Revival of ‘Bells Are Ringing’ Offers Effortless Melodies

When the heroine of the topical 1956 diversion “Bells Are Ringing” tells a Marlon Brando wannabe to knock off the Brando act because “there’s a glut on the market,” she might as well be talking about Broadway musical revivals, circa 2001. At the moment, Broadway has nine of them, ranging from “Annie Get Your Gun” to “The Rocky Horror Show.” The latest second-time-around hopeful is “Bells Are Ringing,” a project originally announced for a tryout at the Pasadena Playhouse.

It didn’t work out for the Playhouse. But in another way, it did.

Choosing the right musical title for successful rejuvenation is not, to quote “Bells Are Ringing” librettists and lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, a simple little system. This new, modestly budgeted “Bells Are Ringing” directed by Tina Landau (“Space,” “Floyd Collins”), stars Faith Prince in the role tailored for Judy Holliday.

But this mild, funny-looking revival is stuck halfway between a concert-style staging and a full, fully imagined production.

Working with choreographer Jeff Calhoun, director Landau mounted a 1998 concert edition of “Bells Are Ringing” starring Prince in Washington D.C. That format remains ideal for this enjoyable second-shelf property. L.A. audiences who caught the 1999 Reprise! version of “Bells Are Ringing” aren’t missing much here.

It’s always a pleasure to hear the score’s best songs again: “Just in Time,” “Better Than a Dream” and “The Party’s Over,” among others, with those effortless Jule Styne melody lines, the listening equivalent of falling off a log. Prince plays Ella Peterson, the pleasantly meddlesome telephone answering-service operator employed by her cousin’s business, “Susanswerphone.” Ella’s smitten with a man she knows only by his voice: Writer’s block-plagued playwright Jeff Moss (Marc Kudisch). How they get together is the fodder of the skinny little plot.

Her hair dyed strawberry blond with a crimson chaser, Prince matches up uneasily with Kudisch, a standout in the recent La Jolla Playhouse “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” less effective here. While not exactly a May/December age situation--it’s more like early June/late October--the stars never really click. Prince lends undue gravity and bittersweetness to a role that can only take so much of it; Kudisch, meantime, his hair flecked with gray to suggest something like middle age, is trying hard to relax, to loosen up his caricature-prone comic instincts (so right for “Millie”) and ease up on his warbly baritone. In the process his portrayal comes off as more callow than strictly necessary.

Landau’s staging goes for a retro ‘50s look; the overture’s accompanied (intrusively) by a video montage of “contextual” images, Milton Berle, hula hoops and the like. Scenic designer Riccardo Hernandez’s chrome-outlined, extremely sparse depictions of Manhattan are bland and antiseptic. When Ella sneaks into Jeff’s bachelor pad, you expect her to greet him with: “Wow! You don’t have any scenery, either!”

There are compensations. Prince sounds lovely and, even in these muffled circumstances, garners a lot of laughs. As the songwriting dentist, Comden and Green’s best contribution, Martin Moran is a klutzy delight, airborne seemingly half the time. The over-amplified score is at least buoyed by Don Sebesky’s orchestrations.

Despite the felicities, this is one musical that may not have been begging for a major revival. At least not a minor major one.

* “Bells Are Ringing,” Plymouth Theatre, 236 W. 45th St., New York City. $50-$85. (800) 432-7250.