LARSEN’S 11TH-HOUR BRINKSMANSHIP

For three years, Milt Larsen has been eyeing the noose while the parlous economic fate of his Variety Arts Center has been on trial.

He has just been given another last-minute reprieve.

The Community Redevelopment Agency, which holds the first trust deed on the Variety Arts Center’s property and was about to foreclose as of 9 a.m. Tuesday (Larsen reportedly owes the CRA $1.1 million in mortgage payments), was legally bound to grant a 24-hour extension at debtor’s request. Foreclosure is now scheduled for Friday morning.

In the meantime, Larsen’s attorneys have successfully petitioned for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Act. What this means now is that the CRA cannot put the building up for sale unless it wins a court order. The Variety Arts Center has at least 30 days more of life before the preliminary hearing gets under way.

Larsen’s attorneys are confident that they can still come to terms. “It appears that there’s very little debt over the mortgage,� said Ara Hovanesian, who represents Larsen. “What they (meaning Larsen and his Society for the Preservation of the Variety Arts) need is time to either refinance the CRA debt (and that’s in the works) or arrange the sale of the property and the move to a smaller facility.�

“One of the problems in the past is that the CRA looked at us as a four-wall operation, like the Shuberts or the Nederlanders, and wanted us to be more involved in commercial production,� Larsen said. “My point of view is that this operation is more a museum and library celebrating the variety arts. But I realize I have to change my ways. I’m in the process of expanding our board of governors. This makes it interesting for us old comedy writers.�

Seems like old Equity Waiver times. Or does it? The opening of Donald Freed’s two-character play “Alfred & Victoria� has been postponed at the Los Angeles Theatre Center from Oct. 30 to the week of Nov. 10. The reason: Philip Baker Hall, who plays one of the leads and had inspired Freed to write this character for him on the strength of his performance in “Secret Honor.� Hall has landed a part in Steven Spielberg’s coming movie “After School,� so LATC producer Bill Bushnell decided to hold the role open. Previews start Tuesday with Jack Axelrod in Hall’s role. Diana Manoff plays Victoria.

Dale Gonyea may be, as he puts it on the Canon Theatre marquee, “A 12 O’Clock Guy in a 9 O’Clock Town.� He’s also a Nov. 2 guy in a commercial setting that expected him to last only until this Sunday. In other words, he’s extended by popular demand--but for two weeks only. His next stop is Carnegie Hall. How will he bill himself then? New York stays open until 4 a.m., which would make a midnight guy seem pretty staid.

Mayor Tom Bradley has proclaimed today “Eugene O’Neill Day� in Los Angeles (O’Neill, who died in 1953, was born Oct. 16, 1888). There will be a number of commemorative events nationwide, but locally a group of theater artists consisting of Judith Johnston-Weston, Tom McDermott and Stan Weston has been working for two years on a repertory program called the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, which gets under way tonight at the Melrose. After the 7 p.m. mayoral proclamation and a champagne reception, “A Touch of the Poet� opens the repertory schedule, which runs Wednesdays through Sundays at 7:30 p.m. and includes (starting Oct. 29) “Hughie� and the seldom-performed “Before Breakfast.�