‘Canteen’ Serves Up Some Odd Twists

“Canteen” at the Santa Monica Playhouse could be subtitled “When Good Musicals Go Bad.” Written by Matt Wrather, Chris DeCarlo and Evelyn Rudie, “Canteen” is set in a USO canteen in 1942, where a group of volunteers are keeping the home fires burning for the guys in uniform.

The structure is epistolary--the characters’ interactions at the Canteen are interspersed with plenty of letters written to loved ones overseas, those fathers, brothers, husbands and significant others who may never come home.

It’s a timely, if timeworn, premise that could support a hefty load of pure nostalgia. Unfortunately, the playwrights don’t stick to the sentiment, instead sending their story spiraling into an erratic direction that has nothing to do with World War II and everything to do with bad storytelling. What starts off as a reasonably plotted drama about the American home front segues into an inane and inconsequential diatribe about teenage angst, complete with a hallucinatory “fantasy” sequence as pointless as it is bizarre.

Frankie (Serena Dolinsky) is the troubled teen in question, an aspiring songwriter whose battles with her mother rival the action overseas--or at least, that’s what the writers would have us believe. Peggy (Perrin Iacopino), whose husband shipped out mere days after their marriage, wallows in separation anxiety at every opportunity. Veronica (Jacquey Rosati) is just realizing that her platonic pal just may be the soldier of her dreams after all. And single mom Claudia (Evelyn Rudie) has found romance with her night-school teacher, who is also off serving a stint. Young Buddy (Gray Silbert) and Missy (Juliet Berman), too broadly comic for relief, round out the ranks of this USO “family.”

Director DeCarlo tries to keep the action flowing, but this “Canteen” runs dry early on.

*

“Canteen,” Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 4th St., Santa Monica. Saturdays, 6:30 and 9 p.m.; Sundays, 6:30 p.m. Complimentary buffet before show. Ends Jan. 27. $25.50. (310) 394-9779, Ext. 1. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.