‘Time and Again’ Doesn’t Live Up to Its Literary Past

Science-fiction devotees adore Jack Finney’s novel “The Body Snatchers,” but discerning Finney fans prefer “Time and Again,” one of the most literate and evocative time-travel adventures ever written. When Finney’s Simon “Si” Morley goes back to the New York of 1882, the reader smells, hears and sees the city past. As for time travelers affecting the future, “Time and Again,” written in 1970, preceded similar-themed movies on this topic like “Back to the Future” and treated the same ideas with more intelligence and grace.

Now “Time and Again” is a brand-new musical, with an aching and beautifully understated score by Walter Edgar Kennon (orchestrated by Chris Walker). Plagued by second-act problems, the show, which opened Thursday at the Old Globe Theatre, never reaches its clear potential, but “Time and Again” still offers the tantalizing promise of a great musical. The music is always compelling, particularly a song with the unlovely title “She Dies,” whose signature underscoring swirls through the entire show. The lyrics are almost as strong--clever and smart, they never stoop to cliche but sometimes err on the side of bland (particularly in the disappointing title number). San Diego is clearly out of town for this Broadway-bound musical, which needs major fixing if it is to become the vibrant, full-bodied romantic adventure it sounds like it could be.

The show is set in 1982, when Si (Howard McGillin) is picked for a time-travel experiment overseen by Dr. Danziger (John Carpenter), an unusually benevolent government official. Si can travel backward, not through the predictable, ridiculous tunnel, but through the power of his own imagination, under certain conditions. He must be in a spot that has remained relatively unchanged since the target date, 1882--so he is given an apartment in the Dakota, the majestic building on Central Park West, which he recalls was the setting for “Rosemary’s Baby” (he must not be a John Lennon fan).

Book writer Jack Viertel sticks close to Finney, with minor liberties and rejiggerings that streamline the action but lose too much of Si. For instance, the book’s Si decides to go back to solve a mystery that haunts his girlfriend Kate. This explains Si’s devotion to Kate and his at least partially unselfish motivation in going back. In the musical, Si goes back because he is bored and to solve his own family mystery. Kate is promoted to his fiancee, which makes his abandonment of her, on the eve of their engagement party, no less, an obstacle in liking him. Here Si has an aura of caddishness he doesn’t have in the book.

The vacuum of Si’s personality haunts McGillin, a fine actor, who struggles throughout the first act. It’s hard to play a blank slate. Si comes alive at the end of Act 1, when he realizes he is fully in love with Julia (Rebecca Luker), the woman he meets in 1882. But conversely, at that point, the show has begun to unravel.

Pivotal scenes in the second act are badly staged. To show Si and Julia’s narrow escape from a burning building and a mob-like crowd, director Jack O’Brien lifts staging from Hal Prince’s “Sweeney Todd” to irritating effect. When Julia first sees the breathtaking sweep of modern New York, the show offers a visual effect that should be magnificent but is only anemic. When Si takes Julia on a tour of Manhattan, we are given a dreadful production number called “It’s Here,” which looks like a commercial that would have been rejected by the advertising company Si works for. The penultimate number, “Si’s Dilemma,” is a major epiphany for Si, but unless you’ve read Finney, I suspect you’ll have no idea whatsoever what he’s singing about. Further, going back in time, the show’s opening number is completely lame.

All three leads sing beautifully, particularly the marvelous Luker--the sweet purity of her beauty is matched by her lovely soprano. McGillin tries valiantly, but he cannot flesh out a role the creators need to approach with more specificity. Jessica Molaskey does an impressive job with Kate--she makes her appear truly in love with Si and yet not a chump or victim. It helps that we also get to see her as a nasty rich woman from 1882 (several other actors are double-cast as well).

William Parry is effectively menacing and heavy-spirited as the blackmailer Jake Pickering (who gets a great song, “Carrara Marble”). As the kindly old doctor Danziger, Carpenter also tries hard in a role that lacks specificity. Danny Burstein and KT Sullivan stand out in the supporting cast.

Set designer John Conklin, helped by Wendall K. Harrington’s projections, presents a simple and elegant panorama of New York in two centuries with a minimum of actual scenery. Sometimes just a sketch of a building is the backdrop for a scene, and, as a general concept for the show, this works well. But in several crucial scenes, we need more New York and less restraint.

Though the score has obvious strains of Stephen Sondheim, not to mention Patrick Doyle’s film score for Kenneth Branagh’s “Henry V,” Kennon is no impersonator. His score has an unusual beauty, both powerful and unassuming. One hopes that this music eventually gets to accompany the show it very much deserves.

* “Time and Again,” Old Globe Theatre, Simon Edison Centre for the Performing Arts, San Diego, Tuesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends June 9. $22-$38. (619) 239-2255. Running time: 3 hours.

John Carpenter: Dr. Danziger

Rebecca Luker: Julia Charbonneau

Howard McGillin: Si Morley

Jessica Molaskey: Kate Mancuso/Mrs. Carmody

William Parry: Ruben Prine/Jake Pickering

With: Anne Allgood, Terry Burrell, Danny Burstein, Susan Cella, George Dvorsky, Sean Grant, Marc Heller, Nancy Hess, JoAnn M. Hunter, Joseph Kolinski, John MacInnis, Elizabeth Mills, Roxann Parker, Luis Perez, Jacquelyn Piro, KT Sullivan, Andy Umberger, John Leslie Wolfe.

An Old Globe Theatre production. Book by Jack Viertel. Music and lyrics by Walter Edgar Kennon. Based on the novel by Jack Finney. Directed by Jack O’Brien. Choreography Kathleen Marshall. Sets John Conklin. Costumes Catherine Zuber. Lights Peter Kaczorowski. Projections Wendall K. Harrington. Orchestrations Chris Walker. Musical director Tom Helm. Sound Jeff Ladman. Special effects Chic Silber. Fight choreography Luis Perez. Production supervisor Beverley Randolph.