You have to wonder what Julianne Boyd -- the usually canny artistic director of the Barrington Stage Company -- was thinking in resuscitating the 1984 musical The Human Comedy, which librettist William Dumaresq and composer Galt MacDermot adapted from William Saroyan's 1943 tribute to Mom, coconut cream pie, and the American way. The show, about a small town in California coping amid World War II, didn't take back then; it lasted all of 10 days once it transferred from The Public Theater to Broadway. And it sure doesn't sit well now, despite the best efforts of a generally game cast.

If you're curious as to motivation, the program notes suggest that Boyd's interest in the piece has somethin[...]