Candide, played by Jesse Turtz, and Cunegonde, played by Stefanie Brown, celebrate finding each other again in the song "You Were Dead You Know."

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Leonard Bernstein was all over the place with his music for "Candide."

Literally, all over the place. It travels the globe and borrows cultural influences and time periods, from Renaissance music to sultry tangos.

And the student actors in the Arizona Repertory Theatre production of "Candide," which opened Wednesday, had no trouble keeping up with them.

The exuberant and eclectic music was matched with passion and expertise by many of the University of Arizona students.

Especially Stefanie Brown, who played Cunegonde, the innocent who loves her half-cousin Candide but is stolen away to be used and abused by a couple of powerful men.

She hates it. She loves it. She sings "Glitter and Be Gay," an operatic spoof that has her cursing the deeds she must do but loving the jewels doing them gets her. Brown's crystal voice rose to the challenging song, and she infused the piece with delicious comedic timing.

Jesse Turtz is the optimistic Candide, who believes his teacher, Dr. Pangloss, when he tells him this was "the best of all possible worlds."

Turtz has the look of an innocent, a blank slate ready to absorb whatever he's told. And his golden voice embraced the music.

Jonathan Kobritz stepped into the multiple roles of Voltaire/Dr. Pangloss/Hostage/ Sage with the command the narrator role demands, and a charm that seduced the audience.

But most of the laughs were reserved for Richelle Meiss, the Old Lady with one buttock. She approached the role with a wink-wink and an abandon that made the character's swagger and humor blossom.

Director Harold Dixon took a page or two from the 1997 Harold Prince production and put the action in and around the audience. It was impossible to escape the feeling that you were somehow a part of the madness surrounding you.

While Dixon infused some topical humor that seemed too self-conscious (really, now, do we need a MasterCard "priceless" joke?), he also directed with a sense of wit mixed with purpose.

Speaking of wit, Patrick Holt's costumes were heavy with it. They were sexy, fun, and always underscored the characters, many of whom were quite outrageous.

"Candide" is the tale of the young innocent who puts all his belief in Dr. Pangloss' simplistic and overly optimistic view of life, only to discover the world is full of cruelty and pain and selfishness.

Voltaire's satire gets twisted some in the translation to a musical, but the essence is there, as is the dark perspective.

The Arizona Repertory Theatre embraced the story and the music, and made the thoughts of a 18th-century philosopher and writer seem just as relevant today.

"Candide"

• Presented by: Arizona Repertory Theatre.

• Written by: Music composed by Leonard Bernstein; book by Hugh Wheeler; lyrics by Richard Wilbur, with additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and John Latouche; based on the novel of the same name by Voltaire.

• Director: Harold Dixon.

• When: 7:30 p.m. today-Saturday, Thursday-Nov. 17 and Nov. 29-Dec. 1. Matinees are at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17-18 and Dec. 1-2.

• Where: Tornabene Theatre in the University of Arizona Fine Arts Complex, North Park Avenue and East Speedway.

• Tickets: $21-$29.

• Information: 621-1162.

• Running time: 2 hours, one intermission.

• Contains: Mature themes and adult content.