By KEVIN KITTREDGE

They only look like sweet old ladies.

In Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre's world premiere musical, "Daniel," Vera Mowry Roberts and Nellie McCaslin are bad to the bone. They practice black arts. They plot to throw a holy man to the lions. They support paganism, for their own dastardly ends.

"We're the wicked ones," crowed Roberts, 89. McCaslin is 88. Wickedness gets its due - the ladies eventually find themselves in a retirement home for wizards.

"I get to say 'I hate his place,' " Roberts said.

She would. Indeed, neither lady seems ready for the rocking chair and soft foods. Despite a combined 177 years of life, the two New Yorkers describe themselves as only "semi-retired." McCaslin taught at New York University and has written many books on children's theater. Roberts was chairwoman of the department of theater and film at Hunter College, City University of New York, for a decade, and has written theater textbooks. She is a co-founder of Washington, D.C.'s respected Arena Stage, and was once married to actor Pernell Roberts of "Bonanza" fame.

Rex Stephenson, Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre's artistic director, wrote the text of "Daniel" (the songs are by Michael Perry) and cast both women, whom he has known for years. McCaslin was once his theater teacher in New York. In fact, Stephenson sent her an early draft of "Daniel" - which McCaslin raked over the coals.

"The first one had a lot of problems," McCaslin confirmed. Said Stephenson, who has published 19 plays: "They're still my teachers."

Both women eventually gave "Daniel" a thumbs up.

The senior citizens have enjoyed getting out of New York to work at Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre, which is on the campus of Ferrum College.

"It's about as different from Manhattan as you can find," McCaslin said of Franklin County.

Roberts loves strolling around the campus pond, known as Adams Lake. Wherever you are in the circuit around the pond, she said, the view is beautiful.

Their schedule doesn't include a lot of leisure time, however. The workload for "Daniel" includes two weeks of rehearsals and a week of performances, which began Sunday.

Last Friday was a killer, beginning with a television interview at 7 a.m., then 12 hours of rehearsals. Lunch was sandwiches and milkshakes from Dairy Queen, which the ladies consumed in the theater building while conducting a newspaper interview.

"We were up at 5:30," groused Roberts, a night owl who prefers to get up at 8 or 9 a.m. "It's a grueling schedule." She has not had second thoughts about being in the play, she said. "Once you agree to do something, you do it."

Besides, the ladies said it's a kick to be acting at their age. "You realize you can't do everything you once did," McCaslin said. "But you feel as if you could."

In "Daniel," they pretty much do. "They sing and they dance and they act," said the play's director, Michael Perry (Stephenson does not direct his own plays).

Um, sing?

"We kind of growl it," Roberts said.

Dance?

"A little soft shoe," she added.

"We prance," explained McCaslin.

Growl, dance, prance . . . It must be something to see. Thank Stephenson, who thought it would be fun to cast the women as heavies in his Old Testament-inspired play about a crackerjack Jewish prophet in Babylon. "People seldom think of sweet older ladies like these being the villains," Stephenson said.

Roberts and McCaslin play wizards who plot to throw Daniel out of Babylon, where his influence with the king has grown too strong. The plotters are not named in the Bible, but Stephenson labels them "the Fab Four." The group also includes Joe Ray and recent college graduate Katrina Kozarek.

"They're just amazing people," said Kozarek of her elderly acting partners.

They're no wallflowers, either: "If there's a line they don't like, they come right out and say it . . . Vera's always got something to say," Kozarek said.

McCaslin's character eventually reforms; Roberts' does not. "I'm an unregenerate sinner," Roberts said, and she pays the price - but why give it away? Suffice to say it's comedy with a serious theme - "The constant and eternal struggle between good and evil," McCaslin said.

Not up to speed on the biblical story of Daniel?

Not to worry. Like much of the Bible, it has seeped into us through our pores, even the pores of nonbelievers. Who hasn't heard of Daniel in the lion's den? The feet of clay? The writing on the wall? They're all here, along with a cast of dozens, including 14 area children (they play the lions).

Stephenson hopes the play will entertain not just adults, but children - and be food for thought for all. "I hope they walk out and have something to talk about," he said.

Kevin Kittredge can be reached at 981-3323 or kevin.kittredge@roanoke.com.