Warring Men of ‘La Mancha’ : * Theater: Should a revival of the musical classic get a face lift or remain true to its original form? The composer and writer have very different opinions.

A battle is being waged for the soul of “Man of La Mancha,” which comes to life once again tonight in a production by Starlight Musical Theatre.

The question framing this new production seems to be: Should it be staged as it was when it opened in 1965 or should it be reinvented for the ‘90s?

To contemporize or not to contemporize? That is the question facing any company producing a classic.

San Diego’s production essentially is a dry run for the upcoming national, Broadway-bound tour of this classic that had its debut when Lyndon Johnson was president. And, although the cast will change after the Starlight show closes, the staging and the rest of the production may not. And squinting at each other behind today’s equivalent of crossed swords--the lawyers--are the show’s creators.

Mitch Leigh, composer and producer of the original “Man of La Mancha,” wants to preserve the show as is. His oft-stated motto is: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Dale Wasserman, the writer, is sending out press releases calling for “a new director and a fresh design.”

Each has threatened to sue.

Leigh and Wasserman will no longer talk to the press about their disagreement. Leigh’s assistant in New York would only say that Leigh was “brokenhearted” about the fracas. Wasserman’s publicist in Los Angeles said Wasserman declined to comment on advice of his attorney.

Starlight Musical Theatre, which is presenting the show at the San Diego Civic Theatre through Oct. 20, is squarely on the side of tradition:

* Although Starlight claims it is not taking sides, it is working with the same creative team that will stage Leigh’s national Broadway-bound tour of the classic in its original form.

* Starlight’s director is the show’s first director, Albert Marre, who also will direct the Broadway-bound tour.

* Starlight is using the same supporting cast members, the Muleteers, who appeared in the original Broadway show. They also will continue with the tour.

* And going one step more traditional than Leigh himself, Starlight has hired Joan Diener, who created the role of Aldonza/Dulcinea, to recreate her part opposite “La Mancha” veteran David Holiday. However, one of the chief differences between the Starlight production and the tour’s will be the stars: Sheena Easton and Raul Julia have been signed to headline the tour and Broadway run. And, although Diener will not tour, Holliday will play the innkeeper and be the understudy for Cervantes/Don Quixote.

Leigh is not technically involved with the Starlight production, but Starlight’s co-artistic directors Don and Bonnie Ward have worked out a deal in which Starlight will premiere the scenery, the sets and the costumes for the tour.

“Because they were having a brand new set made with new props and because they wanted to have a preliminary shakedown of the props and because they had already scheduled Los Angeles and Orange County stops (at the Pantages Theatre Nov. 26-Dec. 22 and the Orange County Performing Arts Center Dec. 24-Jan. 5), they thought it would be advantageous to have it down here and try it out first,” Don Ward said.

For the Wards, there was never any hesitation in working with Leigh’s creative team. Starlight had planned to do “Man of La Mancha” before it knew there was going to be a tour, Don Ward said. Getting involved with the national Broadway-bound tour is a coup for Starlight, the Wards say.

“It’s an exciting thing for us,” he said.

“I know how a lot of people feel about musical revivals, but this is a major revival of a major work by a person who has had much to do with the original conceptualization of a very unique musical. Why do ‘Julius Caesar’? Why do ‘Romeo and Juliet’? I believe it enters into that class.”

Don Ward was “thrilled” to hire Diener, whom he said “wrote the book on the role.”

Diener has sung her role on the American, British and French recordings of the musical. In the French, she starred opposite Jacques Brel.

Ward also feels he has learned a great deal from Marre.

“In watching him work with the cast, several things become clearer and more pointed,” Ward said. “I’ve learned that the script that everyone thinks is right as published is completely wrong. He’s correcting little things that definitely affect the flow of the production. The pure interpretation of what the script is is much clearer listening to Albie give notes. The intention of the words is made much clearer listening to his explanations.”

As a extra plus, instead of the rented sets Starlight usually uses, there will be new ones with new props.

For Marre and Diener, the controversy is painful, ironic and beyond their comprehension.

They have been married to each other for more than three decades, and “La Mancha” has been their greatest theatrical and commercial success. Despite careers that include other successes (Marre has won five Tonys including the one for “La Mancha” and Diener has sung opera as well as many other musicals), “La Mancha” is their best-known work.

“La Mancha” has also been a unique theatrical success in the lives of Wasserman (who works primarily as a screenwriter), Leigh and lyricist Joe Darion (who is also on the side of Leigh’s revival).

“There’s no substitute for the people it was made up of and contributed their personalities to it,” Marre said, sitting beside his wife at Starlight’s rehearsal hall.

“I know how it works and why it works and where it’s not so strong. We know the problems, but we also know it works for an audience. Some critics will get pretentious and put the work down. While a lot is simplistic, it’s deliberately that. You have to distill every nuance when you do it.”

Part of the pain comes from the time that Marre and Diener have invested in the show over the years.

“When this large a hit happens and it gets done worldwide, it takes a block of time in your life,” Marre said. “That’s fine, but then you don’t do anything else.”

Ironically, too, this show, which now seems to epitomize commercial success, was once considered not commercial enough for Broadway.

Marre first got the idea for the musical after seeing a 1959 television show by Wasserman called “I, Don Quixote.”

In the last 20 minutes of that show, Wasserman put his own unique twist on the Cervantes “Don Quixote” story of a man who grows mad with his obsession about bringing back the era of knighthood and chivalry. Although more than 200 theatrical adaptations have been made about this man who tilts at windmills thinking they are evil giants and courts a whore, Aldonza, thinking she is a great lady called Dulcinea, Wasserman was the first to come up with the idea of having Aldonza, who at first spurns the madman, return when the man regains his senses and is on his deathbed.

“She forces him to remember that he’s Don Quixote,” Marre said. “She says in essence you have to remember. She has literally been transformed by him into Dulcinea. The piece has everyone hoping for that change in him as well.”

Diener recalls with a smile how little faith the original producers had in it.

When the show premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn., during the summer of 1965, the show’s original producers, Albert W. Selden and Hal James, never expected this one-act adaptation of “Don Quixote” to have that much of a future.

So, when Diener and her co-star, Richard Kiley (who played Cervantes/Don Quixote), asked for a $150 raise during their four-week run, they were offered a percentage of profits instead.

“Man of La Mancha” opened at the ANTA Washington Square Playhouse in Greenwich Village on Nov. 22 of that same year and soon moved to Broadway, where it won five Tonys for the composer, lyricist, director, designer and Kiley.

It became one of the most successful musicals in history--translated into 22 languages and playing in 45 countries.

Diener is still getting returns from that percentage she took. She calculates that “Man of La Mancha” returned $3,500 for each dollar invested by the original backers.

“People came to see it (at Goodspeed) but they said it would never work for Broadway,” Diener said. “Who would care about an old man and his dreams? It was too arty. They said it would never make it in a commercial venue.”

But it did--resoundingly so. And now, the only question that remains is if, 26 years later, the musical will fulfill or thwart the dreams of its warring creators.

Performances of “Man of La Mancha” are at 8 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday with Sunday matinees at 2 through Oct. 20. At 202 C St., San Diego, 544-7827 or 278-TIXS.