Bacharach has of late seen his artistic stock go blue chip, with everyone from Austin Powers to Elvis Costello appreciating his breezy hits for the harmonic and rhythmic marvels they are. But ''Promises," alas, is mostly generic Bacharach. And his idiom, so perfect for hinting at heartbreak, can't quite deliver the real thing, which is what powered the film's script (by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond), an unlikely mix of acid and romance that Simon waters down to one part schmaltz to two parts spritz.
Simon's book still follows up-and-coming C.C. Baxter, who finds the key to career advancement in the key to his bachelor pad, which he loans out as a love nest to executive birds of prey. Baxter quickly climbs the corporate ladder (and descends the moral one), but is hoisted on his own petard when he finds that the apple of his eye, the sweet, vulnerable Miss Kubelik, has been bedded in his own bed by his own boss, the heartless J.D. Sheldrake (Jerry Bisantz).
The resulting triangle is one of Wilder's sharpest conceits, and ''The Apartment" turns increasingly dark before its finish. But in ''Promises," director John Ambrosino seems uninterested in any thematic depths to be found in the material; instead, he styles it as a Day-Glo korporate komedy -- a kind of ''How to Succeed in Business (and Attempt Suicide!) Without Really Trying."
The arch approach hangs together for the first act, buoyed as it is by choreographer Josie Bray's herds of hipsters who bop about, tongue firmly in cheek, a la Linus and Lucy in ''A Charlie Brown Christmas." Costumers Courtney Dickson and Meghan O'Gorman provide gloriously groovy go-go gear, which looks great on Peter Watson's orange/avocado set. And Ambrosino does score some up-to-the-minute laughs by closeting a few gay executives in that apartment.
But as the story goes sour, Ambrosino's direction heads south. Jeff Mahoney, a deft comedian and appealing average Joe, can't tap into the self-contempt of Baxter, while Aimee Doherty, a porcelain beauty with a voice to match, makes rather a blank Miss Kubelik. (And both struggle to be heard over the brassy orchestrations.)
The production does bounce back, however, in its cameos. As a lonely floozy, Jennifer Condon not only steals the latter half of the show, she almost saves it. Meanwhile Richard Carey slices the ham with clean precision in his shtick as Baxter's neighbor, even as Jackie Davis sashays through the role of Sheldrake's former flame and Gus Kelley grimly nails Miss Kubelik's tough-guy brother. In its supporting performances, ''Promises, Promises" does indeed deliver on its promise.
