ALLIANCE'S CAST AND SETS SHINE LIKE `STARS'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

More satisfying than the experience of sitting through the Alliance Repertory Company's first-rate production of ``Night and Her Stars'' is the knowledge that what we're watching will allow the once-struggling Burbank company to stage another play.

Both a critical and commercial success for the Alliance, ``Night and Her Stars'' isn't just good theater. For the Alliance, nestled into a storefront on an ugly and secluded section of Magnolia Boulevard, this production has been a veritable life raft.

It deserves to be. Covering the same cultural territory as Robert Redford's 1994 film, ``Quiz Show,'' ``Stars'' is both a fascinating character study and a cynical reflection on the appetites of the American public.

Playwright Richard Greenberg may have been writing about the quiz-show scandals that brought down 1950s shows like ``Twenty-One'' and ``Dotto,'' but Greenberg's exploration of ordinary heroes being manufactured and brought down by the media call up images of ``Survivor'' and ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.'' In other words, things haven't changed much since Herbert Stempel and Charles van Doren pawned their souls to some network executives.

These two men, it will be remembered, had long-running winning streaks on ``Twenty-One,'' thanks, in large part, to the fact that the show was rigged. After being ousted by the more handsome blue-blooded Van Doren, Stempel blew the whistle, ultimately helping to bring down ``Twenty-One's'' seedy little house of cards. Van Doren and Stempel are both seriously flawed, and both pay big time for their choices.

We meet Stempel first, and we almost wonder what the producers of ``Twenty-One'' saw in him to begin with. The '50s equivalent of a computer nerd with a crablike walk and a too-chattery manner, Stempel has a fragile wife, ludicrous show-biz aspirations and a chip on his shoulder the size of Milwaukee. The ``Twenty-One'' fix is both the best and worst thing that could have happened to him. David Keats delivers the entire package, making Stempel repellent, believable and even occasionally sympathetic.

As van Doren, Dana Ashbrook is Keats' physical and behavioral opposite. Smooth and self-effacing with a Kennedy-like face, Ashbrook brings the character's self-doubts into focus. Here's a man who has lived too much of his life hearing stories about the greatness of his father - poet Mark van Doren, who makes an appearance late in the play.

We watch as first Stempel, then Van Doren, is brought to ``Twenty-One'' by producer Dan Enright (an all-business, never-oily Bob Neches). Enright talks about people's destinies - his own included - and knows what buttons to push.

The production's excellent acting aside, ``Night and Her Stars'' makes for engaging drama. A New York-based playwright who often uses Orange County as his target (several of his plays, including this one, have premiered at Costa Mesa's South Coast Repertory), Greenberg is holding a magnifying glass up to human behavior and appetites. ``Night and Her Stars'' has plenty to say, but it doesn't preach.

Making better than efficient use of an unconventional performance space, director Steve Rudnick has configured the Alliance into a single long hallway facing two rows of seats. A white shower curtain-like drape rings the entire performance space, and all the furniture in the three performance spaces are Lucite. Suzan Fellman's set feels more than a little bit antiseptic.

The long, red carpet separating the stage from the audience serves both as an entrance space and a walkway. Actors often have to emerge from a door and walk its entire length to get on stage, the way a model has to traverse a catwalk.

Makes sense. The Van Dorens and Stempels were like movie stars of their era. That hasn't changed much either. Just ask Richard Hatch.

``NIGHT AND HER STARS''

Where: Alliance Repertory Company, 3204 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank.

When: 8 tonight through Saturday; through Jan. 27.

Tickets: $15. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three and one half stars