‘The Secret Garden’s’ Appeal Marred by Some Rough Patches

The Nine O’Clock Players, part of the nonprofit Assistance League of SouthernCalifornia, is an all-women community theater group that has presented shows for children since 1929. I can’t vouch for productions quite that far back, but in recent years several sprightly shows have raised the bar, with professional staging and careful casting.

The company’s newest show, though, “The Secret Garden,” based on the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, is a great-looking but uneven effort.

Directed and lightly choreographed by longtime theater pro Nick DeGruccio, the show sports a nifty revolving set depicting an Edwardian-era drawing room, a bedroom and a walled garden by another pro, designer John David Paul. Effective lighting by Matthew O’Donnell, fine costumes by Carol Onofrio and deft live keyboard accompaniment by musical director Tom Ameen are a cut above.

Tricia Schaetzle very capably handles her role as orphan Mary, who comes to live with her remote uncle; so does Jodi Gilbert as Dickon, the boy with a gift for animals and growing things, and Judy Claverie in a lively supporting role as Dickon’s affectionate mother.

Arlen O’Hara as Uncle Archibald Craven, however, isn’t ready for her small but key role in Charles Turner and Steven Moore’s abbreviated adaptation. Uncle Archibald’s initial mysterious melancholy must set up what’s to come; his ultimate redemption is the affirmation of Mary and all that happens in the play: his dead wife’s garden brought back to life, his sickly son Colin brought to health. O’Hara, perhaps working too hard to submerge her femininity, is stiff and unnatural.

As Colin, Jan Cobler needs to overcome a rote quality in her performance, while Jeannette Johnson’s Mrs. Medlock just misses a necessary authority. She’s clearly more comfortable relaxing into a wistful duet with Claverie (“Where Do the Seasons Go?”). It’s a high point in Moore’s pleasant, if not particularly memorable score.

Among the other cast members, Mary Ferrara brings bubbly cheer to the role of friendly maid Martha, and the ensemble’s rendition of “Fiddle, Diddle, Dee, Dee,” with Ferrara, Claverie, and Kim Fountain, Pam Schroer and Laura Dickie Segil as Dickon’s sisters, has spirited appeal.

The advantages this women’s “volunteer” company has are many, including its big, lovely, wood-beamed theater; but the company does best when the shows are most carefully crafted with consideration for its weaknesses as well as its strengths.

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* “The Secret Garden,” Assistance League Playhouse, Walter Lantz Magic Auditorium, 1367 N. St. Andrews Place, Hollywood. Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. through April 1. $8. (323) 469-1970. Running time: One hour, 15 minutes.