THEATER NOTES : Pasadena Civic Wants Road Shows

When you think of the big Los Angeles County venues for touring Broadway shows, you think of the Shubert, the Pantages, the Ahmanson. But with the coming season, the people who run Pasadena Civic Auditorium want you to add their name to that list.

Pasadena Civic has dropped the Kansas City-based Theater League--the presenter of its musicals series last season--and hired a new one, Baltimore-based Baci Management, with the goal of bringing in only national tours that have not previously played Los Angeles. The Theater League is now booking the new Thousand Oaks Civic Auditorium.

Pasadena Civic Manager Rick Barr said he wants Broadway tours, not locally produced shows, while the Theater League wanted to produce two of its four shows as it did last season. Locally produced shows are priced lower and therefore have a lower gross potential, Barr said: “They didn’t draw the crowds the Civic deserves. We’re well-positioned to be one of the first-class touring houses”--with the potential of $1-million-grossing weeks.

Furthermore, Barr said, the locally produced shows just weren’t as good as the Broadway tours. He especially recalled TV star Kevin Dobson’s performance as the Baron in “The Sound of Music” last winter--”when he was croaking ‘Edelweiss,’ I was dying,” Barr said.

Theater League’s Mark Edelman acknowledged a few “casting and physical production shortcomings” last season but said that he was trying to keep ticket prices “at a reasonable yet successful level.” Raise prices, he said, and “at some point greed sets in. A $1-million gross is irrelevant. What should be important is how many people come and use this public building.” Edelman said that all of his Pasadena shows ended up in the black (thanks to the fact that the two he produced also played in Phoenix). The two tours he imported set house records.

Citing the competition from existing venues and the scarcity of product, Edelman said it wouldn’t be easy to field an entire season of Broadway tours in Pasadena. He noted that only one title has been announced by Baci--a “Jelly’s Last Jam” booked months ago. But Barr said more announcements are expected soon.

DAY OF THE WOMAN?: In case you didn’t notice, female playwrights reached their zenith of visibility in Los Angeles last Sunday. On that day, the plays at L.A. County’s three most prominent non-musical theaters--the Mark Taper Forum, the Doolittle Theatre and Pasadena Playhouse--were all written by women.

It didn’t last long. Mary Hanes’ “The Crimson Thread” was opening at the Pasadena Playhouse just as Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosensweig” was closing at the Doolittle. Meanwhile, Lisa Loomer’s “The Waiting Room” continued on at the Mark Taper Forum, where it closes today. However brief, it was a landmark, considering that in most previous years it has been fairly unusual for any one of those theaters to present a play by a woman.

“FASHION,” THE CD: Coming soon to a store near you: “Fashion,” a cast recording of the musical that was so badly received last summer at the Alex Theatre.

Surely you remember “Fashion.” In its wake, the over-extended Theatre Corp. of America, which produced it, retreated from the Alex, leaving the Glendale theater’s board groping for two new shows for their subscribers. The city of Glendale, which helped finance “Fashion” after the Theatre Corp. pleaded poverty, later sued the Theatre Corp. At press time, the Alex board still hadn’t found shows to substitute for the canceled Theatre Corp. programming. (A “Dreamgirls” booking was canceled when its producer couldn’t get the rights.)

Nevertheless, on the day after “Fashion” closed, the cast recorded the Don Pippin/Steve Brown score for Original Cast Records, Bruce Yeko’s one-man Connecticut label that specializes in obscure shows. Yeko said he expects the initial 1,000 copies of the “Fashion” CD to be in selected Tower, Sam Goody and Camelot stores by November.

“Some people will buy any cast album,” Yeko said. That it was a notorious flop might even make it more of a collector’s item.

Yeko saw “Fashion” in its initial New York production 20 years ago, but one week before he recorded it, he still had no idea that he was about to do so, he said. Then, on the Wednesday before the show closed, he received a call from composer Pippin pointing out how inexpensively it could be produced at the Hollywood musicians’ union hall. On the final Sunday of the three-week run, Yeko saw both performances, and on Monday he recorded it. It cost about $10,000; Yeko said he financed it himself.

“There were problems in the show,” Yeko acknowledged, “but I knew there were some good songs. My aim is to preserve music I think is worth preserving.” Besides the “Fashion” tunes, the recording will also feature four songs from two other Pippin shows. Furthermore, it led to another cast recording for Yeko. Frank Ferrante, who was in the “Fashion” cast, met Yeko and cemented a deal to record his “Groucho: A Life in Revue” (Pasadena Playhouse, 1989) at the same studio next week.

One wag suggested that the “Fashion” CD might make a great gag gift for Alex subscribers and board members. There were some 10,000 subscribers. So if the idea spreads, Yeko may have the last laugh.*