Pantages’ 2009 schedule announced

After turning over its flagship venue, the Pantages Theatre, for two years to the popular musical “Wicked,” the Broadway/L.A. theater series will seek to reconnect with subscribers with an ambitious 2009 season that will include the West Coast premiere of Broadway’s “Dirty Dancing -- The Classic Story on Stage” (April 28-June 14, 2009) and the Los Angeles premieres of Broadway’s “Legally Blonde the Musical” (Aug. 12-Sept. 6, 2009), “Grease” (March 10-22, 2009) and “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” (Nov. 10, 2009-Jan. 3, 2010).

The season launches after the Jan. 11 closing of “Wicked” -- which will have run for 791 performances and 12 previews -- with “Phantom of the Opera,” (Jan. 21-Feb. 21). The schedule also includes the return of the ABBA musical “Mamma Mia!” (April 7-19, 2009) and “Fiddler on the Roof” starring Topol (July 22-Aug. 9, 2009).

The offerings will include two “season optional” events: the L.A. premiere of “Rain -- The Beatles Experience” (March 31-April 5), a multimedia show tracing the history of the Fab Four and featuring live performances of Beatles hits, and “Rent” (March 3-8) starring original cast members Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp.

Martin Wiviott, general manager of Broadway/L.A. and the Pantages Theatre, said “Phantom” tour managers had imposed a ban on other Southern California productions of the show when a version of the show, “Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular” opened at the Venetian’s Phantom Theater in June 2006, but the restriction has recently been lifted.

“I don’t think you can do it every year,” Wiviott said of the 1986 musical, which had its premiere in Los Angeles in 1989. “But every 10 years there’s a whole different audience. People who were teenagers are now parents, and some of them are now grandparents. Plus the audience is just there for what I call the ‘spectacle’ shows.”

Wiviott said that, while “Wicked” -- a “Wizard of Oz” prequel telling the tale of the childhood friendship between Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West -- is still enjoying brisk ticket sales, “the longer you go on with a show in your main theater, the more your subscribers have to start being shunted all over town.”

“We’ve been booking shows in several different theaters,” he said. “We send them to the Wadsworth, the Wilshire, to the Ahmanson. But eventually you want to reconnect with your subscriber base, or they start fading away.”

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diane.haithman@latimes.com