When she was good, she was very, very good,

But when she was bad she was popular--

This corrupt version of a well known jingle applies particularly well to Clifford Odets' new play, The Flowering Peach. Whenever Odets is naughty or cute, whether to shock or titillate the audience, he wins laughs or gasps of admiration. But when he sticks to his calling as that rare theatrical type--a thoughtful craftsman--he achieves mature drama and wit.

Writing in his accustomed idiom of the lower East Side, Odets has made Noah (played by Menasha Skulnik) a symbol of fatalistic determinism while his son, Japheth (played by Mario Alcalde), represents the viewpoint that God wants men to work out their own fate. This clash (played by a rudder for the Ark, which Japheth insists upon and which Noah calls a sinful negation of God's Will) is not a startling new theme, but is well dramatized and well acted.

Where Odets wanders is in his straining for gags and an over-reliance on Skulnik's complete mastery of inflection and gesture. Strangely, the play's main strength, a warm and jovial view of Noah's relationship with God, is too often stretched to the point of flippancy and slightly cheapens Skulnik's part, as well as the play as a whole. But this defect just puts The Flowering Peach a degree below superlative, it doesn't destroy its advanced merit. Berta Gerson, as Noah's wife, almost matches Skulnik's expertness, and Mario Alcalde should grow into a top-flight actor. Janice Rule is awfuly pretty, if slightly monotonous in her interpretation, and both Martin Ritt and Leon Janney enter into Odets' idea of the Flood as a human parable as sons Shem and Ham.

The sets by Mordecai Gorelik are simple and functional, and they look as though they might occur to anyone who started to design a set for this production. If they did, we would have more top-notch designers like Gorelik. He characterizes the competent excellence of this rather fascinating play.