‘A Funny Thing’ Revived in Pasadena

It’s been 27 years since the premiere of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” and it’s still going strong. On Saturday, the latest revival--by the California Music Theatre--opens at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, directed by Gary Davis and starring Michael Tucci (Pete of “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”).

“The truth is, it’s not a big money-earner for its authors,” said writer Larry Gelbart, who created the Tony-winning musical with Burt Shevelove and Stephen Sondheim. “A lot of the productions are done by amateur groups, because it’s easy to put on: 17 people, one set--it’s a great lure. When it’s done right, it’s very funny. Even when it’s done wrong, people still enjoy it. But the real joy is that it’s proved so durable.”

Gelbart (whose credits include the development of the TV series “MASH” and the script for “Tootsie”) notes that the bases of the musical--the stories of Plautus--”have been around since the third century B.C. And Plautus doesn’t need to prove how durable he was.” Originally the brainchild of Shevelove (who’d staged a collection of of Roman comedies at Brown University), it took the writers five years to get the show on its feet.

“It was hard ,” recalled Gelbart, who directed his own version of “Forum” in London in 1986. “It was like inventing the first Swiss movement or solving Rubik’s cube. It’s a gratuitous comedy with no rules. At one point we thought we’d licked it, but we had trouble finding a director--one whose signature wasn’t larger than the painting. Finally the producer, (Harold) Prince, got us George Abbott, who was 75 at the time.”

The rest, the writer says, is “mini-history.”

These days, Gelbart relegates the play to adult-child status, meaning he worries about it less--and doesn’t feel the need to check on every major revival. “One hopes they’re going to be good,” he noted. Unfortunately, it’s not always so. Although he eventually backed off, the writer attempted to block Mickey Rooney’s ad lib-filled version of “Forum” which played the Pantages in 1987.

Said Gelbart, “What was on the stage was not what I wrote.”

Currently, he’s got his hands full with new projects, including a musical comedy that’ll open in New York in December, and “Mastergate” (staged last February at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge and opening in New York in October), which has its topical setting in a congressional hearing on a movie studio that’s been used to funnel $800 million to the mythical Central American country of Ambigua. “It’s another case of governmental abuse,” he said. “In this case, self-abuse.”

EAST MEETS WEST: A set of one-acts make up David Kranes’ “States of Mind,” opening Friday at Friends and Artists Theatre Ensemble, a co-production of Metro Artists Alliance and First Stage. The playwright will be on hand during the opening weekend’s performance/discussion schedule.

In the all-woman “Montana,” a clothing designer from New York breaks down in her BMW in a small town in Montana, finding allies in a local mother and daughter who attempt to fix her car. In the all-male “Audience,” an East Coast lawyer working in a third-generation law firm gets drunk one night and takes to the stage at the Lone Star Bar & Cafe. The next day--duly repentant and sober--he’s taken by a manager to meet “Hank,” a country and western legend.

Kranes (who’s been artistic director of the Sundance Institute’s playwright’s lab since its inception in 1982), was motivated by the subject of regional attachments. “Being a transplanted East Coast person myself, I was thinking about the journey from East to West. I’m also having to travel to New York a lot these days. And I have students (at the University of Utah, where he teaches creative writing) who think that they’ll go to New York or Boston--and life will be different. This is about those myths.”

CRITICAL CROSSFIRE: Amid much ballyhoo and anticipation, the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Charles Hart/Richard Stilgoe “The Phantom of the Opera” arrived at the Ahmanson May 31. Michael Crawford reprises his Tony Award-winning title role, with Dale Kristien as the soprano Christine. Harold Prince directs.

The Times’ Dan Sullivan found Crawford “combines size and intimacy in a way that only a very experienced musical theater performer could . . . Prince’s staging is impeccable, and the great set pieces flow like a film. But in the end, this ‘Phantom’ suggests the story of the Emperor’s Nightingale--beautifully jewelled, exquisitely sung and without a heart.”

In the Herald Examiner, Richard Stayton cheered “two lush acts of seamless razzle-dazzle . . . ‘The Phantom’ is brilliant showmanship. From Prince’s slick direction to Gillian Lynne’s shrewd choreography, to designer Maria Bjornson’s naked nymphs on the proscenium arch (and) the gigantic chandelier hanging from the ceiling, ‘The Phantom’ charms and seduces.”

The Daily News’ Tom Jacobs was not charmed: “ ‘The Phantom’ has little going for it other than its scenic design. It’s theater as spectacle, in which such details as characterization and a coherent plot are glossed over to make room for the next ooh-and-aah moment. See the chandelier rise! Ooh! Aah! . . . This isn’t theater--it’s the Universal Studios Tour.”

The Hollywood Reporter’s Duane Byrge dubbed the show “phenomenal. Wondrously and appropriately, the massive technical pyrotechnics are humble servants throughout--majestic, robust, delicate and intricate all at once. ‘Phantom’s power comes as much through the shaded nuances of its presentation as in the opulent dimensions of its pageantry.”

Said Thomas O’Connor in the Orange County Register: “Forget that chandelier. It’s the mask you’ll remember. For all the incessant, mercilessly orchestrated hype surrounding its advent, when ‘Phantom’ works, it’s not from the high-tech stage effects or overwrought, banal score but from attention to smaller, vividly theatrical flourishes and the clarity of its telling of an old-fashioned love story.”

From Tim Gray in Daily Variety: “Thanks to Prince, Bjornson and lighting designer Andrew Bridge, ‘Phantom’ unfolds like an opulent dream, both unsettling and reassuring, with beautiful images and moments of memorable stage magic. But the score and book are unremarkable, and after all the advance hoopla, anyone expecting a musical Second Coming is bound to be disappointed.”