Strictly by the numbers

The populist musings of the late Herb Gardner made their first hit in “A Thousand Clowns,” which plays through Saturday at Norris Center for the Performing Arts. Since its 1962 Broadway production with Jason Robards (who repeated his role in the 1965 film), this comedy about a nonconformist uncle and his precocious nephew has spawned countless little-theater productions and acting-festival monologues.

Its protagonist is Manhattan comedy writer Murray Burns (Jeff Conaway). For five years, the doggedly anti-Establishment Murray has raised his gadabout sister’s son, Nick (Austin Rogers), in decidedly unconventional fashion. As “A Thousand Clowns” begins, Murray’s recent decision to quit writing drivel for children’s show host Leo Herman (Michael Dean Jacobs), alias Chuckles the Chipmunk, threatens his and Nick’s iconoclastic existence.

Apprised of Nick’s living situation, the Child Welfare Bureau dispatches investigators. Though priggish Albert Amundson (Gordon Goodman) is appalled, his fellow worker and fiancee, Sandra Markowitz (Constance Forslund), is secretly charmed.

The rising conflict surrounds Nick’s custody, jeopardized by Murray’s lack of employment and retreat from convention. Murray’s brother, Arnold (Greg Mullavey), arranges a truce between Murray and child-hating Leo, a testy reunion complicated by the ever frank Nick.

Gardner’s plays are less realistic than packaged observational works, but “A Thousand Clowns” is a well-constructed package. Though seriously dated, the humor is character-driven, and the stakes are clearly drawn. After decades of regional exposure, “A Thousand Clowns” should be foolproof period fare. However, this handsomely mounted but soggy reading, like the 2001 Broadway revival with Tom Selleck, proves otherwise.

Director Tracy Strickfaden’s paint-by-numbers staging is severely overcalculated, with beats sometimes preceding their motivations. Forslund’s game Sandra and Rogers’ otherwise ideal Nick should dial back their dialects -- the focus on Brooklynese creates line readings, not dialogue.

Conaway, padded and disheveled, is tireless but no eccentric, and his emoting feels overwrought. Goodman and Jacobs are correct yet wasted. Undemanding audiences may ignore such deficiencies, but regrettably, this labored revival is several hundred clowns short of its circus-car quota.

*

‘A Thousand Clowns’

Where: Norris Center for the Performing Arts, 27570 Crossfield Drive, Rolling Hills Estates

When: 8 p.m. today through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday

Ends: Saturday

Price: $32

Info: (310) 544-0403 or www.norriscenter.com

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes