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"When you go through someone's script word for word, you learn it inside out, and I wanted that kind of time with [The Good Person of] Setzuan," Tony Kushner tells us in the program notes for his adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's classic, currently at the Wings Theatre.

Too bad the result of this New York premiere is like spending too many hours in a phantasmagoric Romper Room for recent college graduates. Conceived and directed by Charles Guyer, this Setzuan is an overstuffed, cluttered mess of a spectacle that barely lets Brecht's play resonate at all.

Exceptions to the college-level performers are Jason Quarles and the gifted Michael Bell. The adaptation is made for the directing talents of Tom O'Horgan (Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar). Where is he when we need him?