'FIRST LADY' AN ALSO-RAN.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

THERE'S A MOMENT in ``First Lady Suite'' - an interlude actually - that would be a throwaway in a better production. At the Blank Theatre Company, where ``First Lady Suite'' is getting a lackluster West Coast premiere, it's a rare comic highlight.

Titled ``Olio,'' the scene has First Lady Bess Truman giving an intro to a luncheon of Christian Democrat mothers and daughters before her own daughter, Margaret, takes the stage to sing. As Margaret gamely works her way through a hymn, F.L. Bess fidgets, scratches and nearly meets her maker after choking on a mint. Bess is played in heavy drag by Gregory Jbara; Margaret by Irene Warner, who employs the same vacant gaze and vaguely Stepford smile she used as Lady Bird Johnson in the production's first scene.

The ``Olio'' segment is funny in a cheap kind of way, if largely pointless, as opposed to the rest of the production, which, in addition to being slow, takes its seriocomic agenda awfully seriously. You've got to wonder about a show where the focus of its best segment deliberately draws attention away from the music.

Looking to poke a camera into a different crevice of the Oval Office, composer Michael John LaChiusa (the man behind recent Tony nominees ``The Wild Party'' and ``Marie Christine'') takes a half-satirical look at a handful of first ladies. He's trying to empathize with these women, many of whom are thrust into a spotlight they don't exactly welcome.

We begin in the yet-to-come, where a future first lady meets a bunch of her predecessors from throughout the ages. Then it's a reverse chronological spin to the far reaches of LaChiusa's imagination: To a plane over Dallas with Jackie Kennedy's personal assistant; to Mamie Eisenhower's time-traveling bedroom, and finally to the interior of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra in 1933, where Eleanor Roosevelt is going ga-ga over a flight lesson and pal Lorena Hickock is pouting philosophically over her back-seat treatment.

LaChiusa, who likely owes more than a small inspirational debt to Stephen Sondheim's ``Assassins,'' seems to be using his unlinked scenarios to muse about power, identity and the lack of same. Mamie Eisenhower drags singer Marian Anderson (played by Paula Newsome) to meet up with Ike (Jbara) in Little Rock because Mamie and the president have an agreement: the first lady doesn't get involved. ``I know my place,'' says Mamie.

In the Jackie Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt sections, we spend more time with the people closest to the first ladies than with Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Roosevelt themselves. Fair enough. Hickock (a strong-voiced Mary-Pat Green) establishes herself as Mrs. Roosevelt's king maker while Mrs. Kennedy's personal secretary, Mary Gallagher (Heather Lee), knows her employer probably better than anybody in Camelot.

A pity much of this comes across as strained rather than entertaining or especially witty. LaChiusa's sung dialogue is closer to chamber opera format than to a conventional musical, and little of it is especially melodic. The performers are fine, particularly Eydie Alyson's manic Mamie Eisenhower. The configuration of Jennifer Joos' set means that both Evelyn Halus' Eleanor Roosevelt and Kate Shindle's Earhart play the bulk of their scene with their backs to the audience.

Director Daniel Henning makes better than effective use of the Blank's small stage, bringing airplane seats or cockpits out of every crevice. Joos' set is a neat museumlike first lady exhibition, suitable for viewing both preshow and during intermission. Two off-stage pianists, directed by Stephen Bates, easily handle the musical duties.

FIRST LADY SUITE - Two stars

Where: Blank Theater Company, 6500 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through April 14.

Tickets: $30. Call [phone].

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Photo:

Jackie Kennedy (Bronwen Booth, right) with her personal secretary, Mary Gallagher (Heather Lee), in Blank Theater's ``First Lady Suite.''