Beethoven Poorly Served in ‘Upstairs’ : This children’s audio drama about the composer seems more akin to ‘Masterpiece Theatre’ than MTV in style and tone.

A new form of children’s entertainment is upon us, according to director David Devine, a veteran of Raffi concert videos. His video “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” he suggests in promotional materials, introduces a new genre and will bring the young generation to Beethoven’s music.

But despite Devine’s allusions to the rhythm and tempo of rock videos, “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” still seems more akin to “Masterpiece Theatre” than MTV in style and tone.

Nor is the story new. Producer Susan Hammond has created a booming cottage industry out of children’s audio dramas based on the lives of composers (available on cassette and CD, and like “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” marketed by the Children’s Group and distributed by BMG). “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” is simply a film version of one of her award-winning Classical Kids series.

Well, maybe not simply.

The original program, written and directed by Barbara Nichol, tells the story of 10-year-old Christoph’s eventual accommodation and friendship with the eccentric musician who moves into Christoph’s recently deceased father’s upstairs office--angry young man meets angry old man, both, of course, with hearts of gold.

Nichol told the tale through letters exchanged by Christoph and his distant Uncle Kurt, read between snippets of Beethoven’s music. The video version scripted by Heather Conkie follows Nichol’s outline, beginning with Beethoven’s funeral and backtracking through the days when he was completing the Ninth Symphony.

But many of the encounters, moved from correspondence to action, seem stiff and implausible, despite being drawn largely from historical incidents.

Ironically, too much weight seems to be placed on a sort of anecdotal quasi-authenticity, leading to awkward scenes such as a ludicrous meeting with Gypsies just to allow Beethoven an opportunity for aphorism.

Devine and his actors have trouble investing the artifice with much real drama. Neil Munro plays the composer with much exasperated fury, but works most effectively in the more reflective scenes. Illya Woloshyn brings little heat to young Christoph’s initial resentments, but blossoms in friendship.

As music education, “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” is surprisingly empty. It stays resolutely at the biographical level, with Beethoven’s deafness the central issue.

There is no indication that there was anything unusual about the Ninth Symphony, or that a complete performance of it would run longer than the whole video’s 55 minutes. The motley soundtrack excerpts are unidentified, the actors mostly seem unfamiliar with the instruments they hold, and there was no effort to synchronize the mock playing with the recorded sound, apparently appropriated from the audio production.

The video looks lovely, however. The chaos of Beethoven’s room practically becomes a character in its own right, and outside Prague stands in for Vienna as it did in “Amadeus.”

Like “Amadeus,” “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” presents an exaggerated and one-sided view of its composer, in a very sympathetic if simplistic portrait. Lacking the dramatic propulsion and production flair of “Amadeus,” however, it seems unlikely to raise keen interest in Beethoven’s music anywhere it does not already flourish.