STAGE REVIEW : In Need of Winter Cleaning : ‘Legends and Traditions’ has some redeeming points, but is flawed by halting transitions and traffic jams on stage.

Because it was designed to offer Jewish children an end-of-the-year alternative to “A Christmas Carol,” A Renegade Theatre Ensemble’s “Legends and Traditions” might seem like an odd show to see in the middle of January. But its source material--eight ancient and often amusing morality tales that glimpse the seeds of the Jewish storytelling tradition--is universal enough to rise above any fixed holiday--or cultural slot.

This piece, directed by Marianne Simon and Joseph Megel, brings together stories from Sephardic Spain and Spanish Morocco as well as Eastern Europe, all given life by a cast, as Bill Clinton would put it, that looks like America.

As the lonely woman, Dvora (Sally Shore) tells legend after legend to her hard-to-please guest, Asher (Gentle Culpepper)--this is the show’s only section of new, non-ancient writing by Megel, Philip Sokoloff and Debora Roventini--we’re meant to feel the magic of the ages.

But the grungy stage at the West End Playhouse (lovely seats and lobby, but would someone please clean the stage?) and the slapdash sense of staging sap the magic’s power to enchant.

The Story Theater style of presentation works only as well as the actors’ grip on Story Theater: Nina Minton, Alexander Wells, Paul Rosenberg and Megel, for instance, all play funny animals at various points. The kids will probably like these, along with silly characters such as Wells’ blustery King Narf.

On the other hand, Narf has a desire to wipe out the local Jewish population, and adults will see how these stories are about fundamentals such as good and evil, and often--as in a story of a wife (Sarah Lilly) who saves her husband--how women can be strong.

And everyone has to love Megel and Rosenberg dancing with half-full bottles on their heads during a wedding scene.

The show, though, is often a mess to look at. Halting transitions take the listener out of the act, and the actors seem in a traffic jam onstage. Stage storytelling requires a clean, stripped-down approach in which nothing intrudes on the tale.

Once we’re inside a story here, things are fine.

It’s everything in between that needs a winter cleaning.

Where and When Location: “Legends and Traditions” at the West End Playhouse, 7446 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys. Hours: 11:30 a.m. Sundays through Jan. 31. Price: $5 to $12. Call: (818) 904-0444.