THEATER REVIEW : A Comedy Without a Trace of Cynicism : ‘The Matchmaker’ tells the whimsical story of a pompous, tyrannical merchant who enlists help in finding a wife.

When was the last time that you heard someone say, “Isn’t the world full of wonderful things?”--and mean it?

For that kind of honest enthusiasm, we have to look back to that quintessential optimist--Thornton Wilder--and his expansive embrace of human possibilities.

Of course, in a time when humor has become practically synonymous with corrosive acid, capturing Wilder’s large-hearted comic spirit without seeming hopelessly corny in the process is a tough challenge.

But that’s exactly what PCPA Theaterfest have done with its revival of Wilder’s “The Matchmaker,” a classic comedy that delights without a trace of cynicism.

More plot-driven than Wilder’s episodic perennial “Our Town,” “The Matchmaker” was adapted from a 19th-Century German farce by Johann Nestroy. (Wilder’s play, in turn, later became the source for the musical “Hello, Dolly.”)

Set around the turn of the century, the whimsical story centers around a pompous, tyrannical merchant named Vandergelder (Paul Klein) from Yonkers, N. Y., who enlists the help of matchmaker Dolly Levi (Kitty Balay) to find a wife.

Vandergelder’s approach to romance isn’t much different from filling a clerk’s position at his store--he has a clearly defined set of responsibilities and expectations in mind, regardless of the person who ultimately gets the job.

What he has to learn--through Dolly’s sly manipulation--is that the true role of a spouse is to point the way to the hidden places in his own heart.

While pretending to set him up with various eligible candidates, Dolly gradually brings Vandergelder around to this recognition, and the ultimate conclusion that she herself is the one who can best help him.

But--and this is where we most appreciate Wilder’s sophisticated realism--Dolly has no starry-eyed illusions about the relationship. She knows that Vandergelder will always be a surly fool, but less a fool under her influence. And she can also help him spread some of his wealth where it will do some good for others as well.

Adding to the complications are a pair of subplots--one concerning the love between Vandergelder’s niece (Britta K. Swearingen) and the poor artist (Garlyn Punao) that Vandergelder has forbidden her to marry, and the other involving two of his clerks (Jeremy Johnson and Patrick Crawford) who risk their jobs for a grand adventure.

The stories converge in a hilarious tangle when Vandergelder, in search of a bride, goes to New York and the others follow suit. Naturally, an entire city isn’t big enough to keep them from meeting up at the most inopportune times.

Trying to hide from the dismissal they know will occur if Vandergelder lays eyes on them, the clerks manage to ruin their boss’s prospects with a widowed shopkeeper (Lisa Paulsen). But they atone by taking her and her ditsy assistant (Tarah Flanagan) to dinner--in the same restaurant in which the boss will be dining, and so on.

Director Roger DeLaurier has not only drawn unfailingly funny and engaging performances from the entire cast (Paulsen, Balay and Johnson, in particular), he’s staged the piece with enough rapid-fire slapstick to keep us laughing as much at what the characters do as at what they say.

The physical comedy ranges in intensity from pure manic frenzy--like the scene in which the clerks dive into closets and under tables to keep from being discovered--to more subtle touches, such as when Dolly protests that she could never marry Vandergelder (not that he’s asked her to, yet) and tells him, “You go your way” (pointing in one direction) “and I’ll go mine” (pointing in the same direction).

Picture Wilder’s warm-toned humanism performed by the Marx brothers, and you’ve got the general idea.

Details

* WHAT: “The Matchmaker.”

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Through April 17.

* WHERE: Allan Hancock College Marian Theatre, Santa Maria.

* COST: $11 to $17.

* FYI: For reservations or information, call (800) 549-PCPA.