Better than Broadway

Caution: There's lots of talk in a musical called The Story of My Life about butterflies and the power of their flapping wings to change the world. And there are snow angels, a running theme - along with many references to the awwww-gee classic film It's a Wonderful Life.

Now that I've listed the icky sentimentality, let me tell you why, despite all that, this two-guy musical works.

Meticulously staged and smoothly rendered by Act II Playhouse in Ambler, it's an unflinching look at long-term friendship - how it happens, why it grows, how it can unravel, and what occurs after that. Friendship is no simple notion; it can mean lifelong attachment and satisfaction, and just as easily be a source of much pain.

In many ways, friendship is an ethereal idea not easily explored in depth on the stage - at least not in a way that makes audience members consider their own attachments. But The Story of My Life does just that, intimately and well, in 90 minutes and largely in song.

It's about small-town kids who meet in first grade, become inseparable, then grow apart in college and afterward, when one stays home to run his father's bookstore and the other beomes a celebrated author on that same bookstore's shelves. Both roles are beautifully rendered, if not always forcefully sung, by Tony Braithwaite as the naive, almost childlike stay-at-home and Jim Stanek as the big-city guy.

The show begins with the author returning home to eulogize his friend. He struggles to figure out what he might say about a friend who was such a part of his life, no matter their jealousies, oversights or rifts. Help comes from the memory of his buddy, who speaks to him throughout the show. We soon realize that the stories that made the author so successful are the stories that catalog their lives together.

The Story of My Life, as a story itself, has a dramatic flaw: It turns on an incident in which the author shuts his buddy out - yet the author (and surely his friend) continues to wonder why the friendship has soured. Bud Martin's production at Act II overcomes the flaw by taking the emphasis off it and focusing instead on whatever ties were left. It's a clear demonstration of the way a director's interpretation can raise a show above the level of its script.

That was not the case on Broadway last season, where The Story of My Life played just 24 performances, 19 of them previews. Autopsies were abundant: too small for Broadway, some said, and without major stars. Plus, its creators - composer-lyricist Neil Bartram and writer Brian Hill - were relative unknowns. (People liked the all-white bookshelf set, replicated on Act II's much more intimate stage by Dirk Durosette.)

None of those criticisms were Broadway-show killers - but it was tough to get past the plot flaw that bashed the show's dramatic arc. Martin was a major producer of the Broadway version and, as artistic director of Act II, has taken all his thinking about the show and overlaid it onto the production. Even in New York, many said the show spurred them to reconnect with old friends. Given its more forceful Act II production, it's likely lots of old address books will be opened.

Through May 30 at Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Ave., Ambler. Tickets: $25-$35. Information: 215-654-0200 or www.act2.org. EndText