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The theme was a great source of humor when Ben Jonson mined it in 1605 to amuse James I of England with his comedy "Volpone."

It was equally funny when Larry Gelbart updated the tale for his comedy "Sly Fox" in 1976. And it continues to be just as amusing when performed by students of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama.

Broadway producers apparently agree. A trio of them plan to revive it for an April Fool's Day opening there next spring with Richard Dreyfuss as the cynical miser Foxwell J. Sly.

As produced at Carnegie Mellon under the direction of Jed Allen Harris, Gelbart's witty dialogue and shrewd cynicism shine brightly.

Gelbart fast-forwards Jonson's "Volpone" across time and space to late 1800s San Francisco. While the gold rush gets under way beyond the windows of Foxwell J. Sly's bedroom, there's an additional frenzy of acquisition going on indoors.

Sly (Nicholas Webber) and his assistant Able (Casey Spindler) are working a little swindle on the local establishments. Feigning old age, illness and imminent death, Sly is extracting as much wealth as he can from the local minister, lawyer and others on the promise that he will name each one in his will as the heir to his fortune.

Smitten with ardor for the wife of the jealous and ever-vigilant Mr. Truckle, Sly even tests his powers to the limit by making a tryst with Truckle's Missus part of the signing deal.

The resulting furor leads to a stint in jail and an eventual day in court. There Sly, ever the master manipulator, gets the best verdict money can buy and a resolution to the comedy.

Gelbart, probably best known for writing the book for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" with Burt Shevelove, has solid roots in the worlds of vaudeville, burlesque and borscht belt humor.

So it's an opportunity for these Carnegie Mellon drama students to put aside the subtlety of Shakespeare and Chekhov in favor of broad comedic strokes.

Decked out in deliberately overstated rubber noses, ears and eyelashes, overblown wigs and some glaringly colorful costumes worthy of an early 20th-century operetta, they assume the show's characters - creaky old men bent double with arthritic walks, a brassy prostitute in a rainbow of ruffled tiers and a judge with an oversize gavel and undersized brain.

Spindler and Webber portray Able and Sly as a youthful, attractive pair of cynics unencumbered by any hint of scruples or moral qualms. They operate in the knowledge that anyone likely to get hurt deserves it. Audra Blaser's skittish, weepy Mrs. Truckle and Lexy Fridell's assertive, flamboyant Mrs. Fancy ratchet up the action with flash and style. Alex Cendese and Matthew Scott offer humor both physical and verbal as Lawyer Craven and the minister Jethro Crouch, and Mark Silverberg gets a brief but vibrant turn as the pompous, much-agrieved Captain Crouch.

The first act takes a while to set the snares. But once they're wound up, the traps spring shut in the second act with a series of satisfying snaps. Set designer Veerachai "Noom" Vorraratchaikul provides an inventive series of settings for the conspiracies, mishaps and misdeeds that unfold and transform before our eyes. Note the coiled rattlesnake and vulture that emblazon the wooden walls of Sly's bedroom.

As lighting and sound designers, Evan O'Brien and Joshua S. Maszle have much fun with Sly's treasure chest, which is central to both the bedroom and the play's action.

Like the rest of academia, the School of Drama students are on Thanksgiving break after last week's opening performances. The production resumes Dec. 2.

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