STAGE REVIEW : New, Improved ‘Burn This’ by Elysium Theatrical at Gem

Stripped of the kitsch that submerged this production the first time around in Laguna Beach, Elysium Theatrical’s “Burn This” has come up for air in a much-improved version at the Gem Theatre here. The improvements are largely a matter of subtraction, not inspiration. They still leave Lanford Wilson’s anguished comedy gasping for a breath of reality.

This time, having suppressed such former embellishments as swooning violins and dancing phantoms in black leotards, director Peter Henry Schroeder shapes the bitter romance of this four-character play with a leaner hand. Consequently, the overall outline of the play is less blurred.

Even so, Schroeder can’t altogether suppress his impulse for hyperbole and tawdry effects. He continues to spell out theatrical details, by way of see-through scrims, better left to our imagination. And one inept new note--a brief soundtrack added to the play’s opening moments to illustrate the fate of a character who never appears--comes off like an outdated radio adventure.

Meanwhile, the tempo of the production tends to lag badly, which is not surprising given the dismal size of the audience (nine paying customers on an opening-weekend night). Nothing flattens a performance more readily than the silence of an empty house.

Dan Millington (as the hopped-up interloper Pale) and Jay Michael Fraley (as the gay advertising writer Larry) are as sturdy as before. Millington virtually explodes onto the set (a Manhattan loft) with a wild, drunken, scatological entrance that continues to boil with intermittent rage. Fraley pads around in a bathrobe and slippers dropping campy one-liners about everything from corporate Christmas cards to old Hollywood movies and steamy sexual fantasies.

The two cast replacements--Alex Katehakis and Reagan Bailey Wilks--bring occasional credibility to their roles. Katehakis, as the central character Anna, a choreographer who is devastated by the death of her gay former roommate and dance partner, lacks range or delicacy, but shows flashes of promise. Wilks, as Anna’s screenwriter boyfriend, Burton, is awkward and unseasoned. By the second act, however, he manages to create sympathy for his character.

“Burn This,” Gem Theatre, 12852 Main St., Garden Grove. Ends tonight. 8 p.m. $16-$20; (714) 636-7213. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.