They say all is fair in love and war, but when Hollywood squares off against Cambridge, things can get messy.

When Robert Brustein, Theater Hall of Famer and artistic director of the Harvard-affiliated American Repertory Theatre (ART), chose his last production before his June retirement, he selected an ancient story which incorporates both love and war—Aristophanes’ Lysistrata.

Somewhere along the line, however, the drama with this Lysistrata shifted from onstage to behind-the-scenes.

With two lyricists and two composers out, a writer dismissed, and hurt feelings on all sides, Brustein still searches for a final triumph amidst the chaos.

SIMPLE BEGINNINGS

“Since it was going to be my last show as artistic director at the ART,” Brustein says, “I thought it might be a good idea to turn it into a reunion of people who we love to work with.”

Toward that end, Brustein assembled a team including Tony Award-winning actress Cherry Jones, a founding member of the ART, and writer Larry Gelbart, creator of the hit TV series M*A*S*H* and bookwriter of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum. Brustein also enlisted the help of production designer Michael Yeargan and director Andrei Serban.

In order to meet an accelerated rehearsal schedule, Gelbert continuously e-mailed pieces of his script to Brustein for his approval as artistic director.

But even before Brustein began to review his work, Gelbart admits he was nervous about creating the right tone for the piece.

“I hesitated,” he says of his reaction to Brustein’s initial proposal. “I didn’t hesitate to say ‘yes,’ but... Iwasn’t sure I could be bawdy enough, either.”

Gelbart remarks that Aristophanes’ script demands an explicit style.

“The tone is very overtly sexual because [the play] deals with sexual politics,” elaborates Gelbart.

However, Gelbart maintains that he was assured by Brustein that he “welcomed” the raciness of the script as appropriate.

What began to take shape, Gelbart says, was “a very funny, explicitly vulgar play.”