LAUGHING ROOM ONLY

(two stars)

At the Brooks Atkinson Theater, 256 W. 47th St.; (212) 719-4099.

THERE must have been a fiendish degree of ambition behind Jackie Mason’s new show, “Laughing Room Only,” which opened last night at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. Why else would it be a musical revue?

Jackie – it doesn’t seem kosher to call him Mason – is like a guy who has a successful lemonade stand and one day suddenly decides to sell fried fish.

He’s had half a dozen one-man shows on Broadway, in which he’d insult those unwary enough to sit in his front row, then tell a few topical, very funny jokes full of liberatingly incorrect humor.

This time Jackie has returned to Broadway accompanied by amiable accomplices in a mildly unlavish musical – or rather, for there’s no story – a musical revue.

It is not a theatrical form nowadays much favored – and “Laughing Room Only” will not do much to revive it.

Here, Jackie and his shtick are shtuck in between comic musical numbers of varying quality – some bad, some very bad. Jackie himself sings with a strong voice but one that isn’t likely to keep Hugh Jackman up nights.

The unmemorable music is by Doug Katsaros, and the cast – young, willing and probably talented – is composed of Ruth Gottschall, Cheryl Stern, Darrin Baker, Robert Creighton and Barry Finkel.

It’s all been frantically directed and choreographed by Robert Johanson and Michael Lichtefeld, respectively.

Not all is lost. Jackie is adorable in his rude and prickly way – and here he is brilliant on subjects as varied as ties and skis.

But the satirical attacks on President Bush seem feeble, and his longstanding vendettas against former President Clinton and Starbucks are so tired, they curl at the edges.

More new material would have been better than a new format. The man’s been in show business long enough to know that less can be more and more can be less. And then he could have saved on the extra salaries.