A SEE-WORTHY MUSICAL FOR SURE.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

A ``HELL OF a score'' (to paraphrase the famous song lyric) doesn't automatically guarantee a hell of a performance. If it did, Leonard Bernstein's ``On the Town'' likely wouldn't qualify as the type of rare gem that Reprise! favors for its slightly scaled-down revivals.

Since its hit Broadway run in the mid-1940s, and subsequent national tour, ``On the Town's'' most significant appearance was a disastrous revival directed by the Public Theatre's George C. Wolfe that ran 69 performances in late 1998. There's also a rather beloved 1949 movie co-directed by - and starring - Gene Kelly, along with Frank Sinatra, Ann Miller and the whole MGM song-and-dance gang.

As the Reprise! revival demonstrates, the stage version is racier - and considerably sillier - than the movie. Not that there was ever much deep thought in Adolph Comden and Betty Green's tale of three sailors trying to get some action (and in one case, to legitimately fall in love) during a 24-hour furlough in the Big Apple. New York must be ``a hell of a town'' indeed to shoulder this many coincidences in a single day.

Still, for his first Broadway musical, Bernstein wrote some rather amazing music and Jerome Robbins (also in his Broadway debut) crafted some equally dazzling steps. And who doesn't know ``New York, New York''? Heck, if ``The Simpsons'' are parodying you, you've done something right.

Dan Mojica's production for Reprise! has the songs covered and affords some less-musical stage veterans (notably Harriet Harris, in full dipsomania) several snappy comic turns. Mojica - a regular Reprise! choreographer - has turned the dancing duties over to Lee Martino and, oh boy, does Martino do the Freud stage up proud!

At the center of the good stuff is a winsome and leggy Kate Levering playing Ivy Smith, the reigning subway beauty Miss Turnstiles and the object of sailor Gabey's (David Elder) Holy Grail-like quest. If she's not being put through her balletic paces - both in dream sequences and otherwise - Levering is standing on her head or bent at crazy angles at the behest of her souse of a music teacher (Harris). What could easily be a dull ingenue role Levering instead makes lovely and charming. She couples nicely with Elder's Gabey, an actor who brings a countrified ``Gee, shucks'' air into his manner and songs alike.

Levering is by no means the company's only decent hoofer. Martino has ensemble members of both genders pouring out of the wings at every opportunity for fast dances and elegant ballets. There's a particularly sweet pas de deux performed by Seth Belliston and Kimberly Mikesell, observed by Gabey, to the strains of ``Lonely Town.''

Bets Malone employs ample man-hungry brass as amorous cabby Hildy Esterhazy while Tami Tappan Damiano is a different kind of ravenous as Claire de Loon, the museum archaeologist who falls in lust with Ozzie (Jeffrey Schechter). Damiano also sings beautifully, leading the bittersweet parting number ``Some Other Time.''

With ample assists from set designer Bradley Kaye and lighting designer Tom Ruzika, director Mojica nicely suggests the bustle of NYC. The evening's tone is, by turns, light, ribald and occasionally even a little melancholy. A great score and a top-notch cast lets all the shadings - even for a bauble of a musical - shine through.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

ON THE TOWN - Three and one half stars

Where: Freud Playhouse, UCLA, Westwood.

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

Tickets: $40 to $65. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: The dancing is particularly strong. The songs ain't shabby either.

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Reprise! at the Freud Playhouse pulls out the stops for its production of the Broadway classic ``On the Town.''