Story of ‘Bees’ is out there somewhere

When playwrights dramatize the stories of con artists, they can try to suck the audience in along with the victim, creating a shock when the truth is revealed. But that’s difficult. Once a play has opened, word about the plot inevitably leaks out, spoiling the surprise.

Another strategy is to let the audience in on the miscreant’s deceptions from the beginning (“The Music Man,” for example). Using this method, writers might even persuade theatergoers to feel like fellow conspirators.

Douglas Carter Beane’s “As Bees in Honey Drown,” at the Pasadena Playhouse, tries to pull off the first strategy. But the play doesn’t stir interest until the scoundrel’s cards are on the table, after intermission.

In the first half, we see a young novelist (Chad Willett) on the cusp of fame, to the extent that he is posing shirtless for a popular magazine. He’s approached by Alexa Vere de Vere (Peri Gilpin), who says she’s a record producer and manager who wants him to write a screenplay about her life, for a thousand bucks a week. He bites.

His financial success has not caught up with his critical reputation, so he needs the money. Even when he spots fictitious elements in Alexa’s stories about her life, he keeps going. He knows that his own renown has not been completely candid -- he has used a pseudonym, Evan Wyler, instead of his more Jewish-sounding real name.

Although Evan is gay, he decides he’s in love with Alexa. This happens within the course of a day or two, before Evan has much time for reflection.

It’s all too much of a stretch. Although Beane doesn’t explicitly point out that Evan has never heard of Alexa before she approaches him, he clearly hasn’t. It’s hard to believe he’s gullible enough to say yes to her plan without any awareness of who she is or why anyone would be interested in her life story. Then he allows her to use his credit card. She reimburses him with cash -- once and only once.

Alexa is quick-witted but at the same time relentlessly superficial, a name-dropper nonpareil. She sends off signal after signal that she is potential trouble.

Playing Alexa is an enormous challenge, because the actress must be magnetic and credible enough to make us fall for her as hard as Evan does, even though Beane’s script keeps sending up warning flares.

Under the direction of Sheldon Epps, Gilpin (better known as Roz Doyle on “Frasier”) tries to make the vulnerable side of Alexa’s story convincing without bulldozing her way through Evan’s defenses. One choice is probably as bad as the other, because neither choice is going to make this woman anything other than annoying -- or remotely plausible.

After intermission, we learn her history and details of her modus operandi. These are moderately engaging, for the same reasons that people were interested in Jayson Blair. Gilpin is a little funnier when Alexa -- or, at this point, we should use her original name, Brenda -- is allowed to speak the truth.

Beane makes a point about our culture’s addictive need for ever fresher celebrities and how this tendency can drown an artist’s more creative impulses. It’s a point well taken, but it’s also a point that has been taken repeatedly. It feels like a truism.

The production has an appropriately superficial sheen, with Roy Christopher’s New York skyline-influenced set lighted with pretty pastels by Michael Gilliam and an ‘80s techno soundtrack whipping up energy between scenes.

Four actors play 18 supporting characters, led by Cameron Watson as a painter and the original comrade of the nascent Brenda-turned-Alexa. He’s the play’s most sympathetic character, thanks to his ability to move on with his life and his art.

Generally, however, Beane hasn’t been able to make us care about his deeply flawed people as much as he did in his earlier “The Country Club,” which played in a small Hollywood theater in 1995.

“As Bees in Honey Drown” was an off-Broadway success in 1997 and was seen in Santa Barbara in 2000.

But the time that it has taken to reach a major theater closer to Los Angeles has not made it a stronger play.

*

‘As Bees in Honey Drown’

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave.

When: Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m.

Ends: Sept. 21

Price: $29.50-$44.50

Contact: (626) 356-7529

Running Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Peri Gilpin...Alexa Vere de Vere

Chad Willett...Evan Wyler

Cameron Watson...Ronald, Skunk, Mike

David Shatraw...Photographer, Swen, Kaden

Kate Steele...Amber, Secretary, Bethany, Ginny

Iona Morris...Carla, Newsstand Woman, Waiter, Illya

By Douglas Carter Beane. Directed by Sheldon Epps. Sets by Roy Christopher. Costumes by Randy Gardell. Lighting by Michael Gilliam. Sound by Steven Cahill. Production stage manager Jill Gold.