Campy Halloween ‘Djinn’ Scares Up Too Little Magic

Forget Barbara Eden. Forget Robin Williams. Peter Atkins’ uneven tale, “The Djinn,” is about a different sort of genie. This one grants wishes, but the outcome is rarely pleasant.

In this Stages Theatre Center and the Collective presentation at Stages Theatre Center, Kevin Gregg plays an ancient Persian genie with scene-chewing ferociousness. The ancient demon is dressed by Caro Moreno to look more like a lean and avaricious stockbroker than Aladdin’s magical servant.

But not everything or everyone works equally well in this campy Halloween musical comedy. Atkins’ premise has some long dead and dusty vaudevillians telling the story of how a young woman, Alex (Jennifer Phinney), unwittingly releases a djinn , or genie, from captivity. She must defeat him to save the world.

Dressed in black bowlers and baggy suits a la Charlie Chaplin, the ghoulish narrators, played by Kate McLaughlin and Dana Middleton, have some funny bits. The songs are lollipop-sweet early ‘60s pop.

But as the heroine, Phinney lacks the dynamic energy of Gregg’s evil djinn and isn’t a convincing match. Directors McLaughlin and Atkins need to tighten up the flow: Some scene changes leave the audience too long in the dark. Some of the singing voices are a bit thin and waver off-key.

This is a quick, relatively amusing entry into the Halloween play genre, but it won’t give Rocky, Magenta and their cohorts anything to worry about.

*

“The Djinn,” Stages Theatre Center, 1540 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 17. $20. (323) 465-1010. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.