'The New York Idea,' a 1906 play modernized

The Atlantic Theater Company has taken leave of its Chelsea base while the playhouse undergoes renovations. It is also possible to conclude that the group has taken leave of its senses - or at least its sensibilities.

How disorienting to find the Atlantic, home of edgy satires by David Mamet, Martin McDonagh and Ethan Coen, dislodged from more than location by a nicely produced adaptation of Langdon Mitchell's trifle of a 1906 social comedy, "The New York Idea."

At least as odd is that the theater itself commissioned David Auburn, 2001 Pulitzer winner for "Proof," to shape up what someone clearly believes is a forgotten piece of significant, or at least irresistible, theater history.

The result, which we're told has been cut and extensively revised, is less a revelation than a minor fling. Stylishly directed by Mark Brokaw, it is a luxuriously cast little entertainment with bright writing that holds the interest as long as one doesn't get weary of the unpleasantness and, worse, the implausibility of the relationships.

We are in Henry James country - Washington Square, early 20th century - but on a less intelligent side of the block. Philip, a stuffy judge (Michael Countryman), recently divorced from a wild thing named Vida (the delightfully comfortable Francesca Faridany), is about to marry the horse-loving Cynthia, another divorcee (Jaime Ray Newman), whose ex (Jeremy Shamos) just went bankrupt.

Naturally, against all this modern divorce and sexing around is Philip's disapproving old-money family - a sweetly dithering mother (Patricia O'Connell), her stern spinster sister (Patricia Conolly) and their outraged brother (Peter Maloney).

Allen Moyer's lavishly economical sets and Michael Krass' deftly observed costumes mirror the social change crashing through the veneer of propriety. And everyone - including Philip's minister brother (Joey Slotnick) and the philandering British gentry (Rick Holmes) - has a suitably serious handle on the play's goofy streak.

But Newman appears too competent to make Cynthia's impetuousness more like fun than a gambling addiction and attention-deficit disorder. And Countryman, a specialist in wistful humanism, makes the dull Philip so sweet that we resent anyone who is cruel to him. Nobody seems to belong with anyone in this roundelay. Such emotional superficiality may be the intention, but the comedy isn't clever enough to fill the space left by its missing heart.

WHAT "The New York Idea"

WHERE Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St.

INFO $65; 212-279-4200; atlantictheater.org

BOTTOM LINE Better credentials than credibility