Entertainment

‘Promises’ are fulfilled

Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s 1968 hit “Promises, Promises” has been called too silly to bring back. But the revival that opened on Broadway last night embraces this very ’60s brand of fluff with contagious gusto.

Led by Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth, the show is like a big dessert cart — with just enough bittersweet grace notes to prevent things from being marshmallow-cloying.

Directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford, the production has been slightly backdated to 1962. This places it closer to the release of the musical’s source, Billy Wilder’s movie “The Apartment,” but also puts contemporary audiences in a “Mad Men” frame of mind.

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As in the TV show, there’s a lot of philandering married executives at the Consolidated Life insurance company. Except that, unlike Don Draper, these guys are too low on the totem pole to afford hotel rooms. So they borrow the studio apartment of their single colleague, Chuck Baxter (Hayes) — who himself pines for Fran Kubelik (Chenoweth), a dining-room employee hiding a melancholy streak under a bubbly blond exterior.

Bacharach’s brilliant score is the epitome of the pop-Broadway hybrid, and this revival adds two of his best songs to nuggets such as “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.”

Ashford has said these extra tracks are filling “emotional beats” in the story, but it’s clear they’re filling Cheno rather than emo needs: Fran just didn’t have enough solos. The insertion of “I Say a Little Prayer” and “A House Is Not a Home” makes little narrative sense, but then narrative sense was never the strong point of Neil Simon’s book.

After all, this is the kind of show in which a bar scene serves purely as a vehicle for drunken antics — specifically, those of Katie Finneran, who, after her Tony-winning turn in 2001’s “Noises Off,” confirms she’s a comic genius of the first order.

Amazingly, Hayes holds his own against her.

Indeed, the “Will & Grace” star is a revelation. Chuck is a paradox — a self-effacing lead — but the actor handles the transitions between the character’s passive bearing and his active imagination with dexterity.

Hayes, Chenoweth and the excellent supporting cast — including Dick Latessa — benefit from Ashford’s direction: The staging of pop songs has rarely been as sharp as it is in this show.

On the other hand, Ashford underwhelms as choreographer, which is odd considering the bang-up dances he created for “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Cry-Baby.” The biggest letdown is “Turkey Lurkey Time,” an ensemble number with a single purpose: to kill. Here, it delivers only a flesh wound.

But this isn’t enough to spoil the fun. “Promises, Promises” is a candy-flavored ride that more than delivers on its title.

elisabeth.vincentelli@nypost.com