Back to the stage, a kiss that's not just a kiss

NEW YORK - Nothing can be simpler: Boy meets girl. Boy is dumbstruck by girl. Girl thinks boy is dreamy. A wedding.

And then . . . And then after a charming two-month courtship, sweet to watch but never too sugary to swallow, Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss turns beautifully bizarre. Once the vows have been exchanged, an old man unknown to anyone present approaches the happy couple and offers sincere congratulations. He kisses the bride.

Prelude to a Kiss opened on Broadway in 1990, and two years later Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin played the film version of the couple, whose lives change radically after their wedding encounter with the unidentified man. In the smooth Broadway revival by Roundabout Theatre that opened Thursday, director Daniel Sullivan empowers the romantic comedy by letting the script, which toys with the audience in a playful way, do its work.

Odd things may be happening on stage, but they're not accompanied by eerie lighting or strange sounds; the story, here, is . . . the story, enhanced by Santo Loquasto's gliding sets that jell and dissolve in an instant and are never obtrusive.

The tale is engrossing, and acted with a realism that makes you believe a diverting kiss from a stranger at a milestone in life could, in fact, be more than a chance episode.

What's happened to our free-spirited bride? After the kiss, she changes, and not just a little. She's forgetful, sometimes not knowing her own past. If once she liked blue, now she likes red. Once, actually, she was red - dabbling in communism, then rejecting it. Now she can barely explain what she'd rejected, or why.

Annie Parisse and Alan Tudyk make a lovable couple. Parisse manipulates a tough role - she has to convince us that the easygoing person we meet at the play's first lines can possibly be the rigid gal we get to know as Prelude progresses. Tudyk, who is also the play's narrator, makes his character 70 percent confident, the rest vulnerable - and when he becomes increasingly befuddled by a wife who loses her attractive pizzazz, he tugs at your heart.

James Rebhorn and Robin Bartlett are first class as the bride's parents; the mother, in Bartlett's hands, is an intriguing character, a lightweight who unerringly understands the world when things really count. The strange old man with the loose smooch is handsome veteran actor John Mahoney (a Tony for The House of Blue Leaves), and he, too, plays two roles with a fine-tuned sense of both, because he, too, changes after he bestows the kiss.

Prelude to a Kiss itself works on two levels. As a romantic comedy with a big twist, it's a fun ride with style and a dexterous theatrical feel. But it also asks serious questions, and makes you think about your own perceptions of people, yourself included. Who are you, anyway? And do others see the same you that you see in yourself?

Written by Craig Lucas, directed by Daniel Sullivan, sets by Santo Loquasto, costumes by Jane Greenwood, lighting by Donald Holder, sound and original music by John Gromada. Presented by Roundabout Theatre Company.

The cast: Annie Parisse (Rita), Alan Tudyk (Peter), John Mahoney (Old Man), James Rebhorn (Dr. Boyle), Robin Bartlett (Mrs. Boyle).

Playing at American Airlines Theatre, 227 W. 42d St. Tickets: $51.25 to $86.25. Information: 212-719-1300 or www.roundabouttheatre.org.

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