LUCIE ARNAZ: FIRST CLASS ALL THE WAY

Lucie Arnaz's peace of mind about family vs. career may explain her sanguine attitude about her appearance in "Wonderful Town." (The Reprise! series of minimally staged productions is designed to take only two weeks of its stars' time from the beginning of rehearsal to closing night; it's a bid to woo the wealth of musical-theater stars who now call L.A. home and have few outlets for their well-honed skills.)

 Then, too, maybe Arnaz's theatrical background has prepared her for the rigors of a one-week rehearsal period. "Don (Donald Amendolia, the show's director) and I met in summer stock days, where you showed up on Monday and opened on Tuesday night. You come knowing your lines and your music, and they teach you everything else you need to know in about a day."

Her confidence is bolstered, Arnaz said, by the depth of talent working on both sides of the footlights. "When they can corral people like Don, who came from the best, he worked under Tommy Tune, and (music director) Peter Matz, then you know that, my God, it's going to be good. You know it will be first-class all the way."

Arnaz was attracted, too, to Comden and Green's charming story (adapted from the popular 1940 play "My Sister Eileen") about the adventures of two naive Midwestern girls in the New York of the sophisticated'30s.

"It's my favorite period. I love people like Dorothy Parker and the other writers of the time. "I tried to re-create a sort of sophisticated Round Table when I was on Broadway, having people from the various shows meet on the weekend for dinner. I called the group The Matinee Idles. Kevin Kline showed up, Sandy Duncan, Michael Lipton, Marian Seldes, Danny Aiello. We had some great conversations.

"It was an opportunity for everybody to get off their shoulders what was happening behind the scenes. In theater, something goes wrong every 20 minutes. It's alway horrific at the time, but it makes a hilarious story even an hour later. Maybe that's why I still do theater. I love the feeling that anything can happen."