Newsday from New York, New York • 106

I part2weekend B11 with tradition in "The Sound of Music?" How troubling is the lack of authenticity? Reactions, no doubt, a will vary. For us, the disorientation does not last much beyond the initial feeling that actors, not people, are dancing in shtetl drag. Before long, Leveaux, the smart English director of last season's "Nine" and the dazzling upcoming revival of "Jumpers," lures us into Broadway's first reconsideration of Jerome Robbins' template. This remains one of the last great book musicals of the golden age, written by Joseph Stein as a combination of the sacred and the delightfully everyday, the profound and the shamelessly show biz. Jerry Bock's music, with its stirring suggestions of ancient modalities, and Sheldon Harnick's lyrics "Sunrise, Sunset," "Tradition," the hushed "Anatevka" still linger in the cultural psyche with the inevitability of myth.

Molina is a comfortable bear of a Tevye, the milkman with five daughters to marry off and the Cossacks around the corner. Where the fabulously eccentric Mostel and his more conventional successors made Tevye a star turn, the English-born, SpanishItalian actor underplays the histrionics and doesn't hit the jokes. There are no Lower East Side accents in this cast, which is both thoughtful and a relief. Still, when this Tevye sings "If I Were a Rich Man," the biddy-biddybum sounds more like a Bing Crosby croon than a playful Talmudic approximation. Despite a Vicki Mortimer costume that makes him look like a railroad worker, Molina's Tevye is a surprisingly romantic fellow.

With the ever-challenging Randy Graff as his Golde, there is a spark of something beyond dutiful parenting between them. The daughters keep reminding us more of "Little Women" than girls named Tzeitel and Shprintze, but we more or less get used to it. Nancy Opel, a late replacement as Yente, the matchmaker, is endearingly annoying. Her new song, "Topsy-Turvy," seems unnecessary but amusing. Wisely, Leveaux has kept much of Robbins' choreography, the rhythmic chain dances with arms raised in right angles and passions dug deep into the earth.

"Tevye's Dream" is unusually trippy, with the lovers, Sally Murphy and John Cariani, hanging in the air and demons NOW ON NYNEWSDAY.COM For photos from the play and for a story on breaking tradition with this new staging of "Fiddler," go to www.nynewsday.com/stage fatale MOVIE REVIEW A femme too fatale TWISTED (R) Chief inspector Ashley Judd investigates a series of murders in which she winds up becoming the prime suspect. What a pickle. Can she get herself out of it? Do you need to get yourself into it? Rhetorical questions. Case closed. With Samuel L.

Jackson, Andy Garcia. Directed by Philip Kaufman. 1:37 (violence, language, sexuality). At area theaters. BY JAN STUART STAFF WRITER In the routine thriller "Twisted," Ashley Judd plays a cocky police inspector named Jessica Shepard with almost as many problems as the movie around her.

Got a minute? Freshly promoted to chief inspector the first female chief officer in San Francisco, so we are told Jessica finds herself the focus of her inaugural case. Handsome young men are showing up brutally murdered all over the city, and it turns out that she has slept with each of them at one point or another. Is Jessica herself the murderer? She has mysterious blackouts before each guy turns up dead, and she has serious anger management issues. Her police department shrink (David Strathairn) believes they are linked to a traumatic murder-suicide that claimed her parents' lives and resulted in her being raised by the levelheaded police commissioner (Samuel L. Jackson).

Is Jessica's shrink the murderer? She's always putting him down, and he may have his crawling from trapdoors. Finally, we are embraced by Tom Pye's outdoor set, which fills the Minskoff stage as if this weren't one of the least welcoming spaces in the city. Twinkling lanterns, part of Brian MacDevitt's enchanted lighting, are raised over our heads at the beginning. The family's "Sabbath Prayer" is repeated, over and over into the distance, by other village families behind poetic scrims. Kevin Stites' orchestra is onstage an odd touch, as if shtetl life were a constant party.

But this is an especially musical production, so, ultimately, we don't much care where the musicians sit. And the fiddler, Nick Danielson, is a presence far more than in the original staging and its replications. He is first lowered into view on a couple of pieces of worn wood, the only literal sign of a house. There's unintended irony, considering this production, in Tevye's evolving philosophy: "Without our tradition, life would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof." But the final tableau, as villagers leave for lives unknown, is a shimmering, wistful silhouette. Leveaux has the fiddler pass his violin to a child on the road.

We never wondered before what happened to the fiddler. It feels right to hurt for him, too. own anger management issues stemming from being the most incompetent movie psychoanalyst since Lindsay Lohan played tween therapist in "Freaky Friday." Or is it the oily thug she kicked in the face after he tried to rape her? How about the smooth defense attorney (D.W. Moffett) representing him, who is trying to rekindle an relationship with Shepard? Or the surly cop she also once dated, who may secretly resent Jessica's promotion and keeps showing up in her apartment? Or the officer assigned to be See TWISTED on B16 KRT PARAMOUNT PICTURES PHOTO SAM EMERSON ANDY GARCIA and Ashley Judd are San Francisco cops in "Twisted." Countdown to the Oscars The 76th annual Academy Awards are Sunday in Los Angeles. Here's a look at the best picture nominees, their odds of winning the statue, and Newsday's movie critics' assessments from earlier movie reviews.

BEST PICTURE NOMINEES THE FAVORITE "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" Odds: 1-2 What we said: "Overlong, surely, but, for what it was meant to be, close to perfection." "Lost in Translation" "Mystic River" Odds: 4-1 Odds: 7-1 What we said: "Remarkably What we said: "Clint sophisticated, honest, Eastwood's leisurely thriller consistently hilarious is thick with atmosphere and very real." and manipulation." "Seabiscuit" Odds: 12-1 What we said: "Gary Ross' reductive film version of the Laura Hillenbrand best-seller substitutes is far production values for as an emotional complexity." and "Master The Far Odds: 30-1 What we when it Odds produced by John Avello, director operations, Bally's and Paris Las Vegas PAST 5 WINNERS 2002: "Chicago" 2001: "A Beautiful Mind" 2000: "Gladiator" 1999: "American Beauty" 1998: "Shakespeare in Love" THE OSCARS RACE Get the lowdown on all the other major categories in Newsday: Sunday: Best director Monday: Best supporting actor Tuesday: Best supporting actress Wednesday: Best actress Yesterday: Best actor TODAY: Best picture and Commander: Side of the World" said: "Great action, happens, but film more effective evocation of an age tradition." of race sports hotels. vote for the film find a complete 'LZ trivia. Come back photos and winners. 2004 NEWSDAY PABON www.nynewsday.com ON THE WEB Go www.nynewsday.com to you think should win. Plus, nomination list and Oscar Sunday night for red carpet NEWSDAY PHOTO LEVINE;.