Mark Taper Forum Season Shaping Up

The Mark Taper Forum sent its laundry list of potential shows for next season to subscribers last week. Besides the previously speculated “Spunk” (now slated for Sept. 22-Oct. 27) and the previously announced “Henceforward . . .” (Nov. 3-Dec. 29), two other shows are considered definite:

“The Shape of the Table,” by British playwright David Edgar, about the transformation of an Eastern European country (unnamed, but think Czechoslovakia) from communism to democracy. It was produced at the National Theatre of Great Britain last November and is penciled in for a Jan. 19-March 1 run at the Taper.

Shakespeare’s “Richard II,” to be directed by Taper associate artistic director Robert Egan, tentatively scheduled for March 15-May 10.

Four other shows are listed as possibilities for the two remaining slots at the end of the season:

“Falsettoland,” a musical by William Finn, directed by James Lapine, which played Off Broadway last year. It continues the chronicle of bisexual Marvin, begun in the musicals “March of the Falsettos” and “In Trousers”--which played Los Angeles in 1982 and 1984, respectively. This one takes Marvin into the era of his son’s bar mitzvah and AIDS. The show’s New York producers hope to do a tour, with back-to-back productions at the Taper and the Old Globe in San Diego.

“It’s Only a Play,” by Terrence McNally (“The Lisbon Traviata”). A comedy about some Broadway types waiting for the reviews of their latest production, it began as “Broadway, Broadway,” which closed en route to Broadway in 1978, reportedly losing $300,000. It was then reworked and opened under its current title in 1982 at Manhattan Punch Line, Off Off Broadway, followed by a 1986 Off Broadway production at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

“Unfinished Stories,” by Sybille Pearson, a piece developed in the Taper Lab ’90 New Work Festival at the Taper, Too, last October, described then as “a gentle tragedy about a family’s confrontations and reconciliations on the day their grandfather decides to die.” Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson is said to be interested in directing this one.

“White Chameleon,” by Christopher Hampton, whose “Savages” and “Tales From Hollywood” were done at the Taper in 1974 and 1982, respectively. Based on Hampton’s boyhood in pre-Suez Egypt, it opened at the National Theatre of Great Britain in February and is scheduled to run there into August.

Taper officials were mum about the list, which was sent only to subscribers, not to the press.

Honey, They Shrunk the Seating: The upstairs space at 1089 Oxford St., on the outskirts of Hollywood, seated a maximum of 174 when it was part of Los Angeles Actors’ Theatre (the predecessor to Los Angeles Theatre Center). And, most recently, the late Ensemble Studio Theatre seated 130 there.

But it has now been reduced to 96 seats, under the auspices of the revived MET Theatre, which opens its first production, “Spec,” on Wednesday.

When the MET announced it intended to lower the capacity, Equity’s Western regional director, George Ives, was quoted as being disapproving of the MET’s goal. It wasn’t surprising. Union contracts apply only in theaters of more than 99 seats. In smaller theaters, producers use Equity’s 99-Seat Theatre Plan, which requires only token payments to actors.

In 1985, Equity objected--to no avail--when the 280-seat Tiffany movie theater was transformed into two 99-seat theaters.

Since then, however, the Ives-led Equity leadership has adopted a kinder, gentler attitude toward smaller theater producers. Equity’s latest reaction to the changes on Oxford Street is an example of it.

Equity needed proof that the fire department had put a sub-100-seat cap on the capacity, said Ives. Once the MET supplied such proof, the union’s Western board approved the use of the space under the 99-seat plan with little debate.

Essentially, the MET’s remodeling of the space meant that the fire department would have to approve a smaller capacity. In a departure from its days as a black box, the theater now has a proscenium stage, complete with wings, occupying about half of the space. An Equity inspection revealed there wasn’t any excess space, said Ives.

But couldn’t producers remodel other similarly sized theaters in order to avoid Equity contracts?

“I don’t know how you can stop people from remodeling,” replied Ives. However, if the remodeling is temporary or easily expandable into a larger size, “we would have an objection.”

Last year, a new Equity contract for productions in theaters of 100 to 499 seats was adopted in response to producer complaints. Even so, the Oxford space wasn’t being used until the MET came along. Noted another Equity official, “We’d rather have some kind of theater there than none at all.”

Franciosa Checks Out: Tony Franciosa, seen in “Grand Hotel” at Orange County Performing Arts in April, will not be in the show at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood next month.

Costa Mesa was “close enough” to Los Angeles, said his agent, Ed Goldstone. Many of Franciosa’s L.A. friends saw him there. His six-month contract was up, “and now he wants to go on with other projects. . . . I don’t think he envisioned how grueling the road is.”

Franciosa will be replaced by two actors: John Wylie, who created the role on Broadway, will be “on loan” from New York June 6-23, while Edmund Lyndeck fills in for him. Then Lyndeck will take over in Los Angeles, June 25-July 14, and continue with the tour.

Shakespeare/LA: Shakespeare Festival/L.A. will present “Love’s Labour’s Lost” at the 1,220-seat John Anson Ford Theatre in Hollywood, July 11-28, and at 400-seat Citicorp Plaza in downtown Los Angeles, Aug. 1-11. That’s six performances more than last year’s schedule.