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FANS OF SOAP OPERAS - television and real - have reason to anticipate Legends, touring into town as a Broadway/San Diego offering (Civic Theatre, January 9-14). The comedy, about two fading stars battling over a potential role that could rejuvenate a career, features Joan Collins and Linda Evans, notorious for their feuding on the '80s prime-time sudser Dynasty. And the play itself became a troubled example of life imitating art.

In 1986, the comedy by James Kirkwood, starring Carol Channing and Mary Martin, embarked on a national tour that included San Diego, with Broadway as its hoped-for destination. It looked like a winner - two stage luminaries, worthy of the title, shining in a script by the guy who wrote the book for A Chorus Line.

It didn't quite work as planned. Critics generally ripped the play, and tensions developed among the stars and writer. Gossip intimated that the Martin-Channing clash was backstage as well. Finally, Martin pulled out of the production when her second-act speech about breast cancer was cut. Later, Kirkwood wrote an acclaimed book, Diary of a Mad Playwright, about the whole experience.

Thus far, the new version hasn't spawned rumors of dissension, although its reviews haven't exactly been glowing. Critics, however, have praised the performances by Collins and Evans - the latter a bit of a surprise because, at age 63, it's her first stage role. "I never intended to do a play," she says. "I liked the 'Let's do it again' security of television and films." But, she says, when she received and read the script for the revised Legends, she found herself laughing out loud. And she was intrigued by the idea of again working with Collins.

So Evans left her rustic home in Washington State, where she had led a semi-retired life of meditation and speaking to women's groups, and embarked on a new phase of an acting career. Performing before a live audience was scary, she says, but she believes it's important to continually try something new. "Fortunately," she says, "I'm surrounded by excellent people. I have tremendous respect for theater actors."

Those who remember the Evans-Collins catfights on Dynasty may well wonder: In Legends, do the two battle physically? Well, yes - but do remember they're a couple of decades older.

WILL THERE CONTINUE to be a hot time in the Old Town Theatre? Miracle Theatre Productions, which had operated the venue on a month-to-month basis since 1992, is moving on, to be replaced in January by an Encinitas-based organization called Insta-Theatres. The 10-year Old Town concession was awarded to Mark Anderson, president of Insta-Theatres (he plans to change the name), by the California State Parks Department after MTP declined to bid.

Miracle producing director Jill Mesaros says her company "chose not to bid because ithe financial and programming requirements for the 10-year contract as outlined by the state bid process made it prohibitive for us." Anderson says he's interested in collaborating with Miracle, although the outgoing companyo headed by Mesaros, artistic director Paula Kalustian and associate artistic director Steve Anthonyo's hoping to land a site in Encinitas.

Anderson, a clinical psychologist who, in 1984, opened the Improv comedy club in Pacific Beach, is the author of Crazy Love, a comedy stemming from his stay in a mental institution in the late '90s. His company has a tough act to follow. Miracle producers hit big with their first offering, Beehive, the '60s Musical, and that established their prosperous patternoopenended runs of quality productions, usually musicals. Their high point was Forever Plaid, which from 1996 to 2001 looked as if it was going to fulfill its title.

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