Stage Right

Professional theater in Ventura County reached a milestone last weekend, though it may have been overlooked by all but the most watchful observers.

With the production of “Six Women With Brain Death . . . or Expiring Minds Want to Know,” the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza becomes the sole West Coast showcase for the Theater League.

Since 1995, the production company has been splitting local runs between the Civic Arts Plaza and the Alex Theatre in Glendale. The company did not renew its contract with the Alex, and will soon be using Thousand Oaks as the first stop on a circuit that includes theaters in Phoenix; Tucson; Toledo, Ohio; and Kansas City, Mo., the League’s home base.

“The Alex didn’t really work for our plans,” Theater League President Mark Edelman told The Times. “While it is a beautiful theater, it doesn’t have a large stage or backstage, and it is hard to load in [the sets and other equipment for] a large-scale musical.” It’s also significant that the group’s Thousand Oaks-area subscription list now includes about 9,000 names, he says, while there were only 3,000 subscribers in Glendale.

Edelman added that the League prefers to work in such set-ups as the Civic Arts Plaza, where there is a large facility--the Plaza’s 1800-seat auditorium--for bigger productions, and a smaller one--the Forum--for such shows as “Six Women.”

Edelman cites last year’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah!” as one of those smaller shows that made good. After seeing the show, a revue of comic songs by Allan Sherman, in a 70-minute cabaret version, Edelman commissioned a full-length production. It premiered in Phoenix in 1991, moved to Kansas City, then off-Broadway. But, Edelman says, the Forum Theatre edition last summer was the most financially successful of all.

“Personals,” a musical by David Crane and Marta Kauffman , creators of the TV series “Friends,” is in the works for next summer. The music will be composed by Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz and others. Like “Six Women,” the show will be offered free to League subscribers.

* “Six Women With Brain Death . . . or Expiring Minds Want to Know” through Sept. 14 at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Forum Theatre, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. Wed.-Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun 2 and 7 p.m.; $17.50-$21.50. (805) 583-8700.

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Coward Salute: Though there were already two successful Noel Coward revues--”Oh! Coward!” and “Cowardy Custard”--English writer Sheridan Morley decided that there was room for a third.

First staged in London in 1986, his “Noel and Gertie” differs from its predecessors by concentrating on the material Coward wrote for his longtime friend Gertrude Lawrence, with whom Coward starred in two shows.

Oxnard’s resoundingly Anglophilic Elite Theatre troupe is staging “Noel and Gertie,” featuring Art McDermott and Patricia Lynn-Strickland as the title characters. Judy Heiliger is directing, and Barbara Howard is musical director and pianist.

Like Coward’s songs (hugely popular in Britain in the ‘20s-’40s), the show is extremely arch. Coward was nothing if not--in public, at least--self-confident, and Lawrence was so popular that a lavish biography of her (1968’s “Star!”) starring Julie Andrews was filmed long after Lawrence’s death.

To most Americans, Lawrence’s biggest triumph was not in a Coward play, but as the original Anna in “The King and I,” which she commissioned Rodgers and Hammerstein to write for her. Ironically, Coward was to play the King of Siam, but demurred, leaving the role open for Yul Brynner to create his own Broadway legend. Much of that is covered in “Noel and Gertie,” together with several chunks of dialogue from Coward’s plays, and 19 of his songs.

“It’s amazing how potent cheap music can be,” Coward famously observed. While “Noel and Gertie” is by no means cheap, it’s plenty potent and quite pleasing.

* “Noel and Gertie” through Sept. 6 at the Petit Playhouse, 730 S. “B” Street in Oxnard’s Heritage Square. Fri.-Sat. 8:30 p.m.; Sun. 2 p.m. $12; $10, seniors. (805) 483-5118.