Goodbar

"Goodbar," created by the glam-punk band Bambï and the avant-garde theater company Waterwell and presented as part of the Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival, is the first musical I've attended where the audience is handed a pair of earplugs as they enter. I suppose the idea is to deaden the volume of this "live concept album" for genteel stage folk not accustomed to the high decibels of raw rock. They needn't have bothered. Gaby Savransky's sound design is intense without being overwhelming. I wish I could say the same for the entire experience.

Based on Judith Rossner's bestselling novel "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," which became a hit 1977 film starring Diane Keaton, this pounding song cycle mixes video, band concert, dance, and dramatic elements to retell the true story of a lonely woman who was a teacher of deaf children by day and a seeker of anonymous sex by night. She was murdered by one of her pickups and became a symbol of the senseless violence and impersonal coupling rampant in 1970s urban life. There's plenty of juicy material to mine for commentary and pathos.

The opening is promising enough, with the Public's LuEsther Theater made over by scenic designer Nick Benacerraf into a rock club featuring cabaret tables, a bar, and endless shelves of booze, making the environment like the bars that Theresa, the heroine, constantly habituates. The lights dim and we hear the voice of the killer describing his crime, at first matter-of-factly but then with increasing frenzy as the video image of a single swinging light bulb is projected on a giant screen. It's a haunting, scary beginning, but the unsubtle onslaught of rock and visuals that follows fails to evoke sympathy for Theresa's desperate search for love in all the wrong places.

Costumed by Erik Bergrin as if they were in the finale of "The Rocky Horror Show," with exaggerated eye shadow and mile-high hairdos and shoulder pads, lead singers Hanna Cheek and Kevin Townley, along with a chorus of backup dancers who resemble a bunch of punk Frankenstein brides, belt out Townley's simplistic lyrics to Jimmie Marlowe's jagged music. Townley plays all the men in Teresa's life as a series of exaggerated clown figures. Fortunately, Cheek manages to convey Teresa's self-loathing and yearning for acceptance in the arms of strangers.

The show, directed by Arian Moayed and Tim Ridgely, does contain some effective moments, particularly those featuring Alex Koch's frenetic video design, but, like Theresa, it ultimately doesn't find Mr. Goodbar.

Presented by and at the Public Theater as part of the Under the Radar Festival, 425 Lafayette St., NYC. Jan. 4–15. Mon.–Sun., 7:30 p.m. (No performances Fri., Jan. 6, and Wed., Jan. 11.) (212) 967-7555 or www.publictheater.org.