STAGE REVIEWS : ‘View’ and ‘Roberts’: Two Revivals of Americana : The Colony production of the World War II classic labors in the shadow of the movie version.

Memories of the celebrated World War II movie “Mister Roberts” loom large in the minds of most of those who see the staged version of the story.

Yet the script hit the stage first, in 1948, with Henry Fonda creating the title role. The movie, also with Fonda, didn’t appear until 1955.

The Colony has mounted a generally polished revival of the “Mister Roberts,” the play, by Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan. Richard Lineback is certainly an authoritative replacement for Fonda. This actor has the big frame, the homespun features, the centered voice, the troubled eyes.

But the truth is inescapable: The movie is better.

The play is anchored more resolutely with the title character. The roles of young Ensign Pulver (Art Tedesco), the tyrannical Captain (Armin Shimerman) and avuncular Doc (Robert O’Reilly) are more restricted.

Some of this may be due to scenic constraints. The climactic confrontations between Roberts and the Captain, and Pulver and the Captain, occur offstage. Similarly, we don’t follow Pulver off the cargo ship in his attempt to impress the nurses at a Navy hospital, nor do we see the Doc in his office, coping with the bored sailors’ made-up ailments.

Of course, with Jack Lemmon, James Cagney and William Powell taking these roles in the movie, compared with the nameless actors who did them on Broadway, the moviemakers may have felt compelled to expand their parts. At any rate, the movie is stronger for it.

The actors who play these parts at the Colony, while capable, ironically seem like shadows of the more fleshed-out screen images, rather than the opposite.

D. Silvio Volonte’s sets constrict Michael Keenan’s staging in another way, too. The set changes between scenes slow the momentum. Gary Christensen’s sound design can go only so far in filling those gaps.

In other respects, this is a solid production, with lots of testosterone swirling among the sailors, with a few interesting accents and nicely timed moments. The problem isn’t in this staging as much as in the idea of reviving a play which isn’t as lively or as affecting as its immensely popular and easily accessible movie mate.

At 1944 Riverside Drive, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m., through Jan. 6. $15-$18; (213) 665-3011.