JOSEPH N. BELL -- The Bell Curve

I was given a delightful, conversational, backstage tour the other day

by a real, honest-to-God, top-drawer theatrical producer and Newport

Beach resident named Don Gregory. And it sent me home to my treasure

trove of playbills to regenerate my own recollections of the shows and

people we talked about over a long lunch.

I’ve been saving Broadway playbills since “Oklahoma” in 1945 and still

live vicariously through them, especially in recent years when so many of

those old shows have been reincarnated. I wasn’t sure I wanted see the

revival of “The Music Man” in New York this summer because I didn’t want

any of those memories to be clouded. But I went, and it was altogether

wonderful.

I had the same problem when “The Belle of Amherst,” which I had seen

more than 20 years ago, opened the new season at the Laguna Playhouse.

This revival, however, had three special assets: the original cast, the

original director and the original producer. His name: Don Gregory.

The cast, of course, is Julie Harris, who hasn’t lost her touch with

either the poetry or the character of Emily Dickinson since she opened in

this same role in 1976. Harris did, however, according to Gregory,

require a lot of persuading to do it again at the age of 74.

“It took five years to talk her into it,” Gregory told me. “But there

is so much love in this play and in this company that she finally agreed.

There is also a great deal more in the play than Emily Dickinson’s

poetry. Much of its success grows out of catching the joys and pains of

her life that illuminate our own experiences and truths.”

Much of Gregory’s success as a producer is in his persuasiveness. He

trained for it well. He learned to create a world of imagination in a

fatherless and impoverished Bronx boyhood, was introduced to Shakespeare

in high school and majored in theater at the University of Connecticut,

where he is now an advisor to the fine arts department. He paid his dues

as an actor (“I always wanted to do summer stock and never did”),

high-powered talent agent and creator of New York’s Coffee House

Movement, which launched many important stars, before he won the

opportunity to produce his own shows.

All that started with Henry Fonda as Clarence Darrow in 1974, which

led to “The Belle of Amherst” and the long and distinguished career that

followed. Probably nothing marked that career more indelibly -- or better

dramatized his power of persuasion -- than his connection with two

classic musicals: “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot.”

During an Army gig in 1959, he saw Rex Harrison do “Fair Lady” in

London.

“I dreamed of someday doing it with him. And on the same day 20 years

later, he agreed to do a revival with me,” Gregory said.

None of that came about easily. Harrison had turned down dozens of

requests to reincarnate Professor Henry Higgins before Gregory came

calling.

“But then I asked him,” recalled Gregory, “if he would be interested

in making more money than anyone in the history of the theater. He said,

‘You have my attention now,’ and I offered him $50,000 a week, which was

tremendous money then. We sealed the deal the next day, and the show

toured for 16 months.”

In the process, a friendship grew.

“I was very close to Rex right to the end,” said Gregory. “I’m also

close to Julie Harris. But generally I’ve found it wise to keep a certain

distance. I never had the need to make friends with the stars. I have my

wife, my family, my life.”

Gregory brought off a similar coup the same year with Richard Burton,

who had also long resisted reprising the role of King Arthur in

“Camelot.” Once again, money was persuasive -- and a new record was set

for the highest paid theatrical actor in history.

“If either show closed,” said Gregory, “I was on the hook for about $3

million.”

While all this -- and a string of successes that followed -- was going

on, Gregory was living in the Hollywood Hills with his wife, Kaye, and

their two children. But they were frequent visitors to Newport Beach,

“where we loved the water, and I taught my kids to roller skate. We

always planned to retire there.”

But 12 years ago, when a magnificent apartment overlooking the bay

became available and it was clear to Gregory that he would probably never

retire, the Gregorys moved to Newport Beach.

Typically, Gregory has involved himself deeply in community affairs,

especially as an arts commissioner strongly supporting the creation of a

Newport Beach Arts and Education Center adjacent to the Central Library.

“This is for the kids,” he said with passion, “so they can grow up

appreciating art. Why shouldn’t they learn to sculpt and to paint?

There’s no place in Newport Beach for kids to do that now. It should be

accessible, and the most logical place for it is behind the library. This

center is not just for the love of children but for the promise of what

they can be.”

Meanwhile, Gregory has a producing plate as full as it was in the

Harrison-Burton salad years. He has recently acquired the rights to three

enormously valuable properties we will soon be seeing. First is a play

called “Woman in Black,” which has been running to full houses for eight

years in London. Gregory will open it at the Old Globe in San Diego on

Feb. 15.

Then, armed with the theatrical and movie rights to “Harvey,” he has a

commitment from Miramax to take another run at that invisible rabbit.

And, finally, he is readying a new musical version of “Some Like It Hot,”

which was once done successfully as “Sugar” and will be dressed in a new

book by Gregory.

It is a mark of the respect he has won that he was able to obtain

these rights that have been sought for many years by other producers.

“It was great to get success out of the way,” he told me. “Now I just

want to have some fun.”

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.