THEATER REVIEW : ‘Spider’ Caught in a Tangled Web : Despite an attempt to jazz up the Knightsbridge Theatre production, Agatha Christie’s whodunit falls victim to complicated relationships and excessive plot twists.

Director Michael R. Cervin’s Knightsbridge Theatre production of Agatha Christie’s “Spider’s Web” has the right idea to jazz up this musty murder mystery. It’s just that the jazz isn’t always in tune.

Sprinkled through this updated version are jokey references to Christie, including her classic whodunit, “Ten Little Indians.” The problem with such a reference is that it begs comparing “Spider’s Web” and its stultified plotting with “Indians’ ” streamlined, diabolical fun.

In other words, there’s no comparison.

Christie typically places a motley crew of types under one proper British roof, and lets the hay fly. In this case, Clarissa (Ryan Langdon) seems to be forever hosting a bunch of friends, relatives or unwanted visitors--ranging from the curiously named ne’er-do-well, Oliver Costello (Dan Willoughby), to Inspector Lord (Dan Sapecky).

When Costello is fatally bonked on the head (not very convincingly here) by a shadowy assailant, we assume the murderer is Clarissa’s precocious daughter-in-law, Pippa (Judy Unger). After all, Costello, who had just married Pippa’s birth mother, was trying to gain guardianship of her. Pippa and Clarissa would have none of it.

This only begins the series of excessively complicated relationships and plot turns, which threaten to completely swallow the play whole. A subplot, for instance, involving an antique store and the shady, loquacious Miss Peake (Margaret Schenck) is too baroque by half--yet finally has minor impact on the story.

Cervin’s instinct to add comic spins to this creaky play is absolutely right, but he doesn’t always know what to do with the comedy. Several moments have characters just acting weird for no real purpose (a whiff of undercooked Monty Python comes in from time to time), and other exchanges fall flat when they should be hilariously rapid-fire. The pace should be very close to farce, but the cast hasn’t yet revved up to that speed.

Nearly everyone, though, has good individual moments. Langdon is skilled at playing Clarissa’s unflappability, and Schenck turns her resounding voice into a comic instrument. Willoughby isn’t grungy and threatening enough, but he plays a strong baddy off of Unger’s quick-minded likability. Hilaire Lockwood gamely plays the Benny Hill-style sexpot role, and Sapecky gets right down to business as the traditional Christie investigator. Glenda Chism as Clarissa’s ditzy friend looks uncomfortable mugging.

Like some of the comic playing, some actors, such as Rich Hamilton and Tim Jarvis as Clarissa’s friends, veer toward plainness. The accents never drift into American, but they’re sometimes strained and overly studied, which produces its own unintended comic effect. This isn’t unlike Christie’s own writing, which clearly strains at the attempt for another whodunit hit. Even with the earnestness on display here, “Spider’s Web,” alas, is just a tangle.

* “Spider’s Web,” Knightsbridge Theatre, 35 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; 7 p.m. Fridays, 2 p.m. Sundays; ends July 9; $15; (818) 440-0821.