Alex Theatre Sets Stage for Busy 1996-97 Season

The Alex Theatre announced its most ambitious programming schedule Monday since the refurbished vaudeville house in Glendale opened at the end of 1993. For its 1996-97 season, the Alex will produce 32 shows--including performances by dance, jazz, classical and pop music artists--in addition to performances by the theater’s resident companies.

In all, there will be about 200 performances at the Alex next season. The schedule puts the Alex, which suffered a near financial meltdown its first season, in the same league as the UCLA and Cerritos centers for the performing arts, said Martin Kagan, the Alex’s executive director.

The whole program will cost about $700,000, Kagan said--about double this year’s budget for 17 shows--and will be financed by ticket sales and a new fund-raising campaign. Although the Alex gets a $250,000 annual subsidy from Glendale, that money is earmarked for the operation of the building.

Kagan said the expanded program presents a greater overall risk for the theater but also a bigger potential payoff. “It was felt that these [shows] are opportunities to bring new audiences to the Alex,” he said. “I think these are groups that are world-class and that will add prestige and dimension to what the Alex will be known for.”

The performances have been broken down into seven subscription groups, each named for a historical figure. The “Isadora” subscription, for example, is a dance series, while “Elvis” represents pop music concerts, such as Blood, Sweat and Tears (Sept. 28), Don McLean (Oct. 18) and the Kingston Trio (April 19).

Two series in particular show the Alex moving in to fill gaps left by the closing of the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. The “Caruso” series--vocal recitals by Vladimir Chernov (Nov. 22), Carol Vaness (Jan. 23) and Marilyn Horne (Feb. 28)--was typical of Ambassador programming. The “Earhart” series of six travelogues is even scheduled for the same time--Sundays at 2 p.m.--as travelogues at the Ambassador, Kagan noted.

The Alex has also made an aggressive move into dance programming. UCLA’s Royce Hall, a major center for dance in Los Angeles, is closed for earthquake repairs, Kagan said, so the Alex is offering companies a place to perform. Only Pilobolus (Oct. 22) has performed at the Alex before. Other performances are: Lines Contemporary Ballet (Nov. 1), Merce Cunningham Dance Company (Jan. 18), Nederlans Dans Theater 2 (April 15) and Paul Taylor Dance Company (April 25).

The Alex also has made arrangements with the programmers of the Playboy Jazz Festival to add their name to a series of concerts: Marcus Roberts and the Academy of the Ascension Orchestra (Sept. 27), George Shearing (Oct. 30), the Charlie Haden Quartet West and the Jacky Terrason Trio (Nov. 17), pianists Billy Taylor and Ramsey Lewis (Jan. 10), Joshua Redman (Feb. 23) and a film-concert performance titled “A Great Day in Harlem” (April 20).

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The final two series offer a variety of disciplines. “Chaplin” includes a ballet version of “The Pirates of Penzance” from Australia’s Queensland Ballet (Oct. 11), the Flying Karamazov Brothers (Jan. 25) and the “stand-up opera” of B.J. Ward (June 7). The bent of “Galileo” is toward the experimental: the Kronos Quartet (Jan 24), solo piano from Philip Glass (March 8) and the monologue “It’s a Slippery Slope” by Spalding Gray (April 13).

In addition, four musicals--”Will Rogers Follies” in September, “Godspell” in November, “Fiddler on the Roof” in February and “Camelot” in May--will be produced by Kansas City, Mo.-based Theater League. They will handle their subscriptions separately, as will the Alex’s other resident companies: the Glendale Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Gay Men’s Chorus, the Glendale Youth Orchestra and the Alex Film Society.

At the same time, the theater announced “Advancing the Alex,” the theater’s first campaign to raise money for building improvements, artistic growth and long-term financial stability. Individual contributions go upward from $25. For $1,000 or $2,000, patrons can name seats in the 71-year-old theater.

The Alex is also waiting for the Glendale Redevelopment Agency to decide if it will write off $703,000 in loans. The agency bought the Alex and financed its renovation, and then had to loan the theater $315,000 for start-up costs. Then, Theater Corp. of America, which was hired to run the Alex, pulled out halfway into the first year of a five-year contract. The redevelopment agency loaned the Alex another $388,000 to refund money to ticket-holders.

Kagan said he hopes the “Advancing the Alex” campaign will raise $500,000 from individual and corporate donations. And if the redevelopment agency forgives the $703,000 debt, where will Kagan be next year?

“Probably announcing an even more extensive season for 1997-98,” he said.