When life hands you a lemon, make applesauce

One's opinion of "The Apple Tree," which opens this Thursday at Studio 54, is going to boil down to the opinion of the show's star, Kristin Chenoweth. Those who find her a cloying presence are going to find this show as indigestible as a mock apple pie made with packets of Equal. I like her, however, so I was able to appreciate the show for what it is: a half-hearted revival of a mediocre musical that has the benefit of three great Broadway performers.

The show, which last ran on Broadway in the 1960s, is really three short musicals in one, all tied loosely together by the motifs of desire and temptation: adaptation's of Mark Twain's "The Diary of Adam and Eve," Frank Stockton's "The Lady, or the Tiger?" and Jules Feiffer's "Passionella."

Chenoweth plays a title character in two of the three segments (she plays neither the lady nor the tiger), and she's certainly the star in all of them. She's not breaking any new ground here, as the characters are all variation on the one(s?) she has played before, but she's a good fit for all of them. She's the naive sweetheart in Adam and Eve, the Galindesque bitch in "...Tiger?" and gets to be both in the modern Cinderella story "Passionella." Her fans will lap it up, and she'll probably gain some new ones from those unfamiliar with her work, although I doubt she'll win many converts.

The Adam and Eve story, which accounts for the entire pre-intermission segment, is the strongest, largely because it's the only one that gives co-star Brian d'Arcy James a worthy part. A handsome leading man who recently proved his comedy chops as a replacement in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," James makes a good balance for our perpetually perky leading lady. He fades into the background in the other two stories. "The Lady or the Tiger?" might tie with "The Little Engine That Could" as the thinnest source material ever chosen for a musical, and this adaptation doesn't even involve roller skates. "Passionella" is cute and enjoyable but ultimately of little substance.

Marc Kudisch also does his usually great work in all three segments, although as with Chenoweth, he's largely playing parts we've all seen before. Few can ooze smarmy as he does. That was a compliment, by the way.

Aside from great casting choices, however, this production has its shares of misfires as well. I wish Roundabout had approached this revival more in the traditional "Pajama Game" approach rather than the minimalistic effect it was trying to get across. Bock and Harnick's music and lyrics are charming, if not somewhat forgettable, and there's plenty of good humor and even some proper poignancy in the book, but "The Apple Tree" is no "Cabaret." It's a bagatelle of a musical, and stripping away production elements--the Adam and Eve portion, for example, is done largely on a bare stage with little more than a few ladders as props and an enormous brick background--highlights its weaknesses rather than erases them. Still, it was a nice touch, I'll give them, to use Alan Alda, the original Adam, as the voice of God in the opening.

Overall, it's a good show for families, theatre neophytes and Chenoweth fans. For everyone else, stick to the original cast recording or the memories of the City Center Encores! performance (also starring Chenoweth) which is really a more appropriate venue for the show.