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Samson Raphaelson's comedy Accent on Youth enjoyed a healthy run on Broadway when it debuted in 1934. In Daniel Sullivan's graceful, but unremarkable revival that opened last night at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, the show's discrete pleasures are certainly in evidence, particularly given leading man David Hyde Pierce's elegant performance, but as this show business romantic comedy spins its droll, but not terribly merry way, one can't help but wonder why the company selected this play for revival in the first place.

"Accent" unfolds in the posh drawing room (a gorgeously appointed interior from scenic designer John Lee Beatty) in an apartment belonging to playwright Steve Gaye. He's just finished a new play that he hopes will take Broadway by storm. It's a departure for him – rather than a comedy, he's written a tragedy about an older man who chucks his wife for a younger woman. The actors who have descended on Gaye's home have trouble understanding the departure, but once Gaye's secretary, Linda (Mary Catherine Garrison), has explained it to them, they fawn over the man they will be working with.

Interestingly, Gaye has concerns of his own, and it's not until Linda, much younger than Gaye has professed her undying love for him, that he understands what rewrites need to be done. He also decides that she, and not Genevieve Lang (a formidable Rosie Benton), a former lover of his, should play the central role in this new piece.

When the action flashes forward in the second half of "Accent," Gaye's play has enjoyed a substantial run on Broadway, and is about to go out on tour. Gaye and Linda have become lovers, much to the consternation of Dickie (David Furr), the actor who plays the younger man she jilts in Gaye's play. Soon, life is imitating art as Linda is torn between the older Gaye and the younger Dickie, and Gaye, noble to the end, acts as a kind of Cyrano for his rival.

It's comedy meant to inspire smiles, and perhaps the occasional laugh, but it's hardly uproarious stuff, and given the understated performances in the production, occasional bemusement is what theatergoers can expect from "Accent." Pierce delivers a fine performance as Gaye, one that will certainly please fans of his work on television's "Frasier." Gaye's dry urbane wit and laidback demeanor is certainly reminiscent of Pierce's character on this long-running hit.

Showier turns come from Benton, who looks particularly smashing in one of Jane Greenwood's many terrific period gowns, and from Charles Kimbrough, playing Gaye's proper British butler, and from Byron Jennings, the actor who plays the older cad in Gaye's play. As the young couple who may prove that the accent for love is truly on youth, Garrison and Furr are both solid, perhaps too much so: rarely do theatergoers feel that there's a rush of heady lustfulness that pulls them together.

"Accent" ends on a decidedly wry and ambiguous note for Gaye and Linda, and although one suspects that perhaps Raphaelson's intent is to inspire theatergoers to contemplate what their future may hold, the question lingers only briefly before the piece evaporates, like a momentary infatuation, into the spring air.

---- Andy Propst

Accent on Youth plays at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). Tickets are $56.50 - $96.50 and can be purchased by calling 212-239-6200 or by visiting www.Telecharge.com, where a complete performances schedule is available. Additional information is also available at: www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.