`CURTAINS,' PIERCE ARE A MATCH MADE IN MUSICAL-THEATER HEAVEN.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

The leading lady, a diva of the first rank, drops dead shortly after her curtain call. The understudies are licking their chops over who gets to move up in the ranks. The Broadway-bound show -- already in trouble, could close at any minute, and a musical-theater-worshipping cop has quarantined the theater while he conducts his investigation. He's as interested in fixing the production as in cracking the case.

Despite the presence of one last John Kander and Fred Ebb score, we are a long way indeed from ``Chicago.''

The musical ``Curtains'' is two plays in one. It's a curvy whodunit plot that book writer Rupert Holmes (``Accomplice,'' ``The Mystery of Edwin Drood'') has made his signature. And it's a sugar-and-

spiced valentine to the men and women for whom show business really is ``like no business I know.''

As both mystery and musical, ``Curtains'' is hugely delightful, thanks in large part to a quite-

savvy cast and the winning choreography of Rob Ashford. The score likely won't go down as one of Kander and Ebb's most skilled or profound (Ebb and original concept writer Peter Stone died a few years before ``Curtains'' reached a stage), but there are some sparklers.

As for David Hyde Pierce, playing ``Curtains' '' solve-it-

and-fix-it Lt. Frank Cioffi, the actor's clearly a creature of the stage who has blossomed since shedding the seasonal quirks of ``Frasier's'' Niles Crane.

Pre-opening buzz that the show could hardly succeed without this particular Cioffi may be premature. I'd like to think the musical doesn't sink or swim based on the buoyancy of its leading man. Director Scott Ellis makes strong use of Pierce's comic talents, but the show is expertly cast top to bottom.

In truth, for much of ``Curtains' '' early stretch, Cioffi is observer rather than participant while the cast of ``Robin' Hood'' (a 1950s romance/Western set in Kansas) struggle to put on their show. So much of ``Curtains'' is devoted to that 1959 musical-within-a-musical that Kander, Ebb and Holmes probably had an absolute blast monkeying with the genre.

Our players: Carmen Bernstein the producer (played by Debra Monk), whose husband, Sidney (Robert Walden), had a roving eye for chorus girls. Her daughter, Bambi (Megan Sikora), might just be stuck eternally in the chorus, since mom doesn't believe in nepotism. Monk has a smashing number, titled, fittingly, ``It's a Business.''

Estranged husband-and-wife composing team Georgia Hendricks (Karen Ziemba) and Aaron Fox (Jason Danieley) write better than they co-habit, and a reconciliation seems unlikely now that Georgia has been pulled from the piano and tapped to step in for the dead star. The director, Christopher Belling (Edward Hibbert), is a man whose ego knows no limits. Nobody can deliver the line, ``Nice! Try! Bambi!'' like Hibbert.

Romance is in the air as well. Peaches-and-cream-sweet understudy Niki Harris (Jill Paice) catches the fancy of Lt. Cioffi. But every time he asks her out for dinner, she reminds him that she's not allowed to leave the theater. ``Damn!'' retorts the detective.

The mystery? Oh, right. Holmes is apt to twist and plot his way into head-scratching oblivion. Still, you might well guess who's carrying the gun. During the final bow, the cast implores you -- musically -- not to give the secrets away.

And so we won't. Unlike the scrambling company of ``Robin' Hood,'' the charming ``Curtains'' doesn't figure to have any comparable complications on its way to the Big Apple.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

CURTAINS - Three and one half stars

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A..

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through Sept. 10.

Tickets: $25 to $95. [phone]

In a nutshell: The fictional show within a show is in trouble. ``Curtains'' -- Kander and Ebb's last -- is not.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Niki Harris (Jill Paice) and Lt. Frank Cioffi (David Hyde Pierce) share a moment in ``Curtains,'' the musical-within-a-musical at the Ahmanson Theatre through Sept. 10.