Barnicle, Late of USIU, Seizes a Classic Challenge

“Dream. Fantasy. Love. How’s that sound?”

Like a telegram from someone gone off the deep end. And maybe he has, but Laguna Playhouse director Andrew Barnicle, who headed the theater department at United States International University in San Diego before coming here, looked quite sane recently watching his choreographer and two lead actors run through a second-act pas de deux from “On the Town.”

But the former actor’s shorthand is as accurate as any to describe the essential flavor of the 1944 musical classic, which launched the Laguna Playhouse’s season this month at the Moulton Theatre here.

“I thought it would be attractive in terms of old-fashioned Broadway and yet would be esoteric enough to do,” he added, cognizant that the revival also marks his debut as artistic director of the 71-year-old amateur Playhouse.

“Not very many production organizations dare to try this show, certainly not at this level, because it’s so hard to cast. You can’t find a large enough company that can sing and dance and act. So it’s a challenge and it’s highly aesthetic, which is what gets me involved.”

The tall, strapping, 40-year-old director pointed out that “On the Town” is familiar to many because of the MGM film spun from it with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen. “But, I don’t think too many people have seen the show on stage. There’s only a handful of them. I never have. We’ve all seen the movie, but it’s radically different from the play.”

In fact, when the screen version of “On the Town” came out in 1949, anyone who had seen the original Broadway production would have realized that everything from the music by Leonard Bernstein to the book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green to the choreography by Jerome Robbins was tinkered with, altered wholesale or cut entirely.

“Having Ann Miller, for instance, they added all kinds of tap numbers,” Barnicle explained. “They also eliminated peripheral characters and rewrote scenes.”

Because of a preproduction deal with MGM--one of the first of its kind, providing the $125,000 Broadway show with most of its financing--the Hollywood studio was entitled to do more or less what it liked with the screen property.

“They were a little afraid of the Bernstein music,” Betty Comden told a Dramatists Guild symposium in 1981. “On top of that, Gene Kelly was playing what had to be a romantic lead. He couldn’t sing the ballads, so there was a whole shifting over of the story to make it quite different.”

Nevertheless, the central plot remained: Three World War II sailors arrive at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and head over to Manhattan on a 24-hour shore leave, where they meet the loves of their lives.

Barnicle’s intent was to keep faith with the original conception and to stage an authentic “On the Town,” but the Playhouse revival is different from its source, not least because Jerome Robbins’ choreography was replaced by San Diegan Jack Tygett’s, and Bernstein’s music will be filtered through a five-piece band. Furthermore, the scenic arrangements consist of moving unit sets instead of a series of backdrops.

“My theory of theater is that every play creates its own world and its own style,” said Barnicle, adding that the last thing he wants to stage is a museum piece. “So I try to take every play like it’s an original work and bring it to fruition as though it has never happened before.”

Given the production’s size and complication--Barnicle believes the original script calls for a company of as many as 50 players--putting it up required considerable pre-planning. That is why he turned to a pair of creative associates on whom he felt he could rely--Tygett for the choreography and Bill Doyle for the musical direction. Both had worked with him in San Diego.

“When I was putting the season together and I listed ‘On the Town’ as a title for approval by the board, I would never have done it if I didn’t know I had those two guys,” Barnicle said. “Jack is the best choreographer I have ever met. I trust him implicitly. He’s also of the (‘40s) era. And Bill is a musical wizard. He’s working of necessity with a five-member combo. But while the sound will be shrunken Bernstein, it will still be beautiful.”

After landing Tygett and Doyle, Barnicle needed to find professional guest artists for the two leads. An open Actors Equity call in the Los Angeles trade papers drew dozens of “triple threats,” including yet another San Diego product. Adam Pelty, a former USIU student of Barnicle’s, came out from Chicago and landed the role of Gabey. Lee Wilson won the Ivy role.

One of the tasks facing Tygett--who teaches musical theater at USIU and has appeared in many movies, among them “Oklahoma,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Damn Yankees”--was to avoid comparison to Robbins’ original setting.

“There isn’t a person who is going to compete with him,” Tygett said. “The man is a genius. But doing the same choreography somebody else did? There’s no fun in that. I don’t want to work six weeks to take stuff from the film and put it on another human body. I’m at an age where if I’m not having any fun with something, I don’t want to do it.

“As I approached the show I read it again and again, and I let my own feelings about the characters and the situations evolve from there.”

Whatever the result, Laguna audiences can rest assured they’ll see a production with extensive San Diego roots. In addition to the choreographer, the music director and the star of the show, Barnicle has brought along a handful of other performers and technicians from the school.

Performances are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays (Sept. 15 and 22) at 7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday matinees (Sept. 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29) at 2p.m. through Sept. 29. Tickets are $14 to $22. The Laguna Playhouse’s Moulton Theatre is at 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. For more information, call (714) 494-8021.