"The Cat and the Fiddle" is a delightful surprise. A 70-year-old surprise, to be sure, but a good one regardless. San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon is dedicated to the rediscovery and restaging of forgotten and neglected musicals, and "Cat" fits the bill to perfection. The 1931 Jerome Kern/Otto Harbach piece had a good run back then - 400 performances - and the 1934 movie made from it, featuring Jeanette MacDonald, was also successful. Kern's gorgeous tunes are not among his most frequently performed, but they certainly stand up well under the test of time: "The Night Was Made for Love," "She Didn't Say Yes," "Poor Pierrot," "One Moment Alone," and more. And yet, with all that, "Cat" fairly disappeared, and if you see this fine production - at the Eureka Theater through July 22 only - you won't understand why. One negative factor (on Broadway and in US productions) may be that about one-third of the text is in French, but otherwise, it's good music, a fair story, a strong second act, engaging, interesting - far better than many more successful musicals. It is fresh, sincerely romantic material, pulled together with a masterful hand. The difficult romance and even more complicated collaboration between an American girl and a Romanian composer in Brussels has dynamite lyrics. Under Barbara Day Turner's music direction and piano accompaniment (with Brandon Adams) and Greg MacKellan's stage direction, "Cat" comes across as a tightly organized, eminently entertaining work. The large cast is headed by competent lead singers, with limited voices but providing fine musical performances: Susan Himes Powers is Shirley, Bill Fahrner is Victor. The show's most attractive performance comes from G. Scott Kaufman's Pompineau: he sings simply, from the heart. In the case of Alison Aylers (in the role of the trouble-maker Odette), a far bigger voice and an intense stage presence overshoot the target; "too much" is not nearly enough, unlike Kaufman's just-right performance. Caroline Altman, Narelle Yeo, Catherine Sheldon, David Gunderman, Richard Wenzel, Sean Sharp and Patrick Leveque (especially) provide a fine ensemble in the other leading roles. Check out www.42ndStMoon.com for information, and try to squeeze in the small theater (twice the size of the company's previous home, but still not big enough) before the run is over. "Cat" is worth a couple of visits. Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask]