STAGE REVIEW : Starlight Re-Creation of ‘La Mancha’ Sparkles

“Man of La Mancha” has what it takes. Fight it if you want to, but the Starlight Musical Theatre production still pushes all the buttons that this hopelessly idealistic and shamelessly romantic musical has always done--evoking tears and laughter in all the right places.

The show, Starlight’s 1991 season closer, plays at the San Diego Civic Theatre through Oct. 20.

Controversy has swirled around this production. After closing here, director Albert Marre, some of the cast, the sets, props and costumes all are scheduled to go on a Broadway-bound tour.

The writer of “La Mancha,” Dale Wasserman, has publicly objected to these plans, calling for “a fresh approach” rather than this faithful re-creation of the original 1965 production.

But Marre, who also directed and helped shape the landmark 1965 premiere, has proved his point that re-creating the original is viable. Maybe “La Mancha” would work done another way--maybe not. It could use more fire and more resistance before its ultimate, life-affirming conclusion, but it works here--just as it is. There is a simplicity and universality to the stark, simple setting that makes it timeless rather than dated.

“Man of La Mancha” tells the story of Miguel de Cervantes telling the story of his most famous creation, “Don Quixote.” The play begins at the end of the 16th Century with Cervantes being thrown into prison during the Spanish Inquisition (for foreclosing on a monastery that didn’t pay taxes). His fellow prisoners--murderers, thieves and whores--steal his things and start to burn his manuscript of “Don Quixote.” He tries to persuade them that they should not destroy his story of the country squire whose yearning for a better, more chivalrous time causes him to go mad and think himself Don Quixote--a knight of old.

Finally, Cervantes defends his story by acting it out, playing Quixote and using the prisoners as supporting players. In the most important story within a story, one female prisoner plays a whore named Aldonza whom Quixote courts as his Lady Dulcinea. Aldonza fights his insane vision of her but is torn about whether or not she wants to buy into his delusions.

The key to the show is learning to love and respect Quixote’s craziness.

Admittedly, that might have been easier when this came out in 1965. Lyndon Johnson was President, and the country itself was idealistic--believing that poverty could be wiped out with a Great Society program and that social injustice would end with civil rights legislation. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were still alive, and Vietnam had not become the national nightmare that it would just three years later.

Times have changed, but today’s cynics and materialists may need a dose of “La Mancha”-like idealism.

It’s hard to resist David Holliday in the title role. Moving from Cervantes to Quixote, he seems to grow taller and thinner. His pale-blue eyes brighten with a mad sparkle, and his fingers and legs seem to curl and stiffen with age. His big, booming voice fills the old Mitch Leigh-Joe Darion standards with fresh vitality like wind propelling the sails of an old ship.

Joan Diener, who recreates her 1965 performance as Aldonza/Dulcinea here, still has a beautiful face, figure and voice, but she lacks the anger that should sharpen her battles with Quixote. Like Audrey Hepburn who was more convincing as the lady in “My Fair Lady” than she ever was as the Cockney flower girl, Diener becomes Dulcinea with an inner dignity that is luminescent. It is hard, however, to see her as an angry, embittered old whore.

The supporting cast is excellent vocally and theatrically. Darryl Ferrera brings sweet confusion to Sancho, Quixote’s servant. David Wasson makes a nice, sharp transition from the wise-guy prisoner playing the Padre to the sensitive Padre himself, and Eugenia Hamilton mines great humor as the big old housekeeper who thinks Quixote is after her body. Ian Sullivan, who created the part of Quixote’s nemesis, Dr. Carrasco, in the original production, recreates it here with good, unyielding toughness.

The whole production could use more toughness, however. Aldonza’s rape scene especially suffers: To make it shock the jaded sensibilities of a modern audience, the voltage on the too-elegant ballet version offered here needs to be turned up.

The great strength of Marre’s direction lies in its cinematic quality. On Howard Bay’s rounded, stony-looking stage representing Cervantes’ prison and, later, the world of Don Quixote’s imagination, Marre characters are seen in close-ups, with Gregory Allen Hirsch’s eloquent lighting surrounding the surreally lit figures with darkness. The effect, heightened by Patton Campbell’s storybook costuming, is like seeing creatures of the imagination light up, then flit suddenly out of sight.

It is this kind of magic that melts away the 26 years since the original was done, let alone the time since Cervantes first penned his ode to the ultimate dream.

This production still has its old chemistry, despite its flaws.

When Cervantes asks you to “enter into the world of my imagination,” you go.

“MAN OF LA MANCHA”

Written by Dale Wasserman. Music by Mitch Leigh. Lyrics by Joe Darion. Director is Albert Marre. Sets by Howard Bay. Costumes by Patton Campbell. Lighting by Gregory Allen Hirsch. Sound by Bill Lewis. Musical director-conductor is Lloyd Cooper. Stage manager is Brett Finley. With David Holliday, Joan Diener, Darryl Ferrera, David Wasson, Samuel Reni, Ian Sullivan, Eugenia Hamilton and Elise Hernandez. 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.