BACK STAGE WEST

 

September 06, 2001

 

 

THE WICKED STAGE

     

by Rob Kendt

 

     

Here's some news that isn't quite newsÑit seems already to have been widely known for so long that I almost forgot it was never officially announced. Now that it has been announced, it's worth trumpeting: Lee Wochner is officially the president and CEO of Theatre LA, the membership advocacy organization he's been heading as interim president since Lars Hansen relinquished the helm in January. I wasn't able to speak to Lee by my deadline, but when I do, after making the deserved congratulations, I'll want to ask him where Theatre LA is at now, and where's he taking it. Does his rise in the organization after many years on the board, for instance, signal a shift in emphasis toward L.A.'s scrappy Equity 99-Seat theatresÑone of which, Moving Arts, Wochner helmed for yearsÑand away from L.A.'s larger theatres, whence Hansen and his predecessor, Alisa Fishbach, came? And do new policies concerning Theatre LA's peer-judged Ovation Awards, which will allow multiple winners in various categories, represent a shift toward serving the self-interest of Theatre LA's hard-working, under-recognized member theatresÑbut at the expense of the publicity-oriented goal of helping Southland theatre consumers sort out an often unwieldy scene?

 

In talks over the years with its last three leadersÑincluding Hansen, Fishbach, and Bill Freimuth, now on the road with the Big Apple Circus along with his wife, Christy EngelÑthe picture I got of Theatre LA's progress, in a nutshell, was that Freimuth raised public awareness of the quantity and vibrancy of the scene, Fishbach began to solidify the organization internally, and Hansen tried to reach out to theatregoers with a coherent vision of L.A. theatre as something more than just a bunch of plays and stages. I'm not clear yet what Wochner's vision is (I never was quite clear on his artistic vision for the uneven Moving Arts), but his bona fides as a co-leader in the RAT conference, that ragtag alternative theatre movement, would indicate that he may be well suited to lead an organization of theatres defined, at their best, not by deep pockets but by artistic risk-taking. And if Wochner has any bias toward L.A.'s more adventurous, edgy theatres, all the better. I support any move that recognizes and supports an aesthetic, or aesthetics, of L.A. theatre, as this may promise to distinguish it from Chicago or New York or Seattle theatre and at last rescue it from the persistent local and national perception of L.A. theatre as either tour rentals or actors' showcases. I have no idea if this is indeed Wochner's agenda; I'll find out in our next conversation.

 

¥ Spoke to Larry O'Connor, Fishbach's former producing partner, last week. He'd been on a theatre hiatus, in part to raise two kids with Sabrina Lu, the East West Players actress he married a few years back. That was when he used to manage the Shubert and served as president of Theatre LA's board. Now, though he's not involved in the boardroom, he has been tapped to produce the next Ovations show, slated for Nov. 12 at a venue yet to be determined. "I try to get out, but they keep dragging me back in," he joked. And though he didn't quite put it this way, it's clear that O'Connor shares the general horror over the last few Ovations show debacles. He plans a brisk, lively two-hour awards show, he said. "I'm definitely from the less is more school. Hopefully my less will be more." Things are looking up all over.

 

¥ Speaking of the Shubert: Is anyone sad to see it go? There hasn't exactly been an outpouring of grief over the announcement that it will be razed next year, along with that whole glistening, barren Century City mall it sits in. The general feeling seems to be shocked relief, putting to rest some nagging questions about how the folks who will run the new Kodak Theatre in Hollywood had planned to find enough bookings and audiences for yet another 1,000-plus theatre in L.A., what with the Shubert, the Fonda, the Pantages, and the Doolittle tending to remain ominously dark, theatre-wise, for months on end. (Lion King and Selena are recent exceptions, of widely diverging types, to the general emptiness of Hollywood's big barns). For myself, I saw very little at the Shubert but found it more congenial for big Broadway-style shows than the others in its size class (including, dare I say, the refurbished Ahmanson Theatre). I do recall fondly the lavish but aborted run of Sunset Blvd, the first Lloyd Webber show I enjoyed without irony, and Ragtime, which I visited like a fan boy four times in its Shubert run (and once at Broadway's Ford Theatre, where it wasn't half as good). This was the venue, let the record show, at which the last great American musical of the century had its American premiere. The Shubert can die happy with that feather in its cap.

 

¥ I was disappointed by Clyt at Home: The Clytemnestra Project at Theatre of NOTE. The adaptation by Katherine Noon and Chris DeWan, which brilliantly contemporizes the dysfunctions in the House of Atreus, is wise, funny, irreverent, and fascinating, but the production itself, under Noon's direction, is strangely flat and uninvolving. The staging lacks the imaginative ambition of the writing, and its shifts in tone don't register as contrasts, because the overall tone is somehow vague. I'd still recommend the show just for Jacqueline Wright's force-of-nature lead performance, and I wish this adaptation better luck in future productions.

 

Getting about as good a production as could be imagined was Patricia Cotter's slight but enjoyable The Break-Up Notebook, just closed at the Village (set to re-open Sept. 22). This lesbian relationship comedy was anchored by a sympathetic, seemingly effortlessly lead turn by the versatile Trace Turville (whom we'll regrettably lose to New York City next year, along with her boyfriend, actor Peter Konerko), and bolstered by flawless multiple-character turns by Michelle Durnell and Leslie Upson. The producers neglected to announce understudies for Rosemary Boyce and Jane Lynch, as a couple planning a commitment ceremony, so I was pleasantly surprised to see Kristine Eckert and Mona MansourÑboth of whom I've met in other contexts but have never caught onstageÑstep in. I can report with satisfaction that they were both funny andÑno pun intendedÑengaging in their roles.