‘Ghost’: Great Set, Thin Performances

The set steals the show. The Children’s Theatre Company’s staging of Oscar Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost” is remarkably lavish for a touring children’s production. Small patrons at a recent tour stop at UCLA’s Wadsworth Theatre breathed a chorus of “oooh” and “coool” as soon as they caught sight of the castle wall frame, the statues of guardian knights, the looming interior staircase, mysterious odd-angled doors, lofty “stained-glass” window and curious furnishings of long ago.

Wilde’s wry, 19th-Century tale--about the no-nonsense Otis family who move from America to an ancient English castle and are singularly unimpressed by the 300-year-old ghost haunting it--has the depth of a cartoon here, however. The Minneapolis cast doesn’t quite match the expectations inspired by Jim Guenther’s set design; performances are generally one-dimensional; intermittent English accents are distracting.

Still, Marisha Chamberlain’s adaptation, cleanly directed by Jon Cranney, leaves many of Wilde’s humorous passages intact and Randy Latimer and John Kunik, as hearty Mrs. and Mr. Otis earn some giggles, as does eccentric housekeeper Mrs. Umney (Janet Hanson), while young audience members plainly relate to peers Adam Kolman Marshak and Dustin Weil, as the mischievous Otis boys.

Jolayne Berg has the prerequisite sweetness as the innocent girl who helps the ghost find peace and William T. Leaf is her beau, the boyish Duke of Cheshire; Grant Richey plays the ghost’s noble descendant, Lord Canterville.

Carl Beck, headlining in dual roles as Sir Simon the ghost and as Oscar Wilde, who introduces and closes the show (a nice touch), is the most substantial presence. Beck’s direct appeal to the audience for laughs, however, and his use of contemporary expressions such as “bag it” and “get off it” leave no bridge to a suddenly melancholy and weary Sir Simon begging for spiritual salvation.

Chills and thrills are supplied by skeleton bones and a severed skull bouncing in black light, thunder claps and lightning (Charles D. Craun is credited with the atmospheric light design, Scott W. Edwards did the sound), secret chambers and ghoulish makeup.

David Kay Mickelsen’s costumes are eye-pleasing and fun; Beck as Oscar Wilde, who had a penchant for making outrageous fashion statements, wears a shirt decorated with a vase of flowers and trousers painted to resemble a table.

“The Canterville Ghost,” Irvine Barclay Theatre, today, 2 and 7 p.m., $9-$14, (714) 854-4646, (714) 740-2000; Monday, 7 p.m. Bridges Auditorium, Claremont Colleges, $4-$16, (714) 624-5006.