STAGE REVIEW : Wandering Plot Haunts ‘Tivoli’ : Unfocused Musical Tries to Give Too Many People a Moment in Spotlight

“Haunting of the Tivoli,” a new musical being staged at the Gem Theatre in Garden Grove, is an incredible hodgepodge of styles and stories, a kind of “42nd Street” meets “Topper” with a healthy dose of “Days of Our Lives” thrown in.

The Tivoli is a dilapidated theater on the brink of demolition, inhabited by a bag lady, Annie, and her invisible companions, the ghosts of Katherine Adair and Ronaldo Drake. Katherine and Ronaldo were killed in a freak accident at the climax of the strangulation scene of “Othello” a century ago, and they’ve been moping around the Tivoli ever since, tripping dancers and spreading a creepy chill wherever they waft their ectoplasmic angst.

Annie lives on the theater’s stage, sleeping in the very bed upon which Katherine and Ronaldo played out their final scene. A self-appointed protectress of the spirits, whom she senses but cannot see, Annie would like to see the Tivoli revitalized so that she and they won’t be reduced to haunting the sidewalk. Her ghost friends, however, seem to dislike the idea of anyone , other than Annie, occupying the premises.

*

Enter a troupe of actors who have booked the theater. While Annie continues to live upstage, the actors rehearse downstage--curiously, without ever acknowledging one another. The disgruntled ghosts begin haunting in earnest and the story accelerates slowly to a liberating seance in the third act.

There’s the germ of an entertaining plot in this tried-and-true formula (“Phantom of the Opera” comes to mind) of a haunted theater invaded by the living, but Sondra Evans’ book wanders dangerously (and interminably) from the basic story. In the most exaggerated case, a melodramatic subplot of family reconciliation which appears out of nowhere adds 20 minutes to the third act and absolutely nothing to the story.

Throughout the play, the focus of Evans’ script, seemingly determined to give everyone a moment in the spotlight, veers from character to character like a police light scanning a crowd of suspects. And what a crowd it is! The Tivoli actors are a whining bunch of egomaniacs who deserve a lot worse than these ghouls give them.

The exception is the character played by Trance Thompson, whose liquid voice and airborne dancing transcend the rest of the silly goings-on. The vitality of his number, “Fake It,” which he choreographed himself, enhanced by the goofy sparkle of his partner, Jody Smith, chases away the great ghost of Amateurism that haunts the rest of the production.

Carol Ann Whittaker does have an impish charm as the unbelievably picturesque Annie, and Daryl Mendelson as Ronaldo has some fun with the oversized theatricality of a turn-of-the-century Shakespearean star.

*

Both Jill DeFreitas as the love interest, Janine, and Sheryl Kramer as Katherine sport fine, clear sopranos, although DeFreitas’ veneer of ingenuousness wears thin long before the final curtain and Kramer’s characterization is stuck in a perpetual pout.

Evans, who wrote the lyrics as well as the book, and Marge Swenson, who wrote the music, have labored long to bring this show to the boards, and it looks as if their focus has softened too much with time. Director Don Hayes is not supplying the fresh eye they so desperately need. His strokes are so broad and his eye so undiscriminating that the production teeters on the edge of becoming a parody of itself.

‘Haunting of the Tivoli’

A Cameo Productions, Unlimited presentation of the play by Sondra Evans (book and lyrics) and Marge Swenson (music), directed by Don Hayes. With Sheryl Kramer, Daryl Mendelson, Carol Ann Whittaker, Jill DeFreitas, Ken Marks, Cindy Daytona, Trance Thompson, Steve Grabe, Rick Watson, Richard De Vicariis, Glenn Edwards and Jody Smith. Musical direction by Steven Jay Warner. Choreography by Art Manke, assisted by Jill Kirk Fowler. Setting by Marge Swenson. Lighting by David M. Darwin Costumes by Mary Weddle. Continues Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. through Aug. 30th at the Gem Theatre, 12852 Main St., Garden Grove. Tickets: $15 general admission, $12.50 for students and seniors. (714) 636-7213.