L.A. to N.Y. a bumpy flight

This season’s reports from New York are full of sneering reviews, projects that closed before they opened and actors walking away from shows.

From a 2,500-mile distance, the view isn’t pretty. Supporters of the several Broadway productions that originated in nonprofit theaters in California may even wonder if their shows should have ventured into the commercial snake pit for the 2003-04 season.

The picture isn’t unremittingly bleak. Overall Broadway grosses are up from last year, and attendance is only slightly down. And there are more shows in production now than in recent years. There has been no guarantee of success this fall. “Avenue Q,” the musical sendup of “Sesame Street,” came from off-Broadway with a lot of buzz, but it hasn’t emerged as a breakaway hit. The Pulitzer-winning drama “Anna in the Tropics” began its open-ended run Nov. 16 but is playing to half-full houses. So is the Boy George musical “Taboo,” largely publicized by producer’s Rosie O’Donnell’s legal problems. “The Boy From Oz” acquired a lot of ink because of its charismatic star Hugh Jackman, but the consensus is that the show would sink without him.

“Wicked,” the “Wizard of Oz” prequel, is doing better than most new musicals. Imported from a tryout in San Francisco, it has overcome mixed reviews and has had nearly full houses since it opened in late October.

Other California exports haven’t fared as well, even with critics on their side.

“Big River,” for instance, garnered generally upbeat reviews last summer as part of the Roundabout’s subscription season. The revival from Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood, didn’t draw enough audience to transfer to a strictly commercial run.

Doug Wright’s “I Am My Own Wife,” which was workshopped at La Jolla Playhouse two years ago, was lauded by Broadway critics but has struggled at the box office since opening this month.

Still, that’s better than some other Californian belly-flops. “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” got less than six weeks into its run before it closed. “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All,” a solo show for Ellen Burstyn, ran early in 2003 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego but closed immediately after opening night on Broadway.

(The Globe had better luck elsewhere. Artistic director Jack O’Brien, hot off the Tony-winning “Hairspray,” revived a 1995 Old Globe production of “Henry IV” as adapted by Dakin Matthews. It opened last month to sterling notices.)

Richard Greenberg’s “The Violet Hour” is the strangest bird of the migratory flock. In its premiere at South Coast Repertory in 2002, the production got better reviews than the script. In the all-important New York Times review of the Broadway production this fall, the opposite was true. It closes today.

Off-Broadway, “Living Out” drew good reviews after its Taper premiere this year, as did “The Beard of Avon,” which had its premiere at South Coast Rep in 2001.

But the longest-running L.A.-to-N.Y. hit right now, albeit off-Broadway, is the incorrigible “Naked Boys Singing.” Who says we don’t know culture here in L.A.?