‘King’ Benefits From Charm and Humor

“King of Hearts,” the musical at the Colony Studio in Silver Lake, is so darned cute you almost forget its many defects.

Based on the 1966 film of the same name, Steve Tesich’s book follows Johnny (Chris Van Vleet), an American soldier assigned to defuse a bomb in a German-occupied French town one day before the end of World War I. The naive GI is befriended by a group of fun-loving mental patients, whom he at first mistakes for local townsfolk and later is persuaded to rule as king.

The message, of course, is that the lunatics are far more sane than the commanders prosecuting the war, and Tesich competently guides this spongy bit of pacifist whimsy to its inevitable conclusion. Of course, it helps that the patients suffer from no illness more severe than advanced whimsy; their denial of reality means they think rifles are cameras.

While packed with genuinely charming and funny moments, though, the piece as a whole never quite takes hold. Partly this is because Peter Link’s score, with lyrics by Jacob Brackman, offers few distinctive hooks or musical epiphanies. And partly it’s because the story’s sweet parable is a little hard to swallow, even as fantasy.

Director-choreographer Todd Nielsen and company have nevertheless put an admirable amount of stagecraft into this production, with richly detailed costumes by Naomi Yoshida Rodriguez and a finely expressionist set by Richard D. Bluhm.

* “King of Hearts,” Colony Studio Theatre, 1944 Riverside Drive, Silver Lake. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends July 2. $20. (213) 665-3011. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.