Peter Stone, whose current Broadway show "Titanic"just won him his seventh Tony award nomination for Best Book, learned how to write musicals almost by chance.

In the early '60s, his agent asked him to create a musical based on "Kean," a Jean-Paul Sartre adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas Fils play about the great British actor Edmond Kean. He'd seen Pierre Brasseur play the title role in Paris.

Knowing nothing about the genre, he went to Frank Loesser (of "Guys and Dolls"), who told him "everything there was to know."

"Kean" was not a hit, but he was was hooked. During a recent interview at his house in Amagansett, he elaborated.

"I love the procedure, the rigmarole, the whole scheme of the complementary collaboration of the separate disciplines of composing and writing," he said. "Of course, like a marriage, it has its fraught moments."

Award-Winning Musicals

"You have to tell two hours' worth of play in an hour, and find a way to move seamlessly into and out of the music and lyrics. A musical is all concept and construction, which I like and know how to do. I'm the best in the field, I think."

An array of award-winning musical comedies and screenplays followed "Kean," among them "1776" in 1969, which won a Tony for Best Musical Book, a N.Y. Drama Critics Circle award, and a Drama Desk award.

A work reflecting Mr. Stone's passion for history, in this case the American Revolution, "1776" had a title and subject no one wanted to see, he said. Yet it ran for two-and-a-half years, and is currently being revived on Broadway by the Roundabout Theater.

Subsequent musicals were "Woman of the Year," another Tony winner, "My One and Only," "Grand Hotel," and "The Will Rogers Follies," which won yet another Tony in 1991, as well as a N.Y. Drama Critics Circle award for Best New Musical and a Grammy award.

"Will was a cultural phenomenon whose rise coincided exactly with the evolution of the media," said Mr. Stone. "He was the number-one box office, radio, and stage star, a beloved humorist, and the intimate of six Presidents. When he died, the whole country went dark; 50,000 people attended his funeral."

"But - this nonstop success story was not very interesting."

Since Will had been a Ziegfeld Follies star, Mr. Stone decided to present his life as Ziegfeld might have conceived it. When things got boring, the great impresario (the voice of Gregory Peck, like the voice of God) would call down: "It's time for some girls," and the plot would be rigged to accommodate 16 showgirls the audience knew weren't really part of whatever scene was being dolled up.

Heads Dramatists Guild

Mr. Stone's oeuvre also includes a string of award-winning films such as "Charade" (1963), "Father Goose" (1964), which won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and "Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?" (1978), as well as a series of television dramas, among them an Emmy Award-winning episode of "The Defenders."

As president of the Dramatists Guild, he has spent years trying to dissuade critics from downgrading book writers and librettists to second place in the hierarchy of musical comedy credits.

"I've done 15 shows, and they're known as the Richard Rodgers show, the Cy Coleman show, or the Jule Styne show," he said. "I'm always trying to explain that it's not just Steve Sondheim's 'Company,' it's George Furth's, too, and that 'West Side Story' was written by Lenny Bernstein and Arthur Laurents."

"It's frustrating. You can have the biggest hit and still be ignored."

Wild Kingdom

Mr. Stone lives with Mary, his wife of 36 years, and a king-size Yorkie, Sam, in Manhattan and in a clearing in the woods off Stony Hill Road, Amagansett, that has the feel of being on safari in some wild kingdom.

Before seating a visitor at his big dining room table, he opened the back door and bowled a couple of dozen apples salvaged from a local market across a field to six young deer that clearly were expecting them.

Later he pointed out a Baltimore oriole on the bird feeder, eating an orange exactly its color that had been put there to attract the migrating species. A pair of cardinals seemed almost drab by comparison.

Finally, he jumped up and ran to a window: a supremely dapper red fox was trotting around the field, foraging for apple leftovers. "Our fruit distribution is paying off," Mr. Stone said excitedly.

As he awaits Sunday evening's Tony awards, Mr. Stone is, in his way, practicing what he preaches: affirming his place in the order of things, ing his place in the order of things, letting nature prevail.

"Something happens to audiences when they see that long parade of people boarding the Titanic and realize that most of them are going to die," he said.

The passengers have such high hopes for this great maiden voyage, Mr. Stone explained. Segregated into first, second, and third class, they embody the dreams of the social strata of the English-speaking world in 1912, a population soon to be decimated by the Great War.

Except for the ailing Frick and Morgan, and the no-show Vanderbilt, whose luggage went down with his valet, all the great millionaires are sumptuously ensconced in first-class berths, and eagerly anticipate breaking the trans-Atlantic speed record aboard the largest moving object on earth.

Social Strata

Second class contains the bourgeoisie, anxious to better themselves in America but barred from first class on board. One cheeky woman seeks her fortune by crashing a dance and rubbing elbows with the unsuspecting tycoons.

In third class are Emma Lazarus's "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Assigned passage by lottery, they're thrilled by what seems to them like a luxury cruise to the New World, and couldn't care less what ship they're on. Three starry -eyed Irish girls, all named Kate, dream of becoming a seamstress, a lady's maid, and a nanny: positions far above their station back on the Ould Sod.

Historical Research

"People died in inordinate numbers, because the lifeboats were only accessible to first class," Mr. Stone said. "Similarly, the number of bulkheads that would have made the Titanic truly unsinkable had been cut back to avoid compromising the grandeur of the first-class cabins."

Savoring every detail of the fruits of his research, he described the overweening pride of the Titanic's owner and its builder, who push the accommodating captain to go faster, and the fears of the common seamen aware of the dangers of accelerating in poor visibility through iceberg-infested waters.

"The hubris of the ruling classes made disaster inevitable," said Mr. Stone. "Ultimately nature prevailed. And people like that - it reaffirms their place in the order of things. Nature's supremacy has been a recurrent theme in art and literature from Prometheus to 'Twister.' "

Nature Speaks Last

"A lot of Edwardiana and a now-quaint code of honor went down with the Titanic, too, signaling the real start of the 20th century," said Mr. Stone. "It was the first failure of technology since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; till then, bigger, stronger, faster had always been better."

"As after the explosions of the Hindenberg and the Challenger, people took a second look at so-called progress."

"Now that Deep Blue has beaten Kasparov, we will begin to believe - I know this - that computers are infallible. We'll put ourselves in a situation where our survival depends on them, and some comet or natural phenomenon will catch us without a backup. We need to be reminded again and again that nature always has the last word."

Brit Crit

While "Titanic" has received some excellent reviews, especially for its stunning technology, a British critic was angry that the actual sinking wasn't shown, the writer revealed a little testily.

"He wanted us to be the movie!" he said. "Like, I can't write about Hiroshima without having an atomic explosion on stage? Does he have to see the battle of Agincourt?"

"Fortunately, he's not with a major newspaper, and I don't mind saying that."

'That Immediate Thing'

Although Mr. Stone was born to a father in the film business in Hollywood, where there's no theater to speak of, he has been stage-struck since childhood. "I loved movies but wanted that immediate thing."

After graduating from Bard College he took an M.F.A. at Yale Drama School and lived in Paris for 13 years, working for CBS radio and television.

Back in New York, he started writing plays just as time was running out on naturalism.

"It had served a purpose analogous to the major social revolutions of the day, addressing causes like the water supply and syphilis, and destroying three of the six great Aristotelian dramatic conventions in the process."

Naturalism incorporated character, theme, and plot, while Aristotle talked also about music, dance, and spectacle.

Living with the Theater of the Absurd in France, Mr. Stone had applauded its restoration of the "unnatural" to theater: its use of soliloquy, asides, and poetry. And he eagerly embraced the music, dance, and spectacle of the American musical comedy.

"I always thought the reason 'Godot' was a hit everywhere except in New York was because we were the only place in the world that had musicals," he said. A note of pride was in his voice. His eye was on the oriole.

An elegant riot would probably best describe the scene Friday night outside the grand opening of Southampton's newest over-the-top nightclub, Jet East.

While traffic was slowly coming to a complete standstill on North Sea Road, 200 people were clamoring behind the velvet ropes, screaming things like "We're in the record industry!" and "I'll lose my job if I don't get into this party!" to a doorman who remained stone faced and cool amid the chaos.

Meanwhile, inside, the club's dimly lighted, Balinese-styled lounge looked like something out of "The Arabian Nights" - save for the patrol of models strolling through the crowd and the pounding of techno dance music on the sound system. The owners, Greg and Nicole Brier and Andrew Sasson, were serious when they said they spent more than $130,000 on furniture. The whole club is decked out with antique pieces brought back from India and Asia.

"If I could only transplant this to New York!" said an ecstatic Mr. Brier, taking in the scene.

At M-80

Meanwhile, just up North Sea Road, M-80 was pulsing with its normal crowd of jet-setters. The club's off-season struggle with neighbors and the Southampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals seems to have detracted not a whit from M-80's high-class appeal, nor its numbers at the door.

The club's weekly employee night, hosted by Danceteria, endured a sleeper of an opening night last Thursday, but, with Danceteria's reputation, that should all change as the season unfolds.

The club hosts a new "M-80 living room" party every Friday, sponsored by Smoke magazine and various top-notch cigar makers. Saturdays still swell with fashion industry and magazine parties every week.

Tavern

Not to be left behind by the "lounge" craze, the Tavern on Tuckahoe Road in Southampton has turned a large part of its cavernous space into a cozy couch-and-table section looking onto the dance floor. Manning one of those tables Friday night was the rising young actor Leonardo DiCaprio sitting with several others, including Harvey Keitel.

With ample parking, plenty of room inside, and only slightly imperious doormen, the Tavern hosts the most hassle-free dance parties around, on Fridays, Saturdays, and a Wednesday employee night that should prove a huge draw.

Flying Point

Danceteria be darned! Southampton's Flying Point nightclub on Montauk Highway will still host its Thursday night employee night - without the Danceteria trademark it had hoped to flaunt - along with its well-promoted dance parties on Saturday and Sunday nights.

Flying Point is next to Pier One Imports on Montauk Highway.

Hansom House

With "lounge" being the buzzword of the year in clubland, Southampton's Hansom House on Elm Street stands as a proud veteran in that department. The quirky club's comfy couches and various nooks are filled every weekend with a very down-to-earth club crowd. Reggae normally provides the soundtrack for Friday nights. The funky Shock Shine plays tomorrow. Blues is the norm on Saturdays, with Bo Diddley Jr. handling this Saturday and Sunday. Music starts after 10:30 p.m.

Stephen Talkhouse

Talk about major setbacks. Those geared up for The Band's concert on Friday at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett found out last week not only that the show had been canceled, but that The Band's jocular bassist, Rick Danko, was being held by Japanese authorities on heroin charges - allegedly something involving a package at a post office while Mr. Danko was in Japan playing solo.

The remaining band members had discussed playing without their frontman but, at $95 a ticket, the Talkhouse decided against it. Hot Tuna's Jorma Kaukonen luckily agreed to play another night after his gig last Thursday, picking up the slack.

Barring any other law enforcement problems, the Talkhouse's music schedule looks pretty solid this week. The Commitments, still riding high after the eponymous film, play their tight rhythm-and-blues and soul tonight 8 and 10 p.m. The likable Richie Havens returns with his poignant folk music tomorrow at 8, followed by Steve Marshall and the Deputies at 10:30. Patty Larkin kicks off Saturday evening with her acoustic music at 8, leaving late-night for the rock-and-roll of Cadillac Moon at 10:30.

Deadheads out there will be pleased to know Max Creek will play two shows Sunday night at 8 and 10. As always, Mondays are reserved for the Talkhouse's acoustic night at 10, featuring a lineup of young, local songwriters. A funk-and-blues-fueled open jam, hosted by the band Paragon, takes place at the same time Tuesday. Wednesday brings the Talkhouse's employee night, with a roster of local bands, starting at 10. The party zydeco of Terrance Simien and the Mallet Playboys is in line for next Thursday at 8.

Harbor House

In Sag Harbor, the new Harbor House on Bridge Street has quickly established itself as the Harbor's hub for live music, which it hosts at least three nights a week. Tomorrow's stage goes to the local rockabilly favorites The Lone Sharks, and The Karlus Trapp Band will dole out classic rock and blues Saturday night. Both acts begin around 10:30. Vince Collins of Led Fingers stops by on Tuesdays to host an open jam at 10.

The bar is considering devoting Thursdays to live funk - that is, if it can find the right band(s).

Chili Peppers

Word has it The Hotheads will be stationed at Sag Harbor's Chili Peppers on West Water Street on weekend afternoons; they were this past weekend. The New York party crowd knows this rap-reggae-funk unit well, and so do the locals; The Hotheads drew hundreds to the Amazon Deck last summer. With the Amazon out of the picture this season, Chili Peppers' patio overlooking Baron's Cove could be a good substitute.

La Superica

If the feisty young reggae band Shock Shine has any home base out here, it's probably La Superica on Main Street, Sag Harbor. The band has played its dance hall reggae in La Superica's redesigned back room throughout the year. They'll be back again Wednesday at 11 p.m.

Corner Bar

Sag Harbor's Corner Bar usually teams up with its neighbor La Superica to host music on Wednesdays - pay one cover and you can skip back and forth between the two places - but they haven't booked any groups just yet. This Saturday, though, the Corner will set up The Parlor Dogs, an offshoot of Zorki. The band will play rock-and-roll after 11.

Wild Rose

The Lone Sharks should own a piece of Bridgehampton's Wild Rose by now. The rockabilly foursome has owned the cozy club's stage every Thursday night for more than two years now, and continue to do so.

The stage goes to the upbeat blues of Oxford Blue this weekend. Music at the Rose starts at 9:30 and often pushes past 2. The club is on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

Dunes and Tide

You don't get much closer to the beach than Montauk's Dunes and Tide club. The club, on South Edison Street, meets the sand at a popular beach entrance. To milk the theme, the club has set up the "shipwreck bar" outside on its front patio, complete with two ends of a 42-foot boat for effect.

Inside, live music is the fare for tomorrow and Saturday nights, with the bands to be announced. The reggae band Ink went over so well last weekend they'll be back for more on Sunday at 11 p.m.

Dunes and Tide also hosts a ladies night on Tuesdays, a Latino night on Wednesdays, and an employee night on Thursdays.

Navy Road

It's been the Port Royal. It's been the Kahuna Cafe. And now it's Navy Road. A lot has changed in the restaurant at the end of Navy Road, in Montauk, but one thing remains the same: Reggaelution plays reggae on the restaurant's deck on Fort Pond Bay every Sunday at 8 p.m.

Navy Road has also booked the versatile guitarist Bruce Aronson on Fridays and Saturdays at 10.

Dave's Grill

Every Friday, Dave's Grill on West Lake Drive, Montauk, hosts "late night at Dave's," an after-dinner evening of music, desserts, and, sometimes, comedy. Tomorrow night, Waterfence will play its world-rhythm percussion from 9 p.m. on.

Gurney's Inn

The karaoke machine comes out every Thursday night at Gurney's Inn in Montauk starting at 8:30 p.m. The inn's favorites, Tradewinds and Tangerine, round out this weekend with their popular hits; Tangerine plays tomorrow at 8 and Tradewinds plays Saturday, also at 8 p.m.

Gurney's has also introduced ballroom dancing on Thursday nights from 7 p.m. on. Reservations have been suggested, unless you just want to watch.

Kipling's

Back in Bridgehampton, mellow jazz is part of the fare every weekend at Kipling's on Main Street. The restaurant's owner, Jim Demitrack, joins up on guitar with Ray Williams on bass every Friday night at 8 p.m. Musicians regularly sit in and the Kipling's Jazz Trio plays the occasional Saturday night.

75 Main

Chris Barret still handles the piano at Southampton's 75 Main every Friday from 9 to 11 p.m. For those who prefer something with a little more umph!, the restaurant hosts live rock, blues, and reggae every Saturday at 11. Emmanuel Springer and XS Flavor are on deck this week.

Southampton Publick House

Jazz will flow along with the Water Mill Wheat and Southampton Gold tomorrow at the Southampton Publick House. The brewpub and restaurant at Bowden Square and Main Street, Southampton, has the Arthur Dent Trio lined up at 10.

Saturday night goes to the ubiquitous DJ Tom, who spins the turntables at the same time.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is experimenting with a front page without news - just highlights of the feature stories and photos inside.

The San Jose Mercury News has begun a weekly section written by readers.

The St. Petersburg Times recently turned a true story about a woman whose secretly gay husband died of AIDS into a 29-part serial complete with cliffhangers at the end of each episode.

These examples were cited by The New York Times in describing a recent effort by smallish newspapers to boost circulation. The idea is to establish closer ties with readers - and give them what they want.

It is necessary for newspapers to consider what readers want, of course. Without readership there would be no papers. But these innovations go too far. The trend is, not surprisingly, driven by marketing studies. It is the Dick Morris approach to journalism. Polls dictate policy.

At The Star we go to great lengths to give our readers a voice. We offer unlimited space on our letters pages and print every letter (within certain guidelines). We use guest reviewers frequently and solicit fiction and "Guestwords." But we can't help clinging to the notion, no matter how quaint it may become in this day of infotainment and advertorial, that a newspaper's primary mission is to deliver the news, whether serious, analytical, or light, written by reporters.

Nevertheless, we're ready for the possibility that the day may arrive when we've got to get with the program in order to survive. Here are some of the changes our preparedness committee has suggested:

No more hard news. If you want local news, go hang out at the Candy Kitchen. Better yet, read Page Six - no danger of getting snagged on boring stuff there!

No more bad news. Begone tax rates and lawsuits, obituaries and car crashes, Lyme disease and brown tide!

No more art, theater, music, and book reviews by critics in the field. From now on, you're the critic. Your kid's the critic. Your pet's the critic. Maybe we'll even put it on the front page if it looks favorably on one of our advertisers.

Yes, the front page. From now on it will be filled either with favorite landscape or beach volleyball photos, personal advertisements, or contributors' poetry. We'll take a poll. You decide which!

Remember "Recovering the Past"? Mothball time. When the time comes, The Star will debut a hip contest - "Unpuzzling the Present." Readers can decode the maze of relationships surrounding photos from the party circuit.

The space above was left blank for you, dear reader.

The thermometer at night is still hovering unseasonably somewhere in the mid-40s, but the cool weather seems not to have slowed the arrival of the hummers. Not that there are all that many of them as yet on the South Fork - they are more common, apparently, in warmer climes, such as Beverly Hills - but reports come trickling in steadily. It's that time of year.

Two purplish ones were spotted whirring around Hither Hills in Montauk a week ago, and another, with an iridescent body and a green hood, was spotted at the border of East Hampton and Amagansett at Hampton Mews. Unlike others of their species, they usually travel singly rather than in flocks.

They are distinctive in appearance; entirely different, in fact, from the rest of their kind. Watch them taking in fuel, for example. They consume an enormous amount, relative to their size. It's a sight to behold.

We are talking about hummingbirds, of course. But you knew that.

Two East Hampton novelists, Benjamin Taylor and James Brady, will read at Book Hampton in East Hampton this weekend.

Mr. Taylor will read from his first novel, "Tales Out of School," on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The book tells the story of a rich, eccentric family's descent from the American dream to the American nightmare at the turn of the century. It received the Harold Ribalow Prize from Haddassah magazine.

Mr. Taylor is writer in residence at Washington University in St. Louis. His previous book is "Into the Open: Reflections on Genius and Modernity."

"Further Lane"

On Sunday, Mr. Brady will read from his new novel, "Further Lane," at 5:30 p.m.

The book is a murderous romp through the celebrity playground of East Hampton, with cameo appearances by Martha Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Demi Moore, Donna Karan, Bill Joel, and more.

The story opens on the Maidstone Club beach, with one of East Hampton's most famous and powerful women, Hannah Cutting, found dead with a stake of privet hedge through her heart. Mr. Brady covers many facets of East Hampton life as the mystery unfolds.

The author's column in Parade reaches 75 million readers each week, and Mr. Brady also writes a column for Ad Age. His previous novels include "Paris One" and "Designs," and he is the author of a memoir about Korea, "The Coldest War." He lives in Manhattan and on Further Lane in East Hampton.

At Canio's And Gurney's

At Canio's Books in Sag Harbor, Claudia Dreifus will be on hand on Saturday at 6 p.m. to discuss "Interview," a collection of her interviews that have appeared in The New York Times over the years.

Ms. Dreifus subdivides "Interview" among "saints," such as the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Andrew Young, "philosophers" such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Tofflers, and Art Caplan, "media freaks" including Dan Rather, Richard Dreyfuss, and John Sayles, "poets" such as Toni Morrison and Arthur Miller, and "citizens," a category that includes Benazir Bhutto and Barney Frank.

Also on Saturday, at 4 p.m. at Gurney's Inn in Montauk, there will be a poetry reading by members of the East End Poetry Workshop. Carol Sherman, Diana Chang, Janice Bishop, and Jean Kemper-Hoffmann will read.

Few would argue with the statement that technology has made the world smaller, bringing people in its far corners virtually face to face. What might be a logical corollary, however, that the technological revolution also has made the world friendlier, is highly debatable. In fact, it would seem that people in close proximity with similar roots but divergent beliefs have the most virulent disputes.

Memorial Day, which has just passed, reminds us of those who should never be forgotten. It also should remind us of how far the nations of the world have come since the last global war. Every small advance is welcome.

News from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this month about a joint project with Japan is doubly welcome. According to NOAA, newly available data on oceanic surface wind direction and speed will make it possible to more accurately predict the path and intensity of hurricanes and other severe storms.

The data are observed by an instrument built by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that is carried on a satellite developed, launched, and operated by the National Space Development Agency of Japan. An official of NOAA's Marine Prediction Center called the results a "major breakthrough."

Let's hope that eastern Long Island is safer as a result and consider that the world is safer because of the cooperation of former enemies.

Bay Street Theatre kicks off its sixth season with another blissed-out program cover by the brilliant Paul Davis, and with the world premiere of "Make Someone Happy," a celebration of the long, fabulous lives and careers of the lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

The multi-Tony-award-winning duo, both of whom have houses in the Hamptons, were in the audience Friday night (the show opened Saturday), Mr. Green beaming and tapping his feet in the front row, Ms. Comden perched high in the back. Separated physically as they are in life, but spiritually united in the temple of their work, they received a huge ovation.

"Make Someone Happy" sparkles with local talent. The sometimes bawdy, always funny, Phyllis Newman, Mr. Green's wife, thought up the idea for the evening, wrote the book, and directed.

Newman's Credits

Honored for such Broadway shows as "Subways Are for Sleeping," which earned her a Tony, and for Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound," which won a Tony nomination, she has other credits including such hits as "Bells Are Ringing," "Wonderful Town," and her one-woman show, "The Madwoman of Central Park West," co-written and directed by Arthur Laurents.

She shares the writing honors here with the hilarious David Ives, who's "from away." Not one to recoil from a ribald quip himself, he's noted for the fresh, hip "All in the Timing," an evening of one-act comedies that won the Outer Critics Circle award in 1994.

As for music, well, how about tunes by Leonard Bernstein, Southampton's Cy Coleman, Roger Edens, Larry Grossman, and Jule Styne - some of the greatest musical comedy composers of our time?

Songs like "New York, New York," "Just in Time," "Learn to Be Lonely," "Singin' in the Rain," and "The Party's Over" light up the evening.

Toss in a magical set by Sag Harbor's Tony Walton, right-on costumes by Sharon Sprague, Kirk Bookman's glamorous lighting, Randy Freed's sound design, Andrew Lippa's musical direction, and Jeanine Tesori's flowing vocal arrangements, and you have a level of talent that could shoot the moon.

Singing and dancing their way through Comden and Green's five decades of collaboration are a cast of six - three Bettys and three Adolphs - who personify the writing team at three stages in their lives: "young, medium, and well-done," as Betty III (Dee Hoty) puts it.

Three Bettys, Three Adolphs

As Betty I, the ingenue, the lovely Melissa Errico, who last starred on Broadway as Eliza Doolittle opposite Richard Chamberlain in "My Fair Lady," displays a pristine singing voice and personifies the scrappy temperament that kept her character glued to the typewriter for lo those many years.

Paula Newsome, as the riper Betty II, is more of a belter with a fuller voice and the commanding presence of woman who knows how to do what she's doing: It's a vibrant performance.

The gifted Ms. Hoty, recently honored by two Tony nominations for best actress in a musical, portrays Betty III at a more philosophical stage: wiser, tarter, at peace with her "lifetime in little rooms" and with the peculiar intimacy of being "verbal partners, joined at the brain."

The three Adolphs, Max Perlman, Jim Bracchitta, and Adam Grupper, are not as charismatic as their counterparts, but they put a good deal of energy and humor into their demanding song-and-dance roles.

Something Missing

In remarks to The Star last week, Mr. Green said that while there's no linear plot to "Make Someone Happy," "it does have a thread of a story and, of course, tons and tons of numbers."

Insisting that "it's not based on reality in any way," Ms. Comden described the show as "more of an attempt to capture our characters - nothing exact, nothing factual."

Perhaps unwittingly, "the longest-running creative theater partnership in history" put its finger on just what seems to be missing from this lavishly talented production: a story. But of course!

The "thread of a story" Mr. Green mentioned boils down to this: Two young lyricists meet, and agree to collaborate. He paces. She types. They free-associate. They put sex off limits so they can be creative together. They marry other people.

The Sound Of Applause

The point of it all? They crave "the sound of applause." And, twice spurning Hollywood's big bucks, they get it in spades: six Tony awards, honors from the Kennedy Center, and work that's loved and performed around the world.

There are about 35 songs in "Make Someone Happy" - a long evening. Each is presented out of the context of the show for which it was originally written, and bereft of the passion of the character who was moved to sing it.

This more-or-less disembodied delivery unfortunately diminishes the songs' emotional impact, particularly when so many numbers come in such rapid-fire succession, sung by six different vocalists. Perhaps the show would have worked better as a simple concert.

As it is, we're entertained but rather drained: The evening has an empty feeling. If there's a story to be told, Ms. Comden and Mr. Green have chosen to withhold it, no doubt with good reason. But tiptoeing around the outskirts of their long, productive collaboration is not a fulfilling experience.

The country music industry, despite its best efforts to maintain an aw-shucks, down-home appeal, is a well-honed machine that is both sophisticated and efficiently formulaic.

Its songwriters crank out polished and well-constructed tunes the way Detroit used to produce cars in the mid-'50s, and its performers are well versed in the art of giving their mostly working-class audiences what they paid all that hard-earned money to hear.

Willie Nelson, who opened the 1997 Absolut Vodka-Seagram's Tonic Waters series to a standing-room-only crowd at Guild Hall on Sunday, is no exception.

Like A Pro

On the last stop of his tour, Mr. Nelson and his six-member band, Family, performed what was probably a rote song list heavily laden with Mr. Nelson's own hits - "Good-Hearted Woman," "Crazy," "On the Road Again" - tributes to other country stars like Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson, and a smattering of chestnuts - "Georgia On My Mind," "All of Me," and "Stardust."

It didn't seem to matter to him that the crowd, except for a few die-hards, was anything but country. Or, for that matter, that most people in the audience probably had little trouble coughing up the $70 for a seat or a chance to lean against the wall in the cozy John Drew Theater.

Mr. Nelson, dressed in black sleeveless T-shirt, jeans, and running shoes, handled his chores like the old pro he is, acknowledging each round of applause with a wide grin and pausing, like Elvis with his hankies, to hand out a couple of his trademark red bandannas to two children in the front row.

Thrown Away

But that effort to be all things to all people also undermined Mr. Nelson's performance. Truly outstanding gems like "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" were often sandwiched between lesser songs or given cursory treatments that turned them into throwaways.

His cover of Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" included only half the verses, and his phrasing was off on others, including Mr. Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee," which overshadowed the nice groove his band had laid down.

The breakneck pace required to cram as many hits as possible into a 90-minute show also unfortunately hemmed in Mr. Nelson's musicians. The level of competence required to play regularly with a star of Mr. Nelson's caliber is generally conceded to be far greater than that of many musicians who probably make a great deal more money on the rock circuit. But, except for a few moments, Mr. Nelson rarely let his band members strut their stuff.

Weathered Guitar

As a result, a concert that got off to a rousing start with "Whisky River" rarely was able to get a full head of steam under it. It was if Mr. Nelson, with a stable of horses that could finish 1-2-3 in the Kentucky Derby, was content to let them graze in the paddock.

What little instrumental interplay there was focused on Mr. Nelson's own guitar playing. He's damn good. Although he plays an old beat-up classical guitar with nylon strings that give it a warm, bluesy tone, Mr. Nelson picks it hard, producing melodic solos overflowing with notes.

His muscular approach has obviously taken a toll on his instrument. What was a small opening worn beneath the sound hole from his powerful downstroke when he last appeared here, at the 1992 Back at the Ranch concert, has grown considerably. It gives one pause to wonder if Mr. Nelson, who seems as intertwined with his guitar as bull briar vines are to trees in the woods, will be able to carry on once it gives up the ghost.

Save The Oldies

In any case, he will still have his voice. A hard-edged twang - close your eyes and you can almost picture Ross Perot on stage - can turn into a resigned whisper or scrape bottom at his command.

Despite his insistence on playing the big hits, Mr. Nelson was able to surprise. He joked that he was going to put out a reggae album, and, referring to his prodigious output, added, "Maybe it's out already," before launching into dignified, restrained, and, thank God, not rushed covers of Jimmy Cliff's "Sitting in Limbo" and "The Harder They Come."

Late in his show, Mr. Nelson also paused long enough -and found it necessary to apologize for some reason - to play a stripped-down version accompanied by guitar and piano of "She's Gone" from his most recent release, "Spirit." It's a lovely, haunting, and soulful song that begged the question: Why doesn't an artist of Mr. Nelson's stature feel free enough to concentrate on his newer material and consign the oldies to the attic to be pulled out and worn only on special occasions?

Eager To Please

Maybe the answer lies in the country aversion - born with the Grand Ole Opry and carried on today - to taking for granted the people who pay your meal ticket.

However, that desire to please, which often comes across as artificial, can also be genuine. Even with a long ride back to his home in Texas ahead of him, Mr. Nelson was accommodating, waiting in his customized tour bus at least a half an hour after the show while 25 of his newest old friends from East Hampton, including some of Guild Hall's season ticketholders and a few awestruck fans, climbed on board. He handed out autographed glossies, posed for snapshots, and planted a kiss or two on a beaming cheek.

The man looked tired. Tired, but pleased.

Recreational striped bass fishing came on strong last week. Charter captains, whose customers may keep two bass measuring 28 inches or longer per day, have reported excellent fishing in the tidal rips off Montauk Point.

It's like a return to fall fishing, complete with cold wind, diving gannets, and bass, some large ones, swirling on the surface chasing bait.

Michael Potts, captain of the Bluefin IV, reported that the first 11 fish caught on Sunday were keepers, one "regal legal" measuring over 36 inches.

He then took his party toward Block Island after cod, and got two, although the spot south of the island was "laden with dogs," he said - dogfish, that is, the bane of cod fishermen.

The trip ended with the Bluefin's anglers reeling in 19 flounder off Block Island in the two to three-pound range. Captain Potts reported mackerel south of Montauk Point.

Tackle Shop To Reopen

Harvey Bennett's Tackle Shop, once located at Skimhampton, has become a movable feast for sport anglers and commercial pinhookers. The Tackle Shop will open its doors in the Arts Building, No. 3 Fort Pond Boulevard in Springs, beginning June 15.

After weeks of wondering where the big bluefish were comes word of large schools off Cherry Harbor, Gardiner's Island. Demand is such that blues were said to be selling for as much as $1.10 per pound.

Striped bass were thick around Big Rock near the windmill on Gardiner's Island. The commercial season is not scheduled to open until July.

Okay Powering

Clammers received good news last week during the monthly meeting of Town Trustees at Town Hall.

Richard Lester, on behalf of a number of diggers of soft clams, asked the Trustees for permission to "power" steamers from the flat on the eastern tip of Hicks Island, off Napeague. Powering involves the use of an outboard motor's prop wash to unearth the clams.

The Trustees agreed, as they have in the past, to allow the special season from July 2 to Sept. 1, to make the clams available for the summer restaurant season.

The quota is to be three bushels per day, per boat.

The Trustees also announced their intention of amending the town shellfishing laws, as was done last summer, to allow the sale of oysters beginning in early July.

Luna, my Percheron-Lipizzan- cross mare, was due to foal on May 16. It was only May 10 but, since she was showing signs of being early, I was keeping a close watch.

After several peaceful hours observing her in her stall, as she went about her business in her typically stately and dignified manner, I came to the conclusion that nothing would happen that night. Mother's Day was two days away and perhaps Luna, a horse with a great sense of occasion, would observe the day by becoming a mother herself.

Four hours later, I heard Luna whinnying from the barn. Not unusual, she did that every morning when she heard me letting the dogs into the backyard. But this morning something was different in the sound of her voice.

"She's foaled!" I thought as I rushed through the back gate, dogs leaping in my wake.

Desperate Call

She called out again as I ran toward the barn, and the call had a desperate exhausted sound to it. I knew then that something was terribly wrong.

At first glance, the scene that greeted me was a beautiful one - a healthy, sturdy foal nursing from its mother. But Luna was looking everything but healthy and sturdy. She stood shuddering, covered in sweat. When I entered her stall and touched her neck, she was icy to the touch and her normally expressive, friendly eyes were glazed and unseeing.

Suddenly she began to plunge forward. Around the huge foaling stall she reeled. Her legs kept buckling under her, but she fought to stay on her feet.

The foal, following his instinct to remain at her side, stuck to her like a barnacle. At one point her massive hindquarters, swinging violently out of control, slammed into him and threw him hard against the wall.

Rare But Fatal

Shocked into action, I pulled him into my arms and carried my leggy burden into a far corner of the stall. Luna collapsed onto the stall floor. When I returned from placing a rushed and frantic emergency call to my veterinarian, a terrifying sight greeted me. The foal had returned to his mother's side and his spindly legs had become enmeshed with the madly thrashing legs of his mother.

Again, I gathered him into my arms and hoisted him away. Miraculously, he was unhurt. When I turned back to his mother, she lay still. Luna, my beautiful Luna, was gone.

Reinforcements soon arrived in the form of Pam Glennon, my invaluable helper, and Dr. Davis, my veterinarian. Judging from her sudden and total collapse, Dr. Davis surmised that Luna had ruptured an artery when foaling - a rare event and one that always proves fatal despite any attempts at intervention.

Saving The Foal

Kindly but efficiently, he marshaled his teary troops into saving the life that remained. A foal is born with an insufficient immune system. The first milk that it suckles from its mother, known as colostrum, contains the antibodies that it needs to survive. It was essential to get this milk into Luna's baby.

Getting the milk into the foal necessitated getting it out of Luna first, and Dr. Davis took on the sad job of milking her to obtain the precious colostrum. Pam hurriedly prepared a stall for the foal and then rushed off in search of baby bottles while I called local barns in search of equipment and milk supplements.

Due to the kindness of some complete strangers and of close friends, by midafternoon I was in possession of an arsenal of nipples, bottles, and formulas. And the foal was in possession of a name, albeit a possibly politically incorrect one. Due to the white circles around his eyes that give him the appearance of wearing blackface, we named him Jolson.

Equine Sociopaths

A true survivor, Jolson eagerly drained every drop of the colostrum from the bottle. Through the following night I gave him a much appreciated feeding of formula every two hours. Jolson's nutritional needs were now being met, but what of his psychological needs?

Horses are herd animals. They need interaction with their own kind to learn how to function in an appropriate manner.

"Horses that are hand-raised by people are different and not different in a good way," counseled Dr. Browning, Dr. Davis's associate at the South Fork Animal Hospital.

Foster Mother

Other experts concurred. Horses raised by people usually have behavioral problems that render them useless and often downright dangerous. Without experiencing the give and take of horse society, they respect no rules and are, in effect, sociopathic.

Enter Dolly Pouska. Ms. Pouska runs a nurse-mare business in Maryland. She weans the foals early from her broodmares and milks the mares, keeping them lactating and ready to serve in emergencies such as mine.

Barely over 24 hours after his birth, Ms. Pouska's truck and trailer pulled into my driveway and Jolson met Dixie, his new mom. Appropriately enough, it was Mother's Day.

Jolson was immediately enamored of his foster mother. Alas, typically, she was not of the same opinion. Mares know their own foals and Dixie, a very pretty little quarter horse, knew that this gangly, big-eared boy was not hers.

Began To Relent

Ms. Pouska, a kindly woman with a marvelously infectious chortle, instructed us on how to get the mare to accept the foal. Keep them together as close as possible and make sure that the foal nurses frequently. When the mare begins to pick up the scent of her milk on the foal, she'll accept him.

"She'll come round and love and care for him like he's her own," said Ms. Pouska reassuringly.

At the time, it took somewhat of a leap of faith to believe that, given the snapping teeth and stomping feet of Dixie, but I was determined to give Jolson the best start in life. I owed it to Luna.

The ensuing three days and nights were very, very long, and if not for the help of friends, in particular Jennifer McGivern, who took over supervision duties for me so I could snatch some sleep, I would doubtless be communicating this column from the grave. But, wonders of wonders, Dixie began to relent.

Burgeoning Affection

The signs of her burgeoning affection for Jolson were small and subtle at first. She began to look up from her hay to check on his whereabouts. Then signs of protectiveness began to appear. Finally, gloriously, she began actively to seek him out and stand guard over him while he slept.

Dixie loves her gangly, big-eared boy now. She loves him a lot but is also firmly teaching him the etiquette appropriate for young gentleman horses.

And for that I love Dixie, and nothing is too good for her - the best hay, the best feed and, of course, the best carrots.

A Special Horse

I've learned a great deal from this experience. Frightening things as well as practical things. But the most positive thing I've learned is that, though the horse world is competitive and, at times catty, when the chips are down, we all remember why we got into this world in the first place, because we love and cherish these animals.

I am very grateful to all the people, many of them whom I don't know or barely know, who called with advice, support, and offerings of supplies. And extremely grateful to Dr. Davis for his expertise and reassuring calm during the worst of the crisis.

And, most of all, I am grateful to Luna, a truly wonderful, special horse. We all love and miss you very much.