‘Messiah’ Premises but Doesn’t Deliver

The creative forces behind Los Angeles Repertory Company’s “Messiah,” at Ivy Substation, include writer Martin Sherman, best known for his harrowing Holocaust drama “Bent,” and veteran director Robert Ellenstein.

How the mighty have stumbled. Despite a fascinating premise, “Messiah” is a confused mess. It’s not as if the play, dating from 1983, is being workshopped. Impossible, also, to blame just the opening night technical glitches, of which there were many.

Based on historical fact, “Messiah” concerns the rise in the mid-1600s of Sabbatai Sevi, a false messiah who inspired a fanatical following among Polish Jews still reeling from a bloody pogrom a few decades before.

The homely Rachel (Jean Kauffman) is widowed when her new husband, Reb Ellis (Lloyd Battista), jumps off a rooftop in a religious rapture. Rachel doubts Sabbatai’s divinity, much to the annoyance of Reb Ellis’ handsome nephew Asher (Michael Matthys). However, when her mute mother, Rebecca (Dari Lallou), breaks her long silence to utter the name of Sabbatai, Rachel embraces the new messiah--and Asher.

So ends the first act--along with whatever dramatic tension resulted from the ideological gap between Rachel and Asher. The rest of the play, which involves Rachel and Asher’s pilgrimage to Constantinople, sinks into a miasma of mysticism that jars after the broadly comedic conventions set up earlier. Rachel’s cheeky conversations with God seem cheaply expository, and a would-be tragic ending fizzles along with the discredited Sabbatai’s renown.

* “Messiah,” Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends June 11. $18-$25. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.