THEATER? IN L.A.?

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

The first rule of L.A. theater is there are no rules.

Did you know there are more than 1,250 stage productions each year in Los Angles at some 200 performance venues, making it the most prolific ``nontheater town'' in the country?

Think about it. If you're reading this over breakfast, statistically a new production is already up and running, by dinner another, by bedtime a third.

But people say L.A. isn't a theater town. It doesn't help perceptions when two-time Oscar winner and Valley native Kevin Spacey, who makes a point of regularly returning to the stage, confesses that the last time he performed in an L.A. theater was a summer production of ``Gypsy'' at Pierce College.

Here are some of the perceptions/problems:

First, theater in L.A. is seen as the bastard cousin to the TV and film industries. Second, audiences are considered unsophisticated, inattentive and often unsupportive of theater. Third, there are no real theater districts - productions are scattered throughout the Southland. Fourth, too many productions are considered mere showcases for actors, staged to get them an agent or manager or work in film or television.

But there are people in the know who see beyond these points.

``L.A. is definitely a growing theater town,'' says Frank Rich, former chief theater critic for The New York Times. ``It originates stuff. It's not just the last stop on a road tour, like it was for years. Like Chicago, L.A. will come into its own as a theater town the more it is distinctive and reflective of its culture and the less it tries to imitate New York.''

And the possibility of a screen actors strike might give the theater community a jolt.

Actors are lining up to find work - and we don't mean the unknowns. ``Unfortunately, theater is hot as a pistol right now because there's going to be a strike,'' says film director Garry Marshall (``Runaway Bride''), founder of the Falcon Theater in Burbank. ``People are calling me all over, saying, `I'd like to do theater.' I know (why) they're calling; they're afraid.''

A flood of movie stars returning to the stage won't necessarily make L.A. a theater town in some people's minds even if our city produces more live drama per year than any other in the country, according to officials at the Theatre League Alliance of Southern California (Theatre L.A.), a nonprofit association of theaters and theatrical producers.

Phenomenons like ``The Lion King'' or ``Rent'' notwithstanding, live drama is largely considered one of the ``fine arts'' even if, as in this town, a playgoer is no longer pressured to dress up.

Marshall says playgoers tend to select their entertainment regionally. If they live in Santa Monica or Beverly Hills, and they're inclined to see a play, Santa Monica or Beverly Hills is where they're likely to go.

``There's no center, no critical density,'' says Gordon Davidson, artistic director of the 760-seat Mark Taper Forum, easily the city's best-established regional theater. ``Given the fact that I've been here 35 years, I would have hoped there would have been more growth of theaters that started out as 99-seat theaters and grew to the larger capacity.''

Instead of a single legitimate theater district, Southern California has clusters of playhouses - most of them 99-seat-or-fewer houses where the arrangement with Actors Equity stipulates that artists are working for pennies, and can leave the moment a higher-paying job comes along. In Hollywood along Santa Monica Boulevard and in the Melrose District and the ever-expanding cluster of mostly smaller playhouses in the semi-trendy NoHo arts district are your best bets for a post-play gathering at a restaurant, bar or coffee house. But will you find yourself next to fellow theatergoers who, perhaps, saw a different play at the playhouse down the street?

Probably not, and that's where theater meccas like London and New York have it over L.A. There, theater is part of tourism, nightlife and culture. The evening doesn't end once the play does, not when you're within walking distance or a subway ride from a cozy hangout. L.A.? Heck, even when attending a movie, you leave your car at your own risk.

``Broadway really works well for New York. There's an energy there, the theaters are all there. You go out to dinner there, you go to the theater. It's an evening,'' says Mark Ruffalo, who acted in countless small stage plays before gaining some film notoriety and moving to New York. ``Maybe Hollywood Boulevard could become that ... in its dreams.''

In the midst of a handful of film projects, Ruffalo returned to L.A. to direct a new play at the Hudson Theatre on Santa Monica Boulevard. While he considers L.A. to be ``negligible as a theater town,'' he also says that with the size of the acting talent pool and the number and availability of performance spaces, there is ``fertile soil here.''

The city also has its own industry to live down. As long as Los Angeles remains the movie and TV capital of the world, stage actors - be they celebrities or anonymous grunts - will have to contend with the belief that every live play is a vanity project designed to woo agents and casting directors.

``I understand the need for it. It's a business and actors need to be seen,'' said Jane Anderson, the screenwriter/playwright whose new play, ``Looking for Normal,'' recently opened at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood. ``But there's a perception that whenever a play happens, it's an actor's showcase. That perception needs to change.''

Unquestionably, the city has star vehicles, and no theater operator with half his marbles intact will turn away an audience member simply because he happens to be employed by William Morris. But plays don't always occur because an actor is between movies and needs to get himself seen. In fact, the ``double duty'' trend this year has found John Spencer (of television's ``The West Wing''), John Mahoney (``Frasier'') and Gedde Watanabe (``ER'') rushing from their day jobs to act in plays at the Taper, Geffen and East West Players, respectively.

Vanity projects? Hardly. Spencer has been with ``Glimmer Glimmer and Shine'' since its genesis, and Mahoney, whose ``Frasier'' schedule had twice forced him to pass up the chance to act in ``The Weir,'' was thrilled to be able to try it in L.A.

Mahoney and other members of Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf ensemble have ended up in L.A. to do movies, TV series and, time permitting, occasionally even a play. In the late 1980s, Joan Allen and John Malkovich starred in a production of Lanford Wilson's ``Burn This'' at the Mark Taper Forum. Last year, Glenne Headly returned to the stage in the comedy ``Detachments'' at the Tiffany Theater. More recently, Mahoney and Laurie Metcalf have worked at the Geffen, which is now run by former Steppenwolf artistic director Randall Arney.

``He's not trying to turn this into Steppenwolf West,'' Mahoney says of Arney, ``but the feeling is very loose and free-wheeling. 'The Weir' was such an ensemble piece, which was how we built our theater. It was very collaborative.''

Stars and splash sell tickets here.

At the Mark Taper Forum, ``QED,'' Peter Parnell's play featuring Alan Alda in a virtually one-man show about physicist Richard Feynman, quickly sold out its entire eight-week run. The house was equally packed when Al Pacino made his L.A. stage debut at the Taper two years ago in Eugene O'Neill's ``Hughie.'' As is the case on Broadway, big-budget, spectacle-driven musicals both with recognizable names (Glenn Close in ``Sunset Boulevard'') and without (``Phantom of the Opera'' ``Mamma Mia!'' and ``The Lion King'') also tend to do well.

For the area's theater community, one of the major benefits of having the film and TV industry here is that actors will live where the work is, even when they're not necessarily working. Consequently, L.A. has one of the largest talent pools to draw from here, and many a dedicated theater actor has taken a decent role in a 99-seat theater because the role is good even if the money isn't.

In a couple of months, the field could get crowded with more recognizable names honing their craft - or biding time - during a potentially lengthy Screen Actors Guild strike.

Reports have surfaced that ``The Pages of My Diary I'd Rather Not Read,'' a hit at the Hudson Backstage Theater written by and starring writer/actress Eydie Faye, has drawn representatives of Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Reese Witherspoon and Chloe Sevigny - many of whom have production companies and all of whom may be looking for work if a SAG strike happens. This despite the fact that only Sevigny has any recent live stage experience.

But the folks who are unabashedly L.A. stage actors are few and far between. Actors Equity, the union that covers stage actors, has more than 7,400 members living in its Western region, about half of them in Los Angeles. Can they make a living on stage in L.A.? ``It's difficult,'' admits Don Hill, business representative for Actors' Equity Association's western region.

Should they even try?

``In the 10 years we've been involved with A Noise Within, and the other seven to nine that I was in L.A. pursuing my career as a commercial television and movie actor, I don't think I met one individual who came to L.A. for the theater,'' says Geoff Elliott, co-artistic director of the Glendale-based classical company, A Noise Within.

``Theater in L.A. is for out-of-work TV actors,'' adds Faye, who eventually hopes to have a production of ``The Pages of My Dairy ...'' in New York. ``I don't think a lot of new theater gets done here. There are lots of revivals and lots of showcases. It was a lot easier for me to get noticed here.''

In addition to the interest shown by representatives of the film actresses who might have an interest in either acting in ``Pages'' or adapting it for TV or film, Faye has been negotiating with talent agencies and is being courted as much for her writing as for her acting.

Bottom line: If you're going to act regularly on L.A. stages, have a day job.

L.A. theatergoers - we know you're out there. We can hear your cell phones ringing.

OK, that's a cheap shot. But why do L.A. audiences have such awful reputations?

``When I did `Crimes of the Heart,' as people would leave and hopefully you'd wait to hear them say they liked the play,'' said Marshall of his production that featured TV stars Faith Ford, Crystal Bernard and Morgan Fairchild. ``A lot of the times it would be, 'I was so close to Morgan Fairchild, I could have just reached out and touched her.' And I'd say, 'Did you happen to remember what she was saying?' ''

If creators of theater in L.A. are regularly ridiculed, audiences are positively lambasted. Brian Dennehy, who headlined a critically and financially successful production of Arthur Miller's ``Death of a Salesman'' at the Ahmanson Theatre, called Los Angeles ``a different kind of theater town. I'm not quite sure why. There always seems to be a different attitude about theater here (than) there is in New York or, a better example, Chicago.''

After the run, Dennehy again compared L.A. audiences with Chicagoans in The New York Times, with Angelenos definitely getting the short end. Apparently, too many of us were shuffling through the trades while the big guy's Willy Loman was ranting over his son's failed greatness.

``I just finished a run in Los Angeles, and you can tell that a good part of the audience there just doesn't get the whole idea of what we're doing,'' Dennehy told The New York Times.

Ouch! But we've heard this before. When it comes to theater, either we don't get it - or, another common charge - we don't want it and won't pay to see it - unless it's a prepackaged, can't-miss hit like Disney's ``The Lion King'' or one of the city's box-office champs, ``Phantom of the Opera,'' which ran for more than four years at the Ahmanson.

Proponents of L.A. theater bristle at comments like Dennehy's, saying local audiences aren't going to buy something just because it was a hit in New York.

``I don't think L.A. audiences can be sold on hype,'' says Dan Harper, marketing director for the Theatre League Alliance of Southern California (Theatre LA). ``It's more 'show me what you've got' rather than `I need to see what other people like.' ''

Which takes us back to the first rule of L.A. theater: There are no rules. It's quirky and messy, not tidy like Eastern cities. But it's beginning to reflect, as Rich says, the city's distinct culture.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) L.A. in Love

The City of Angels has been PLAYing around, and its secret is starting to SHOW - it's having an affair with theater

(2) ``Sunset Boulevard''

(3) ``Phantom of the Opera''

(4) ``Annie''

(5) ``Angels in America''