In the best of all possible theater, "Candide" as a musical would be relegated to a bit player who sings and, one hopes, does nothing else. It is baffling that maestro of the form Leonard Bernstein deigned to compose for the mess of a premise that "Candide" is irretrievably founded upon. Perhaps he thought to redeem it; unfortunately, only his music succeeded in the redemptive.

The Amherst company's 50th anniversary celebratory performance of the comic operetta, while feelingly rendered, highlights how inconceivable it is that narrative incoherence can boast such longevity. One wonders if, should there have been a technically less adept cast, this god-awful story line alone would have scuppered all future Interterm musicals. The script has apparently been revised repeatedly for shows by different companies, yet this smacks nevertheless of high-school playwriting.

The cheaply explicit-rubber masking, seriously?-rarely makes for effective political satire. Insufficiently absurd to qualify as slapstick yet overly underdeveloped to admit any aspirations of intelligent humor, it is all really quite lightweight. Further, the play's recurring syphilis gag, so incessant as to defeat any trace of subtlety, will elicit painfully polite laughter-irony quite admirable had it been intended.

I have little doubt there will be defenders of the political incorrectness in "Candide." The point of offensive portrayals is somewhat lost, though, if it serves no purpose and carries no depth. In fact, its most offensive element was perhaps its aimlessness; lead characters Candide and Cunegonde's ordeal of love suffered a slovenly resolution. By then, of course, the wandering redundancy of preceding plot points had bestowed the finale with a sense of sweet release.

Rather thankfully, then, the company and the Amherst College Concert Orchestra collectively salvaged the evening (or afternoon, depending on which show one watched). Leads Max Rosen '07 and Alison Wahl '08 (alternating with Julia Fox '07 and Michael Devlin) exhibited undeniable vocal talent in a technically challenging ensemble of numbers. Enunciation proved an occasional problem for Wahl, among others. Prof. Pangloss (a commanding Ross Wolfarth '08) and the sagacious Old Lady (Alexandra Heinen) were cast and performed splendidly. Clearly, though, the character to remember belonged to freshman Marshall Nannes (Maximilian), a veritable jester in a court of caricatures.

We have also come to expect a measure of quality from the orchestra. A reduced pit in Buckley took nothing away from the familiar overture's resonance; Bernstein would have been gratified, at least, that his work rose above its attending farce. In particular, "Life Is Happiness Indeed" and "Quartet Finale" found kindred souls in Wahl's soprano and the orchestra's forceful strains.

"Candide," as staged at Amherst, represented an exercise in the value of hard work in theater. More's the pity, thus, that all this toil was channeled into a production undone in conception by its intransigent disarray.