Can You Feel the Promotion Tonight?

A stand-alone soundtrack? Elton John is well-versed in the sales synergy of soundtrack albums--he saw the box-office success of “The Lion King” propel his music for the 1994 film to multi-platinum sales and an Oscar--but this week he launches a show tune collection without a show. “Aida,” which hits stores Tuesday, is an all-star album that reunites the “Lion King” team--John, lyricist Tim Rice and Disney--and features songs from a musical that has been staged so far only in Atlanta (it’s scheduled for Broadway in 2000). Will consumers buy music from a show they can’t attend? They probably will, retailers say, when they see that the featured performers include Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Sting, Janet Jackson and the Spice Girls. The first single, a John-Rimes duet called “Written in the Stars,” is already in the Top 20. Just in case, Sir Elton is hitting the airwaves to hype the project: John is a guest tonight on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” and will be featured in a two-part interview on that network’s “Today” show starting Thursday.

Paul Taylor Dancers on the Move

The Paul Taylor Dance Company may not have seen its feature-length documentary, “Dancemaker,” win an Oscar on Sunday night, but the film and its nomination helped raise the company’s profile immediately before the first-ever Southland Taylor company residency and satellite activities begin this week. Today, for starters, 2,000 fifth- and sixth-graders are being bused to the Alex Theatre in Glendale for lecture-demonstrations by Taylor 2, the professional, six-dancer adjunct to the larger main company. Taylor 2 then visits schools in the Glendale Unified School District on Tuesday and Wednesday, ending the week with two different public performances in the Keck Theater at Occidental College on Friday and Saturday. In early April, selected local professional dancers will be coached in Taylor style and repertory, with Taylor himself judging the results at a free-to-the-public showcase. Finally, the main company turns up in two Glendale programs at the end of the month--both featuring “Oh, You Kid!,” a new work co-commissioned by the Alex. Funding for these events came from a $75,000 California Presenters Initiative Grant to the Alex from the James Irvine Foundation--and, according to Alex executive director Martin Kagan, it’s only the beginning. “We have made a commitment to the Paul Taylor Dance Company to develop a Los Angeles-area home for them at the Alex Theatre,” he said. “And to do that, we need to reach as wide an audience as possible, including the [school-age] developing audience.” Kagan’s plans for ever-longer Taylor seasons at the Alex each year makes the Dancemaker and his dancers feel more secure about the future, Taylor said on the phone from New York. “They’ve gone to a lot of trouble to have us,” he said. “Things aren’t really dire for us right now--it’s better than it used to be--but it’s a struggle for any dance company. And if the rents go up much higher in [New York], we’re going to have to move someplace else. Maybe we’ll just go out there and stay.”

Macdonald Plugs ABC Series . . . on NBC?

Although one NBC official didn’t want to accept ads for Norm Macdonald’s movie, the network can apparently live with “Saturday Night Live’s” former “Weekend Update” anchor appearing on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” Macdonald is out promoting his new ABC prime-time comedy, “The Norm Show,” with scheduled guest spots on CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman” tonight and O’Brien’s show Friday. His differences with NBC drew considerable attention last year after NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer removed Macdonald from his “Update” role, which the comic publicly griped about on Letterman’s program and Howard Stern’s radio show. The controversy resurfaced last June, when NBC initially refused ads for Macdonald’s film, “Dirty Work,” before Ohlmeyer was overruled by higher-ups. “I just don’t think it would be appropriate for us to . . . take a check for a movie that’s promoting somebody who has bad-mouthed [“SNL”] and NBC,” Ohlmeyer said at the time. Despite all the free publicity, “Dirty Work” proceeded to tank at the box office, and Macdonald dove into his ABC sitcom, which premieres Wednesday following “The Drew Carey Show.” The competition on NBC: “World’s Most Amazing Videos.”

Compiled by Times Staff Writers