THIS `DIARY OF ANNE FRANK' IS MUCH MORE TRUE TO LIFE.(LIFE & LEISURE)(Theater review)

Byline: MICHAEL KUCHWARA Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The optimism has been tempered and the reality made even harsher in a powerful new version of ``The Diary of Anne Frank'' that manages to move an audience to gasps -- and then tears -- in its gut-wrenching final moments.

This heartfelt but not sentimental production, which opened Thursday at Broadway's Music Box Theater, is far removed from the ``Anne Frank'' that premiered in 1955. What playwright-adapter Wendy Kesselman has done is darken the original, written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and added new, previously unpublished material from the famous diaries.

[Albany's Capital …