THEATER REVIEWS : ‘Paper’ Is Thin on Plot, Thick on Promise : Production in Santa Ana Features Worthy Performances in Property That Deserves Further Work

Madelyn’s life is a great snafu.

Her acting career seems at a standstill. She’s at the end of another affair, this time with chauvinist stockbroker Owen (Brian McCoy). And there are those nightmares that plague her each night: oily TV host Derek Reeger (David Alan Nelson) trying to interview her while she’s asleep, and a younger Madelyn (Kristal Wimmer) trying to help her remember something long forgotten.

To top it off, her privacy is invaded by her piano-playing next-door neighbor Andy, who can hear everything she does through the “Paper Walls,” currently at the Way Off Broadway Playhouse. Those walls, which give this musical its title, are about as thin as the show’s plot.

The nightmares foretell the revelation that Madelyn was molested as a child by her father, a hidden memory causing relationship problems and an unwarranted friction with her mother.

If thin seems an odd description of a story with the import of Madelyn’s secret, its lack of body is caused by the frequent use of the subject as a dramatic basis in recent years. Linda Ballew’s book adds nothing inventive or new to the canon.

Nor does Terence Alaric’s score, with lyrics by Alaric and Ballew. Most of the tunes sound a bit derivative, and only in Act II’s “Nightmare Sequence” does it rise above ordinary.

This is a property that deserves further work and development. It has an original angle in the fact that Andy, played by Alaric, accompanies all the songs (through the walls, of course). It has well-defined characters that cry out for more and stronger tunes.

As a step in the show’s development, this production couldn’t have been served with more care than under Carole L. Cooney’s cogent direction and with worthy performances by a solid cast.

Although Alaric seems uncomfortable as Andy, he has a winning smile and a warmth that fits the role. Nancy Petersen balances Madelyn’s anxieties and humor with panache, and Marijen Gorska is an amusing caricature of the theatrical agent who gets Madelyn her big break and cracks Andy out of his shell.

Sean Faulkner’s psychiatrist is as disoriented as many of them are, and Brian McCoy is stolid as the stockbroker.

As the other men in Madelyn’s life, J. Felas Wheeler has a good, honest but careless quality as the composer who almost wins her, and David Alan Nelson the perfect image of misguided sex appeal as her dream memory of dear departed Daddy. Karen Schuster is a very funny, lint-headed aerobics nut, and young Kristal Wimmer is extraordinary as the young Madelyn trying to blend the awful past with the tortured present.

The evening is tied together with the connecting cord of Laurel Kelsh’s performance as Madelyn’s adoring mother Helen, who has always been afraid to tell her daughter why Daddy was shown the door. Kelsh gives weight to a role that could be fuller, with her charm, humor and an unerring ear for the right line reading.

*”Paper Walls,” Way Off Broadway Playhouse, 1058 E. 1st St., Santa Ana. Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m., matinees June 13, 20 and 27, 2 p.m. Ends June 26. $15. (714) 547-8997. Running time: 3 hours.

Terence Alaric: Andy Nancy Petersen: Madelyn Kristal Wimmer: Young Madelyn Sean Faulkner: Dr. Perlmeier Laurel Kelsh: Helen Marijen Gorska: Glynda David Alan Nelson: Derek Reeger Brian McCoy: Owen J. Felas Wheeler: Mark Karen Schuster: Bunny

A Way Off Broadway Playhouse production. Book by Linda Ballew, lyrics by Ballew and Terence Alaric, music by Alaric. Musical director: Terence Alaric. Directed by Carole L. Cooney. Lights: Michelle Evans, Brian McCoy. Set design: David Carleen.