The Wicked Stage

by Rob Kendt

On the Hudson: Longtime co-proprietors of the four-stage Hudson Theatre complex on Santa Monica Boulevard have parted ways. Gary Blumsack bowed out a few weeks ago, leaving the theatres to former partner Liz Reilly and producer Leigh Fortier. Those involved, including landlord Cliff Cole, explained that when Zoo District fell behind in rent for its just-closed holiday holdover Hellcab, tenant Blumsack, who had sub-leased the Hudson Backstage to the award-winning troupe, was given a three-day notice to pay or quit. Blumsack opted to turn over the keys, leaving Cole to straighten things out with Zoo District, as well as with Circle X, to which ZD had sub-sub-leased the space for its soon-to-open show Electro-Puss at half the going rate, according to Cole. Cole said he's going to absorb some losses, and Reilly is honoring the deals made in Blumsack's former space to keep the shows going. (Hellcab did have its full planned run, despite a brief lockout last week intended to force Zoo District's hand.) Cole alluded to long-standing conflicts between Reilly and Blumsack as the root causes of the recent split. "I want harmony in my building," he said. "It's a lot of work having a theatre company in a building."

• Among Blumsack's erstwhile associates was Darryl Armbruster, the former casting editor at Drama-Logue. Indeed, when Back Stage West acquired that seasoned actors trade in 1998--getting the name, the advertisers, the archives, and, best of all, L.A. theatre maven Polly Warfield--we were also supposed to get Armbruster to join our staff as part of the transition team. Darryl decided not to take the job with us for a variety of reasons, one of which was to pursue performing more vigorously. His name has popped up in our theatre reviews over the years, most recently for Dearboy's War; with Blumsack as a producer, he also appeared some years ago in an environmental party piece called Club Disco. But I wasn't prepared for a Darryl sighting last week when I went to see the Dan Band, a kitschy curiosity act featuring a backwards-capped frat-boy singer, Dan Finnerty, performing exclusively "chick" covers, from "Nasty Boys" to "Luka," with a kind of straight-faced rock 'n' roll irony. Dan is backed hilariously by two male sidekicks, dressed in suits and ties and specs to look like insurance salesmen circa 1965, or like two nerdy Forever Plaid rejects--and last Friday night, when one of these backup singers took the mic and busted a break on "Shoop," I lost it. It was as if one of the Shriners from Bye Bye Birdie had popped his fez and done the time warp. It wasn't until later that I started to realize the guy looked familiar--and then I heard his name announced at the end. There are better jobs than working at Back Stage West. You go, Darryl.

• The Dan Band plays regularly at Hollywood nightspot 1650, formerly Vynyl, under which name I attended a pre-Hedwig opening party a few years back featuring John Cameron Mitchell and Michael Cerveris, both donning the wig and performing with members of the Stone Temple Pilots. Years before that, when the place was a coffeehouse/theatre called Hollywood Moguls, I saw a production of Lulu with Kirsten Benton and Wendy Worthington that had been booted from the Celebration Theatre's schedule for not being "gay enough." Among the Celebration board members who opposed the show? The Hudson's ascendent Leigh Fortier. The show goes on indeed.

• Worth checking out: Molly Bryant at Highland Grounds, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. This former Actors' Gangster, whom I saw light up such plays as Hysteria, Plastica Fantastica, and Exit the King, has picked up a guitar to warble gut-bustingly funny novelty songs, like one about how she wants to marry Kobe Bryant so they don't have to change their last names. The next Tenacious D? Stranger things have happened. Speaking of the Gang: News is forthcoming about a brand new theatre group comprised in part of some of the talents who left the company after Tim Robbins' return. We'll keep you posted.