"Lute Song" is one of the riskiest theatrical experiments tried in the last decade, one which required courage and good taste for its very genesis. Sidney Howard and Will Irwin have adapted a 550-yard-old Chinese classic into what earns the appelation of a charming and artistically superb love story. As far as the play's financial fate is concerned, however, the reactions of large but indifferent Boston audiences may well point to an early demise.

Even without a thorough grounding in the classical Chinese theatre, one feels that "Lute Song" has preserved the essential spirit of a lyrical drama with a simple, fairy tale-like atmosphere unfamiliar to must American theatre goers. The unadorned plot--a story similar to Chancer's "Patient Griselda"--remains intact through the translation and condensation into one-third the original length, as do elements of Confucian ethics and what appears to be satire of Buddhist ritual.

This artistic integrity--rarely to be found in the theatrical world-may spell the doom of the production financially. For the opinion of the Shubert's audience Wednesday seemed to be a conglomerate lack of understanding, appreciation, or even interest, all of which seems to point away from the direction of box office success.

The production is one of the best Boston has seen in years, despite a somewhat obtrusive score by Raymond Scott. John Houseman's direction and Robert Edmond Jones; scenery, costumes, and lighting are both intelligent and imaginative; the contrast between settings and costumes is almost a throwback to Elizabethan times, for where producer Michael Myerberg has spent a fortune of a wide assortment of gaudy costumes, the scenery is composed almost entirely of various curtain backdrops.

Mary Martin's first stage appearance since "One Touch of Venus" is a welcome one. Although her voice is not strong, her charm and personality, to revive two senile cliches, serve to make convincing a role which no modern theatre-goer can view without twinges of skepticism. Yul Brynner, still handicapped by a notice able accent, does his best opposite Miss Martin in a somewhat sterile part. The other 45 actors named in the program are mainly character bit players who are competent but have little chance to become outstanding; perhaps Rex O'Mailey was most noticeable because of his Gilbert-and-Sullivan-like song in the first act (the only solo, incidentally, not sung by Brynner or Miss Martin).

Producer Myerberg appears to have sunk a small fortune into "Lute Song" It is well produced, directed, and acted, and the play is a good one. It does not appear, however, at this early stage, that a public weaned on "Good Night Ladies" or "Carousel" will be enthusiastic over a production as unusual as this. fps