The Wicked Stage

by Rob Kendt

Shubert, we hardly knew you. Gathered for last Saturday's sad, small "wrecking ball party" at the Century City venue--shuttered in anticipation of demolition at the end of this year--were actors, directors, producers, publicists, and a few members of the press. (Actually, other than myself I saw only Don Shirley, who wrote a lovely anecdotal remembrance of the place and its staff in Monday's Times.) "I can't believe it's really going to be gone," said publicist Tim Choy on the way in. "Twenty years of my life are in this building. Mamma Mia was my 20th show here." His first, back in 1980, was Evita, while his publicity partner Judi Davidson's first was A Little Night Music, back in 1974, two years after the Shubert opened with Sondheim's Follies. Indeed, though I heard the obvious comparisons between this modest catered affair and Follies--in which Broadway showfolk gather in an old theatre to reminisce before it's torn down--what was striking, and a little galling, was that the Shubert isn't some old cracked-plaster edifice but a fully operating 2,100-seat venue that underwent significant improvements as recently as 1994 for Lloyd Webber's Sunset Blvd. I spoke briefly to the Shubert Organization's Robert Wankle, who rolled his eyes a little in recollection of Lord Webber's notorious preemptive show closure, which left the Shuberts hanging for a nerve-wracking while. In response to a staffer who appreciated that the Shuberts were donating a lot of seats and equipment to nonprofit theatres, Wankle said, "Yeah, it's great, but we'd prefer to keep this house lit." He told me that the Shubert has enjoyed having a West Coast beachhead, and not to consider this retrenchment permanent: "Who knows about the future?" He confirmed reports that New York theatre is doing remarkably well, and that it had a record New Year's weekend. But I couldn't help thinking, as I met former Shubert assistant manager Alisa Fishbach's 8-month-old son, Thomas, that he won't have the Shubert to be taken to for his first musical, as was the case for so many Angelenos for 30 years.

Heard a great story about one of the Shubert's most peculiar productions, The Last Empress, a pop opera direct from Korea that captivated locals (and Ovation voters!) with its special effects, soaring vocals, and wholesale demonization of the Japanese. Apparently the Empress company got through U.S. customs with a huge load of pyrotechnics that are illegal in this country, which were discovered when the fire inspector visited the Shubert. This required the detonation of all these illegal fireworks, which supposedly took place on a street outside the theatre. People on the avenue must have been seeing stars.

• A few things we're excited to see: There's Eddie Jones in Death of a Salesman at Interact Theatre Co., opening in February. And there's Circus Theatricals' new production of Richard III with Alfred Molina (as Buckingham; company director Jack Stehlin will play the title role) and Neil Vipond as Margaret (yes, you read that right), at the Odyssey starting Jan. 26. After that the Circus gang will do Cherry Orchard with Molina as Lopakhin. Apparently Molina and his wife, Jill Gascoine, have been dues-paying members of Stehlin's scrappy troupe ever since the formidable British actor moved out here to do the TV series Ladies' Man. And, finally, there's the West Coast premiere of the Siamese twin musical Side Show at the Colony in Burbank, directed by Nick DeGruccio, opening in early February. Nabbing this premiere is a coup for the Colony. And hey, if it's a sign of the times that a Broadway show makes its L.A. debut not at the Shubert but at the Colony, I'm OK with that.