STAGE REVIEW : ‘Heartbeats’ Misses a Beat : Theater: Amanda McBroom should face the music and clear her story line of cliche-ridden stereotypes.

Among Amanda McBroom’s greatest charms is her ability to appear guileless as a performer. Certainly, the actress-singer-songwriter lays it right on the line in her opening monologue in “Heartbeats,” which opened Wednesday at the Old Globe Theatre’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage.

“I’ve always loved love songs,” she says. “It’s people that make love so much more complicated than it needs to be.”

Yet “Heartbeats” is a strange beast. Not quite a musical or a revue, it is a thin story that strings together a collection of McBroom’s love songs--some funny, some tender, some touching and, the one that made her famous, “The Rose,” an absolute blockbuster.

The problem is, when McBroom tries to write people into the script that now accompanies the revue she premiered in Los Angeles four years ago, the complications of human life overwhelm her.

She reduces the very real struggles that couples face in trying to keep their love alive to an assembly line of cliches:

A husband watches too much football. His wife--a housewife--can’t get his attention. After 20 years, is the magic over? Will he bring her flowers for her 40th birthday? Will he remember to tell her he loves her?

No kidding--that’s the script for which director Bill Castellino shares the credit, or rather the blame.

Even sitcom writers don’t write sitcoms like that anymore--and for good reason. This text belongs in a home for the criminally inane.

The performers are not to be faulted; all six, including McBroom, are terrific both as singers and actors, and they bring out the best from the songs.

McBroom and her real-life husband, George Ball, play the husband and wife at the heart of the play. McBroom is haunting, especially when she delivers “Dreaming”--her portrait of a woman who lives in dreams because dreams “are the only thing that’s mine.”

But can anyone really believe that a woman with as commanding a stage presence as McBroom is a passive victim with no goal or purpose in life other than to get her husband to turn off the television?

You only need to listen to the songs to know that this smart lady knows the score; that her fatal flaw lies not in controlling too little, but in trying to control too much--including this show. If she would face the music and take stock of real people rather than stereotypes, she might have the beginnings of a real musical.

Ball, who will be replaced Sept. 25 by Richard Hilton, offers solid support, as does the four-person ensemble that alternates between playing a stylized Greek chorus and a variety of individual parts. Hilary James, a delicate, sweet-voiced treasure, plays the wife’s memory of herself as a young girl. Impeccable singing is provided by Lee Lucas, who plays the husband’s memory of himself as a young man, as well as Mary Bond Davis as McBroom’s sassy, big-voiced friend, and Daniel McDonald as the son and later a male exotic dancer who tempts McBroom to come home with him for the night.

Kent Dorsey’s set is imaginative and funny--with a bench and a wheel on a revolving stage, he suggests a car weaving on the road. Dorsey’s lighting is fine and Christina Haatainen’s costumes colorful and clever.

The musical direction and vocal arrangements by Jerry Sternbach (who wrote some of the music along with Michele Brourman, Tom Snow and McBroom) are powerful.

The strength of the music, in fact, crushes the fragile story line that McBroom and Castellino have hatched between them.

“HEARTBEATS”

Created by Amanda McBroom and Bill Castellino. Words by Amanda McBroom. Music by Amanda McBroom, Jerry Sternbach, Michele Brourman and Tom Snow. Music direction and vocal arrangements, Jerry Sternbach; additional vocal arrangements, Bill Elliott. Director and choreographer, Bill Castellino. Set and lighting, Kent Dorsey. Costumes, Christina Haatainen. Sound, G. Thomas Clark. Stage manager, Peter Van Dyke. With George Ball (to be replaced Sept. 25 by Richard Hilton), Mary Bond Davis, Hilary James, Lee Lucas, Amanda McBroom and Daniel McDonald. At 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays, with Saturday-Sunday matinees at 2, except for Sept. 29 and Oct. 20 when the matinees will be at 5 p.m. Until Oct. 21. At the Cassius Carter Centre Stage, Balboa Park, (619) 239-2255.