A ‘THREE’ SERIES TV WINNER TO RETURN TO STAGE IN ‘TRUTH’

“When I told people I was going back to the theater, they looked at me as if I’d announced I was going to have a sex-change operation. But I knew it was time to get back to my roots.�

On Sept. 29, John Ritter opens in the British comedy import “The Unvarnished Truth� at the Ahmanson Theatre. And it’s quite true what he says--some people are indeed giving him those “what for?� looks.

That’s because Ritter’s success on television--in “Three’s Company� and “Three’s a Crowd�--has tended to obscure the fact that at heart he’s a stage actor, and with a lot of credits (“Desire Under the Elms,� “The Glass Menagerie,� “Butterflies Are Free�). But having strayed into television, he stayed.

Then a few months ago he ran across Robert Fryer, artistic director of the Ahmanson, at a dinner party given by Sidney Sheldon. During a chat, Ritter volunteered the information that he’d been an usher at the Ahmanson back in 1968. “Then why not come and do something in front of the audience for a change?� Fryer said. And a short time later he sent him “The Unvarnished Truth,� a play by Royce Ryton that was a big hit in London.

This is the play about which the London Times critic wrote, “I laughed until the flood of my tears drowned several usherettes, the box-office staff and even the theater cat.� Deciding that this sounded promising, Ritter said yes.

He admits he’s nervous.

“I did 200 performances as Jack Tripper in ‘Three’s Company’ and ‘Three’s a Crowd’ in front of studio audiences, and each time I got butterflies in my stomach,� he said. “So, yes, I’m nervous about doing this. And that Ahmanson stage looks so big--first time I walked out on it I felt I was on that spaceship in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’

“But I have done a lot of theater--it was my first love--so I should be all right.

“And this isn’t an ego thing for me; I’m not saying ‘Look, I can do theater.’ The fact is that all that theater I did years ago gave me the chance to get into TV. Now, TV’s given me the chance to go back to the theater for a while.�

SHINING: Nobody’s yet been able to steal a scene from Meryl Streep, but there’s some petty pilfering going on in the movie “Plenty� (opening Sept. 19). The culprit is a sassy and talented young British dancer-singer-actress named Tracey Ullman.

If her name registers here, it’s because of her singing hit “They Don’t Know,� which did well in the United States. But in Britain she has a big reputation because of a BBC comedy series in which she starred.

She’s also done a lot of theater there and was involved briefly in the workshop production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s roller-skating extravaganza, “Starlight Express.�

Ask her why she didn’t go with it into the West End--she says, rather tartly, “I couldn’t bloody well skate well enough. I kept bumping into walls.�

She made her film debut in Paul McCartney’s “Give My Regards to Broad Street,� but it’s “Plenty,� starring Streep, Charles Dance and John Gielgud, that gives her the chance to shine. And shine she does.

Did it make her nervous, acting with Streep?

“Not at all,� she said, “probably because I’m so new to films I didn’t know to be nervous. Anyway, she put me so much at ease. We got along really well.�

She even socialized with Streep a little.

“One night, she invited me to join her for dinner,� she said. “We were with Robert De Niro, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Christopher Walken. I was the only person there I didn’t know.�

Now, she wants to make more movies.

“I’ve been sent three scripts in the past few days,� she said. “That’s encouraging, isn’t it? And I’ve got a pilot commitment from CBS to do my own show--I’m excited about that. I’d really like to make it in television over here. It’s such a challenge, and they pay such a lot of money. I like that. I don’t want to be poor anymore.�