It's important to write about Blackfriars Theatre's appealing new theater and "Zorba," the 1968 John Kander-Fred Ebb musical that opens the troupe's 60th season. But I want to hold off for a minute to single out one member of the company.

Ken Harrington has been a mainstay of Rochester theater for 30 years, and I've admired the intelligence and clarity of his acting, usually in featured rather than starring roles. But did I ever expect to write "Harrington" and "Zorba" in the same sentence? Not very likely. Yet here he is as the anarchic, life-loving Zorba, dancing the Hassapiko as if it was in his blood. True, Harrington lacks Anthony Quinn's ecstatic bravado from the 1964 film version of Nikos Kazantzakis' 1946 novel, "Zorba the Greek." His Zorba is quieter but no less fervid. Harrington embraces Zorba's own embrace of life's joys and pains, so elemental that only lovemaking and dance can express them.

Harrington and director Jack Haldoupis fall short, though, in sustaining the show's momentum, though that is mainly the fault of Joseph Stein's book. It has to resort to a "Leader," played assertively by LeeAnn Orasin, who appears occasionally to advance the story. "Zorba" is far from a great show; its boisterous village scenes feel mechanical, and its songs of character and personal feeling are far from Kander and Ebb's best work.

The interwoven plot lines of Kazantzakis' original novel require a lot of boiling down to make room for songs and dances. Nico, a young American going to Crete to claim his inheritance of an abandoned mine, falls in with Zorba, who agrees to run the mine for him. Zorba soon begins a tender comic affair with Madame Hortense, a French woman of a certain age. Meanwhile Nico is drawn to a widow who is an outcast because she will not marry one of the villagers. Jason Mincer and Janine Mercandetti sing the two parts expressively.

They fall in love before disaster strikes for them and the village. Zorba and Nico then go their separate ways but part as friends now that Zorba has taught his bookish young friend to live as if every moment will be his last. In other words, the play's themes are obvious from the show's opening number ("Life is what you do till the moment you die"), and a dozen enthusiastic villagers have never been enough to freshen them since Herschel Bernardi starred in the original production 40 years ago.

Haldoupis' staging of the large musical numbers is sure, and Meggins Kelly has got many cast members really dancing. Because Haldoupis is learning to use the new theater's asymmetrical thrust, some conversations required a lot of pacing around to keep the actors close to the entire audience, and a follow spot did its clumsy best to focus some scenes. Although all seats are very close to the stage, the lyrics to some quiet ballads were hard to hear, and some character songs, especially "No Boom Boom," featuring Joyce Szatkowski as Madame Hortense, fell flat. Audience members on one far side could not see two scenes placed high over their heads.

To take full advantage of the theater's intimacy, Haldoupis had members of the cast, already in character, seating patrons and engaging them in conversation. Once Haldoupis masters a space quite different from Blackfriars' previous proscenium stages, I have a hunch he will find that it encourages his most innovative impulses.

A final note for future audiences: sightlines and legroom are good, and seats are comfortable. Lavatories are close by. Downside: the seats are very low; for anyone over 6' tall, they're a long way down.

Zorba

Through October 17

Blackfriars Theatre, 795 E Main St.

$25-$29 | 454-1260, blackfriars.org