‘Daughters’ Strays Despite Fine Acting

Trying to get a handle on “Vic Lanudi’s Daughters” at the McCadden is one treacherously slippery proposition.

Playwright Marc Umile, who also directs, originally wrote his meandering and undisciplined drama--about a dead actor’s attempts to mend his fences with his four estranged daughters--as a one-act. Perhaps the effort to flesh out the play to full-length form has overwhelmed its flimsy premise.

As Vic, the ghostly dad, Vincent Baggetta is so laid-back we can easily believe he’s dead. Mark Beltzman plays Dominic, the waggish angel (he prefers “cosmic entity”) whose assignment is to monitor Vic’s earthly efforts at reparation.

As the disjointed plot unfolds--including an oddly interruptive flashback scene in which we are introduced to flamboyant actress Vicky (Laura McLauchlin), one of Vic’s many wives--we realize that the playwright needs organizational help.

Fortunately, Sharisse Baker, Stephanie Brown, Sibel Ergener and Saadia Persad--the actresses who play Vic’s four adult daughters--are so fiercely committed to their characters that we almost develop an emotional stake in this histrionic hodge-podge. Despite their most dedicated efforts, however, Umile’s ghostly drama remains irritatingly inchoate.

* “Vic Lanudi’s Daughters,” McCadden Theatre, 1157 McCadden Place, Hollywood. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 24. $15. (310) 395-5503. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.