A captivating con man (here named Harrison Floy) descends on a guileless American town (New Brunswick, N.J.), charms and fleeces its inhabitants and (spoiler alert) is forgiven by the final curtain because he is, after all, so darn irresistible. Floy must have been a perfect fit for Silvers, a graduate of burlesque who had the most sincerely insincere smile in the business.
Mr. Urie — the winning comic actor who starred in the recent revival of Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song” — offers a bright, tooth-flashing facsimile of the Silvers grin here. He also has the rim-shot-inspiring vaudeville delivery down cold, and he remains as Gumby-like as ever.
It must be said that he has only a touch-and-go relationship with a melody line. More crucially, he lacks the streak of shiny malice that gave an edge to Silvers’s clowning. Mr. Urie gives a characteristically skillful performance, but it feels pasted on.
Kevin Chamberlin brings his always welcome, sheepish air of bonhomie to the part of Floy’s sidekick and accomplice, Mr. Pontdue. And the talented crew portraying their patsies includes Matt Loehr, Chester Gregory, Mylinda Hull, Aidan Alberto and, as the fresh-faced, sweet-voiced young lovers, Marc Koeck and Carla Duren.
Playing the young suburban matriarch Sara Longstreet (a role originated by Nanette Fabray), Betsy Wolfe creates a precise and surprisingly subtle comic portrait, a mix of self-effacing gentility and aggressive ambition. She’s delightful leading an ensemble of fine-feathered local ladies in “Bird Watcher’s Song,” or dancing a deft soft shoe with Mr. Gregory in “I Still Get Jealous” (the other number, along with “Bathing Beauty Ballet,” that replicates Robbins’s choreography).
That ballet aside, none of the musical numbers land with the impact that makes audiences clap their hands raw, although I enjoyed Mr. Loehr’s and Ms. Hull’s artfully awkward take on the tango. And the jokes are more likely to make you smile politely than laugh out loud. (When Pontdue says that cockatoo mate for life, Floy answers, “They must be exhausted.”)
