Perhaps because the Broadway musical season has yielded slim pickings so far, the Encores! series -- opening its 2005 season this weekend with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn -- looks and sounds like a rebuke. "See here," it says of the tuner, adapted by George Abbott and Betty Smith from Smith's bestseller, "there was a time when shows that didn't entirely make the grade still included first-rate songs, so you over there on the Main Stem had better shape up!"

The score that Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields wrote for a musical largely built around Shirley Booth's undeniable charms is as fresh and colorful as a Valentine's Day bouquet. Call it irresistible. From the first ensemble number -- the [...]