Julia Jordan

Up until the last minute, it looked as though the new musical "3hree" might have to change its name to "2wo." Only a few days before the workshop reading of "3hree" last spring, the young creators of "The Mice" still didn't have an opening number.

"Our Boy" is, among other things, a play about how stories should and shouldn't end. But the excruciating thing for author Julia Jordan was getting started. South Coast Repertory commissioned her five years ago; tonight her belated script will have its first public airing--in a staged reading at the Costa Mesa theater. In between, Jordan said, she coped with writer's block, took on other, simpler projects and kept circling back to the play she wanted to deliver, but couldn't.

"Our Boy" is, among other things, a play about how stories should and shouldn't end. But the excruciating thing for author Julia Jordan was getting started. South Coast Repertory commissioned her five years ago; tonight her belated script will have its first public airing--in a staged reading at the Costa Mesa theater. In between, Jordan said, she coped with writer's block, took on other, simpler projects and kept circling back to the play she wanted to deliver, but couldn't.

Up until the last minute, it looked as though the new musical "3hree" might have to change its name to "2wo." Only a few days before the workshop reading of "3hree" last spring, the young creators of "The Mice" still didn't have an opening number.

Actors tend not to improvise at South Coast Repertory, where the guiding ethic is a faithful adherence to the words and meanings that playwrights put on the page. But a whole lot of improvising--logistical, not dramatic--is going on in connection with this year's fifth annual Pacific Playwrights Festival. Hardhats, not actors, will inhabit the theater in June, when the festival devoted to showcasing and developing works in progress customarily takes place.

Large pieces of Julia Cho's family past in Korea are missing, and she concedes they may never be found. Her play, "99 Histories," is partly a reflection on that loss. It also is the product of Cho's conviction that in the absence of facts, the imagination must take over, and that it can suffice. The play is one of five unproduced works-in-progress that will have public readings in the annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, Friday through Sunday at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.

In the newest version of "Sesame Street Live: Let's Be Friends," little Elmo and Zoe start a friendship club for monsters, but soon open the doors to all; they build a clubhouse and put on a circus, too, in this musical stage extravaganza based on the PBS show. * "Sesame Street Live: Let's Be Friends," Forum, 3900 Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, 7 p.m.; also Friday, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10:30 a.m., 2 and 5:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 and 4:30 p.m. $12 to $20. (310) 419-3185.

Springtime slots that have remained vacant in the Ahmanson Theatre and Geffen Playhouse seasons are about to be filled. The Ahmanson will announce today that it will present "3hree," a trio of short musicals, while the Geffen is expected to name as its fifth show "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks," pending the completion of negotiations with potential stars Uta Hagen and David Hyde Pierce. "3hree" replaces "Flower Drum Song," which was canceled in December.

As longtime yenta to various theatrical talents, the formidable Harold Prince has seen it all. His producing resume includes "The Pajama Game," "West Side Story" and "Fiddler on the Roof." The directing list: everything from "She Loves Me" to "Cabaret" to an extraordinary string of Stephen Sondheim musicals, "Company," "Follies" and "Pacific Overtures" among them. In other words, at this point in his life, Prince can do whatever he likes.

"You got one of them older guys over 21, huh? . . . I'm not sayin' it's bad. Most of the girls got old guys." --Sam, 12 and pregnant * When Julia Jordan arrived in West Virginia with a commission to write for schoolhouse stages, she circled the state with wide and wondering eyes. Everywhere she met pregnant teens and preteens. She met them on her visits to the capital, Charleston, and to the small coal town of Williamson. She lived with dozens of them at a home in Wheeling.

"Romero" (at the AMC Century 14) has the good fortune to have Raul Julia in the title role as the martyred Salvadoran archbishop, but his solid portrayal, a work of simplicity and concentration, cannot redeem a film that in too many crucial ways goes wrong. "Romero" is an especially poignant example of noble intention done in by misguided means, for Julia invests the archbishop with a spirituality that few heroes of conventional films with religious themes possess.