THEATRICAL EVOLUTION WITH `DARWIN IN MALIBU'.

Byline: Katherine Karlin Correspondent

Who's to say that Charles Darwin isn't spending the afterlife padding around a Malibu beach house in cargo shorts and a pair of flip-flops, lazily observing the birds on the shore and cataloguing California faultlines? The central premise of Crispin Whittell's clever ``Darwin in Malibu,'' making its American premiere at the Falcon Theatre, is that Darwin, comfortably spending eternity with an airheaded blonde named Sarah, receives a visit from a couple of contemporaries -- T.H. Huxley, his greatest defender, and the Anglican bishop Samuel Wilberforce, who famously debated Huxley on the notion of evolution.

Wilberforce is trying to buy his ticket to heaven by luring Darwin to Christianity (a plot turn that raises the inevitable question: Can heaven trump Malibu?). And what follows is a series of witty exchanges on man, monkeys, bananas and the nature of death.

``Darwin'' is a play of ideas and, as with a lot of recent idea plays, the audience can walk away congratulating itself on its intelligence without having really been challenged. Whittell presents a lot of arguments without embracing one. And while Huxley and Wilberforce bicker about the merits of evolution vs. creationism, Darwin, with Zen equanimity, chooses a middle road, holding the Bible in one hand and ``The Origin of Species'' in the other. When Huxley notes that Darwin has changed, he responds, ``I'd be happier thinking I've evolved.'' This is the one-size-fits-all approach to science.

In Whittell's vision of natural selection, the woman cheerfully rolls joints and, like a stopped clock, happens to hit on something right a couple of times a day. Sarah's second-act revelation is not surprising or particularly interesting. Compared to the brainy giants and their verbal gymnastics, it's a flat role, and Rebecca Brooksher doesn't seem to know what to do with it.

But the three men light up the sun-washed stage. Robert Foxworth is an actor who exudes charm, and his serene Darwin is irresistible. Corey Brill plays Wilberforce with boyish appeal. If there's a standout, it's Granville Van Dusen's vigorous Huxley; even sitting still, he exerts an intellectual force field. Casey Stangl directs each scene with kinetic joy.

DARWIN IN MALIBU - Three stars

Where: Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday; through May 21.

Tickets: $30 to $37.50. [phone].

In a nutshell: An entertaining Darwin even the Kansas school board can love.