual,” Talbert said.

Talbert’s shows will continue to be nonunion productions, even though the word “Broadway” in the series title might indicate otherwise. However, Talbert said tickets to his shows will cost $25 or $35, far below usual Broadway prices, and he said he offers opportunities to black actors and musicians that are seldom available on Broadway “unless they’re dancing or dressed up like animals in ‘The Lion King.’”

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Don Shirley is The Times theater writer.