'CENTURY': MATERIAL UNWORTHY OF FINE CAST.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

SEASON BY SEASON, sometimes even show by show, the quality of the Reprise! musical series appears to be picking up steam with the speed of a fast-moving freight engine. The production values grow fuller; the casts are less starry but more Broadway capable. And with a scant two weeks to get a show on its feet, they do their work efficiently and expertly.

The show selection occasionally remains stalled at the station. More on that in a minute.

``On the Twentieth Century,'' the Betty Comden/Adolph Green and Cy Coleman musical that polished Kevin Kline's star some 25 years ago, is set aboard a luxurious railway liner in the early 1930s. Now, Reprise! doesn't do luxury; never has, never should. For this demanding comic operetta, producer Marcia Seligson has spent the company's money where it counts: on the orchestra pit. The program lists 22 musicians and two conductors, the largest orchestra Reprise! has employed in its six-year history.

With Gerald Sternbach at the baton, the ensemble sounds terrific, clear and forceful. A 22-person cast fronted by six quite capable leads makes the most of David Lee's expert comic direction. There is, in point of fact, nothing about what's on stage at the Freud Playhouse that is even remotely lacking ...

... Except, unfortunately, the play itself.

Leave aside the ferocious silliness of the plot or its execution. Why - why - did people go ga-ga over this score? Dabbling in light opera, Coleman has written an assortment of frothy, context-free numbers that give the principal singers (most notably, stars Bob Gunton and Carolee Carmello) plenty of opportunity to belt and show off. Comden and Green's quick-paced, rhyme-candy lyrics are certainly a test of the singers' mettle.

Even with its orchestral brio, the show feels like a throwback, a hoary tribute to the music of another age. Where there's nothing wrong with Broadway melodies of yore or plot piffle (witness the company's brilliant ``Anything Goes'' last September), you want all that energy to be redirected into something with greater heft.

Based on the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play ``Twentieth Century'' (which also became a movie), ``On the Twentieth Century'' chronicles a producer's last desperate attempts to fashion a hit before his creditors swallow him alive. Megalomaniacal Oscar Jaffee (Gunton) has 16 hours on a Chicago-to-New York railway car to set things right. All the elements he needs are riding on the same train. He just needs to organize them correctly.

A leading lady? Check. That would be movie star Lily Garland (Carmello), whom Jaffee plucked from obscurity back when she was sassy piano accompanist Mildred Plotka. Lily will have to be wooed because, having learned her lessons from Oscar, she's now as ego-swollen as her mentor.

Financing? Not a problem - the deep-pocketed and deeply religious Letitia Primrose (Mimi Hines) is also on board. Oscar hatches a plan to develop a Mary Magdalene musical with Lily as the star. All he has to do - with the help of his manic business manager and press agent (Robert Picardo and Dan Butler, respectively) - is get Lily to sign the contract. If he can also lure her away from boy-toy movie star Bruce Granit (Damon Kirsche), all the better.

The buzz word of Lee's production is clearly ``manic,'' from chases to song delivery to slapstick bits. Butler and Picardo are a great comic duo, and the golden-voiced Carmello morphs expertly from girl Friday to diva. Gunton, another superb singer, hams Oscar to the rafters, and Lee gives him a great comic entrance involving wind and a train window.

It all looks and sounds great, but musically and dramatically, this is theater of the ``less filling'' variety.

ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY - Two and one half stars

Where: Reprise! at UCLA Freud Playhouse, Westwood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Feb. 2.

Tickets: $50 to $60. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: Great cast. Dumb show.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Robert Picardo, left, Dan Butler, Carolee Carmello, Bob Gunton, Damon Kirsche and Mimi Hines star in the great-looking but flawed ``On the Twentieth Century'' at Reprise!