Stalker tale tries to avoid Lifetime terrain

She’s a woman in jeopardy. A man who had only two dates with her, before she called it quits, is now stalking her and leaving increasingly angry messages.

Halfway through “Boy Gets Girl,” at the Geffen Playhouse, it looks like a made-for-TV movie, adapted for the stage.

Playwright Rebecca Gilman was aware that she wasn’t plowing new dramatic turf. In the original published version of this play, after its 2000 premiere in Chicago, the character of stalked journalist Theresa Bedell mentions the frequency of formulaic stalking movies on Lifetime. These lines are now missing.

To its credit, however, “Boy Gets Girl” diverges from the usual scenario in the second act. Befitting a play, perhaps, Gilman focuses on the increasing sense of alienation and aloneness felt by her protagonist, rather than on the actual cat-and-mouse pursuit.

It works well up to a point. Leaving the theater, you’re struck with the ease and speed with which this woman’s fate was turned around.

Randall Armey’s staging benefits from a carefully tuned performance by Nancy Travis as Theresa and a scene-stealing turn by James Farentino as an aging schlock filmmaker, whom Theresa interviews as part of her job at a Manhattan magazine.

But Gilman’s narrative is hardly airtight. Several plot implausibilities rumble noisily in the foreground. These occur in the second act, so anyone who wants to be completely surprised by what happens may want to skip some of the details later in this review.

Theresa and Tony (Mark Deakins) meet at a bar, fixed up on a blind date by a mutual acquaintance. No romantic fires are kindled, but Theresa agrees to a second meeting at a restaurant. Here, she decides this romance isn’t going to work out, and she tells Tony of her decision. The flowers and notes he has been sending are soon replaced by late-night calls.

Theresa confides her concerns to two men -- her boss (Charles Janasz) and another reporter, Mercer (Taylor Nichols), at the magazine. A police officer (Monnae Michaell) helps Theresa obtain a temporary restraining order against Tony.

Mercer is interested in writing an article about the connections between stalkers and male socialization. He cites the examples of conventional romantic movies in which the guy is so persistent that the woman is eventually won over. But Theresa resents the idea that Mercer is trying to write her story.

The men’s characterizations are thin. In rewrites of the play, since the original script was published, Gilman trimmed some of the lines for three of the men -- mainly Mercer, but also the boss and the perp. She appears to want the audience to concentrate more on Theresa’s point of view. A moment in which Mercer admits to his boss that he felt his own fleeting lust for Theresa doesn’t feel authentic.

The only vivid man’s role is Farentino’s, as a Russ Meyer-like figure with whom Theresa eventually develops a begrudging friendship -- certainly the story’s least predictable development. But even with this character, one revelatory detail from his past has been excised from this version.

A deus ex machina rescues Theresa from her situation, but anyone who knows American media will find it extremely unlikely. In an even less convincing scene, Theresa fires a young receptionist (Julie Ann Emery). We’ve had no clue that Theresa would have such authority. The terminated employee worked more directly for Theresa in the earlier version of the script.

In the final scene, Theresa suddenly reveals a shower of details about her past that appear designed simply to pile on the last-minute pity for her. It’s a cheap device.

Moody music by Richard Woodbury helps pass the time as the sets are changed in the blackouts between the many short scenes. This kind of structure leads one to wonder if Lifetime may not be the eventual goal for this script after all.

*

‘Boy Gets Girl’

Where: Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood

When: Tuesdays-Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 4 and 8:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m.

Ends: May 11

Price: $30-$46

Contact: (310) 208-5454

Running Time: 2 hours, 40 minutes

Nancy Travis...Theresa Bedell

Mark Deakins...Tony

Charles Janasz...Howard Siegel

Taylor Nichols...Mercer Stevens

James Farentino...Les Kennkat

Julie Ann Emery...Harriet

Monnae Michaell...Madeleine Beck

By Rebecca Gilman. Directed by Randall Arney. Sets by Andrew Jackness. Costumes by Christina Haatainen Jones. Lighting by Daniel Ionazzi. Sound and music by Richard Woodbury. Production stage manager Elizabeth A. Brohm.