STAGE REVIEW : Moliere’s ‘Misanthrope’ Set on Fast Forward

Fantastic set, fabulous costumes, super performances and I love the concept. Too bad they didn’t go with it.

Forgive the industry jargon, but we’re talking about the La Jolla Playhouse’s production of Moliere’s “The Misanthrope,” laid--and here comes the concept--in the new Hollywood.

That may sound off the wall, but stay with me. Moliere was writing about a circle of Paris fops who were always kissing up to the king, right? So why not change them into a bunch of Hollywood trendoids who would kill to take a meeting with Mr. X at the studio?

Check it out: Moliere’s hero, Alceste, who can’t stand hypocrisy, becomes a screenwriter (David Darlow at La Jolla) who won’t write down to the market.

Celimene, his girlfriend, becomes a hot new star (Kim Cattrall) who keeps throwing parties at her great new high-tech house in the canyon (magnificently designed by George Tsypin).

Philinte, Alceste’s friend, becomes a no-problem guy who believes that the best way to get along in the industry is to go along (William Brown).

Eliante, Celimene’s cousin, becomes an intellectual type who looks awfully pretty even before she takes off her glasses (Christina Haag).

When Philinte and Eliante do lunch, they don’t just do lunch. They do dim sum. This show is now , I promise you. For instance, Celimene has this fabulous training room by her pool, with a Nautilus that looks like a guillotine.

But in the middle of the floor, there’s a precious little antique gilt chair with wings, so that we don’t lose the Sun King touch. Because underneath, it’s still Moliere’s story.

Actually--and here comes the criticism--it’s too much Moliere’s story. At least, it’s too much his plot.

From line one (“What’s up doc?,” a pun on Moliere’s “Qu’est-ce donc?” ), Neil Bartlett’s translation plays all sorts of pranks on the original text. We get amusing references to valet parking, to scripts in turnaround, to aging suitors who think they look like Willie Nelson. (Del Close plays one.)

A mock-Hollywood patter is created and kidded, without losing Moliere’s starchy verse structure, which the La Jolla actors have no trouble observing. Verbally, this is quite elegant. But there is a problem. If we are in the New Hollywood, why is it such a scandal that Celimene writes a few innocent love letters to different people? Why are we talking about “suitors” rather than studs? Why do people pass around their latest sonnet for criticism, rather than their latest rock lyric? Why don’t people do drugs?

Under the glitz and the torn jeans (Susan Hilferty did the costumes), we are still in the gilded court of the Sun King, without the visual help that a traditional production would give us. The visual clues here point to scenes that we don’t get because Moliere didn’t write them and because Bartlett doesn’t presume to.

But we need these scenes. We would demand them in a regular play. If Celimene is throwing parties to further her contacts in the industry, we want to hear from her about that--not about being too young to know her own mind.

In other words, this production--a co-production with the Goodman Theater of Chicago--is a bit of a fraud. Not for the first time at La Jolla, a bright idea and astute design compensate for a lack of intellectual follow-through, something that is necessary when taking on a giant like Moliere. If you’re going to make a new play of “The Misanthrope,” which is not forbidden, do so--don’t just fool with the exterior trim. Otherwise the results will be neither here nor there, as in this production.

But it has a saving grace. It’s very well acted. Alceste is a great role that no actor ever totally solves. David Darlow doesn’t either, but he gives us a well-spoken malcontent whom we can recognize and embrace, especially in his mad humiliating crush on the trivial Celimene. The agony of surrendering himself to a divine creature who hasn’t got a scrap of his intellectual consistency, and hardly knows he’s alive, is funny--and then not funny at all.

And Kim Cattrall’s Celimene matches Darlow’s pain for a moment, before returning to the stubborn inconclusiveness of a beautiful young woman who doesn’t have to make up her mind about anything yet. This Celimene is too young to be damned, but what will she be like at 30?

This touches the heart of the play, the pain that Moliere himself felt about his own young wife, and these actors plunge into the challenge with a will. No compromises there.

The supporting cast is able and expert as well, very happily situated in that big glass house over the pool. (All but Peggy Roeder as Celimene’s nasty friend Arsinoe: Director Robert Falls doesn’t seem to have come up with a concept for her.) It’s a fun evening, but rigorous, no. You can imagine what Alceste would have to say about it.

Plays Tuesdays-Sundays at 8 p.m., with Saturday-Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Closes Sept. 24. Tickets $18-$25. La Jolla Village Drive and Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla. (619) 534-3960.

‘THE MISANTHROPE’

Moliere’s comedy, at the La Jolla Playhouse. Director Robert Falls. Adaptation Neil Bartlett. Set George Tsypin. Costumes Susan Hilferty. Lighting James F. Ingalls. Composer/sound design Rob Milburn. Stage manager Lois Griffing. Dramaturges Walter Bilderback and Richard Pettengill. Assistant, Jill Larmett. Assistant director Mary Coleman. Assistant to the dramaturges Wendy K. Arons. West Coast casting Richard Pagano/Sharon Bialy. East Coast casting Brian Chavanne. With William Brown, David Darlow, Del Close, Kim Cattrall, Christina Haag, David Alan Novak, John Douglas Carlile and Peggy Roeder.