There is a fine second act, as an example, one in which Samuel Groom, as Dillon, has an opportunity to blaze away in one impassioned passage after another. This is an exciting young actor to watch.

Just as exciting but in a more technically proficient way is Laura Stuart, whose complete control of her every movement is lovely to watch. Miss Stuart is as intensely vibrant as one could wish, almost an icy shriek threatening to explode at any moment.

Also fine are Sue Lawless, as a mother more protective and belligerent than a female spider and just as destructive, Harold Cherry, as her scratchy spouse, and Hildy Weissman, as a vegetable in human form.

Wallace Gray has directed a difficult play here, usually well, but with just a bit too much physical movement in the first act for my taste. Still, his finale is put together with taste and a most sensitive projection of that pale sustenance, despair.

The Warwick Musical Theater presents ``Where's Charley?'' with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, directed by Christopher Hewett, choreography by Peter Conlow, musical direction by Samuel Matlowsky. The cast:

Everybody fell in love with Amy again last night at the Warwick Musical Theater, and Shelley Berman was to blame.

One of the finest soft shoe tunes ever invented, ``Once in Love with Amy'' is also, of course, one of the most tantalizingly persistent of light love lyrics to come out of American musical comedy in our era. So the audience last night was all ears and eyes just after Act 2, got a rousing opening chorus, ``Where's Charley?'' , and Berman sifted out all alone on the stage with the ambling chords and beat of the song just whispering into being.