STAGE / NANCY CHURNIN : Premiere Set for Playhouse Could Be a Musical Packing ‘Muscle’

SAN DIEGO — While there’s still no official word on the subject matter of the new Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical set to premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1993, a Nov. 6 article in New York’s Newsday speculates that the show may be based on the book “Muscle” by ex-bodybuilder Sam Fussell.

It seems that in 1991, Fussell told the Washington Times that Sondheim wanted to make “Muscle: The Musical” and that it would be “hilarious, because the whole book is about parodies of sexuality, and facades and (bodybuilding as) performance and theater.”

“Muscle,” the book, is a firsthand account of Fussell’s former muscle madness. Fussell, an honors graduate from Oxford, whose parents are author and critic Paul Fussell and author Betty Fussell, turned to bodybuilding after graduation as a way to seem tougher.

But the muscle-building became an obsession that transformed the one-time bookworm from 170 pounds to 257 pounds, competing under the name Rocky Mountain Way.

Tom Dudzick’s “Greetings,” which is getting its West Coast premiere at the North Coast Repertory Theatre on Saturday, tells the story of a Catholic man who brings his fiancee home to meet his devout Roman Catholic family. Things get tense when his parents learn that she is Jewish. Things get more tense when she declares she is an atheist.

Dudzick, who is Catholic, got the idea for the play from his own life.

“I was raised Catholic, and at one point I had a Jewish girlfriend and she had atheistic leanings,” said Dudzick, who flew into San Diego on Sunday from New York to advise during the rehearsals and to see the production.

“I wondered what would happen if I brought her home--would the sparks fly?”

Dudzick, 42, never did bring that woman home, although he did marry a Jewish woman, and they now have an 8-month-old. But the sparks didn’t fly when he brought his fiancee home; in fact, both families get along quite well.

“My parents had mellowed out by then. They said, ‘He’s happy, so who cares?’ ”

Still, the family that people will see on stage is his family, Dudzick said. He also has a retarded brother, just as the man in the play does.

The show premiered in New Jersey two years ago, then played off-off-Broadway and has since been optioned for an off-Broadway production for next fall.

It’s been a breakthrough play for Dudzick, who was born in Buffalo, N. Y., and began his career writing and performing in dinner theaters. This is his first successful, full-length play.

But he was nervous about his family seeing it. Finally, they did, and, to Dudzick’s relief, “they were very moved and laughed”--with one reservation.

“My mother wanted to make sure I wasn’t making fun, and I said, ‘No, I’m paying tribute.’ ”

Call 481-1055 for reservations.

The Theatre in Old Town will continue its series of musical revues with the regional theater premiere of “Song of Singapore,” a musical parody of period movies such as “Casablanca” and “The Maltese Falcon” beginning Feb. 6 for a 12-week run.

The show, which closed in June after a 13-month run off-Broadway, is set in a seedy 1941 nightclub in which the audience is treated as its patrons. Laura Lamun and Tajma Soleil, who starred in the theater’s successful “Beehive,” and Steve Anthony, one of the 22 Broadway dancers on whom “A Chorus Line” is based, will star.

Call 688-2494 for tickets.

PROGRAM NOTES:

Extensions: “Forever Plaid” has been extended at the Old Globe Theatre through Dec. 20. Week-by-week extensions will be made according to demand. Call 239-2255. Elsewhere, Blackfriars Theatre has extended “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the Bristol Court Playhouse through Dec. 20. Call 232-4088 for reservations. . . .

The Old Globe will present its second annual pastorela , titled “Pastorela ‘92: A Sheperds’ Play.” The show will be presented in the Old Naval Hospital Chapel at Park Boulevard and Presidents Way from Dec. 8-20; performances on Dec. 9, 17 and 20 are already sold out. Each performance of the pastorela is followed by the breaking of a pinata for the children. Call 239-2255. . . .

And now for something completely different: An all-new production of “Zombie Sex Mutants--An Environmental Love Story” returns to the Fritz Theatre from Dec. 4-20. The show’s new songs include: “Decomposed and Disadvantaged,” “Raw Meat,” and a song Hannibal Lector would probably love, “I Love to Feast Upon Your Face.” Call 233-7505 for further information. . . .

William Windom will perform his one-man show, “Thurber,” based on the writings of James Thurber, at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts. Call 748-0505. . . .

The Mystery Cafe presents a new show Saturday, “Without a Hitch” at the Imperial House restaurant, directed by Will Roberson. Call 544-1600.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

CLASSIC ‘FIDDLER’ AT CIVIC

“Fiddler on the Roof” is a musical classic that truly deserves its reputation.

The fine San Diego Civic Light Opera production mines the eloquence of the material, thanks to the direction of Sammy Dallas Bayes and a deeply compassionate performance by Harry Goz as Tevye. Together, Goz and Bayes never let the laughs of the piece take over; the laughter comes where it should, out of characters and out of life. The story has particular resonance today, in these hard times, when faith, family and love are sometimes all people have to get by on.

Performances are at 8 p.m. through Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2. Closes Sunday. Tickets are $17-$32. At the San Diego Civic Theatre, 202 C St., 278-TIXS or 544-STAR.