Carmello Does What She Can to Save Aimee

If you walk past a theater marquee and the sign displays something ridiculous, like Beverly Hills: 90210: The Musical, three little words should make you put your reservations aside and rush to the auditorium: "Starring Carolee Carmello."

The overwhelmingly talented musical theater star, known for her Broadway work in such vehicles as Parade and Urinetown, could sell just about anything. Unfortunately, she's got her work cut out with her in Kathie Lee Gifford's stab at musical theater composition, Saving Aimee, now being staged by Eric Schaeffer at Signature Theater.

Saving Aimee centers on the controversial Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic preacher and founder of the Foursquare Church. Once a headstrong teenager who followed her first love around the world to do God's work, after he died tragically, Aimee became an inspirational preacher who brought a sense of dramatic theatricality to the pulpit. Her efforts earned her a mass of rabid followers, but her unstable personality and questionable methods also bred resentment among the more conservative.

McPherson's life is a meaty subject for a work of art, even arguably for a musical, but she needs to be in the hands of a more deft storyteller. The show's lyrics are cliched and trite, and resort far too often to pseudo-inspirational platitudes ("Stand up, high enough to touch what you dream!"). The play also relies too heavily on tricks like heavy-handed religious imagery and cheap devices like a prosecuting narrator (Andrew Long) to get its message across. McPherson is a figure whose motives could be debated (and have been) for decades after her death, but Saving Aimee doesn't give us much room to do that - every objection to her is ploddingly spelled out, every doubt or conviction she holds is almost painstakingly put to song.