SPIRITED `ZORBA' PUTS THE ACCENT ON LIFE.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

There are references, several in fact, to the age (or make that mileage) of Alexis Zorba, the ouzo-swilling, skirt-chasing dynamo of the musical that carries his name. And, indeed, there's only so much disbelief a person can willingly suspend when you've got a robust-looking man still in his 30s playing a character who belly dancers dismiss as ``grandpapa'' until he pulls out the drachmas.

No, Marc Kudisch, who plays Zorba the Greek for Reprise!, is hardly decrepit and you'd be hard pressed to say the performer possesses anything resembling an old soul.

But bottled-up pain, technical brio and sheer stage magnetism count for a lot. The splendid Kudisch is the central electrical current of this production of ``Zorba,'' but he's by no means its only spark. Just as formidable are performers Camille Saviola, Judy Kaye, the Reprise orchestra, and a not-to-be dismissed score by John Kander and Fred Ebb.

Director David Lee's stagings for Reprise! get deeper and more nuanced with each new effort he tackels, and this one brims over with dance, lust, death and sorrow. He has set ``Zorba'' - an occasionally mawkish tale of life, love and mining (sort of) in hardscrabble Crete - in a bare Bouzouki Parlor. The cast forms a wide semicircle, taking chairs when not in the scene, and occasionally bringing out an instrument or two. Gerald Sternbach's orchestra sits directly behind, blending effortlessly. You barely realize they're even there.

There's no such thing as a grand entrance, here. Characters merely step forward and - Boom! Opa! - they're in the story. Busty Camille Saviola fires the first shot, getting things started as the leader/narrator who sings about ``Life'' and who later guides our two heroes to where the women of their destinies are waiting (``The Top of the Hill,'' ``The Bend of the Road.'')

The men are the aforementioned Zorba (Kudisch) and Nikos (Stan Chandler), an American student who comes to Crete to reopen the mine left in an inheritance. Zorba spots Nikos in a bar, learns of the younger man's quest and says, ``You will take me with you.'' Given that Nikos doesn't know how to really grab life by both horns, he's pretty much putty in Zorba's mitts.

In Crete, there are women and complications. Zorba sets his amorous sights on the matronly innkeeper, Madame Hortense (Judy Kaye), who dreams of a ring. Nikos is smitten by a shunned widow (Lesli Margherita). < Playing perhaps the play's most grounded character, Kaye's work here is lovely. She can handle the frisky ditty from Hortense's youth, ``No Boom Boom,'' and the much darker closing number, ``Happy Birthday,'' with equal finesse. Hovering somewhere between hope and the realization that men aren't that reliable, Kaye's last-chance love for Zorba is more than a little bit heartbreaking.

This Kander and Ebb score paints with many different hues. A lusty opener like ``Life'' can give way, seamlessly, to the sorrowful meditation of ``Only Love'' and back again to the get-up-and-move urgency of ``Yassou.'' For what it's worth, ``Zorba'' was Kander and Ebb's next score after ``Cabaret,'' and the overall dark edges of both the music and Joseph Stein's book (adapted from Nikos Kazantzakis' novel) may have kept the musical from being a crowd- pleasing hit.

There is, ironically, nobody on stage more knotted and tragic than Zorba, a fact that Kudisch convincingly brings home. It's late in the play when the story finally gives us an idea of who this man is and why he lives as he does. Zorba - we learn - has fought, killed, loved, lost and run away. Kudisch, who moved gracefully when in seduction mode, starts a frenzied final dance to beat back the darkness. Pretty darned exhilarating.

A character who draws a distinction between living as though he could die at any moment and living as though he will never die is a character worth our attention. Kudisch, Lee and the life-embracing cast of Reprise's! ``Zorba'' make it resonate and give us a dance to savor.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

ZORBA - Three and one half stars

Where: Freud Playhouse, UCLA.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through May 14.

Tickets: $70 to $75. [phone] or visit www.reprise.org.

In a nutshell: My big fat Greek existential party.

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Photo:

Zorba (Marc Kudisch) exhorts American student Nikos (Stan Chandler) to take him along on a quest to reopen a mine the latter inherits in Crete in the Reprise! production of ``Zorba.''