This “Twentieth Century” jumps the tracks so soon after it leaves the station that one is apt to be surprised that the scenery continues to indicate some forward motion in John Lee Beatty’s artful creation of the famous transcontinental train, its Pullman and club cars all a gleam in art-deco. What a pity that it is not a particularly amusing sight watching the play’s unhappily paired stars Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche desperately try to keep apace with the madcap loco motion pressed upon them by director Walter Bobbie, as well as stay on top of the smart sassy show biz dialogue written by Ben Hecht and Charles Macarthur for their 1932 play (based on an earlier play “ ;Napoleon of Broadway” by Charles Bruce Milholland) that has been presumably freshened up by adaptor Ken Ludwig. I’m guessing, but I suspect Ludwig has added a Jesus joke or two for topicality to spark a key plot device. You know almost from the outset that Ludwig and the stars are in over their heads.

Not so the impressive supporting cast numbering more than a dozen (considerably less than the original production) that give a decided lift to this otherwise labored Roundabout Theater production. It’s not that the leads don’t appear to be knocking themselves out trying to resurrect larger-than life characters that could only have materialized during the 1930s and could only have mattered in comedies of that era. Heche, in particular, finds some consolation in her slim-lined physical attractiveness but more in mugging and doing an imitation of an often unintelligible motor-mouthed Katherine Hepburn, while flinging her body about. That she looks utterly sensational in William Ivey Long’s breathtaking costumes doesn’t offset a performance that lands just this side of desperation. Chances are that director Bobbie had her pull all the stops out as a kind of life preserver to share with the lost-at-sea Baldwin.

Anyone who saw Baldwin’s dynamic Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire” on Broadway, as well as in numerous lauded film roles knows that he is a formidable talent. So what is wrong? For starters, he appears bloated and lethargic and gives the appearance of being unable to make his body do more than make the necessary entrances and exits. Body language is half the battle and affords most of the fun in a screwball comedy like this, but Baldwin doesn’t seem able to let go. The best Baldwin has to offer is a case of badly affected highfalutin diction that only compounds the inadequacies his too too stolid performance. Neither Heche nor Baldwin seems able to empower their over-the-top characters with any real motivation beneath the surface, with Baldwin even lacking the necessary surface élan. To understand fully their concerted lack of chemistry watch John Barrymore and Carole Lombard in the 1934 Howard Hawks directed film version.

While the main plot is concerned with seeing to what lengths the flamboyant egotistical theater producer-director Oscar Jaffe (Baldwin) will go to get his ex-lover and discovery, now the glamorous self-absorbed Lily Garland (Heche), sign a contract to appear in his next play…still to be determined, the sub plots are more absurd than amusing. One involves Mathew Clark (Tom Aldredge), a religious fanatic lunatic who runs about the train posting “repent” stickers on every window. Even more strained and irrelevant is that other distraction caused by Dr. Grover Lockwood (Jonathan Walker), a philandering doctor who is having a Pullman car tryst with a married woman all the while attempting to peddle his own play to Jaffe about Joan of Arc. The joke being that Jaffe hasn’t yet recovered from his most recent debacle…about Joan of Ark. Credit to Broadway pro Aldredge and Walker, for finding a comical vein to supply blood to their silly beyond words roles.

For the most part, the supporting actors are able to coordinate the play’s lurch and stop pace with their alternately frenetic and woebegone behavior with credibly stressed faces. They included the inimitable and always a joy to see Julie Halston, as Ida Webb, Jaffe’s business manager (originally played by a male); Stephen DeRosa, who doubles as a nutty bearded Passion Play actor and as Max Jacobs, a rival producer. Although his role doesn’t call for much else than appearing flummoxed, Ryan Shively fits the role of Lily’ ;s agent cum boy toy like a banana in its skin. The producers have already announced an extension. Go figure. If nothing else this revival makes one long for another ride “On the Twentieth Century,” the exuberant and tuneful Cy Coleman/Comden and Green musical adaptation that got closer to the mark, but yet failed to recoup its cost after a year on Broadway in 1978. For the record, the train was called the Twentieth Century Limited. Limited is the key word for this production. Perhaps the best way to say “all aboard” ; for the “Twentieth Century,” is still on late-night TV.

“Twentieth Century” (originally scheduled to play through June 6 now extended)

A Roundabout Theater production at the American Airlines Theater

227 West 42^nd Street