AFTER 30 YEARS, STILL A GREAT RIDE.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

AS THE LIGHTS go down, a figure is silhouetted in darkness looking out the window of Grace's Diner, located somewhere between Kansas City and Topeka. Snow is coming down. Hard. Its homey touches notwithstanding, that little Midwest greasy spoon has got to be one of the loneliest places in creation. Which is fitting, since the folks we're about to meet are the among the loneliest people in creation.

William Inge's ``Bus Stop'' tells a deceptively simple story about a few less-lonely hours that a group of folks spend at Grace's while taking shelter from a blizzard. Three decades ago, Hollywood's Met Theatre opened its doors with a production of ``Bus Stop.'' The current 30th anniversary production of Inge's classic, directed by Silas Weir Mitchell, more than keeps alive the company's tradition of quality.

Mitchell lets the characters' circumstances unfold smoothly, gradually. Inge's plotting makes sure that we don't learn too much too soon, and none of the actors telegraph their characters' secrets. Hopeful Elma the waitress (played by Jenna Harju) has a lot to learn. Diner owner Grace (Lisa Welti), a kind of protective big-sister figure, has a lot to teach. The Topeka bus is due to arrive shortly, and chances are its passengers will have to set a spell until the roads are clear. Grace doesn't mind the extended company. Her favorite bus driver Carl (Darin Cooper) is on the route today.

Arriving with Carl are Cherie the nightclub singer (Nicole Gabriella Scipione) who is on the run from Bo Decker (Ryan Culver) a love-struck cowboy who means to pack the lovely young singer off to his ranch in Montana and marry her whether she wants it or not. Ranch hand Virgil (Robert Factor) is Bo's stoic sidekick, while Dr. Lyman (Will Kayne) is a sad drunk of an academe whose demeanor brightens whenever naive young Elma looks his way. Sheriff Will (Bobby Ray Shafer) checks in periodically to make sure nothing gets out of hand.

Most productions of ``Bus Stop'' take on a different energy and tone the second Cherie and Bo enter the diner. So it is with Scipione and Culver, who play a decidedly mismatched pair who can't seem to stay out of each other's orbit. Scipione carries the platinum blond hair and the slightly trashy outfits, but this sad-eyed ``chan-toose'' is no ditz.

Culver buffaloes into the play with the air of a cocky prince who is ripe for a smack-down. The ache he conveys when it becomes clear how Cherie really feels is palpable. Culver makes Bo a character whose loneliness is at odds with his many successes. That he can run a ranch makes him practically an alien. That he feels the pain of solitude gives him something in common with everybody at Grace's Diner. Kayne makes something of a sketch out of the disgraced Dr. Lyman. You wonder why Harju's Elma would go near him much less accept an invitation to the Topeka Symphony.

Anyone who managed to sit through the Evidence Room's recent ``Small Craft Warnings'' can see how blatantly Tennessee Williams was ripping off Inge's play - and how fruitful the original stuck-with-strangers scenario could prove to be. Should the MET decide to tackle ``Bus Stop'' another 30 years from now, here's betting the doings of Cherie, Bo, Virgil, Grace et al. will still resonate.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

BUS STOP - Three and one half stars

Where: MET Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays; through Sept. 27.

Tickets: $15. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: To Inge, loneliness is contagious, and dramatically very interesting.

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Ryan Culver and Nicole Gabriella Scipione play two of the stranded souls in ``Bus Stop'' at the MET Theatre in Hollywood.