NEW YORK, April 22 — “Doctor Zhivago,” the endless Boris Pasternak novel familiar to most of us from the endless David Lean movie, has been resurrected for dramatic purposes once again, as a musical that opened at the Broadway Theatre yesterday night.

The verdict: Um, is it over yet?

Hold your fire, Russophiles and cinephiles. Obviously many revere the book, first published in Italy in 1957 after being banned by the authorities in the Soviet Union, where it wasn’t published until decades later. The 1965 movie, starring a luminous Julie Christie and a pair of moist, doggy eyes otherwise known as Omar Sharif, is considered by many a classic in Lean’s late, sumptuously pictorial style. But after slogging through both recently, I remain staunch in my opinion that the book is among the most drearily indigestible of so-called modern classics, and the movie rich in visual atmosphere but dramatically flaccid.

My reaction to the musical, with a book by Michael Weller, music by Lucy Simon and lyrics by Michael Korie and Amy Powers, doesn’t derive from the usual sorrowful observations about the inferiority of the stage version to a beloved book or movie. No, the dismay here has to do with the musical itself, a turgid throwback to the British invasion of Broadway in the 1980s, and more specifically to the epic-romantic style of the Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil shows “Les Misérables” and “Miss Saigon.”

Of course, those musicals, too, have innumerable admirers. If full-throated love ballads and thundering militaristic anthems, baggy plots, highly expositional dialogue and doomed romances are your cup of tea, fire up the samovar and give the show a try. But be warned: Even as it shares similarities with those long-running hits, “Doctor Zhivago” is inferior in most respects to the musicals it is emulating.

While billed as being based on the novel, the musical, directed in workmanlike fashion by Des McAnuff (“Jersey Boys”), bears a fairly close structural resemblance to the movie, which simplified and clarified the jagged, digressive style of the book. Doctor Zhivago (Tam Mutu) has established a reputation as a poet in both movie and musical, whereas in the book his literary fame is essentially posthumous; both excise Zhivago’s third love interest, Marina. Presumably to preclude bewilderment, if not rioting, from those who’ve just come to see a favorite movie onstage, the musical also borrows “Somewhere My Love,” aka the famous “Lara’s Theme” from the movie’s score by Maurice Jarre, with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.

Book, movie and musical of course share the same basic love-triangle plot, set in Russia during the tumultuous early decades of the 20th century. Zhivago, played with tormented earnestness by Mutu, marries the love of his youth, Tonia Gromeko (Lora Lee Gayer), with whom he was raised after being orphaned as a child. Before leaving to fight the Germans, however, he is bewitched by a chance encounter with Lara Guishar (Kelli Barrett).

Lara, who has been seduced by the lawyer Victor Komarovsky (Tom Hewitt), breaks in upon the wedding celebrations of Tonia and Zhivago, and tries to kill Komarovsky. Since Komarovsky was Zhivago’s father’s lawyer — a rather shady one — Zhivago senses the noble motives behind Lara’s rash act, and a love born in part of sympathy is awakened.

As the winds of history blow them about like so many loose grains of wheat, Zhivago and Lara cross paths more than once. She turns up as a nurse with his unit at the front, having come in search of her husband, the Communist firebrand Pasha Antipov (Paul Alexander Nolan). Later they both find themselves living near each other in the Ural Mountains, Zhivago having fled Moscow with his family after the upheavals of the revolution destroy the economy and thousands of city dwellers face starvation.

The minimalist sets, by Michael Scott-Mitchell, do not exactly drench us in atmosphere. A slightly raised platform scoots rather aimlessly around the stage, impersonating the trains that shuttle the characters this way and that. Presumably this is intended to add some dynamism to the show’s visual impact, but the famous turntable from “Les Miz” it isn’t.

More unfortunately, the actors render their characters without much spark or individuality. Barrett’s Lara looks lovely and sings beautifully but radiates a blandness that makes you wonder why she’s the cynosure of just about every other unslaughtered man in Russia. Nolan, who played the title role in McAnuff’s revival of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” effectively imbues the young Antipov with a brash recklessness and fierce dedication to the Red cause; he’s less persuasive, however, when Antipov has mutated into the brutal partisan leader Strelnikov (long story), who oversees the forced conscription of Zhivago into the rebel ranks.

Hewitt makes the most of his semivillainous role as the opportunistic survivor Komarovsky, who changes his politics to suit the times as if simply donning a new cravat. In the title role, Mutu sings strongly and with commitment and does a decent job of communicating the divided loyalties that tear at the heart of Zhivago. But overall there’s a generic quality to the characters, as written, that is probably beyond the scope of an actor to correct.

I should warn the jumpy that those warnings about the sound of gunfire in the lobby and the program are meant in earnest. With a world war and a bloody national revolution to depict, “Doctor Zhivago” regularly rattles the rafters (and your nerves) with the sound of explosions and gunshots. The cynic in me wondered whether all this artillery was a dramatic choice, to inject notes of harsh realism as a corrective to all the swooning romanticism, or a practical one, to keep the audience from nodding off, and Broadway wags from dubbing the show “Doctor Zzzzhivago.” Oops. Too late.

Production Notes

‘Doctor Zhivago’

Book by Michael Weller; lyrics by Michael Korie and Amy Powers; music by Lucy Simon; based on the novel by Boris Pasternak; directed by Des McAnuff; choreography by Kelly Devine; orchestrations by Danny Troob; music director/supervisor, Ron Melrose; sets by Michael Scott-Mitchell; costumes by Paul Tazewell; lighting by Howell Binkley; sound by SCK Sound Design; projections and video by Sean Nieuwenhuis; hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe; special effects design by Greg Meeh; fight director, Steve Rankin; makeup design by Joe Dulude II, aerial effects design by Paul Rubin; music arrangements by Eric Stern; conductor, Rick Fox; music contractor, John Miller; general manager, Alchemy Production Group/Carl Pasbjerg and Abbie M. Strassler; production stage manager, James Harker; management consultant, Aruba Productions/Ken Denison; production manager, Juniper Street Productions. Presented by Anita Waxman, Tom Dokton, Latitude Link, Ted Hartley/RKO Stage and Chunsoo Shin, with Margo and Roger Coleman, Corcoran Productions, J. Todd Harris, the Pelican Group, Chase Mishkin, Wasserman Shaw, Ahmos Hassan, Conrad Prebys and Debbie Turner, Adam Silberman, the Goldiner Group/Caroline Lieberman, Parrothead Productions, Bruce D. Long, and La Jolla Playhouse, in association with Stage Entertainment, Broadway Across America, Grove Entertainment, the Shubert Organization, Tom McInerney, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, Susan Polis Schutz, Tilted Windmills, the Stanford Group, Jim and Judy Harpel, John and Bonnie Hegeman, Itai Shoffman and Sar Inbar, Dark Style Agency, Kelvingrove Ventures, Stephanie Torreno/Eugenie and Keith Goggin, Rao Makineni/Jessica Green, David T. Loudermilk/Cheryl Lachowicz, Robert and Debra Gottlieb/Sharon Azrieli, Halloran Entertainment/Lyubov’ Productions, Lois Weiner and Dr. Robert Weiner/Carl Pate, the Revolution Group/Samajaca Productions, Denise Rich and John Frost; executive producer, Junkyard Dog Productions. At the Broadway Theater, 212-239-6200, doctorzhivagobroadway.com. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes.

With: Tam Mutu (Yurii Zhivago), Kelli Barrett (Lara Guishar), Tom Hewitt (Viktor Komarovsky), Paul Alexander Nolan (Pasha Antipov/Strelnikov), Lora Lee Gayer (Tonia Gromeko), Jamie Jackson (Alexander Gromeko), Jacqueline Antaramian (Anna Gromeko), Jonah Halperin (Young Yurii/Sasha), Sophia Gennusa (Young Lara/Katarina) and Ava-Riley Miles (Young Tonia). — New York Times