`ALMA' GIVES LOS ANGELES THEATRE EQUAL BILLING.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

HEY, GREAT SPACE - and love what you've done to it!

Whatever else its $125 price tag affords you - and there's quite a bit - the living history play ``Alma, Widow of the Four Arts'' permits its guests to wander unencumbered around the quite majestic Los Angeles Theatre on South Broadway.

Big stinkin' deal, you say? Well, in fact it is. - particularly given the way set designer Georg Resetchnig has transformed the place. Within the 73-year-old movie house, there are stairways and balconies, ballrooms and side passages, corridors and antechambers, all decked out for their performance close-ups. ``Alma's'' scenes take place in every single space, from entryway to restrooms, and the audience gets to decide when to move or linger.

I did not spend excessive time thinking about the plight of Alma Mahler. It was taxing enough trying to figure out what was taking place ... and when.

This much is made clear: A very bewitching Austrian named Alma Schindler ended up marrying composer Gustav Mahler, Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius and author Franz Werfel. Besides these, Alma had numerous lovers and assignations with artists, psychoanalysts or chauffeurs, as she saw fit.

Bits and pieces of her adventurous life are acted out during the 50 scenes of Joshua Sobol's play, but any audience member will only see portions, depending upon whom he decides to follow.

There are, in fact, three young Almas (Vargo, Ryan Templeton and Tiffany Elle) and an older one (Flo Lawrence), all of whom seem to repeat key world-according-to-Alma rhetoric. At one point, two Almas share a tryst with Gropius. Would that qualify as a Gropius group grope?

It can't be easy to get through a scene with people roaming in and out of your performance space and field of vision. Nor can it be a cakewalk to make dramatic action happen when there is noise - footsteps or blasts of music - from people in the rooms outside where you're trying to perform. For their utter focus in the presence of these human cameras, ``Alma's'' cast is to be commended.

Assessing their performing abilities is trickier. The piecemeal nature of the experience makes ``Alma'' more confusing than engrossing. Between the welcome drinks, the intermission feast and the performance, ``Alma'' is a four-hour evening. The lady's alluring - but she's not that alluring.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

ALMA - Two and one half stars

Where: Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S. Broadway, Los Angeles.

When: 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday; through Dec. 5.

Tickets: $125, includes dinner. [phone] or www.alma-mahler.com.

In a nutshell: You'll feast, you'll walk, you'll tour a spectacular venue. The play entertains - and confuses - without captivating.