Quick Takes: Marvel at Comic-Con

Marvel Studios had decided not to give a formal presentation at the largest venue at San Diego’s Comic-Con International in July, the company said Thursday.

In recent years, virtually every Hollywood studio has brought film clips and actors and directors to Hall H, the 6,000-seat room where fans, bloggers and journalists from around the world come to see filmmakers introduce and promote their upcoming spectacle movies.

The leadership at Marvel Studios pointed out, however, that sitting out Hall H is not synonymous with sitting out Comic-Con, which runs July 21-24. The studio will have a major presence on the convention showroom floor, and there’s talk of a promotional event beyond the walls of the San Diego Convention Center, which might suggest a “Captain America: The First Avenger” promotion, premiere or special screenings.

Even without Marvel Studios, the Marvel universe will still be represented in Hall H — Sony’s Columbia Pictures will use Hall H to introduce next year’s “Spider-Man” revival and its cast, led by Andrew Garfield.

— Geoff Boucher

Adam Gwon wins Kleban

New York City writer-composer Adam Gwon has been introduced to Southern California audiences over the last 18 months: as the creator of “Ordinary Days,” a musical about young Manhattanites that had its West Coast premiere at South Coast Repertory early last year, and as the composer and co-lyricist of “Cloudlands,” a darker piece SCR commissioned from him and Octavio Solis, scheduled for its world premiere in April after a preliminary spring run-through at the Pacific Playwrights Festival.

Gwon, in his early 30s, will pick up another credential — and a boost to his bank account — on Monday in New York, as he receives this year’s Kleban Prize for most promising musical theater lyricist. Gwon will receive $100,000, to be paid over two years, as will Michelle Elliott, New York-based winner of this year’s Kleban award for the most promising musical theater librettist.

The Kleban prizes, intended for artists still in the first stages of a career, are administered by a foundation that Edward Kleban, lyricist of “A Chorus Line,” set up in his will.

— Mike Boehm

L.A. Theatre Works moves

The venue will change as L.A. Theatre Works moves from Brentwood to Westwood for the 2011-12 season that starts in September. But the concept remains the same as it has been since 1987: no sets, costumes or need to memorize lines, but plenty of name actors performing in front of microphones for live audiences that will expand vastly when the recorded results make their way to the airwaves and the Internet.

The series’ new home is to be the 278-seat James Bridges Theater at UCLA; since 1998 L.A. Theatre Works had used the 350-seat theater at the Skirball Cultural Center (before that, the venue had been a hotel ballroom in Santa Monica).

In an announcement of the switch and the 10-play season, producing director Susan Loewenberg cited the Bridges’ intimacy and the potential for reaching student audiences, enlisting UCLA faculty for panel discussions, and for cross-promotional piggybacking with other campus events.

— Mike Boehm

Glen Campbell has Alzheimer’s

Glen Campbell has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, prompting the 75-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist to describe a new album coming in August as his final recording. He’s also planning a series of performances in the fall he’s calling “The Glen Campbell Goodbye Tour.”

The album, “Ghost on the Canvas,” is due Aug. 30 and includes songs by Jakob Dylan, the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg and Teddy Thompson and such musical guests as Chris Isaak, Dick Dale, Billy Corgan, Brian Setzer and Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen.

Campbell has teamed again with producer Julian Raymond, who helped rejuvenate Campbell’s career in 2008 on “Meet Glen Campbell,” a collection of songs by Green Day, Tom Petty and U2, among others. Campbell and his wife, Kim, went public in People magazine with his Alzheimer’s diagnosis to head off speculation when he returns to the concert stage.

“Glen is still an awesome guitar player and singer,” Kim Campbell said in the interview. “But if he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn’t want people to think, ‘What’s the matter with him? Is he drunk?’”

— Randy Lewis

Donations to arts increase

Donations to the arts began to rebound in 2010, with an estimated 5.7% increase after a combined drop of 8.2% in the deep recession years of 2008 and 2009, according to the annual report on American philanthropy issued Monday by the Giving USA Foundation. Factoring in inflation, the gain in arts giving was 4.1%.

Estimated largess to the arts, culture and humanities totaled $13.3 billion, up from $12.6 billion in 2009 and 12.8 billion in 2008. But gifts to the arts sector still had not rebounded all the way, falling short of the $13.7 billion prerecession peak of 2007. Americans’ estimated overall charitable giving was $291 billion for 2010, with the arts and culture receiving about 4.6% of the total. Total inflation-adjusted charitable giving remained 11% short of its prerecession peak of about $327 billion.

The arts got almost twice as big a bounce as overall philanthropy, which was up an inflation-adjusted 2.1% for 2010, according to the report. Inflation, as calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, was 1.6% for the year.

— Mike Boehm