‘Tracey’ Displays Abundant Character

She’s a cast of multitudes.

College student Hope Finch discreetly removes her retainer before meeting a hunk, a Middle Eastern cabby titles himself a “chick magnet,” has-been actress Linda Granger speaks to the camera as if it were a mirror, middle-aged “spinster” Kay Clark rides her moped, Aussie stuntwoman Rayleen Gibson dotes on her dwarf husband, Chris Warner yearns to come out of the closet as mannish pro golfer Midge Dexter’s lesbian lover and brassy Jewish matron Fern Rosenthal is “bustin’ my tochis.”

Each of these characters is actually Tracey Ullman, the gifted, Brit-bred comedic actress whom admiring producer-director James Brooks once described as “the sound you haven’t heard.” More accurately, sounds.

A chorus of them resonate, sometimes brilliantly, on “Tracey Takes On . . . ,” the 10-week series succeeding “The Larry Sanders Show” on HBO. The Wednesday vacancy was created when Garry Shandling decided to recess his own series to pursue moviedom. If the schedule holds, TV’s brainiest, most rewarding, flat-out funniest comedy will be absent from HBO only until 1997, when Shandling says he will return. Cross your fingers.

If anyone can keep the flame burning, it’s Ullman, who hot-strutted her genius and versatility in a couple of HBO specials in 1993, and before that in her own comedy series on Fox, earning a trio of Emmys along the way. When assisted by creative writing that’s in harmony with her unique talent, she’s her own “Masterpiece Theatre.”

Directed by Thomas Schlamme and with Ullman and her husband, Allan McKeown, as executive producers, the new weekly series channels her familiar characters (plus some new ones) into a different theme each Wednesday. On the premiere it’s romance, and next week charity, a sometimes amusing but minimalist segment whose writing too infrequently rises to the quality of Ullman’s characters.

But tonight the performing and writing (by Jenji Kohan, Allen Zipper and Ullman) merge spectacularly in a half-hour that drizzles out wee delicacies--Ullman as doughnut shop owner Mrs. Noh Nang Ning: “When romance over, you not feel so good. Maybe vomit. Same with doughnut”--en route to bigger things.

The latter include Hope, the shy student, romantically ogling a guy in a sequence that ends up a hilarious homage to “A Man and a Woman.” Even more inspired is Julie Kavner as a pro golfer and Ullman as her frustrated companion at a televised tournament. It’s lovely, tender, unconventional comedy that segues seamlessly to Fern (Ullman again) and her hospitalized husband (Michael Tucker) watching the golf on TV in his room, then singing a tune from “Fiddler on the Roof.” It’s so unlikely that it succeeds.

Ullman sings nicely, and she is a flawless mimic of dialects, a Londoner who, when called upon, can sound more Peoria than Peoria, for example. What really distinguishes her as always, though, is what comes from within, her intimacy with her characters and her ability to make them real. To say nothing of her capacity to work nonstop.

Bustin’ her tochis.

* “Tracey Takes On . . .” premieres at 10:30 tonight on HBO.