Know what you need for a bang-up revival of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical “Pal Joey?” What's needed is a leading man who is equally great singing, dancing and charming the ladies, and has brains, sex appeal and star-in-the-making intensity. Easy, no?

The Roundabout Theatre Company gets a lot right with its handsome revival of the jazzy classic - just not the guy on the marquee.

In the first few minutes of Joe Mantello's production, aspiring nightclub impresario and womanizer Joey Evans dances a high-energy number, switches immediately into song, then dances and has snappy patter with the club owner, with barely a second to catch his breath.

Relative newcomer Matthew Risch breaks a sweat, when the audience should see from the get-go that Joey is a triple-threat. Instead, the audience mostly sees a sweet, hardworking chorus boy in over his head.

If “Pal Joey” has a weak center, the glitter at the fringes is plenty engaging. Richard Greenberg's rewrite of the John O'Hara book flashes with keen wit and shadows of melancholy, raises the emotional stakes for each character and avoids O'Hara's more formulaic plot devices.

Choreographer Graciela Daniele keeps the cast bumping and high stepping with jazzy dances. Martha Plimpton makes a sizzling musical theater debut as the jaded singer Gladys Bumps, dryly unzipping Lorenz Hart's perfectly packaged rhymes.

Stockard Channing is classy and poised, and while she may not be a great singer, she lends worldly humor and stylish charisma to classic tunes such as "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered." If only she could have lent some of that star presence to her leading man.

Although “Pal Joey” is not a Broadway masterpiece on the level of “West Side Story” or “Guys And Dolls,” but it is a sophisticated showcase of old-fashioned glamor and wit. As such, it's still well worth a visit to Studio 54, but don’t expect to see a star being born.