THEATER REVIEW:

Few modern musicals are quite so devilishly inventive as “City of Angels,” the melange of fantasy and reality set in 1940s Los Angeles, cooked up by “M*A*S*H” creator Larry Gelbart and set to music by Cy Coleman with David Zippel’s stinging lyrics.

Few, as well, are so devilishly difficult to pull off successfully, besieged as they are with technical challenges and actors doing double duty. Yet the Costa Mesa Playhouse manages, for the most part, to conquer these obstacles in its latest production, directed and choreographed by Victoria Miller.

“City of Angels” is a backhanded tribute to Hollywood’s film noir days of hard-boiled private eyes (narrating in voice-over style), lusty temptresses, merciless thugs and danger around every corner. But that’s all on top (as the voice-over proclaims) — the other half is the real world of movie making, where a picture is worth at least a thousand words and most of an author’s verbiage winds up on the cutting room floor.

Pulp fiction writer Stine (Jon Sparks) is going Hollywood, the hard way. His latest novel has been picked up by a flamboyant producer (Ed McBride), who’s doing an extreme makeover on the script, On one side of the stage we see the Hollywood action, on the other the fictional story plays itself out, with actors doubling in both venues.

The disheveled shamus Stone (Rocky Miller) becomes even more so as he pursues his missing-cutie case for a seductive, well-heeled client (Sarah Green) and locates his quarry (Katie Nicol) in the least-likely place (his own bed). Meanwhile, a nasty detective of Mexican origin (Miguel Cardenas) is out to slap the cuffs on our hero, who’s been set up for a murder rap.

In both cases, there’s a long-suffering lady involved — wife Elizabeth A. Bouton in the real world, secretary Clare V. Solly in the fictional scenario. Both ladies have show-stopping voices, which they display to full advantage, both singly and in a memorable duet, “What You Don’t Know About Women.”

The show’s top vocal performance, however, comes from Sparks, who nails the emphatic number “Funny” with all its bile and irony intact. Cardenas also scores as the sadistic cop in his sinister solo “All You Have to Do is Wait,” while Miller and Green tantalize each other delightfully in the seductive “Tennis Song.” McBride’s “Double Talk” number also impresses.

Technically, the show missed a beat (or two) on opening night, resulting in one number being excised altogether, one of the perils of using recorded music. But this glitch should be straightened out for the balance of the run. An effective addition (if possible) would be bridge music to cover the tricky set changes — the logistics on this show are of nightmarish proportions.

Also, though the show is set in the late 1940s, the presentational style of that era for musical numbers doesn’t work well.

Singers should at least “cheat” toward one another in their duets rather than aim their numbers away from each other and toward the audience (the biggest offender, the aptly titled “It Needs Work”).

This noted, “City of Angels” remains a highly literate, musically pleasing and often devastatingly funny show, an ambitious project for a small community theater which pays dividends at the curtain call.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “City of Angels”

WHERE: Costa Mesa Playhouse, 611 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa

WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through May 10

COST: $18 to $20

CALL: (949) 650-5269

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays.