Hello Again

"Hello Again" is the musical with which Michael John LaChiusa made his name on the New York theatrical scene. A commission from Lincoln Center, the show, suggested by Arthur Schnitzler's "La Ronde," was born in the brain of director-choreographer Graciela Daniele, whose terrific 1993 staging—featuring a stunning cast that included Donna Murphy, Carolee Carmello, Judy Blazer, Michele Pawk, John Dossett, John Cameron Mitchell, Michael Park, and Malcolm Gets—remains indelible. It's a pleasure to re-encounter the slightly revised show, even if the undeniably talented company isn't quite as special as the original cast and is further hampered by director Jack Cummings III's puzzling decision to stage the musical site-specifically in a cavernous SoHo loft.

Schnitzler's play looks at 10 sexual couplings, each linked to its predecessor by one of its participants, until the 10th meets the first, completing a circle. LaChiusa had the smart idea to set each of his canoodlings in a different decade of the 20th century. Not only does it give the piece a surreal otherworldliness by allowing every character to exist in two time periods, but it also provides the composer with the opportunity to sample any number of musical styles, from operetta to disco. Taking the credit "words and music by," LaChiusa mixes dialogue, song form, and recitative in fascinating and imaginative ways, with the end result being a hypnotizing tapestry of human desire. As with Schnitzler, the subject is lust, not love, and LaChiusa's view is unsparing yet nonjudgmental, though there doesn't seem to be a message beyond what fools these mortals be.

Cummings' far-flung staging, alas, doesn't do the show any favors. There's a bed dead center, and the audience sits at tables surrounding it, which are also used as stages, so the action can get right in your face. But it can also be quite far away, something that undermines the musical's hothouse atmosphere. In addition, it results in some confusing acting choices, as happens almost immediately when the Soldier toys with accepting the Whore's invitation to have sex. Max von Essen doesn't dither; he runs the considerable distance to one of the room's doors, only to pause, turn, and run back. It's not persuasive. When you get up a head of steam like that, you don't reverse field. A further problem is the production's coy use of nudity. We see many male buttocks (and comely buttocks they are), but these guys are only pulling the back of their underwear down, something, of course, they would not be doing during intercourse. The women don't even go that far. There are really only two choices in staging sexual encounters such as these: a successfully discreet stylization or total commitment to realistic nudity. What Cummings is doing is neither fish nor fowl.

Fortunately, the director does a much better job with his actors. Everybody turns in quality work. Deserving particular praise are von Essen's selfish and wild Soldier; Elizabeth Stanley's desperate but playful Nurse; Jonathan Hammond's egotistic, drug-fueled Writer; and Rachel Bay Jones' brightly carnivorous Actress. In the evening's most moving sequence, Alexandra Silber and Bob Stillman ace the scene of a young wife and her older, secretly gay husband trying to navigate their painfully suppressed emotions.

Mary-Mitchell Campbell's elegantly lucid six-piece acoustic orchestrations aren't as rich as Michael Starobin's original nine-piece charts, but they work well in the space. Musical director Chris Habert and music supervisor Chris Fenwick deserve special praise for the cast's confident singing and expert meshing of acting and song. With each new Broadway season bringing shows intent upon debasing this glorious art form further, it's a gift to have the chance to say hello again to "Hello Again."

Presented by Transport Group at 52 Mercer St., NYC. March 20–April 10. Tue.–Sun., 8 p.m. (Sat., March 26, performances are at 7 and 10:30 p.m.) (212) 564-0333 or www.transportgroup.org. Casting by Nora Brennan Casting.