ABRASIVE 'GUERRE' TOO MUCH, YET NOT ENOUGH.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Beware of musicals in which a cannon is fired before a single word of dialogue is spoken or sung.

Beware of a product that undergoes a creative overhaul after winning a Best New Musical award overseas, and of composers who seem to think a very expensive work-in-progress is a noble endeavor.

Above all, beware of small, personal stories overwhelmed by big exteriors, of musicals consciously trying to cram so many themes into a single, albeit intriguing story, that the end result is a story without direction.

Beware, beware of ``Martin Guerre,'' which rumbled into the Ahmanson Theatre Wednesday, shot off its cannons, sang its angry songs about love, faith, persecution and betrayal- and left a soggy Duraflame log where the flames should have been.

Too bad, because the Ahmanson production isn't without skilled personnel. Director Conall Morrison has three golden-voiced leads, a decent score and an ensemble that works its guts out. Designer John Napier, who's known for ornate musicals, has created a set that is impressive for its austerity. This is, after all, a musical about God-fearing French peasants in the middle ages, not singing cats.

No, the fault lies squarely with composers Alain Boublil and Claude- Michel Schonberg, the team responsible for ``Les Miserables'' and ``Miss Saigon.'' In tackling - and reworking - the tale of ``Martin Guerre,'' the composors don't know what (or whose) story they're trying to tell. Perhaps realizing the material's limitations, Morrison's primary instructions to his actors seems to be: ``Angrier. More passion.'' The louder they get, the reasoning may go, the less likely an audience will spot ``Martin Guerre's'' hollow core.

That core is well-hidden under tons of shouting and fighting. Curtain-to-curtain persecution, first of Martin (played by Hugh Panaro), then his unlucky wife Bertrande (Erin Tilly), and finally his soldier friend and impersonator Arnaud Du Thil (Stephen R. Buntrock), pretty much drowns any of ``Martin Guerre's'' deeper themes. A musicalized version of ``The Jerry Springer Show'' couldn't out-fume this show.

After two movies, a historical account and constant retelling, the basic story should be familiar. In the village of Artigat, 14-year-old Martin Guerre is bulldozed into a marriage with his childhood friend Bertrande. When the villagers see their crops fail, they view Bertrande's barrenness as a bad omen. Led by a priest, family members and neighbors, the villagers castigate Martin, effectively driving him from the Artigat.

During his seven years at war, Martin tells a soldier friend, Arnaud, his whole sad tale. Following Martin's supposed death, Arnaud returns to Artigat where he takes up with Bertrande and is accepted as the returned Martin Guerre. Accepted, that is, until his identity is called into question. Flowing through the story is the rise of Protestantism, a faith more threatening to the narrow-minded Artigatians than any human infiltrator could ever be.

The structuring of this much-reworked tale at first leads us to believe it's going to be a story of friendship betrayed. We begin with Arnaud and Martin, the best of buds, who sing the duet ``Without You As a Friend.'' When the action shifts away from the battlefield, Bertrande becomes the play's conscience. Then we switch our allegiance to Arnaud, played by Buntrock as a heroic opportunist. He usurps an identity only to protect Bertrande and because, in Artigat, he receives love he's never before known.

By comparison, the real Martin Guerre is kind of a jerk, but Panaro locates something in the character - particularly in the early scenes - that earns our sympathy. In a smarter interpretation, it would be Martin, not Arnaud, who becomes the story's anchor. Like Bertrande, he's a man who thinks deeper thoughts than practically everybody around him.

But this ``Guerre'' primarily has hell, brimstone and a halaked love story on its mind. After that kind of battering, it comes as a relief to encounter characters like the half-wit Benoit (a standout Michael Arnold) who sings a goofy love song to his scarecrow, Louison. In the Sturm und Drang that is ``Martin Guerre,'' such moments are welcome, and rare.

The facts

--What: ``Martin Guerre.''

--Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles.

--When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, some Sundays at 7:30 p.m.; through April 8.

--Tickets: $15 to $70. Call [phone].

--Our rating: Two stars.

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Photo:

Stephen R. Buntrock, left, as Arnaud and Hugh Panaro as Martin in the familiar story ``Martin Guerre,'' now a musical at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer