Play Takes Stab at Dynamics of Power Lunches : Rituals: A playwright comments on love and money in a “sexless” town. The action takes place in a trendy Melrose eatery.

“Lunch is an occupational hazard in Hollywood,” writer Peter Lefcourt proclaims. “No one can escape it. Lunch is not a meal; it’s a negotiation, an exercise in narcissism and exhibitionism. It’s a ritual.”

That conviction--and the structural inspiration of Arthur Schnitzler’s turn-of-the-century sexual carousel “La Ronde”--inspired Lefcourt’s newest play, “La Ronde de Lunch,” making its world premiere tonight at Actors Alley in North Hollywood.

As in the Schnitzler work, Lefcourt’s story features 10 encounters with a rotating partner list; here, it’s a succession of power lunches at a trendy Melrose restaurant.

The eatery “is like every overpriced, pretentious restaurant in this town,” the writer said. A Greek chorus--five waiters all named Bruce--comments on the action.

“Schnitzler’s play was about 10 sets of lovers, which was supposed to be a parable for the passing of venereal disease,” Lefcourt said. “In Hollywood, lunch has become a substitute for people making love. It’s almost become a sexless town. People are so consumed with business and deals, they forget about other pleasures: seduction, charm. Instead, we all sit in loud, overcrowded restaurants and chatter at each other.”

In his comic landscape, the players include an actress, a producer, an agent, a realtor, a writer, a personal-fitness counselor, a lawyer, a bimbo and a star.

“In each lunch, someone wants something from the other,” noted Lefcourt, who likens the play’s choreography--the constantly changing lunch partners--to a gentle gavotte. “It starts with the actress desperate to get a job with a producer, and he’s not interested. But whoever’s on top in one lunch is on the bottom of the other lunch. It’s all buyers and sellers. At any given lunch, someone is selling someone on something.”

Although the New York native is an admitted veteran of the Melrose lunch wars, Lefcourt maintains that his commentary is not mean-spirited. “This is not a bitter, nasty piece,” he said. “OK, I’ll cop to being slightly cynical. I figure you can bemoan the situation or look at it. What’s funny about Hollywood is that it’s so self-important, a town full of people taking themselves incredibly seriously.”

And most of Lefcourt’s work is done in that commercial arena. A 1984 Emmy winner for “Cagney and Lacey,” he’s just finished an adaptation of Ed McBain’s novel “Downtown” for Showtime” and is writing a teleplay of Dr. Stephen B. Seager’s “Psychward” for ABC. In 1991, his novel “The Deal” (about a suicidal down-and-out producer) was published by Random House; his novel “The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story” is coming in June.

He refers to his stage detours as “pure love--the dessert of life.”

“You don’t make money writing theater in L. A.,” Lefcourt said firmly. “No one’s in this for the money. It’s just the pure joy of sitting in the audience listening to people respond.”

He began his relationship with Actors Alley in 1989 with “Only the Dead Know Burbank,” which found William Faulkner still quietly toiling at the studios in the ‘80s; next was “Sweet Talk” (1991), about a phone-sex relationship come to life.

Actors Alley artistic director Jeremiah Morris, who’s directing the piece, is a committed Lefcourt fan--and friend. “I wouldn’t let anyone else do this play,” Morris said, “although, to tell the truth, I don’t know a lot about Melrose. I have been to a couple of upscale restaurants: Morton’s, The Ivy, Chaya Brasserie; I’ve been privy to power breakfasts. In spite of everything, I think Peter has an affection for it. This is a satirical valentine.”

Lefcourt promises that even those outside the scene will enjoy his take on Hollywood deal-making and lunchtime culture. “It’s not all show business-insider stuff,” he said. “It’s about petty venality. Everybody is hustling someone else--in that passive-aggressive L. A. laid-back kind of way. I hope it’ll be received with good humor, that people don’t over-politicize or romanticize it. Because, really, it has no redeeming social value.”

“La Ronde de Lunch” plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays through May 2 and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 5 and 19 at Actors Alley Repertory Theatre, 12135 Riverside Drive, North Hollywood. Tickets: $15. (818) 508-4200.