By Judith Sandler

Daniel Pelzig is in demand these days. The former Boston Ballet resident choreographer and associate artist is in the midst of several projects, including creating a ballet to Barber's Cello Concerto for the Boston Ballet. Despite his taxing schedule, he accepted SFA Theatre Division Director Roger Croucher's invitation to choreograph Tom Stoppard's zany comedy On the Razzle.

Daria Polatin (SFA'00) and David Eiduks (SFA'00) waltz to the strains of Strauss in a rehearsal for the SFA Theatre Arts Division's production of the Tom Stoppard comedy On the Razzle. Photo by David Herwaldt

"I decided to say yes to Roger partly because I love Stoppard," explains Pelzig, who has choreographed for opera, theater, and dance companies all over the country, "but mainly because I had just been working with Boston University theater kids with [the recent Boston Lyric Opera production of Philip Glass's] Akhnaten, and the joy that they brought to the process was so exhilarating for me."

Pelzig is part of an enormous staff, which includes codirectors Roger Croucher and Eve Muson, three stage managers, an assistant choreographer, a music director, and a live-sound operator. In addition, a technical and design staff and crew of about 25 are hard at work at the Boston University Theatre creating nearly 60 period costumes and an elaborate set that includes six completely different scenes of 1900 Vienna.

This busy crew, along with the cast of 23, is working towards opening night on Wednesday, May 3. On the Razzle will be performed at the Boston University Theatre through Sunday, May 7.

On the Razzle premiered in 1981 for the National Theatre of Great Britain, and is an adaptation of an 1842 play written by the prolific Viennese playwright and actor Johann Nestroy. But this wasn't the comedy's first incarnation: it was based on an 1830 English play. And Nestroy's Einen Fux will er sich machen ("He had himself a good time") also spawned another theatrical work -- it was the basis for Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker. Wilder had updated the story to 1920, moved the location from Austria to New York, and created the character of Dolly Levi. Wilder's play was in turn the basis for Hello, Dolly.

Stoppard has written over 70 plays and screenplays -- including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers, Travesties, and The Real Thing -- and recently received an Oscar for the verbal virtuosity in the film Shakespeare in Love.

On the Razzle, a British term meaning to go off to have a fun (and possibly risqué) time, is said to be one of Stoppard's personal favorites. It sparkles with verbal stunts, alliteration, and double-entendres, which are all the more extraordinary because Stoppard's first language was not English, but Czechoslovakian.

"Stoppard has produced an extraordinary comic tapestry," says Croucher, "while taking the English language in directions we may not have realized it could go. He is fascinated with the English sounds and words. He particularly selects words for their sound as well as their meaning."

On the Razzle's verbal pyrotechnics are just one of the play's many challenges. "My character's wordplays, puns, confusion of language, and tongue-tied twistedness need to come off in an effortless, yet befuddled, way," says David Eiduks (SFA'00), who plays shop owner and self-proclaimed provisional merchant to the beaumonde Herr Zangler. "You have to understand what you're saying because there are little jokes inside the befuddledness."

The play demands split-second timing by the actors, according to Theatre Arts Projects Coordinator Michael Kaye (SFA'95,'99), who plays the part of Weinberl, Zangler's chief sales assistant promoted to partner. "You have the wordplay that's extremely precise, and complex choreography that's timed to the music down to the second," he says. "And these two elements have to be working together while appearing to be the easiest thing in the world. While the timing needs to be extremely precise, we must make everything we do alive and fresh each time we do it."

Kaye adds that making the comedy work is a further challenge. "The moment you start to play the comedy it becomes trite and unfunny," he continues. "The moment you anticipate what's coming next, it stops being real and starts being phony."

Fay Wolf (SFA'00) plays Christopher, the shop apprentice promoted to chief sales assistant -- Stoppard retained the German tradition of casting an actress in this role. "It's difficult to make the play real, while being aware of all the wit that's written into it, without going over the top," she says. "We try to find that balance between farce and reality, and make the characters real, with real emotions and real objectives -- and make the play mean something, because it does."

Eve Muson, assistant director for performance in the Theatre Arts Division, says that even though On the Razzle appears to be a silly comedy on the surface, "it is in fact very profound. The play asks the questions: To what degree are we the masters of our own destiny? To what degree are we merely cogs in the great machine of life, unable to control its movement? Are we leading players in our own lives or merely supernumeraries in others'?

"Only by going on the razzle and letting go of control, the characters' strength, courage, wit and self-knowledge are challenged and put to the test," says Muson. "Of course, it is only by taking these risks that the characters can grow and change."

Croucher says that he was drawn to the play a long time ago. "There's something about the story and the idea of two country mice escaping to the big city and having adventures that they never could have anticipated that thoroughly appealed to me," he says.

On the Razzle is Croucher's swan song production at Boston University. "It's a wonderful opportunity to involve as many of our students as possible in this fun and exciting production before I take up a position as president of American Academy of Dramatic Arts in June," says Croucher, who has directed the Theatre Arts Division since 1994.

According to Kaye, "Roger is one of the finest directors I've ever worked with. He's very clear and precise about what he wants and how he wants the tone of the piece. You feel very confident in what he's telling you to do. At the same time he gives actors a lot of credit and allows a lot of space for their own creativity."

Pelzig works in a similar manner. "The task for me is to always encourage, to always be specific, to treat the actors with respect, and fill the room with good energy," he says. "I ask people to bring their complete and total selves to the table and I'll bring myself, and we'll work on a collaboration. I'm not accepting of merely adequate or mediocre, because the student doesn't learn anything and isn't prepared to go out into the world and seek a profession."

On the Razzle will be presented May 3-6 at 8 p.m., and May 7 at 2 p.m. Admission is $8, $5 for senior citizens and alumni, and free for the Boston University community. The production will be at the Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue. For tickets and more information, call 266-0800.