Would someone please tell me why musical revivals need high concepts? If a show needs so much rethinking, why not just do a different show that already works?

        The concept show I'm complaining about is the Hot Summer Nights opener Once Upon a Mattress, which didn't seem quite ready to open Thursday at University of Cincinnati.

        Mattress is, of course, a fractured musical fable based on The Princess and the Pea. It's a mildly pleasing little show with no break-out songs and a barely-there second act. It does have a swell role for a young actress in moat-swimming Winnifred the Woebegone (just call her Fred).

        In this production, Melissa Bohon is an adorable bundle of energy as Fred, whose big voice must come from every molecule of her tiny frame.

        The high concept this time belongs to director-choreographer Greg Hellems, and I think it has something to do with 1950s television.

        I think this because the set bears a passing resemblance to Nick at Nite promos, the prince is dressed up like a medieval royal Daniel Boone and the ladies-in-waiting in this fractured musical fable based look like escapees from The Lawrence Welk Show.

        But to what purpose? And if a high concept is worth doing, why isn't it worth doing well and carrying out consistently?

        In Mattress, smother-mother and general meanie Queen Aggravain (Patricia Linhart, who looks like Kitty Carlisle on What's My Line but acts like she's emceeing The Weakest Link) rules the roost over her silent husband (Will Ray), victim of a curse. (The curse being Queen Aggravain . . .)

        She has decreed that no one in the court may marry until Prince Dauntless (Josh Dazel) is wed, but Mom has no intention of letting her adult little boy into the clutches of any princess.

        The marriage ban is a problem for nice Lady Larken (Angel Reda) and chiseled Sir Harry (Ian Rhodes) who are expecting a visit from the stork.

        Enter a dripping Winnifred, and Ms. Bohon does manage to carry a lot of the show along with her sheer force of personality.

        But she can't overcome a central problem to all but the best high-concept shows. When you're trying to ram a square peg into a round hole, the first things to go are almost always any emotional underpinning and inherent charm.

        So among this production's losses are Larken and Harry's romance, which should be sweet (despite his ego). Ms. Reda is charming, even when playing against Mr. Rhodes, who was apparently told to give a stony, chin-first performance.

        There's a charming visual joke in Winnifred and Dauntless. Mr. Dazel towers over her, so much so that it almost seems it's her pony tail that gives her enough inches to stand biceps-high.

        Mr. Dazel does everything asked of him. It's certainly not his fault that there's something distinctly creepy about Dauntless in the way he's interpreted here.

        He skips around in a coonskin cap (crown attached), so emotionally stunted throughout that we're assured Dauntless doesn't need a princess, he needs a therapist.

        For the last few years Hot Summer Nights hasn't matched the high standards one comes to expect at College-Conservatory of Music during the academic year.

        Is it a thin budget that results in cheesy court costumes? Rebecca Senske is a gifted costumer, so how come the men's tunics look like they've been borrowed from a high school drama department? Or is that part of the high concept?

        I will never understand why performers have to be miked in the moderately sized Patricia Corbett Theater. On opening night, the sound was an uneven mess.

        Once Upon a Mattress, Hot Summer Nights, Patricia Corbett Theater, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, continuing in rep through Aug. 19. (513) 556-4183.

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