THE LIVELY ART OF L.A. THEATER; HOME TOWN IS COMPANY TOWN FOR HOLLYWOOD'S BIGGEST NAMES.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

What overpriced coffee is to Seattle and windbag speeches are to Washington, D.C., movies and television are to Los Angeles. They're the fuel that keeps the whole show running.

But for Hollywood actors, in this most caste-conscious of company towns, opting to perform in a real, live play can be like trying to sell abacuses in Silicon Valley. No one's going to stop you, certainly, but you may get a few quizzical stares from friends, colleagues and your agent.

How, then, to explain the recent convergence of so many big-name TV and movie stars on L.A. stages? A list of the marquee talent that has graced local playhouses in the past year or so would include Alan Alda, Debbie Allen, Christine Baranski, Annette Bening, Carol Burnett, Jenna Elfman, Danny Glover, Kelsey Grammer, Teri Hatcher, Jack Klugman, Frank Langella, Ian McKellen, Christopher Plummer and Molly Ringwald.

Still to come this season are Linda Lavin, who'll star in the Geffen Playhouse production of Donald Margulies' ``Collected Stories,'' opening next month, and two plays at the Mark Taper Forum: Donald Sutherland in the U.S. premiere of ``Enigma Variations,'' by the French playwright Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, in May and June; and Al Pacino, who'll direct and act in his Los Angeles stage debut in Eugene O'Neill's ``Hughie,'' which opens in June.

Some performers, like Bening - who cut her theatrical teeth in New York and San Francisco in the early '80s - are experienced stage actors, returning to the boards after lengthy, klieg-lit sabbaticals. Others like Hatcher, the slenderized half of TV's ``Lois & Clark,'' are taking their first plunge before a live, seated audience. Still others, like McKellen, are seasoned stage pros who've been shuttling between theater and film for years.

Juiced up by celebrity wattage and buoyed by mostly good reviews, some of these star-driven shows have been palpable hits. Yasmina Rehza's internationally acclaimed ``Art,'' with a cast that included Alda, Victor Garber and Alfred Molina, ran 12 weeks at the Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood last winter. Bening's current five-week run in the title role of Henrik Ibsen's ``Hedda Gabler'' at the 498-seat Geffen has become L.A.'s toughest ticket, with most performances completely sold out, according to publicist Gary Murphy.

Of course, two-way traffic between Hollywood and the theater is nothing new. Ever since New York vaudevillians began migrating west to make silent films, Hollywood has been raiding theatrical talent, whether it's Marlon Brando or Martin Short. Theater producers, for their part, have been all too happy to boost their box office by occasionally offering matinee idols to their subscribers.

And in an increasingly fluid and inter-dependent entertainment universe, the days have long since passed when thea-tuh mavens could afford to look down their noses at the studio philistines.

Even so, some of those who've been doing theater here longest say they've seldom seen so much prominent industry talent on display in its own back yard.

``It's not premeditated, but there is a sudden influx or increase in the number of star performers, at least on the Los Angeles stages,'' says Gordon Davidson, producing artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre.

What has brought so many prominent stars into alignment this season? More significantly, what's to keep them - not to mention their audiences - coming back to L.A. theaters in the future?

Oddly, some producers say, the current star-crossed season coincides with changing conditions that have made recruiting Hollywood talent harder than ever. With today's year-round production schedules and proliferating cable outlets and TV pilots, the summertime ``hiatus'' that used to free up actors for a period of a few weeks ``has essentially disappeared,'' says Davidson.

Gil Cates, artistic director of the Geffen, says that when the studio system prevailed, it was easier for actors to take time off to work on plays. Now, few are willing to commit to a play for more than six or eight weeks.

``Here's the conundrum,'' Cates explains. ``If we wouldn't prepare a season, if we would just be going play by play, it'd be easier to get stars. Because what would happen is we'd say, OK, after we do `Collected Stories' let's do Arthur Miller's `The Price.' Let's start rehearsing in June. Let's see who's available in June. Maybe Dustin Hoffman's available in June, or maybe Al Pacino. And you know something? If they're available in June, then we got 'em.

``However, if you want to do a season you say, OK, we need him available in March 2000. You go through two reactions. The first reaction is usually from the representative: `Are you out of your (expletive) mind?' And the second reaction is, `OK, but you know you run the risk of something coming up.' ''

What's a theater to do? Some simply try to keep their industry contacts open so stars will come to them with projects. The more flexible a theater can be in scheduling, and the shorter a commitment it requires, the better its chances of success. For instance, the Reprise! series of staged concert musicals was able to snag Kelsey Grammer for its recent production of ``Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' by squeezing rehearsals into the ``Frasier'' star's television shooting schedule.

Davidson is fond of quoting one Hollywood agent who told him, ``OK, my client wants to be in your show, but what if he or she gets a job?''

Davidson responded, `What do you think I've been offering? It's a job!''

Still, when Hollywood actors do show up, seats fill up a lot faster. When the Mark Taper Forum added the Sutherland and Pacino shows to the second half of its season - both as replacements for previously scheduled shows - its midseason subscriptions shot up ``on the order of five or six thousand,'' about double the number for a typical year, Davidson says.

``That's helpful, because we want to convert those people into regular theater-goers.

An old truism holds that theater-going in L.A. still is not an ingrained cultural habit, as it is in New York or Chicago. Rather, in an area where beaches and sunsets are pretty much free for the taking, theater is simply one of a zillion entertainment options clamoring for consumers' disposable income.

``It's a special thing to go to the theater, whereas I think it should be an everyday thing,'' says Jenna Elfman, who took time off from her hit series ``Dharma & Greg'' last winter to perform in a tiny Los Feliz theater in ``Visions and Lovers: Variations on a Theme,'' a double bill of one-acts about modern relationships by acting teacher Milton Katselas.

``I think kids should grow up with theater and art, know that there is more and know that they can create anything that they want, as opposed to, `There's McDonald's' and `Let's go to Pic 'n' Save,' '' Elfman says.

While established theaters like the Geffen, the Taper and the Ahmanson get the lion's share of publicity - both from local and national media - Los Angeles also is home to perhaps the largest concentration of small and midsize theaters outside New York City. Many of these are low-budget, storefront operations with fewer than 99 seats, producing everything from Shakespeare and Neil Simon to experimental theater, gay theater and improvisational comedy.

Some of these smaller theaters have expressed frustration at the attention paid to the big Hollywood names and the theaters that most consistently employ them. The Geffen, in fashionable Westwood, is sometimes grumblingly referred to by less well-endowed rivals as ``Hollywood's community theater'' - an epithet that, not surprisingly, irritates Geffen staffers.

``There's a certain cynicism that is out there from people who toil at the smaller theaters forever trying to build an audience, and they do great work, but you've got to get an audience in the seats,'' says publicist Murphy. ``But my theory is that what's good for one is good for all, and that trickle-down theory should work.''

Yet Murphy's boss, Gil Cates, says that while he's been extremely pleased to present actors like Nicol Williamson and Brendan Frasier at the Geffen, he has ``mixed feelings about having the audience dependent upon stars to go to the theater.''

``I think it's nice occasionally to have a star in a play that's attractive to an audience,'' he says, ``but I think that to create an audience that only goes to the theater because there's a star in the play ... it's really playing with fire, in a way.''

At times, dealing with Hollywood stars and their retinues of handlers can be draining, some theater staffers confide.

``It's harder,'' says one staffer who asked for anonymity. ``It's people who've worked in a different world and have a different expectation of how things operate. I think people who work only in theater are more community-oriented.''

But others believe Hollywood actors need more encouragement from the theater community if they're going to perform here regularly.

``I remember Jon Voight, doing ``Streetcar'' in L.A.,'' says playwright Katselas, ``and I thought critics and everyone should welcome them (Hollywood stars who do theater) and really give them a fanfare that really invites them and others to come in. I think that it also is our duty as people who love theater to excite them and pave the way for them - not to tell them they're good when they're not, but to aid them and help them.''

What seems to be the consensus is that the more Hollywood actors are willing to play to the hometown crowd, the more it will legitimize L.A. theater in general and persuade more of their colleagues to do likewise.

In an interview shortly before ``Hedda Gabler'' opened, Annette Bening said her Hollywood friends were ``all really interested, very much so, very supportive'' of her return to the stage.

``Every once in a while somebody'll say, `What play are you doing?' And when I say, `Hedda Gabler,' they'll kind of look at me like, `What?!' '' she said, laughing.

``But most people, of course, know the play, and they're like, `Oh, wow, that's cool. Good for you.' ''

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) STAR POWER

L.A. theaters attracting big-name talent

Tom Mendoza/Daily News

(2) The internationally acclaimed ``Art,'' with a cast that includes Alan Alda, left, Alfred Molina and Victor Garber, ran 12 weeks at the Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood.

(3) Christopher Plummer, pictured in ``Barrymore,'' is among the marquee talent that graced local playhouses.

(4) Carol Burnett, in ``Putting It Together,'' opened the Mark Taper Forum's 1998-99 season.

(5) Molly Ringwald and Brian Kerwin in ``How I Learned to Drive,'' at the Mark Taper Forum.