At the end of Triumph Of Love's final performance, Jan. 4, among those who came out on stage and took a bow was producer Margo Lion, who announced that it was not the last performance of Triumph; just the last performance on Broadway. She said the show was planning a tour.

Asked about those plans Jan. 6, Lion told Playbill On-Line negotiations were in very early stages, in the hopes of "setting something up for fall and winter. We have someone interested in doing a fall production, and there's interest in England."

Reached Feb. 4, co-producer Jeff Rowland (of Metropolitan Entertainment Group) told Playbill On-Line he'd been concentrating mainly on enhancing the show's profile for theatregoers outside the Broadway audience. One key to that is finally getting a CD made, but that has been "extraordinarily difficult to arrange," said Rowland. "There's still a chance, but having the show close makes it more difficult. We've even had folks say yes, but then it comes unglued. Yet we soldier on..."

The show's stock and amateur rights are being handled by Fred Gershon at MCI, though there are still no firm plans to issue sheet music to such popular songs in the show as "Serenity" and "Henchmen." Explained Rowland, "When you end more abruptly than you planned, it catches you unawares."

Another possibility, albeit remote at this point, is that a production of the show might turn up on PBS TV's "Great Performances" series. "They expressed more than a passing interest in shooting [Triumph] for a possible broadcast," Rowland said. "Jac Venza loved the show. But they have too many projects and not enough money, so they had to reorder their priorities." Still, Rowland is heartened by the outpouring of support for Triumph and is confident the show will soon receive a London mounting. "Two producers approached us for a West End production, so Margo [Lion] is meeting with them."

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Triumph Of Love closed Jan. 4 after a Broadway run of two and a half months at the Royale Theatre. Betty Buckley, F. Murray Abraham, Nancy Opel and Susan Egan starred in this farcical musical, based on a Marivaux comedy. The musical opened Oct. 23 and even then, the producers knew they had to either close the show or move it to another house, because Art had dibs on the Royale (previews begin Feb. 12 for an opening March 1).

Triumph of Love closed Jan. 4 after 31 previews and 83 regular Broadway performances.

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Asked about Metropolitan Entertainment Group's other current projects, producer Rowland told Playbill On-Line "We've optioned the rights to a current book called "Abuse of Power" by Stanley Kutler, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, who spent ten years suing the government for the release of the Nixon tapes. That's because only 200 hours -- out of thousands -- were released in 1973..the rest are in a safe. It's astounding material and lends itself to dramatic treatment. Mark Stein did the adaptation, and it's not about gathering evidence against Nixon; it's about the man in the most powerful position in the world coming unglued but also becoming more human. Like a King Lear -- we understand him and relate to him."

Also on the front burner for MEG is The Male Intellect (An Oxymoron), which was supposed to close in Boston Feb. 22 but has now extended to (at least) late April, thanks to strong audience response. The play will also get a different, simultaneous mounting in Philadelphia.

As if that weren't enough, Rowland and MEG are also working on another Blake Edwards show (no, not the LePetomaine one) and "Go Man, Go", which tells the story of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.