‘THIS story is about where music comes from,” a character informs us at the beginning of “Doris to Darlene, a Cautionary Valentine.”
Adds King Ludwig II of Bavaria: “This story is about how you put it on paper, and how you take it off again.” And yet a third person says, “This story is about people with music in their heads, and the people who put it there.”
Well, now that that’s settled, it seems too redundant to sit through Jordan Harrison’s play, which recounts the plot backward and is cutesy to the point of irritation.
It’s too bad, because the play, a time-hopping tale of how Richard Wagner’s “Liebestod” resonates through the ages, also displays a palpable passion for its themes and cleverness in its execution.
The three interrelated plot elements are set in the 1860s, when the composer (David Chandler) is creating his work for the obsessed Ludwig (Laura Heisler); the 1960s, when the melody is adapted into a pop hit by a Svengali-like record producer (Michael Crane) for his new young singer Doris, renamed Darlene (De’Andre Aziza); and the present, when a sexually confused teen (Tobias Segal), obsessed with Darlene’s records, falls under the tutelage of his gay music teacher (Tom Nelis).
While the writing displays many clever moments, it isn’t up to the demands placed on it by this elaborate structure, which Alan Ayckbourn would be hard-pressed to pull off.
Les Waters’ staging is imaginatively fluid, and the performers do well by their multiple roles. But the overall preciousness of the proceedings makes the show feel as long as, well, something by Wagner.
DORIS TO DARLENE, A CAUTIONARY VALENTINEPlaywrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St.; (212) 279-4200. Through Sunday.