A nicely restrained ‘Jimmy Dean’

Not to speak ill of the dead, but Robert Altman did poor service to Ed Graczyk’s period comedy/drama, “Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.”

Altman staged Graczyk’s play in 1981, then went on to direct the claustrophobic and inappropriately campy 1982 film, which featured teeth-grindingly histrionic performances by mostly miscast stars, who reduced their small-town characters to drawling caricatures.

The play, set primarily in 1975 with flashbacks to 20 years earlier, transpires in a flea-bitten five-and-dime store in the tiny town of McCarthy, Texas, near the location where “Giant” was filmed. Back in the 1950s, McCarthy was a bustling place, but by the 1970s it is drought-ravaged and mostly deserted. When a group of salty Texas gals, former members of the “Disciples of James Dean,” gathers at the store for a 20th reunion of the fan club, the stage is set for shocking revelations.

In the current production at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse, director Stephanie A. Coltrin pares down the regional stereotypes, revealing the bones of a worthy play. Not that “Jimmy Dean” doesn’t tend toward the hyperbolic, with a plethora of “startling” divulgences that can strain dramatic credulity.

Fortunately, Coltrin’s refreshingly naturalistic take largely ameliorates the play’s excesses, with one glaring exception -- a critical miscasting in the central role of Joanne, the post-op transsexual who attends the reunion incognito. Typically played by a woman, Joanne is essayed here by C. Stephen Foster, a drag performer noted for his impersonations of Judy Garland and Bette Davis, among other camp icons.

Foster is a bold choice who tries his best to keep his performance on the down-low. But it’s still an obvious drag turn, and in casting him, Coltrin sacrifices a crucial element of surprise -- the genuine shock that results when Joanne reveals that she was formerly Joe, a local boy hounded out of town 20 years ago by homophobic rednecks.

Still, Foster is consistently watchable, if misplaced, while Jacqueline Axton is a particular standout as Sissy, the buxom, round-heeled good ol’ gal, played by Cher in the movie, who also has a stunning secret to tell. As Mona, the fanatical James Dean acolyte who claims to have fathered a child by the star, Kimberly Patterson brings a fair degree of empathetic depth to a role that Sandy Dennis reduced to a nasal whine.

Christopher Beyries’ fly-specked scenic design is marvelously detailed, but the transitions between time periods seem oddly choppy, partly as a result of designer Michael Tushaus’ abrupt lighting shifts, and partly because the actors seemed a bit underrehearsed on opening weekend.

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‘Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean’

Where: Hermosa Beach

Playhouse, Pier Avenue at Pacific Coast Highway, Hermosa Beach

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays. 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday

Ends: Sunday

Price: $35 to $45

Contact: (310) 372-4477, www.hermosabeachplayhouse.com

Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes