A performance as great as his nose

Kevin Kline as the true romantic, Cyrano. (Joe Sinnott/WNET New York)

Packed with swordfights, poetry, and an irresistible if highly romanticized sense of honor, Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac" is a trusty old warhorse of a play. When it's ridden with energy, grace, and - to borrow the word the play itself made famous - panache, it's still a grand entertainment.

Kevin Kline knows exactly how to hold the reins. His performance in David Leveaux's Broadway revival drew critical acclaim and sold-out houses, and the "Great Performances" broadcast of that show, which airs tonight at 8 on PBS, brims with vitality and style whenever he's onscreen. That's different from how often he's onstage - he's almost never off - but, unfortunately, the frequent cuts to close-ups of other players are the apparently inevitable price of watching a play onscreen instead of live: You'll be looking where the camera tells you to, not where the energy of the production naturally leads your eye.

This is especially frustrating whenever TV director Matthew Diamond cuts to Jennifer Garner - something he naturally does quite often, as she's playing the leading female role of Roxane, the object of adoration for both Cyrano and his tongue-tied friend, Christian. Whatever her skills as a television actress, in this televised version of her stage performance Garner comes across as stiff, broad, and exaggerated, contorting her features into rubbery caricatures and flailing wildly with her arms. Her Roxane is ungainly, utterly out of touch with the play's period setting, and generally painful to watch.

Other than that, Monsieur Rostand, they've done pretty well by your play. Daniel Sunjata's Christian is handsome and charmingly thick-headed, as he should be, with just enough glimmers of near-comprehension to make him seem worthy of his friend's devotion. Chris Sarandon is gratifyingly villainous as the slippery Comte de Guiche, and John Douglas Thompson (so memorable in last summer's "Othello" at Shakespeare & Company) solid, hearty, and endearingly high-spirited as Cyrano's loyal companion Le Bret.

Leveaux's production looks handsome, stylish, and theatrical in the best sense, with candlelight and painted backdrops lending an appropriately antique air to the 19th-century play's 17th-century setting. His staging also moves with verve and, well, panache, though again it's sometimes frustrating to guess at the overall feel of a particular scene by piecing together the individual close-ups we're given of the characters in it. The only thing more frustrating is the occasional use of a weird, almost aerial perspective that jerks us from muchtooclose to waaay far awaaay.

It's worth enduring such irritations, however, to experience the real delights of Kline's performance as Cyrano. Here we have a great romantic character - the man whose huge nose makes him too shy to declare his love for Roxane, and whose huge spirit makes him willing to help his friend declare his own love for her instead - and a great actor giving that character everything he's got. Kline's Cyrano is quick-witted, fleet-footed, and full of charm, with an underlying melancholy that slowly but completely breaks your heart.

Kline's work is, exactly as advertised, a great performance. And, even if it sometimes feels here as if you're watching it through a tiny window, it's one absolutely not to miss.

Louise Kennedy can be reached at kennedy@globe.com.