But, Seriously . . . : La Jolla Playhouse Puts a New Twist on a Comedy Classic by Using Real Dance

A funny thing happened to a musical comedy classic on the way to the La Jolla Playhouse. It began to dwell on serious dancing.

Some of the slapstick shticks and zany pratfalls that defined Jack Cole’s choreography for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” peek through the mugging and mayhem in this updated version. But they have definitely undergone a metamorphosis in the playhouse production, now at the Mandell Weiss Center for the Performing Arts at UC San Diego.

This contemporary staging--whipped into shape by playhouse artistic director Des McAnuff, as a joint venture with the Orange County Performing Arts Center--puts more stock in high-powered dance values and less in stock characters than traditional stagings.

“I’m doing more serious modern dance, Martha Graham stuff, and it’s a hoot,” said choreographer Wayne Cilento in a break from rehearsals at the theater.

“The girls will do all Graham’s dramatic moves very seriously,” he said, demonstrating a classic, Grecian-style Graham pose as he talked, “and it comes off very funny.”

“I thought Des wouldn’t dig modern dance, but I said I’d like to do big,

Martha Graham-type movement here, and he said fine. There are still some slapstick and vaudeville shticks, but we have everyone moving” to choreographed designs.

Although Cilento was a reluctant collaborator on this venture, he had already built up a strong rapport with McAnuff.

“I really knew nothing about this show, and I didn’t think I was right for it,” he said. “We were going to do ‘Guys and Dolls,’ which is more my style--gangster stuff, real macho.

“But then, I couldn’t back away from a challenge, and Des and I got along very well in ‘Chess’ (a Broadway-bound touring show that died on the road). So I did some research and listened to the music.”

Cilento never had any intention of trying to re-create the genuine article in his dance designs for “A Funny Thing.”

“I used my dance arranger and got all new dance arrangements. They threw out the House of Marcus Lycus song in the original version, but we’re using it,” he said. “And we made an eight-minute number of what used to be a quick throwaway” dance segment. “A lot of things we’re using were never seen in the show, including some songs that were cut out.

“Everyone thinks you’re going to reconstruct old work,” he complained. “Either that, or they get you on (altering the standard designs.) You lose both ways.”

One of the main attractions “A Funny Thing” has for Cilento is McAnuff’s new interpretation of the old classic, which is based on plot elements from two ancient comedies by the Roman dramatist Titus Macchius Plautus, born in 254 B.C.

“Des wanted to do a completely new production,” Cilento said. “He had a new twist on women.”

The twist zeroes in on the feminist perspective. But to avoid giving offense, when the plot revolves around a bevy of women being sold in a slave market?

“They are still slaves,” Cilento acknowledged, “but they have a point of view. They don’t dig it. I hope the girls come off really strong.”

To further this end, Cilento and McAnuff were determined to stay clear of the stereotypes and chauvinistic references that abound in “A Funny Thing.”

“I didn’t want to use the typical cliches. No bimbos and big-breasted ladies,” Cilento said. “We compromised on the size of the women so we could use good dancers. That makes a statement in itself.”

Said McAnuff: “I am approaching ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’ as I would any classic. I’m looking at every aspect with a fresh eye. There’s more choreography than there was 27 years ago, and that’s as it should be.”

Dancers such as Mindy Cooper, whose mentors include Twyla Tharp and Eliot Feld, made it possible for Cilento to substitute pure dance technique (albeit in a humorous mode) for some of the silly bursts of bombast that dominated the original choreographic designs.

Cooper, who plays one of the twin courtesans, said: “I wouldn’t have done the show if they didn’t give us real dancing. You only have a few years to dance, so why get out there at all if you can’t use your technique and ability?”

Cooper also serves as dance captain for the production, a role that will prove even more important when the show hits its stride.

“I’ll be back in New York once the show opens,” Cilento said. “It will be up to Mindy to check up on the dancing, and keep it from getting sloppy--which could easily happen.”

Not to say he isn’t happy.

“I’m very pleased with the way things are working on this show,” he said. “There are 15 musical numbers, and Des pulled me into help stage them all.” (McAnuff even credits Cilento for the musical staging as well as choreography in the program.) “He stages beautifully, and this is the first time I’ve collaborated where I think I can learn something from the director.”

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” will run through Aug. 12 at the Mandell Weiss Center before moving on to Orange County.