The cast of “Perez Hilton,” courtesy Landless.

Andrew Lloyd Baughman has gone where few have tread before: he’s attempting to give Perez Hilton some depth.

And he almost pulls it off, too, despite the middling material he’s got to work with. Baughman stars as the title character in Perez Hilton Saves The Universe! (or at least the greater Los Angeles area), now being staged by Landless Theater Company at DC Arts Center. The musical, from the team of Randy Blair, Timothy Michael Drucker and Zachary Redler, doesn’t lie; we’re actually being floated the premise that it’s Hilton’s job to save Los Angeles from a devastating terrorist plot (and subsequent bomb). Will he pull it off? Will his campy escapades keep us riveted to the end? These are the stakes, and for the audience, the second question is more crucial.

But the major problem with Perez is that it takes even its most charming moments to excess. “Perez’s Lament,” one of Baughman’s ballads, starts off rather hilariously, as Hilton wrings his hands over the ridiculous fact he may have to “shoot my lover in the face” (believe it or not, you can actually get a lot of mileage out of that phrase when repeatedly sung). But the song devolves ultimately into ho-hum penis imagery, and is revamped later, unnecessarily, as a reprise. Funny at first, but ultimately beaten to death: that’s how much of the humor goes in Perez.