LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE PRODUCTION : THIS ‘MATCHMAKER’ NO MATCH FOR THE ORIGINAL

When “Hello, Dolly!” came out, one of the people who didn’t complain about its being a rip-off of Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker” was Thornton Wilder.

To Wilder, literature was “a relay race”--a process of passing it on. He had borrowed his materials from Moliere and Nestroy, and he had no problem deeding them over to Broadway to see what could be done with them as a musical. Time would decide who had told the fable best.

Des McAnuff’s staging of “The Matchmaker” for the La Jolla Playhouse doesn’t show Wilder’s version to particular advantage. It has a cute little choo-choo train and the inimitable Linda Hunt as Dolly, but something is missing. I think it’s a frame.

That sounds strange when one recalls that Wilder was death on frames. The 19th Century box-set had taken the wonder out of theater, he thought. “Our Town” was one of his responses to this: a bare stage that forced the imagination into play.

“The Matchmaker” is something else, though. Here Wilder spoofs the footlights and the furniture by using them. The show wants a tight candy-box set, out of which the characters can occasionally pop to commune with the audience.

McAnuff and designer Michael Yeargan have gone the other way: to an “epic” production that would not be out of place on the German stage. Irene Molloy’s hat shop, for instance, goes up about three miles, with the heads of the mannequins vaguely suggesting London Bridge on chopping day. When Dolly gives her big speech on money, the lights in the auditorium go up, so that we’ll know it applies to us.

Wilder’s play isn’t turned into an indictment. It remains, in intent, and often enough in practice, an agreeable piece of nonsense, with some shrewd insights about human cupidity and tolerance. But the space around the comedy discourages comic focus. The players have to generate all their own energy, pushing for laughs that should simply come. (Kenneth McMillan’s Horace Vandergelder is a particular victim: He seems genuinely stressed.) This “Matchmaker” has ideas, but it is short on charm.

Hunt seems fairly strange at first as Dolly--it does take a while to get used to her diminutive stature. The magic comes on, however, when she starts manipulating Horace over dinner at the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant, easily the funniest and best-managed scene in the show. Hunt’s face is as plain and as tough as a walnut, and here she almost seems like some kind of leprechaun rescuing Horace from his worst self. What a Mary Poppins she would make!

Except for Hunt, the women in the cast cannot raise their voices without sounding harsh. It’s a real pity in the case of Cheryl McFadden, whose Irene Molloy could be charming. The biggest laugh-getter opening night was Rebecca Schull as the distractable lady who tries to make things right at the end of the play--but she’s really playing Bea Arthur as Maude. Not a particularly subtle acting choice.

Cornelius and Barnaby--those two shy bumpkins on a toot--are more like it. Ralph Bruneau makes Cornelius absolutely ablaze with delight on discovering for the first time how very different women are from men, a revelation that leaves Keith Reddin’s Barnaby rather chastened. Others who stand up to the play without fighting it are Michael Genovese as that consistent sinner Malachi Stack and Matthew Wright as a snooty waiter at the Harmonia Gardens.

Despite this uneven beginning, the summer looks promising at La Jolla. Emily Mann will direct a new translation of “Hedda Gabler” June 30-Aug. 1. McAnuff will stage Lee Blessing’s new “A Walk in the Woods” July 14-Aug. 15. Mark Lamos will direct Moliere’s “School for Wives” Aug. 11-Sept. 12, and Robert Woodruff will stage Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” Aug. 25-Sept. 26. Each play will give one Saturday afternoon Pay What You Can matinee--not a notion that would appeal to Horace Vandergelder (the regular Saturday matinee price is $18). The “Matchmaker” matinee will be this Saturday at 2 p.m.

‘THE MATCHMAKER’ Thornton Wilder’s comedy, at the La Jolla Playhouse. Director Des McAnuff. Sets Michael Yeargan. Costumes Susan Hilferty. Lighting Richard Riddell. Music Michael S. Roth. Sound Serge M. Ossorguine. Stage manager Maureen Donley. Dramaturge Robert Blacker. Dialect coach Susan Leigh. Movement coach Stephen Gray. Assistant stage manager Diana Bronson. Assistant director Beth A. Schachter. East Coast casting Stanley Soble/Jason La Padura. West Coast casting Richard Pagano/Sharon Bialy. With Kenneth McMillan, Rocco Sisto, Arthur Wagner, Rebecca Schull, Ralph Bruneau, Barbara Howard, Michael Genovese, Linda Hunt, Keith Reddin, Cheryl McFadden, Susan Berman, Matthew Wright, Craig Green, Tavis Ross, Monica Buckley, Deryl Caitlin, Giovanni Felicioni, John McAdams, Theresa McCarthy, Carolyn Sweeney, Jeff Arthur, Rick Ciloh, Oneida Concepcion, Robin Ditzler, Mark Enos, Susan Goldman, Tamara Harris, Joe Jaffe, Billie Padget, Margie Pine, Lisa Viertel, Kurt Vouher, Lana Worth. Musicians Corey Grindle, Lisa Leaverton. Plays Tuesdays-Sundays at 8 p.m., with Saturday-Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Closes June 27. Tickets $18-$23. Torrey Pines Road and La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla. (619) 534-6760.