‘Funk’ Tour Brings in ‘Da Understudy

The recent report that “Bring in ‘Da Noise/Bring in ‘Da Funk” isn’t likely to bring in its charismatic original star and choreographer, Savion Glover, when it plays the Ahmanson Theatre March 11-April 26 may have disappointed Glover fans, but it doesn’t appear to have stopped ticket sales, said an Ahmanson spokesman.

Glover wants to do his own personal concert tour next spring, said his agent Carole Davis. He left the Broadway “Noise/Funk” in July, after two years, in order to do a Showtime movie. He may return to “Noise/Funk” for an international tour, she added.

Broadway stars who don’t go on tour sometimes make an exception for L.A. because of the film/TV industry exposure here. “That would have been lovely,” Davis said, “but it would have been unfair to the bookers in the other cities.” Besides, she reported that Glover is not suffering from a lack of movie and TV offers.

The tour’s press representative Kevin Gerstein acknowledged hearing “rumors that [Glover] might make an appearance or two” during the tour and added, “If something was arranged the week before, it wouldn’t surprise me. Things can turn on a dime in the ‘Noise/Funk’ world. But I wouldn’t expect it to happen. It would send out the wrong message about the show. Its survival is not about that particular performance.”

Most of the critics who reviewed the tour’s stops in Detroit and Washington agreed with that analysis. David Patrick Stearns of USA Today wrote that the show on Broadway “seemed inextricably linked to the personality of Glover . . . but ‘Noise/Funk’ is still a hit--and not just on Broadway, where it has commercial momentum. The road company is in many ways just as good.”

Taking Glover’s role on the road is Derick K. Grant, who was his second understudy on Broadway but is best known in L.A. for performances with the Jazz Tap Ensemble. Glover’s first understudy (and fellow original cast member in another role) Baakari Wilder took over the role on Broadway.

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A MUSICAL COLLISION: Members of the “Ragtime” cast will sing “3-5-0-0” from “Hair.” That might be something you’d expect from the bohemians in “Rent.” But they’ll be busy singing “This Joint Is Jumpin’.”

That’s what will happen “When Casts Collide”--the title of the World AIDS Day fund-raiser Monday at the Shubert Theatre. The benefit will feature 70 minutes of song and dance performed by members of the casts of “Ragtime,” “Rent” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” doing numbers from eras and styles that you might not associate with them. Some of the numbers will combine actors from shows--for example, a rendition of “Triplets” from “The Band Wagon” will include one triplet from each cast.

Information: (800) 447-7400.

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RAIN MAN: New York playwright Richard Greenberg’s “Three Days of Rain” won major acclaim at South Coast Repertory earlier this year, but when the play opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club earlier this month, a character was missing--an Italian woman who owned most of the neighborhood in the first version. Greenberg told Playbill magazine: “The character wasn’t necessary, but I didn’t realize it till I took her out.” He also said this about South Coast as a tryout center: “Because the theatre is larger, the technology more up-to-date and the budgets bigger, you’ll get the biggest production you’ll have. Sometimes you go out there with the play in the crudest form it’ll be in, and you get the most refined-looking production. It’s an odd sort of thing. You get all sorts of values lavished on it, and there’s still a gaping hole in Act II.”

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TIFFANY’S BACK: The Tiffany Theaters, dark since late spring, return to business this week, somewhat renovated. The ceiling is 5 feet higher in the north theater, which gives it more of the quality of a thrust stage instead of a cabaret, said proprietor Paula Holt. The front facade is in “modern and sleek” black granite, she said.

Like many a home-improver, Holt now has her eye on the next project: the marquee looking out on the Sunset Strip. Next to the new granite, “suddenly it looks sad and tired,” she said.

The first show at the spruced-up theater is a new musical, “Lullaby of Broadway,” a rental production opening Monday on the south stage. The first of Holt’s own productions will be “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” with John Fleck and Tony Abatemarco, opening Jan. 23 on the north stage, co-produced with Susan Dietz.

In the meantime, the Tiffany will host benefits on the north stage--”our version of bringing good energy in” to the reopened theater, Holt said. The schedule:

Dec. 8: “All Those Wonderful People Out There in the Dark,” short monologues about movies, benefits the Actors’ Fund.

Dec. 10: Paul Linke in his celebrated “Time Flies When You’re Alive” benefits Revlon/UCLA Breast Center.

Dec. 13: “I Know You Are, but What Am I?,” a one-act, benefits Jeff Griffith Youth Center.

Dec. 14: Emily Levine’s solo “The Cosmological Girl” benefits California Women’s Law Center.

Dec. 19: Beverly Sanders’ solo “Yessir, That’s My Baby” benefits the Women’s Care Cottage.

Dec. 28: Barbara Rush in her acclaimed “A Woman of Independent Means” benefits the National Museum of Women’s History.

Information: (310) 289-2999.