‘Bleacher Bums’ Strikes Out, but Only After a Long Game

Michael Crawford wasn’t the only theatrical institution bowing out last Sunday. So did “Bleacher Bums,” the longest-running show in Los Angeles.

The longevity record refers to the number of years, not necessarily the number of performances. “Bums,” a comedy about a bunch of Chicago Cubs fans, opened at the 94-seat Century City Playhouse on April 24, 1980, and played more or less continuously since, with two to four performances per week. But director Ivan Spiegel has no idea what the total number of performances was.

The show closed for two months last winter, and in recent years individual performances would sometimes be canceled if not enough spectators showed up.

“The total number of performances stopped being important long ago,” Spiegel said. “We weren’t running it for a record. We ran it because the money we made from it funded our other shows”--and helped Spiegel’s Burbage Theatre Ensemble renovate its second theater, on Sawtelle Boulevard.

That was years ago, when the show regularly sold out. In the last few years, Spiegel said, “Bums” has “paid for itself, but it hasn’t contributed anything extra.”

“We didn’t make a big deal” about the demise of “Bums,” Spiegel said. He wasn’t even there at the final performance.

He sounds dispirited about the future of the Burbage Ensemble. “Rents have skyrocketed, and it’s harder and harder to get audiences,” he said. He doesn’t know what, if anything, will replace “Bums” in Century City.

The Dreamer Speaks: When “Life Is a Dream” opened Monday at Los Angeles Theatre Center, Marcus Stern’s name was not on the program. Nor was he in Los Angeles.

Yet it was Stern who co-conceived and adapted the project (with Marc Robinson) and was its original director--until LATC artistic director Bill Bushnell and Sidney Montz took over the direction of the play, three weeks before it opened.

“We (Stern and Robinson) took our names off it because we did not know how radically it would be changed,” said Stern, speaking from his Connecticut home Tuesday. “A lot of changes were happening that diverged from the original intent.” He wouldn’t cite examples because, he said, “I have not been back (to look at it).”

In response to questions, though, he said the idea of turning the Spanish classic’s King Basilio into a rap master, with a rap song that includes a reference to the Los Angeles Police Department, was “introduced after I left.”

The ending of the play was at “a moment of decision” when Stern left, he said, with Prince Segismundo “deciding whether to take the crown.” He hoped “to activate the audience” into providing its own ending and to illustrate “the endless set of decisions we make from day to day.” In the version that opened Monday, the prince’s decision to spurn the crown is clear.

Stern’s departure from the helm of the production was “mutually agreed on,” he said. Although there was “a myriad of factors” behind it, he declined to name any.

However, an actor in the production said that “with Marcus, there was a lot of unsureness and trepidation. Bushnell came in and said, ‘Right is right, left is left.’ . . . It felt like a breath of fresh air.”

“They had gotten a little lost in the forest,” said Bushnell. “You couldn’t see the forest from the trees.”

The production mixes text from the 1635 original by Pedro Calderon de la Barca with excerpts from Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s 1920 adaptation, “The Tower.” Bushnell removed one of the “Tower” scenes after taking charge.

Like Stern, Bushnell was not at LATC on opening night; he was home sick. His fever broke during opening night--just in time for his birthday on Tuesday. “I feel like I’m 108 instead of 54,” he said.

And that was before he saw the dismissive reviews that came out Wednesday.

Hip-Hype: “Innovative and daring, a sulfuric punk show that rocked the movie capital of the world.”

That’s how Reza Abdoh’s “The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice” is described in a brochure for the Festival de Theatre des Ameriques, an international festival in Montreal, where LATC’s production of “Hip-Hop” is bound for four performances, May 30-June 2.

“Oh my God! Oh no! I had no idea,” Abdoh said on hearing the line about rocking the movie capital.

“I’d better do some major readjustments, so it won’t be anti-climactic.” Actually, he said, at least 80% of the text will remain intact from when “Hip-Hop” ran at LATC last year.

The second part of Abdoh’s trilogy, “Bogeyman,” is slated for the fall-winter season at LATC. Last year it was canceled and replaced by “Hip-Hop,” with the explanation that “Bogeyman” would cost too much. So how can LATC, under orders to raise twice as much money as last year, afford “Bogeyman” now? Because Abdoh has trimmed the cast from 15 to 10 and the musicians from five to two, he said. Also, some elements of his original “Bogeyman” concept were included in “Hip-Hop,” allowing for further trims in “Bogeyman.”

A Fresh Coat of ‘Paint’: A country and Western star with no prior musical theater experience has been asked to star in a touring “Paint Your Wagon” that is likely to launch next year’s Los Angeles Civic Light Opera season.

LACLO won’t say who the star is until they have a deal. But producer Martin Wiviott said the revival probably won’t depend on the one star’s willingness; other country stars would be asked if the chosen one says no.

Act 2 of the 1951 Lerner & Loewe musical will be somewhat rewritten for this revival, said Wiviott; in the original text, “the story just sort of lays there.”

The revival is being organized by the Western members of the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Producers and would tour for “at least 13, probably 20 weeks.”

An Opposing Viewpoint: “Take a look at the smaller theaters,” said George Green in a recent KABC radio editorial. He then suggested checking out “Better Days” at the Cast Theatre, “Independence” at the Gnu Theatre . . . and “City of Angels” at the Shubert.

Come again? The Shubert is one of the city’s largest theaters. And “City of Angels” hasn’t even opened yet.

Elsewhere in his editorial, Green said theater “can cost about the same as a movie and a Diet Coke.” Where does he buy his sodas? “Better Days” tickets cost $15; “Independence” tickets cost $15-$20, and “City of Angels” tickets are going for $27.50-$50.

“There are no special requirements (to attend theater),” stated Green. “Only that you are a living, breathing member of the human race.” Absolutely no corpses allowed.

Green said theater is like “an AT&T; commercial--you can reach out and touch it.”

“I welcome your comments,” concluded Green. So here goes: It’s laudable of him to encourage attendance at L.A. theaters. But next time, do it so that living, breathing theatergoers don’t wince.

Getty Gremlin: A line was scrambled in last week’s Stage Watch. The correct version: Kenneth Hamma, associate curator of antiquities at the Getty Museum, addressing the problems of presenting plays at the Getty, said: “We can’t just go moving about large pieces of sculpture” to make room for drama.