STAGE REVIEWS : Lost in ‘Irma’s’ Neighborhood : The director’s apparent lack of familiarity with the French tale about a law student who falls in love with a hooker has the Newport cast dragging its feet.

In the opening number of Marguerite Monnot’s “Irma La Douce,” Bob Le Hotu, the narrator, describes the characters and environs of the play: “This is the milieu,” he says.

Director Kent Johnson apparently has very little acquaintance with the milieu, in which law student Nestor falls in love with hooker Irma and, like Candide, begins a pitfall-riddled journey to the best of all possible worlds.

To begin with, Johnson hasn’t grasped the fact that this is a fable. Example: the finale, “The Christmas Child,” is a sly Gallic sendup of the Church’s nativity story, hinting that a pure child in fact can be born of a less-than-pure mother. To “explain” the number, Johnson has added lines: One character asks “What’ll we do now?” and another answers “Let’s sing a Christmas song,” for no reason.

Johnson also has a quiet, slender, fashionably dressed Irma perched prettily on the edge of the bed as the doctor brings her newly born twins. Quite a speedy recovery from a double birth, dis donc ?

To magnify Johnson’s lack of familiarity with the neighborhood, he allows an otherwise capable Michael Prohaska (as narrator Bob) to enthusiastically mispronounce the few French words given him, and to let Irma’s streetwalking girlfriends, and most of their pimps, caricature rather than characterize.

The director’s tempos are turgid, with dead spots between the end of dialogue and the beginning of the recorded musical background (which, under Bob Goff’s musical direction, is just as sluggish as everything else).

Though Roberta Kay’s choreography is wooden, she is a charming (if too sweet) Irma, singing her songs quite well, with enough fire (she also pronounces her French correctly). Still, considering that she did choreograph the show, it’s odd that she doesn’t take advantage of the fact that Irma is essentially a dancing role.

Glenn Koppel’s Nestor is a bit sweet and boyish but he too sings very well. The rest of the company is not as successful as he, Kay and Prohaska in almost rising above the lack of direction. The actors are not helped by Tom Phillips’ costumes (from various milieux ) or the uncredited set design (which has the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur and the Arc de Triomphe sitting in the middle of a wooded field). Stacey Westbrook’s all-out bright lighting illuminates many of the production’s flaws.

‘Irma La Douce’

A Newport Theatre Arts Center production of the musical by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort, with English book and lyrics by Julian More, David Heneker and Monty Norman, directed by Kent Johnson. With Roberta Kay, Glenn Koppel, Michael Prohaska, John L. Moreno, Steve Burdick, Steve Toth, Arlo Gates, Spider Madison and Bob Goff. Costumes: Tom Phillips. Lighting: Stacey Westbrook. Choreography: Roberta Kay. Musical director: Bob Goff. Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through Dec. 6 at the Newport Theatre Arts Center, 2501 Cliff Drive, Newport Beach. $15. (714) 631-0288. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.