Monday, June 29, 1998
Center Stage
THEATER: Struggling to create a theater scene in the middle of a
film-dominated city, Los Angeles has defined its style and must now
attract the right caliber of actors and directors to launch a
revolution
By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The stage at Los Angeles’ Schubert Theatre in November 1997 is
bare, save two old-fashioned staircases which support the cast of
"Ragtime" every Tuesday through Sunday. This is Monday, though, and
the venue is playing host to the fourth annual Ovation Awards. The
scene is suspiciously void of Tony-style show stoppers and
Oscar-esque glitz.
But what at first sounds bleak is, in fact, rather cozy. To the
well-trained theater detective, a second look around reveals the
unthinkable: a determined, distinct theater scene festering quietly
in the heart of Hollywood.
Exhibit A: A few years ago, there was no comparable award for
local productions. The crowd’s hollers and cheers suggest that an
Ovation (an Ovie? The prize is still too new to have a familiar
nickname) is an honor.
The plethora of inside jokes and inter-troupe support suggests
that this is a tight-knit group. After all, the cast and crew of
any given play may co-habit the stage for up to eight shows a week,
not counting creative and rehearsal time prior to the run.
Exhibit B: Recall the "Ragtime" accessories. Before the lavish
musical took home four Tonys, it played for over six months at the
Schubert, which hosted the American premiere. This is big news in a
city whose most coveted theater space typically goes to touring
productions that opened on Broadway over a year ago. Theater-hungry
Angelenos must clamor to see large plays and musicals in the short
time (as little as a week or two) they touch down at the Ahmanson,
Schubert, Pantages or Wilshire theaters.
Yet sizable productions have increasingly been testing the
theatrical waters off-off-off Broadway. The revival of 1981’s
motown musical "Dreamgirls" toured the country, with an L.A. run in
December before hitting Broadway in the spring. "Fosse," based on
the work of the famous director/choreographer, will have its L.A.
premiere in the fall, again prior to Broadway.
"Ragtime" gunned to endear itself to Los Angeles right from the
start, posting banners and staging press events long before opening
night, and most importantly, used the city’s somewhat untapped
resources.
"We want to try to cast the show in its entirety, if possible,
from the Los Angeles community in which there are so many superb
actors," producer Garth Drabinsky told reporters in February, 1997.
This goal was realized only in part, casting Toronto star Brian
Stokes Mitchell as Coalhouse. Yet the show continued even after
Mitchell departed for Broadway and such Los Angeles-based actors as
John Rubinstein played other lead roles.
Exhibit C: Travel around the corner from the Schubert and down
Santa Monica Boulevard. Shortly after the Beverly Hills posh gives
way to neon signs and rainbow-striped flags, small theaters begin
to line the street. The majority seat under 99 viewers; many can’t
afford to pay their actors; some are so scrunched between other
businesses that a certain speakeasy-style pride emerges from just
finding them.
But the eastern stretches of the boulevard have nevertheless
garnered the unofficial title of "Theater Row." And it is here that
Los Angeles’ most interesting theater resides. "Interesting" is the
intentionally ambiguous key word. Amateurish productions dabble in
both the trite and the bizarre, and many dismiss the casts of such
shows as actors who can’t get a film or television gig.
"There’s … a lot of work that’s done purely to get an agent,
purely to get a manager. To write stuff so you can get a sitcom
job," says UCLA alum Christopher Lore, who recently produced "A
Beautiful Country" in Chinatown, in addition to his first film, a
short called "Clowns."
This puts him in the surprisingly common position of artists who
reside in Los Angeles and see the benefits and drawbacks of both
media. On the downside, Lore says, "This is an industry town. As
opposed to Detroit, where it’s cars, it’s ‘The Biz.’"
Film and television casting directors don’t always grant theater
actors the respect that similar resumes might encounter in New
York.
Actor Brent Davin Vance, who toured in "Smokey Joe’s Cafe" and
"Rent," finds that being an ensemble member rather than a headliner
holds him back.
"I’ve been trying to establish a career here as far as getting a
television and commercial agent. And that is like grinding teeth,"
Vance laments. "In L.A., I find the theater community and the
agents (are only) interested in who’s ("Rent" leads) Mimi and
Roger."
The "back-burner" attitude toward theater seems to have a
trickle-down effect. New York periodicals give their initial pages
to theater listings and reviews, while L.A. counterparts are
flooded with film stories. Audiences seem to follow suit and in
booming Los Angeles, theater faces stiff competition.
"We’ve got the Lakers and the Clippers and the Kings – and the
Bruins, for God’s sake!" Lore says. "Vying for someone’s
entertainment dollar is a tough business."
Yet in New York, theater manages to thrive in spite of the
Knicks and the Mets, so why not here? More and more, audiences seem
to be asking this, as are publications that arguably reflect their
opinions. Entertainment Weekly recently added a theater section;
Los Angeles Magazine lists theater events even if it rarely
features them; Buzz (the self-proclaimed "Talk of Los Angeles")
published a short but indicative article about Los Angeles’s
growing "other" industry last year.
What Los Angeles cannot be, however, is Broadway II. Rather than
try to replicate the Great White Way or edge out the film industry
(two tasks equally laughable in their impossibility), Los Angles is
sculpting its own dynamic and style.
Artistically, this may mean adapting the film industry’s taste
for realism and understatement for the stage. Actor Reggie Lee, who
has performed in "Carousel" and "Miss Saigon" on Broadway and with
the Los Angeles-based East West Players, sees this difference
between the two coasts.
"In L.A., because of the film and television aspect, we work
more towards reality," Lee says. "In New York I see these big huge
‘theater’-trained actors doing everything they can to project out
to the house … Why do you go to the theater? To experience and to
feel what those characters are feeling.
"Even Shakespeare here is done very realistically. I get it
finally. You do Shakespeare and you don’t think about iambic
pentameter and this kind of stuff. It’s like ‘Oh, that’s what he
means.’"
This is not to say that theater should be "dumbed down" for the
"Godzilla" crowd, although this is potentially a valid accusation.
Though a recent L.A. Weekly cover story lauded playwright Justin
Tanner’s unsung talents, it also hinted that much of his writing
had a sitcom feel that wouldn’t hold up in other cities.
Logistically, bringing theater to L.A. means making the best of
its decentralized sprawl. Though Santa Monica Boulevard may be a
car-less Bruin’s best bet, small theater venues sprout ambitiously
in the movie studio forest of North Hollywood. San Diego’s midsize
La Jolla Playhouse offers original productions from big names.
Costa Mesa in Orange County has its Center for the Performing Arts
and South Coast Repertory.
Actor Ron Orbach, currently starring in "Chicago" at the
Ahmanson, is on the board of directors for the Riverside Repertory
Theater, scheduled to open by fall 1999.
"If you are a theater person, you find yourself auditioning for
sitcoms and doing little jobs in film. They may pay well, but they
don’t satisfy one’s creative yearnings. So I’m excited about
getting in the ground floor of a new theater that will hopefully
make some noise," Orbach says.
Interestingly enough, those in the aforementioned "biz" may
agree.
Exhibit D: Ovation Award presenters included Garry Marshall,
Joanna Gleason, Danny Glover and Rita Moreno.
If theater is a stepping stone to film, those who’ve made good
in Hollywood don’t mind taking a step "backwards". In fact, they
are frequently nostalgic for it.
"On stage there’s always more of a cerebral magic. The audience
goes in saying, ‘Do something to me.’ They suspend belief right at
the door," says actor Morgan Freeman. "There are lots of things
that would take me back."
UCLA alum and theater director Kent Gash, whose "Harriet’s
Return" played at the Geffen this winter, confirms, "I’d get killed
in this town for saying it, but I think some of the best actors we
have are actors who trained in theater and came to film later."
Many screen personalities use their earnings to finance their
first love, both as performers and as patrons, in the case of
Annette Bening and Bill Pullman, whose names grace the playbills of
Los Angeles’s renown Actor’s Gang.
So the question remains: Will L.A. artists make time for
theater? If they do, will local audiences come through for
them?
Ron Orbach is cautiously confidant. "Los Angeles is my home now.
I’m hoping this will become a theatrical artistic home as
well."
Orbach and his colleagues are doing their best to realize this
dream. Viewers can do their part by attending plays on campus and
reading Laurie Winer’s reviews before Kenneth Turan’s. And perhaps
they’ll become Exhibit E themselves. Photo courtesy of Carol
Rosegg
From left: Kimberly Jajuan, Roz White, La Tanya Hall and Tonya
Dixon star in the Broadway musical "Dreamgirls" about three women
who rise to the top of the musical charts.