Daily News from New York, New York • 722

Throw It Back Into the Rag Bag By HOWARD KISSEL Daily News Drama Crmc dren's, stories have frequently dealt with weighty themes, this one veers uneasily between coyness and show biz sleaze. So its attempts to wrestle with death seem superficial and unconvincing. As Raggedy Ann, Ivy Austin has a remarkable ability to turn her body into a hopeless jumble. She is a fine singer, able to make a boffo number out of "Rag Dolly," even though she has to sing it in a voice so high and piercing it makes Sandy Duncan seem like a basso. Lisa Rieffel is especially appealing as the little girl, and Elizabeth Austin makes the most of her tram-py mother.

Leo Burmester, Gail Benedict and Gordon Weiss are surprisingly winning as the villains. Patricia Birch's direction and choreography tend to reinforce the haphazard-ness of the way the show is put together. There are occasionally some fetching visual moments in which the fanciful sets and costumes are strikingly lit by Marc B. Weiss. Any little girl who prizes her own Raggedy Ann doll can probably tell better stories about it than this disjointed and distasteful musical.

74 .1 S'tiUiiAiA i tat 'RAGGEDY AKN': Ivy Austin (left) and Lisa Rietfel there would be some wrinkled knees), which romantic interest she has makes her seem even more got Ken. Raggedy Ann's on- like a bag lady, ly companion is her goony The book, by William brother, Andy, though she Gibson, is obsessed with also has a penchant for death Raggedy Ann is picking up stray animals (a trying to save a little girl panda and a camel with from dying. While chil Have G.B. Back RAGGEDY ANN. Book by William Gib-ton.

Music and lyrics by Joa Raposo. Directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch. With Ivy Austin, Leo Burmester, Elizabeth Austin, Scott Schafer, Gall Benedict, Bob Morrlsey, Lisa Rieffel, Gordon Weiss, Joel Aroeste, Michelan Sistl and Carolyn Marble. Sets by Gerry Harlton and Vlcki Baral. Costumes by Carrie Robblns.

Lighting by Marc B. Weiss. At the Nederlander Theater. AGGEDY ANN" is pretty much what you would expect a musical about a rag doll to be limp. This is in fact Joe Rapo-so's second attempt to make a musical out of Raggedy Ann.

He wrote the score for an animated film that appeared in 1977. It had one good song, "Rag Dolly," which has been beefed up and included in this stage version. Both suffer from the fact that none of Rapo-so's various collaborators has come up with an interesting plot. Maybe it's because Raggedy Ann herself is something of a mystery woman. We learn nothing of her past, nothing about why she came to look and dress like a scarecrow.

At least with Barbie Shaw Is By DOUGLAS WATT Oaily (ews Crrtic-Ai-Large Fp T'S HARDLY SUR-f 1 11 prising that when 151 Mj George Bernard lamatt-ii Shaw set out to write an unashamedly romantic comedy for the mass audience in his early work "You Never Can Tell" which is currently being given an entertaining revival at the Circle in the Square he was his familiarly discursive self. And what is especially interesting about the work is that while its simple plot is as contrived and cheerfully predictable as a run-of-the-mill potboiler, the author's high-spirited, irreverent and paradoxical nature keeps it remarkably buoyant most of the time. The story of four fifths of a Victorian family (mother, son and two daughters) reunited with a curmudgeonly father after an 18-year separation, which leads to a happy ending, is largely focused on the subject of women's rights. For Shaw, ardent feminist that he was, could scarcely resist making the mother, Mrs. Clandon (Uta Hagen), a strong champion of a woman's rightful place in the world.

Nor could he help but question other matters including the "duel of the sexes" and the possibly oiadcairable aspects of -a TTT TOOK A WHILE, but Playgirl final-ly caught on. In its November issue, comic Paul Provenza, who's appearing at Caroline's through the weekend, is listed as one of America's 15 sexiest comics. Yes, there's a photo. No, he's not as his mother first saw him. And he's in pretty good company.

Jerry Seinfeld is in there. Paul Rodriguez is accounted for. And so is Bob Goldthwait that's right, the same wild-haired, unkempt, screeching comic who took a shower on 1 "Comic Relief." "It's sort of weird to be in the same category as Bob Goldthwait when talking about being sexy," mused Provenza. "I guess that means Jerry Lewis is Mr. America." We wouldn't go that far.

Monsieur France, maybe. Anyway, Prove-nza's in a pretty good spot right now after his critically acclaimed performance in the recent TV movie, "Under the Influence," in which he was featured as the comedian son of an alcoholic Andy Griffith. He's up for a role in a new Eric Roberts movie and he's just wrapped an action-adventure film. Which is all very nice. Better than that, though, is the fact that the public is noticing him.

"I'm getting mail from Ohio from people with very shaky handwriting, which is a little frightening," says the native New Yorker, "Images of James Earl Ray flash In my mind." Hank Gallo i Nice to FAMILY TIES: (left-right) Use love and sentiment. Oh, love wins out, to be sure, but only after an accommodation between an experienced "lover" Valentine (Victor Gar-ber), a dentist, and the lovely Gloria (Lise Hilboldt), the elder Clandon daughter. All this takes place in an English seaside town first in the dentist's office and then on the dining terrace and in the suite of the Marine Hotel. Very much involvedj are the family li" i 1 AX Hilboldt, Uta Hagen. Amanda Plummer and John David Cullum M'Comas (Gordon Sterne), the superbly efficient and conciliatory hotel waiter (Philip Bosco), and the lat-ter's incisive and even more efficient son, a queen's counsel who sets things right at the end.

The piece has been charmingly set in Thomas Lynch's spacious and airy stage design, and becomingly lighted by Richard B. Nelson. Martin Pakledinaz' costumes, though, could bear some improvement And Stephen Porter has staged it effectively-enough. But; there are a few glitches Bosco gives a superb comic account of the amused and exceedingly courteous waiter. Garber is every inch the handsome and over-practiced suitor.

And Amanda Plummer and John David Cullum are enjoyable as the two younger and willful Clandon children. Stephen McHattie is sharply diverting as the imperious young Q.C. who sorts things out. The weakest performance is Stefan Gierasch's as the father; it is a querulous reading where a firmer approach is called for. And his scenes See MARX page 7.