A two-faced musical

“A big, chunky, Costco-size show.”

That’s how producer James Blackman introduced “Jekyll & Hyde” to his audience on opening night at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.

He didn’t explain what he meant. But his reference to a popular store where people buy cheap products in large quantities is an apt analogy to this musical and especially its score, by Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse.

Like the store, the score certainly doesn’t shrink from the idea of quantity. Its would-be big moments are relentless, an assembly line of one grandiose but hollow song after another. The banality of Bricusse’s words is even more underlined than usual, because Blackman’s Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities printed the lyrics in the souvenir program.

The obviousness of the lyrics means that audiences don’t have to listen very closely -- we know immediately where every song is going to take us. So we can simply enjoy the quality of the singers’ voices -- which are quite overpowering in the case of the two women playing Jekyll/Hyde’s love interests.

Misty Cotton, playing the prostitute Lucy, and Kim Huber, as Jekyll’s fiancee, Emma, have great musical theater voices. Whether they’re belting or softening their approach for a more tender moment, they sound wonderful. Their duet “In His Eyes” is the highlight of the show, with credit also due to musical director Steven Smith.

Kevin Bailey, in the demanding title roles, establishes a clear delineation between the pretentious Jekyll and the salacious Hyde with his voice, his posture and his hyperactive hairdos. But in his singing, he sounds more comfortable with the lower register of Hyde than he does with some of the high notes that Jekyll has to sing.

It’s baffling why Jekyll’s snarly nemesis (Eric Anderson) doesn’t notice that the madman who assaults him has the same face as the doctor he despises.

As usual with this show, the lighting design is more prominent than most of the actors, and designer Steven Young takes the lights through their paces almost as if he’s their drill sergeant. Sharrell Martin’s costumes add splashes of color to the overall gloom, although you’d think that the bishop (Andrew Ross Wynn) would don more of a disguise when he visits a whore.

Director Paul Hadobas’ adaptation does a little tinkering with the structure -- the song “Someone Like You” is in the first act instead of the second. But minor alterations can’t alter the hackneyed quality of the basic material.

This is the kind of musical that “Urinetown,” soon to hit L.A., satirizes. But “Jekyll & Hyde” itself hasn’t the slightest trace of self-deprecating humor.

True, the story of a man with a murderous, drug-induced psychosis isn’t a natural source of comedy. But another musical treatment of the same story, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” got a few laughs in Hermosa Beach in 1995. And “Sweeney Todd” used another story about a 19th century English killer and managed to be funny, frightening and thrilling.

“Jekyll & Hyde” is none of the above.

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‘Jekyll & Hyde’

Where: Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach

When: Tuesdays to Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.

Ends: May 16

Price: $42.50-$52.50

Contact: (310) 372-4477

Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes