Daily News from New York, New York • 69

By DON NELSEN IIOLLYVJOODBy Marilyn Beck AUTO RACING hot shot Danny Sullivan, fresh from his win at the Indy 500, intends to conquer Hollywood vu1 i imliniiii t' Harvey Fierstein Jackson and Yul Drynner discuss Broadway tonight. next Dashing Danny reports he has just signed to star in "The Yankee Lady" for producer Jerry Weintraub. Weintraub tells me he will surround Sullivan with "three or four major names" in the' big-screen sports car-racing saga. He says one script has already written, and discarded, and that "another is being started." The plans rrr ROADWAY'S FINANCIAL downturn this I season is being taken so seriously that in I the past week alone there have been two major discussions of it The first was ABC-TV's "Nightline." The second was a gathering of the theater industry's caliphate at City Hall Tuesday offering some suggestions to the City Council. Tonight at 9:30, an NBC documentary with Pia Lindstrom at the tiller takes another look at the problem with a half -hour show titled, "Will the Lights Go Out on Broadway?" The answer, which will shock no one, is that nobody knows, but a blackout in the immediate future is doubtful.

For anybody with a reading interest in the theater, "Broadway" will offer little that's new. The show is also somewhat superficial as the camera skips from face to face eliciting short comments from the worthies involved. There are also film clips of the musicals "La Cage aux Folles" and "The King and and rehearsal shots of such upcoming heavies as "Singin in the Rain" and "South' Pacific." Doubtless they were shoe-horned in to lend the show some atmosphere and entertainment glitz, but in toto it seemed like a retrospective of old Tony Award shows. That said, "Broadway" supplies a useful wrap- up of the important issues involved. The dearth of creative talent, the burden of union work rules, soaring production costs and the emergence of a Broadway where only money talks or sings are Danny Sullivan calls for "Yankee rrncSJiT shooting to get under way next summer, during meets' at either Daytona Beach or Sebring, Fla.

MEANWHILE: Weintraub reports he has bought film-rights to John Mclnemey's upcoming "Ransom" novel about an American youth living in Kyoto, Japan. He's also developing Mclnerney's "Bright Lights, Big City" as a project for hot young Tom Cruise although Cruise's camp says the deal won't be firm until Tom's approved the final script Right now Cruise is keeping very busy in San Diego learning to fly a plane and handle a heavy-duty motorcycle in preparation for his role in "Top Gun." The big-screen drama, in which he'll play a Top Gun naval jet pilot, starts shooting June 23 with full cooperation of the military, and at the San Diego naval base where that elite corps is trained. THE READERS WRITE: My recent column criticizing the fact that Stacy Keach and Frank Sinatra are being treated as heroic figures struck a highly responsive chord with readers. In fact, never have I been flooded with such a tidal wave of phone calls and letters in support of anything I've written. It seems appropriate with Keach ending his term for cocaine smuggling this week to the accompaniment of glowing and extravagant media coverage that the discussed by people with such widely diverger.

views as playwright Arthur Miller, Gerald Schoei feld, the Shubert Organization chairman, Josep Papp and actors Stockard Channing. Glenda Jacl son, Yul Brynner and John Lithgow. Mille skewered current Broadway economics in an en when the $5 million musical is commonplace. "The environment is all money," he charges "That's all it's about There's no soul to the bod; anymore." Schoenfeld, however, defends ticket prices complaining that carping critics always cite th highest seat price while ignoring the fact tha many seats go for considerably fewer bucks "We're the only business that I know of that sell; its tickets at half-price (at the TKTS Booth) on tht day of performance," he adds. Still, Lindstrom's visual charts show Broadwa? ticket prices have shot up 500 over the past 3 years, while dinner at Sardi's rose only 220 ir the same time period and Yankee Stadium ducab only 200.

What it comes down to is the age-old conflict of art vs. money, a dilemma capsulized by James Nederlander, chief of Nederlander Productions, the second largest theater owner in New York: 11 olOSeu of inline season, eative Ji'iS recant two peopw KOUter8-. incteaa. nerai run m.ickiey, KVioUiu fooi ou -aid -x a -JKS7 Others 4(fan iAiesJw" for in Ba MBmtlllCia to onwers. i nr snow- in m.

rt-iviu i i ana nnv rt chic "I think the name of this game is entertainment. J5th the criucs Ricnar Most of the time, if you're going to pay $40 or $45 for a ticket, you don't want to see a play about cancer of the left foot" The remark is designed to be funny I guess. curvive. gQUW By DOUGLAS WATT FIGHTING) INTERNATIONAL FAT. Conwtfy by Jonathan Ktynolttt.

With Jk: Walter, John Gabriel, Lisa lawl, Ann McDonouch, Ruth Jarotlow, Stephen A hern, a. Constance tarry. Directed by Devi Trainer. Set by Tony Stralee. Costume by Rita Ryeck.

Uehtlna by Frances Aronson. At Playwrights Hon tons. 41 W. 4 2d St. public voice De neara, ai leasi inai puruun vi uic public which has made its feelings about the matter known to me.

Some of their comments: "I frequently disagree with your comments, but the item about Stacy Keach and Frank Sinatra hit the nail squarely on the head." V. Roberts, Glendale, Calif. "Frank Sinatra's picture as a Medal of Freedom honoree beside Mother Teresa's in Newsweek was revolting to me." B.E. Houston "No wonder our children can't find suitable role models when people like Keach and Sinatra are lionized." J. Hall, Toronto, Canada.

PRO AP WAY By Pat O'Haire HAPPY LADY: Judith Ivey, who walked off with Tony Sunday night, got on a plane next a.m. and flew back to Texas where she's filming "The Long Hot Summer" as an NBC-TV miniseries with Don Johnson (the "Miami Vice" man), Jason Robards, Ava Gardner and Cybill Shepherd. She found the cast and crew there had been busy at her pad while she was gone. The motel marquee sported a congratulatory sign, and her room was packed so full of flowers and congratulatory wires, she had to turn sideways to get in. If you missed her other movies, you can see her soon in "Compromising Positions," filmed right here on Long Island last summer and due in theaters in August Stockard Channing, who also walked off with the tiny statue for her role in "Joe Egg," is leaving the show.

No, no, wait Hold on. She's off to the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, where her husband, David Rawle, is marketing representative. She'll leave after Saturday performance, but will be back in time for the Tuesday show. Why is she going? To hear Frank Langella read "A Lincoln Portrait" to Aaron Copland's music. Sounds reasonable.

HEADS UP: Rita Moreno almost didn't have a curtain call Tuesday night at "The Odd Couple," in preview at the moment at the Broadhurst Seems she's the last cast member to come out and take her bow, and the other eve. when Sally Struthers and the rest of the cast turned around to welcome her on from the wings, the curtain slow-w-w-w-ly began to descend, and by the time she and everyone else was aware of what was happening, it stopped. At about waist level. Nothing daunts a star, however, especial r-JSHE SILLY SEASON IS THE only plausible explanation for the arrival of "Fighting LI International Fat," the provocatively titled but inanely misconceived comedy by Jonathan Reynolds that was found on the stage at Playwrights Horizons last night no doubt at least partly due to the author's presence on the company's artistic board. i i A popular morning talk-show host Shep Brae ley Diedricksen (John Gabriel), accustomed inflaming his largely female studio audience wit) a controversial topic each day, is endeavoring before show time to get some juicy stories from i handful of members of The International Fa Fighters Inc.

and their founder and president. Rosalind Gambol (Jessica Walter). He isn't having much luck until in pops the sleek leader of a rival system, D. Raleigh Bell (Lisa Banes), who has opted for surgery that forces a limited intake rather than diet which is the I.F.F.'s concern. Before you know it, rich foods are beinr dispensed as freely as the strained humor, and th sex drive, which seems to be closely allied to th' food one, finds the TV host going to bed with bot).

girls, though not at the same time. Reynolds, who has shown his skill at corned with "Geniuses" and, before that "Yanks 3 Detro 0 Top of the 7th," flounders helplessly with fare in this new work, whose subject Cole Porter Ion ago treated with wit in the song "Farming." Next to feeling foolish at one's own duty to si through this idiotic mess, one feels intens embarrassment for the actors. Walter manages carry off her part with some dignity, but Gabriel Banes and the supporting players are forced to behave like immature undergrads in an annua) school show. Stephen Ahern generates bits of amusement as French-Canadian chapter head ol I.F.F. before he, too, is reduced to a salivatinr loony.

In direction, design, costuming and lighting this effort, obviously intended as a sendup of bot-talk shows and American diet fads, is up to th high standards of most PH productions. Bi "Fighting International Fat" is a mirthless mi take and, among other things, Reynolds shoulii learn the meaning of the verb "decimate," more appropriate to his use of actors than to Gabriel's rcurt deflation ol Walter's ego. 7 ttS e-ss ly wnen sne uiiuns uer weu-ueserveu uuws, so sne stepped forward, picked up heavy scrim as if it were a skirt hem, and stepped forward for her applause, which was plentiful, just as the curtain slowly made its. way back up into the Moreno got even, on m'-h i fj i I i.