STAGE REVIEW : ‘The High Life’ Stumbles on the Plot, Regains Higher Ground With Gospels

“The High Life” is an intentionally ironic title for the gospel musical at the Coronet.

The show is about three teen-age sisters who forsake singing in the church in search of “the high life” that’s promised them in nightclubs. What do they find in their new environs?

The low life.

In fact, the vermin who inhabit the wicked clubs are lower than low. The sisters get into big trouble. Their manager doubles as a professional fence, using cars stolen from the lot of the very same church where the sisters used to sing gospel.

Writer Tim Wolfe doesn’t believe in holding back on the melodrama. He does withhold a few important details of the plot, however. For example, only one of the three sisters is really seduced by the secular world. The other two never stop protesting--so why do they go along? It’s never explained.

Another credibility problem: The chief seducer actually tells his female target--in their first meeting--that he considered murdering his first wife. It doesn’t make much of an impression; the romancing continues.

The story would be a lot less predictable--and therefore, more engaging--if it weren’t such a stacked deck. The sisters’ eventual return to the church would carry more weight.

From the beginning, the music makes it abundantly clear that the real high life is to be found in the church. The singing here is irresistibly joyous.

Although it must be tempting for gospel musical makers to rely on old standards, “High Life” features an original score by Calvin Bernard Rhone, minister at Hope of Glory Christian Center in Los Angeles.

Most of Rhone’s songs sound like authentic numbers that might have been lifted from a church service--and they are delivered in a rip-roaring style by the small onstage choir (led by Lonnie Morgan) and by soloists Delta Dickerson and Ernie Banks. Director Andre D. Brooks created a carefully detailed panorama in these church scenes.

A few of Rhone’s tunes attempt to advance the story, in traditional musical theater terms. Not surprisingly, these don’t sound nearly as spontaneous as the others, and one of them has amplification problems that muddy the words--but the attempt is halfway successful.

The Richmond Sisters themselves (Angela Jackson, Karen Harris, Angela Coleman) sing with sweet, close harmonies. But after they become the Sensations, they rely more on slinky outfits than on silky voices.

Nor is the church congregation bereft of handsome clothes; the costumes (credited to three different businesses) are the most impressive ingredient in the otherwise spare design of the show. Myron McKinley is musical director of the three-man band at the back of the stage.

At 366 N. La Cienega Blvd., Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 and 8 p.m. Runs indefinitely. Tickets: $20; (213) 659-2400.