MUNSTER, Indiana - It hasn't taken new artistic director William Pullinsi long to put his quality stamp on the productions at the Theater at The Center. Pullinsi has put together a charming revival of the 1965 musical "Do I Hear a Waltz" that features some of the star power that made his late and lamented Candlelight Theatre such a significant house for musical comedy.

"Do I Hear a Waltz?" is based on the 1952 Broadway romantic comedy "The Time of the Cuckoo" by Arthur Laurents. The musical adaptation carries a considerable pedigree, with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by a then young Stephen Sondheim, and book by Laurents himself. But the show never took off in New York and has been rarely revived. It's probably best known in the 1955 movie version that starred Katharine Hepburn.

The story centers on a middle-aged unmarried American lady (called a spinster in those less politically correct days) named Leona Samish. Leona comes to Venice in search of the sights and a little action to upgrade her romance-starved life. She stays at a pensione in Venice, also occupied by a pair of American couples. Soon Leona meets a middle-aged Italian shopkeeper named Renato DiRossi, and romance, and sex, blooms. Unfortunately for Leona, after she commits her heart she discovers that Renato is married with several children. She is hurt. He says it's no big deal. He just wants to go with the flow. The relationship thus sets up the contrast between an American puritanical view toward sex and the easy going Old World attitude of at least one Italian male.

The story can be presented two ways. One is a romance between two nice people, one of whom happens to have a family. The other sees Renato as a cynical Don Juan preying on a vulnerable Leona, out of her depth emotionally and geographically on the Italian man's home turf. Pullinsi opts for the less prickly first path. Larry Adams is a pleasant Renato, a man who seems to care about Leona and appears genuinely perplexed by her fussing once she discovers his family status. So they part ruefully, but with no hard feelings and, at least in Leona's case, some

Along with Leona and Renato, we follow a rocky marriage between a young American couple in Europe while the husband is painting on a Fulbright grant. Another American senior citizen couple is injected largely for humor.The other significant characters are Signora Fioria, the female owner of the pensione; Giovanna, the pensione's libidinous young maid; and an Italian boy named Mauro who attaches himself to Leona and is less obnoxious than most precocious children on the stage.

Rodgers' songs are pleasant and melodic, though only the title number has a chance of entering the Rodgers cannon of great numbers. Sondheim's lyrics are entertaining and serviceable, though not a patch on what was to come later in his career.

Hollis Resnik, a longtime member of the Pullinsi stable of performers at the Candlelight, is a vivacious and intelligent Leona. But Resnik is so attractive that it's hard to swallow that she should have trouble attracting male admirers back in the United States. Paula Scrofano, another

Pullinsi veteran, is warm and savvy as the pensione owner. The young couple are played well by the beautiful Amy Ludwigsen and Nicholas Foster. The older American couple, totally extraneous to the storyline, are played by Carol Kuykendall and David Perkovich (a superb man of the theater who doesn't work enough on area stages these days). Deanna Boyd is Giovanna and George Mokdessi is the Italian boy.

The production profits from a large movable set designed by Robert C. Martin that gently evokes the atmosphere of Venice. Frances Maggio's costumes call up the 1950s nicely. Charles Cooper designed the lighting and Joseph Huppert the sound. The string orchestra at the rear of the stage is superb, led by Mark Elliott. It's one of the best pit orchestras I've heard in recent seasons in the area.

"Do I Hear a Waltz?" may not stand up to rigorous scrutiny as a narrative and its score is not a Rodgers classic. The whole enterprise has the whiff of a chic light story with songs. But, Pullinsi has hired an ensemble of A list professionals and organized them into a production that goes down smooth as silk.

The show gets a rating of 3 1/2 stars.