The Seagull

It's been quite a season for Chekhov, what with the Actors' Shakespeare Project's recent take on "The Cherry Orchard," ArtsEmerson bringing us "Man in a Case" as part of its World on Stage series, and now the Huntington Theatre Company's gorgeously realized production of "The Seagull."

"The Seagull" has had many a production in Boston in recent years, and for the most part they have offered plenty of interesting, intriguing interpretive elements. This production may well be the handsomest, with Ralph Funicello's scenic design for Acts One and Two boasting a forest, a suitably crude stage for the strange play within the play, and a full, gradually rising moon. Acts Three and Four are similarly lush in terms of Funicello's interior set, which the cast swiftly redress between acts.

James F. Ingalls' lighting design is similarly lush and meticulous; Robert Morgan's costuming is nothing sort of breathtaking. And the cast includes Nael Nacer, Thomas Derrah, and -- in the role of Trigorin -- an outstanding Ted Koch, not to mention real-life mother and son Kate Burton and Morgan Ritchie as aging actress Irina and Treplev, her troubled son, who is struggling to become a writer and forge "new forms" on stage and page alike. Simply put, the cast shines: This is a strong ensemble, but the individual actors do marvelous work, too, with Meredith Holzman nailing Masha, Marc Vietor bringing an inner glow to Dorn, and Nancy E. Carroll stealing her scenes as Paulina.

But something's missing. "The Seagull," like "The Cherry Orchard," is a challenge to get right, requiring a delicate balance between comedy and drama. It's all too easy to slip into farce, all too easy to tumble into melodrama. As directed by Maria Aitken, this production, as pretty as a wedding cake, seems to take to the air and hover, lest it touch down too hard on one or the other the play's two elements; and indeed, when it does come to rest, the direction skews toward the comic, creating a light-hearted and effervescent tone, though at the expense of the dramatic undertones.

This production is well worth seeing just for its manifold pleasures. It's not heavy, by any means, but neither does this hovering allow "The Seagull" to take wing or delve deep.

"The Seagull" continues through April 6 at the B.U. Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston. Ticket start at $25 and can be purchased online at huntingtontheatre.org, via phone at 617 266 0800, or in person at the BU Theatre Box Office, 264 Huntington Ave. and the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA Box Office, ?527 Tremont St. in Boston's South End