A HOT-AND-COLD LOOK AT TROUBLED LOVE OF ROYALTY.

Byline: Daryl H. Miller Daily News Theater Critic

You've got to admire their ambition, at least.

On the CBS Studio Center production lot in Studio City, a new company called the Theatre Tribe is attempting a brutally realistic environmental staging of that old Maxwell Anderson drama ``Anne of the Thousand Days,'' about the tempestuous relationship of England's King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Alas, that very ambition causes the production to feel hopelessly stilted and stagy, as audiences are led through a dungeon of horrors and into the infamous ``Tower'' to witness a series of misused scenic devices (a revolving turntable that's a ``Les Miserables'' wanna-be) and cheesy special effects (a spurting melon for a decapitated head). It's like a nightmare version of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire.

The (mostly Gen X) actors give it their best shot, though, and their passion keeps the enterprise intermittently interesting. Leonardo Donato plays Henry as a big, athletic bear of a man who playfully grabs acquaintances in headlocks and tousles their hair. And though she's erratic, Elisa Beth Garver musters fire, pride, covetousness and all-out rage as the furiously wooed and hastily dumped Anne.

Author of such plays as the Pulitzer Prize-winning ``Both Your Houses'' and the books and lyrics for the Kurt Weill musicals ``Knickerbocker Holiday'' and ``Lost in the Stars,'' Anderson had a particular fondness for historical dramas, turning out such shows as ``Elizabeth the Queen'' with the Lunts; ``Mary of Scotland'' starring Helen Hayes; and ``Anne of the Thousand Days'' (1948), later made into a film starring Richard Burton and Genevieve Bujold.

In ``Anne,'' Anderson took a well-known piece of history - Henry VIII's frustrated attempts to sire a son and his bloody, church-crushing means of ridding himself of no-longer-wanted wives - and turned it into an almost contemporary look at battles between the sexes. Henry became the ultimate in dominating men, and Anne became the ultimate in fiercely independent women.

Much of that comes through in Theatre Tribe's staging, but it's too often overshadowed by director Stuart Rogers' inventive but botched attempt to blend the hyper-reality of theater with the seamlessness of film - as well as his taste for Spielbergian special effects, even though he's working with a dime-store budget.

Ticketholders are met in the studio parking lot by a band of Henry's soldiers, marching to a drumbeat and dragging along a bound and bruised prisoner. The prisoner endures still more abuse when he spits out epithets to the soldiers' calls for ``three cheers for the good King Henry'' - and although he breaks free as viewers follow the soldiers to a soundstage, he's seen strung up in the king's dungeon as theatergoers pass through a spook-house-type tunnel of horrors on the way to their seats.

Introductory soliloquies by Anne and Henry start off slow, but things pick up as the story flashes back to the early days of the relationship, as the tomcatting king provokes Anne's spitfire fury by busting up her impending engagement to a handsome young earl and compelling her to be his mistress.

From then on, it's a battle of wills as Henry aches for the fiery Anne and she stubbornly holds him off until he agrees to marry her and make her queen - thus ensuring her offspring will be heirs to the throne.

The script explores love's vagaries, complete with all the stepped-upon emotions and clashing desires. Mistakenly, though, Rogers attempts to heat things up with a lot of ``Melrose Place''-like come-ons and sexual shenanigans. Meanwhile, the drama runs hot and cold, and the audience begins shifting with boredom.

It's called ``Anne of the Thousand Days'' (the length of Anne and Henry's relationship), but it's not supposed to feel like we've been sitting there that long.

THE FACTS The show: ``Anne of the Thousand Days.''

Where: CBS Studio Center, 4024 Radford Ave., Studio City (enter at Gate A).

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Sundays; through June 30.

Running time: Two hours, 45 minutes; one intermission.

Tickets: $25, available by calling [phone].

If you go: Wear comfortable shoes for walking and be prepared to ascend a gently sloping hillside and steep, bleacherlike stairs.

Our rating: Two Stars.

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Photo

Photo: Elisa Beth Garver is Anne Boleyn and Len Donato is H enry VIII in Theatre Tribe's production of ``Anne of the Thousand Days.''