STAGE REVIEW : ‘Weird Romance’ Challenges Our Usual Notions of Love : The show, making its West Coast premiere in San Diego, consists of two one-act sci-fi musicals that present stirring ideas and images.

Fairy tales and science fiction are soul mates.

The style of dress and speech may be different, but both offer stories at their most elemental--stripped of the distractions of contemporary clutter.

So it shouldn’t surprise that Alan Menken--the Academy Award-winning composer of such Disney fairy-tale classics as “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid”--seems so at ease with “Weird Romance,” two one-act science-fiction musicals that opened Off Broadway last year and are now in a West Coast premiere at San Diego’s Theatre in Old Town.

The off-putting title of the show is misleading; these are not weird, but deeply romantic pieces that challenge conventional notions of love.

“The Girl Who Was Plugged In,” adapted by Emmy- and Nebula Award-winning writer Alan Brennert and David Spencer from a Hugo Award-winning story by James Tiptree Jr. (real name Alice B. Sheldon), poses the question of who or what it is we fall in love with--the soul or the packaging.

Like Cinderella before the ball, P. Burke is a lost, forgotten bag lady before Isham, the head of an industrial firm, decides she is the perfect candidate for an experiment that will allow her spirit to move from her body to a gorgeous but artificial body for hours at a time. (Think plastic surgery taken to its logical extreme.)

But Isham, played with delicious slime by David Huffman, is a fairy godmother with an agenda. He wants Burke (Rachel Lynn)--turned glamorous Delphi (elegant Colleen Sudduth)--to become a celebrity advertising his products.

Everything proceeds smoothly until Isham’s son Paul (Todd Dubail) falls in love with this newfangled Cinderella. Dad gets angry--he figures his dumb son has fallen for the packaging. But has he? That’s something P. Burke has to figure out before she risks giving up being Delphi to show him who she really is.

*

While “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” has been dismissed by New York and local critics as the weak link of the show, it’s an intriguing tale with nods to Craig Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss” and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short story “Unready to Wear.” Also, Menken’s music pleases, teases and taunts, with the help of Spencer’s clever lyrics, sashaying with ease from the cynical “That’s Where We Come In” to the loving “Eyes That Never Lie.”

Part of the criticism stems from casting the lovely, sweet-voiced Lynn as the bag lady. Just matting Lynn’s hair and giving her ugly clothes don’t cut it. The part calls for someone who, in her own way, is as unattractive as the beast in “Beauty in the Beast.” It requires a performance in which only the look in the eyes gradually transforms the way we perceive the character.

Director Paula Kalustian, the talented artistic director of the Theatre in Old Town, does much better with the lushly romantic “Her Pilgrim Soul.”

In this piece, adapted by Brennert from his own original story (which ran as a “Twilight Zone” episode), a baby enters a scientist’s hologram machine and, as he watches, grows up to bring him a message that will change his life.

The show, which gets its title from a William Butler Yeats poem, earns its surprise twists and turns while it teaches a few new things about love and loss in the course of two of its most memorable songs, “Pressing Onward, Moving Forward” and “Someone Else Is Waiting.”

Kalustian’s fine acting ensemble does well with both shows, with Nathan Holland stealing scenes as a scientific technician in each, charming with the tender “No One Can Do” in “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” and the funny “Need to Know” in “Her Pilgrim Soul.”

Lynn, as the scientist’s wife, Carol, along with Carol’s friend (Mary Yarbrough), proves her forte is comedy in “A Man”--a mercilessly funny skewering of that gender. Young Aleka Mesaros plays the young girl, Nola, in the hologram, with sweet innocence. Tracy Venner, who takes over as Nola from ages 12 to 70, gleams magically as the mysterious, bright and loving woman aging 10 years each day in the scientist’s chambers.

Jill K. Anthony’s costumes sparkle and startle at just the right times--as does her choreography, particularly as carried out by dancer-singer Steve Anthony in a variety of parts, and particularly as Johnny Beaumont, an image of a lounge singer in “Her Pilgrim Soul.”

Michael Erickson’s musical direction, which oversees a three-member band, plays to the strength of the talented voices in the cast. Paul Williams’ set and lighting design are more functional than inspiring.

But “Weird Romance”--change the title please!--is more than a good show. It suggests an idea for a whole new subject area for musicals. In this melodic science fiction, as in the best of “The Twilight Zone” shows, the ideas and images haunt long after the final curtain falls.

* “Weird Romance,” Theatre in Old Town, 4040 Twiggs St., San Diego. Wednesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m., Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 5 p.m. Ends April 2. $16-$22. (619) 688-2494. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Steve Anthony: Zanth, ensemble (“The Girl Who Was Plugged In”)

Johnny Beaumont: George Lester (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

Todd Dubail: Paul (“The Girl Who Was Plugged In”), Chuck (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

Tom Hafner: Ensemble (“The Girl Who Was Plugged In”), Kevin Drayton (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

Nathan Holland: Joe (“The Girl Who Was Plugged In”),Daniel Gaddis (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

David Huffman: Isham (“The Girl Who Was Plugged In”),John Ruskin (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

Rachel Lynn: P. Burke (“The Girl Who Was Plugged In”), Carol Drayton (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

Aleka Mesaros: Nola Granville, age 6 (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

Colleen Sudduth: Delphi (“The Girl Who Was Plugged In”), Susan Granville (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

Tracy Venner: Ensemble (“The Girl Who Was Plugged In”), Nola Granville, age 12 to 70 (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

Mary Yarbrough: Ensemble (“The Girl Who Was Plugged In”), Rebecca (“Her Pilgrim Soul”)

Theatre in Old Town. Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by David Spencer. Book for “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” by Alan Brennert and David Spencer based on the story by James Tiptree Jr. Book for “Her Pilgrim Soul” by Alan Brennert based on his original story. Directed by Paula Kalustian. Musical direction by Michael Erickson. Choreography by Jill K. Anthony. Sets, lighting: Paul Williams. Costumes: Jill K. Anthony. Sound: Terrence Shea. Stage manager: Jenny R. Friend.