Producers Fran and Barry Weissler, so far thwarted in their efforts to remount Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth Off-Broadway, may opt for a Los Angeles production instead. Spokesman Pete Sanders said the producing couple, while in Los Angeles for the May 6 opening of their production of Chicago, looked into a few likely homes for Youth.

Lonergan's comedy about three disaffected trust fund kids was mounted by Off-Broadway's New Group in October 1996 to wide acclaim. The cast featured Josh Hamilton, Mark Ruffalo, and Missy Yeager, under the direction of Mark Brokaw, who was just then entering a hot streak which see him pilot both Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive and Douglas Carter Beane's As Bees in Honey Drown during the same season.

The Weisslers quickly became interested in backing an extended run at a larger theatre. Unfortunately, their involvement coincided with sudden demand for commercial Off-Broadway houses. The return of Youth was often promised, but the Weisslers never found a satisfactory home for the production.

Sanders said the Weisslers still hoped for a New York gig, but that prospects were dim at this point. Part of the problem is that some members of the cast are currently working in California, making a Los Angeles production a more attractive and likely alternative.

-- By Robert Simonson