Reese and Company Belt Out Joyful ‘Message’

Della Reese testifies mightily unto the Lord in “The Message Is in the Music,” her new gospel musical at Stage 52.

Perhaps best known for her regular role on the long-running television series “Touched by an Angel,” Reese has made her mark as a nightclub singer, a writer and an ordained minister, preaching to packed houses at her Los Angeles-based church, Understanding Principles for Better Living.

Combining all those disciplines, the massively ambitious “Message” was conceived, written and directed by Reese, with additional music by T.C. Campbell and Robert Henley III.

The show features a big and accomplished cast, high-rent costumes by Dr. Charles Brown and versatile sets by Marco De Leon. Reese also stars, but she proves to be a surprisingly retiring diva who appears in only two of the dozen-odd segments, otherwise generously yielding the stage to her fellow performers, many of whom are also regular members of her congregation.

Forget subtlety. Explicitly didactic, the show makes no bones about its evangelical agenda. Spreading the “good news” is the business of the evening, and ardent nonbelievers might be put off by this venture’s single-minded simplicity.

However, the best news about “Message” is that it is a joyful noise, a rafters-raising exhortation featuring some of the best gospel singers this side of “The Gospel at Colonus.”

The show consists of unrelated scenes, each illustrating a particular Christian principle. In one scene, a woman whose lover has been cheating is urged to forgive and forget by a nurturing friend. In another, two teenage boys try to stop a pal from using a date-rape drug. And in the play’s poignant closing scene, Reese plays a disgruntled wife issuing an impassioned ultimatum to her neglectful husband.

At times, the staging lapses into excess. In Reese’s first big scene, ballet dancers prance energetically around her, a distraction from Reese’s moment and her message. Also, a few lighting and sound glitches marred the opening night performance of this otherwise technically assured production.

More a camp meeting than a play, this overlong and sometimes rambling piece could benefit from a little judicious trimming. However, the transcendent voices, particularly those of Henley, William Hubbard Knight, the wonderful Patti Henley and of course Reese herself make “Message” a special delivery.

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“The Message Is in the Music,” Stage 52, 5299 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles. Thursdays to Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 6 p.m. Ends May 19. $25. (323) 655-8587. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.