SHE'S GOOD AS GOLDA IN ONE-WOMAN SHOW.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

IT'S ONE THING to take a solo performance on stage, working enough material - your own or someone else's - to keep an audience rooted for 60 to 90 minutes. But you probably need some significant moxie to put your work up against expensive multimedia, bombs and bullets, bigger-than-life historical figures, the Holocaust and, oh yeah, Israel vs. Palestine.

As it happens, Tovah Feldshuh is a small woman with a plus-size stage presence. She works within - not against - the gloss and technical bombast of ``Golda's Balcony,'' a solo performance written by William Gibson (``The Miracle Worker'') that sacrifices any hint of theatrical intimacy to its ``pray for peace'' urgency.

What kind of woman was Golda Meir, the schoolteacher-turned-Israeli prime minister? A passionate and deeply conflicted one, Gibson's play posits. Fair enough, but Scott Schwartz's production leaves you feeling like you've been granted an audience - along with several hundred people - at an elaborate Golda Meir tribute, not that you have a cozy and private spot at the dying Zionist's fireside. The view from this ``Balcony'' - on stage at the Wadsworth through Feb. 20 - is, in many ways, a distant one.

Which is no slight to the formidable Feldshuh, a solo show veteran who is working her tail off over those 90 uninterrupted minutes - sometimes for two performances a day. Heft, sound effects (and certainly endurance) may well be what it takes to earn someone the longest-running female solo performance in Broadway history, as ``Golda's Balcony'' has become.

And let's talk about the outerwear for a minute. Impressive, the design elements most certainly are. The enclosed rock quarry of a set designed by Anna Louizos proves to be a better-than-average projection screen for the multimedia work of Batwin + Robin Productions. Through the continuous use of multimedia, Feldshuh's Meir can interact with images of people ranging from Moshe Dayan and David Ben-Gurion to little children and the occasional chicken. Munitions factories and soaring airplanes can sweep dramatically into view.

And lest you ever get too comfortable, sound designers James M. Grabowski and Michael Gunderson throw in an explosion or a volley of gunfire. This is not a quiet evening.

The point of departure is Oct. 6, 1973, the start of the Yom Kippur War between Syria, Egypt and Israel. Prime Minister Meir (the former Goldie Mabovitch) may have been built and bred to lead a conflict-torn nation, but - we are led to believe - her determination and success came with a heavy price tag. To her family and to herself.

An ailing Meir, sporting a cigarette like an 11th appendage, darts in and out of her biography, reliving triumphs and personal heartaches. Buried under heavy makeup (by John Caglione Jr.) and a helmet of a wig (Paul Huntley), Feldshuh doesn't go for girlishness. Ever. Fiercely determined, aware of her sacrifices even as she makes them, divided and - of course - deeply in search of peace, Feldshuh's Meir is nothing if not a presence; even her shadow, with arms extended, seems to have majesty. There's an actor working that transformation, but you won't see the gears.

And whatever your views of the Arab-Israeli conflict, it's difficult to shrug off the play's final line, ``Shalom. Shalom. Shalom.'' From Feldshuh's lips, it's a coo, a prayer - and an effective one at that.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

GOLDA'S BALCONY - Three and one half stars

Where: Wadsworth Theatre, 11301 Wilshire Blvd., Building 226, Brentwood.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Feb. 20.

Tickets: $22 to $66. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: A larger, more sweeping canvas than solo acts typically offer. Plus a remarkable performer (Tovah Feldshuh) enacting a remarkable person (Golda Meir).

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Tovah Feldshuh channels the late Israeli prime minister on a multimedia-equipped stage in ``Golda's Balcony.''