THE BOX-OFFICE PEREGRINATIONS OF 'NICHOLAS NICKLEBY'

By SYLVIE DRAKE

July 3, 1986 12 AM PT

Times Theater Writer

Unbeknown to most of the world, “Nicholas Nickleby,” the town’s biggest critical and audience hit (largest cast, longest show, loudest acclaim), lacks one other important “biggest”--at the box office.

The year’s most exhilarating production simply has not been selling out. At least not yet.

Despite ticket prices that range from a top of $100 (for both 4 1/2-hour segments) to an entirely reasonable $30 (for the top balcony), weekly grosses have hovered around $240,000 to $250,000.

With 2,000 seats to sell, even using a median figure of $75 per seat, daily grosses should add up to about $150,000. Ahmanson artistic director Robert Fryer, however, places a “good day” so far at about $80,000 and an “average day” closer to $50,000.

What are producers to do?

Several things. First, a special Hot-tix day-of-performance 50% discount goes into effect Sunday. This will apply only to the $50 and $30 balcony tickets ( not to the $100 or $80 tickets).

They’ll go on sale Wednesdays starting at 5 p.m. for the Wednesday (Part I) and Friday (Part II) evening performances--and Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at noon for the all-day marathons.

For another thing, producers plan to step up advertising. Publicity on the show has been ultra low key. There’s been some radio but no television advertising, and newspaper ads have been conservative. Philip Smith of the Shubert Organization, the show’s New York producer in 1981 and principal backers of this new American tour, announced plans for a TV commercial to be shot--belatedly--July 15.

Why such a long wait?

“We’re exploring every avenue we can explore,” the Shubert’s Bernard Jacobs said Tuesday from his home in Shelter Island.

“A TV commercial gives you about 18 seconds and without the excitement of something like a musical number, it’s hard to get enthusiasm going.

“It’s very hard to figure out what’s causing the situation,” he said. “I could not have written better reviews myself and yet when ‘Nickleby’ opened in London the first time, it did not do business for the first four or five weeks.

“When it opened in New York (in 1981), we were almost going bankrupt at the Plymouth until it made the cover of Time and then everybody decided they had to see it. I’m still hoping that what happened in New York will happen in L.A., but we’re just not getting far enough ahead of ourselves.”

Getting “far enough ahead” would mean weekly break-even grosses, according to Smith, of $420,000, which includes $60,000 worth of advertising and amortization of the initial cost of bringing the show across the ocean. (Capacity at full price is $636,500.)

“The fact is if we did not have such an expensive nut, what we’re doing would not be that bad,” Jacobs reflected, but the sluggish Los Angeles market has made the producers wary. For now, they’re extending the run here by only one week--through Aug. 10.

“We’ll see if it pays to keep the show in L.A. and for how long,” Jacobs said. “Initially, it was always our intention to extend the run in L.A. Today, I would say we will not extend (beyond Aug. 10), but it’s a very strange show. Suddenly the word-of-mouth takes off and it becomes the show to see. However, our experience in L.A. has been that if you don’t build up an initial advance, it’s difficult to pick it up later.”

The success of “Nickleby” is also crucial because the Shuberts, Jacobs said, agreed to tour “Nicholas” for a year in exchange for Trevor Nunn’s agreeing to direct “Chess,” the Shubert-backed Tim Rice/Bjorn Ulvaeus/Benny Anderson musical that recently opened in London and that they expect to bring to New York.

“Originally ‘Nickleby’ was going to tour and end up in New York. Now we’re thinking of taking it directly there after L.A. and then, if it does well, maybe go to Boston, Philadelphia, Washington.”

So the quandary deepens. Meanwhile, Fryer and the Center Theatre Group do what they can:

“We’ve been giving tickets to schools that can’t afford it. What an introduction to Dickens!”

And they’ll be giving the “Nickleby” company a heady taste of the Fourth of July as guests of the Ahmanson Friday at the Hollywood Bowl’s annual fireworks superspectacular.

“They wanted to do something very American,” Fryer explained.

You can’t get much more American than that.

WONDER-ING ON: “The Wonder Years,” that exuberant baby-boomer musical that’s been booming at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Academy Room for the last couple of months, is moving to the Public Stage/L.A. at the Coronet.

Opening is July 11--same cast, same designers, same show, but a new co-production (between Public Stage/L.A. and Echo Cove, the original producers). They go from 175 seats under a cabaret contract at the Roosevelt to 272 seats and a new special Equity production contract worked out for the Coronet. As co-producer Peg Yorkin of Public Stage/L.A. put it: “They’ll all be making more money.”

“They’ve done pretty well at the Hollywood Roosevelt,” she continued, “but I think the show will be better at the Coronet. The actors will be thrilled to have our backstage space--30 feet deep. They had none at the Roosevelt.”

Frank Fisher of Echo Cove confirmed that Cove will retain a guaranteed royalty against a percentage of the gross, but Public Stage will handle day-to-day operations. “Essentially,” Yorkin said, “we’ve taken over the show.”

It will be slightly redesigned for the Coronet and the run limited.

“We’re saying four weeks,” Yorkin said. “On everything nowadays you have to see how it develops. Attendance has fallen tremendously since the Olympic Arts Festival.”

Can she account for it?

“I think it’s a combination of things. The baby-boomers are not in the habit of coming to theater. The audience seems older. And we’re even losing that older audience to VCRs or what have you. It’s the same in New York.”

Is that the principal reason she and Susan Dietz (formerly of L.A. Stage Co.) have consolidated forces to form Public Stage/L.A.?

“Yes, and we’re possibly going to produce low-budget films--$3 million or less. Even without a theatrical release, you can make money on cassettes and cable.”

Just the sort of thing the theater can’t deliver.

Parenthesis: The National Organization for Women’s 20th-anniversary celebration that Public Stage/L.A. was set to produce at the Kennedy Center on Oct. 28 will now take place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion instead.

Said Yorkin, who will also chair it: “It’ll make our lives a lot easier.”