THEATER REVIEW : ’29 1/2 Dreams’: Talented Cast, Usual Laments

“29 1/2 Dreams: Women Walking Through Walls” at East West Players is the “Joy Luck Club” of the current stage--a showcase for some vital Asian-American actresses and writers. But it’s no breakthrough in any other way. Despite the subtitle, this musical montage is more about women running into walls than walking through them.

Basically a rehash of the identity politics of the ‘70s (mostly Anglo) women’s lib, the skits and songs in this rambling collage examine familiar terrain. The women have no power. They have problems with men. They have a love-hate thing with food. They have problems with their mothers. They’re getting their acts together and . . . you know how it goes.

There are standout moments, just not enough. “One’s Company,” for example, is a simple but appealing bachelor gal ditty, conceived by director Amy Hill, with words and music by Paul J. Wong, and performed with grace and ease by Mary Ann Hu.

Similarly, Robert Lee’s somewhat homophobic “I’d Like a Man” gets a gutsy performance from Susan Haruye Ioka. And Hill shrewdly follows this song with Denise Uyehara’s electric “Firehorse,” a dramatic story about two women who meet and become lovers, performed elegantly (if sometimes inaudibly) by Jennifer Fujii and Joanne Takahashi. It is the show’s high point.

Written by half a dozen Asian-American women, performed by an ensemble of eight more and directed with knack by writer-performer Hill, “29 1/2 Dreams” is more impressive for its talent roster than for the actual product. Yet the bits of brilliance leave you feeling that the same team could do much more next time out. Dreams 30 and following should be hot.

* “29 1/2 Dreams: Women Walking Through Walls,” East West Players, 4424 Santa Monica Blvd., Silver Lake, (213) 660-0366. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 14. $25. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.