To The Rescue

By WILLIAM A. HENRY III

TITLE: CONRACK

AUTHOR: MUSIC BY LEE POCKRISS; LYRICS BY ANNE CROSWELL; BOOK BY GRANVILLE BURGESS

WHERE: FORD'S THEATER, WASHINGTON

THE BOTTOM LINE: An unashamedly old-fashioned, optimistic tale, told with charm and polish.

AS SOON AS PLAYGOERS PERUSing the program spot that one of the big song-and- dance numbers is sardonically titled White Liberal to the Rescue, they can guess three things about Conrack. First, it has an unabashed political concern. Second, it tackles issues with more complexity than is found in most musicals. Third, it is unashamedly old-fashioned -- talky, story-driven, folksy and optimistic. What one can't foretell is that mostly obscure creators and cast can achieve a show of such charm and polish, so heartstring-tugging and hugely likable.

The story comes from Pat Conroy's autobiographical novel The Water Is Wide, recalling how, as a '60s burnout, he turned to teaching deprived black children on a backward island off the South Carolina coast. In the time- honored tradition of teacher-student tales, this man whom the kids call Conrack enriches not only their lives but also his own. Spurning conventional curriculum and methods, he gets his young charges to enthuse about his hero, Beethoven, and his other hero, soul singer James Brown. He instructs them to take pride in America's history and also in Africa's. Touchingly, he lifts the self-esteem of even the slowest.

But the more he teaches, the more he realizes that the island he views as a refuge is for them an intellectual prison, cut off from stimulus and change. By the end of the show, the rebel ex-hippie has talked himself out of a job but is convinced that his firing is for the best, because it will prompt the children to leave and grow. Onstage he departs vowing to become the world's greatest teacher. In life he went on to grace the best-seller lists and the movies (The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides and 1974's Conrack, starring Jon Voight).

The stage adapters and actor Patrick Cassidy keep the character endearingly ordinary -- a bit silly, a bit rash, bright but not brilliant, decent but not saintly. He is a hero anyone can emulate. The children, talented and engaging, have the same down-home appeal, in contrast to the adult villagers and visiting officials, who seem contrived. This is not a portrait of an artist as a young man, but a portrait of a young man sharing with the next generation the art of everyday living and learning. Every society needs such do-gooders to come to the rescue, working for the common good with uncommon goodwill.