KID BEAT : A SHOW WITH ‘ALL THE TRIMMINGS’

Don’t look for much of a story in the Actors Forum Theatre’s holiday show, “and All the Trimmings.” The 90-minute musical revue is an evening of songs, strung together on the thinnest thread of plot.

A small boy (Chris M. Allport in tan leotard and tights), without knowledge of who or where he is, finds himself in a department store after hours. Clutching a teddy bear, he immediately lies down on the floor and goes to sleep.

Enter Mother Nature, played by Audrey Marlyn in green chiffon, looking like the old margarine commercial. She really does say at one point, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” Admittedly it is with tongue-in-cheek, but one wishes she wouldn’t.

The child’s presence is no surprise. She rhapsodizes briefly over his innocence, then says, “I suppose he’s dreaming of . . .” and sings “Toyland” without further ado.

The rest of the cast members, playing mannequins who come to life, take about that much time to get into their respective solos as they “teach” the boy the meaning of each of the year’s holidays.

They are aided and emceed by Mother Nature and Father Time, played by director George Berkeley, who doesn’t have much to do, but who, white-haired and full-bearded, looks perfect in the part.

Cast members do fine with their solos. Fierce karate expert Tyrone Lewis doubles as a clown, singing and doing an array of acrobatics in the show’s best and liveliest number, “Mr. Clown.”

Holly Richardson sings a dizzy “My Sweetheart’s the Man in the Moon” to a crude cutout of the moon. Tom Pedi and Sam Nudell as two Irishmen and Lyla Graham and Dixie King-Wade as two bag ladies, do appealing vaudevillian turns.

It requires a stretch, however, to see how the musical tossed salad ends up teaching the boy about love and friendship, war and peace, hope and independence, as he tells us it has. (Father Time announces that the boy now knows about spirituality after the cast sings “Hanukkah Holiday” and “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”)

No one, however, seems to take the contrived sentiment too seriously.

Jerry McCarter, tall, bearded, and wearing a bunny suit, sings about springtime in Vienna in a sentimental medley that threatens to go on too long. Before it does, young soprano Sandy Garwood, who had joined him for a romantic finish, unexpectedly offers him a carrot, distracting him in mid-note.

Mother Nature has a definite thing for Father Time that she can’t quite contain, and during the finale, Jack-in-the-Box (Louis A. Shapiro) shoots the piano player (Larry Biedes), despite a sign forbidding it.

Performances continue at 3365 1/2 Cahuenga Blvd. West in Hollywood Thursday through Saturday (and Monday and Tuesday) at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. There is a $1 discount on ticket price if a toy, food or clothing is brought for the homeless. (213) 850-9016.