‘Dolphin’ Awash in Cliches on Madness

Any play about mental illness that starts out with twisted carnival music and eerie illumination from the footlights seems headed for trouble, and “Riding the Dolphin” at the Zephyr Theatre never gets any more convincing than its cliche-ridden opening.

Surely we’ve come further than the stereotypes perpetuated in William Massolia’s chronicle of Mary Alice (Sara Devlin)--or “Tiffani” in her internal world--a schizophrenic woman coping with life in a halfway house for the mentally disturbed.

In what plays like a third-generation photocopy of “The Boys Next Door”--it lacks all shades of gray--Tiffani plies her mannered tics and double-speed speaking style among the quirky residents of Camelot House. The group includes a bitter, sex-obsessed junkie (Rebecca Klingler), a sex-crazed former orderly (David Engel) and, for variety, a space case (Sam Selvaggio) who thinks he’s living in a “Star Wars” movie and keeps talking to George Lucas through his wristwatch.

Their presence causes inevitable friction with the narrow-minded neighbors who take exception to their antics--like crashing motor scooters, stockpiling foul-smelling garbage and urinating outside. Imagine.

Naturally, said neighbors aren’t just worried parents and homeowners but gun-slinging, unscrupulous adulterers--slamming the door on any balanced examination of the complex issues surrounding social norms.

The icing on a thoroughly unbelievable cake is Tiffani’s Cinderella-style transformation thanks to the advances of a Prince Charming (one of Lauren McCormack’s multiple roles). Bill McGough plays the psychiatrist who appears in Tiffani’s chronologically suspect sessions and saunters out at will. God, how I envied him.

* “Riding the Dolphin,” Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends March 31. $20. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.