A Charles Busch comedy of mirrors

There are many faces of Charles Busch, but they come in two basic forms. One is as a cross-dresser extraordinaire and satirist who headlines his own star vehicles about the oversized female temperament -- in aging movie queens, vampire lesbians and big nuns who manage to be vicious, meticulous and irresistibly tender.

The other is the unlikely, unseen playwright of new/old Jewish sitcoms, peculiar throwbacks to a style in which the mere mention of podiatrists and pickled herring is trusted to be intrinsically funny. More than a decade ago, he had a huge -- and, to my mind, completely inexplicable -- Broadway success with "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife," a comedy that attempted to unite wisecracking Upper West Side would-be intellectuals and bowel-movement jokes.

"Olive and the Bitter Herbs" is another such curious remnant -- less assaulting than "Allergist's Wife" but also less bold. Marcia Jean Kurtz plays Olive, an aging, misanthropic New York actress whose claim to fame, if not self-respect, was a hot-dog commercial for which she became known as the "gimme the sausage" lady.

The twist is that a mysterious, romantic man has appeared in the mirror of her lived-in living room -- the last stubborn rental in a co-op conversion. Olive is uncharacteristically smitten with the ghost, as are the fancy gay couple next door (Dan Butler and David Garrison) and Olive's friend (fearless Busch expert Julie Halston), the kind of person who finds fulfillment and a little residual stardust by watching over fragile almost-

celebrities.

That's pretty much it, except for Richard Masur, endearingly good-natured as Sylvan, the triple-widower, drawn to what he calls "feisty women." The group gathers for a seder, where politics and recriminations rage and Busch riffs on the holiday's bitter subtext. "Shall we read about the 10 plagues?," Sylvan asks cheerfully.

Director Mark Brokaw keeps a gentle comic rhythm in the crankiness and jokes are seldom hit with more emphasis than they deserve. Busch ties thing up with a surprisingly tidy sweetness and even a question about life's great design. But his females are a lot more fascinating when he plays them.

WHAT "Olive and the Bitter Herbs"

WHERE Primary Stages, 59 E. 59th St.

INFO $45-65; 212-279-4200; primarystages.org

BOTTOM LINE Harmless sitcom/ghost story/throwback by Charles Busch