Pre-Broadway ‘August Rush’ a nonsensical hodgepodge at the Paramount

There may be a musical that’s more of a train wreck than “August Rush: The Musical,” but in decades of reviewing stage productions, I cannot think of one.

One thing works in this adaptation of the 2007 Robin Williams/Freddie Highmore movie: Composer/lyricist Mark Mancina’s score. Kudos to the cast (many of whom play their own instruments) and conductor Greg Jarrett for creating a gorgeous, harmonically complex sound. Otherwise, what we have here is 90 minutes of pretentious, rambling claptrap and a story that makes no sense whatsoever even if you apply the precepts of magical realism and/or look at it as a fairy tale or a fable or some kind of allegorical metaphor.

Here are some of the things that happen in “August Rush,” which is a history-making endeavor for the Paramount as the show is carving out its pre-Broadway tryout at the Aurora theater.

Young orphan Evan Taylor (Jack McCarthy opening night, Huxley Westemeier at some performances) runs away from foster care. He goes to New York City where he tries to find his parents by listening for them (I know. Just go with it). He falls in with a sinister “collective” led by a Wizard (John Hickok) who we know is a villain because he talks like Snidely Whiplash and, in one truly grim scene, tortures Evan with a pair of special headphones that burst the poor child’s ear drums. Not to worry. Evan is deaf and then he’s fine. Maybe the torture was a dream? Moving on.

Evan’s parents? His mother Lyla (Sydney Shepherd) is sad because her evil father (also Hickok) told her Evan died at birth. Evan’s father Lewis (George Abud) is sad because he lost track of Lyla after their one night of love.

At this point, I began noting my questions: Lyla is a concert cellist. Why can’t Lewis check the concert listings to see where she is playing and thus reconnect? In what sort of hospital can an old man forge adoption papers and give away a baby while that baby’s mother is right there and clearly wants the baby? What is the Wizard’s deal? He’s presented as something of a musicians’ pimp. Related: If Evan’s music is so important to the Wizard’s survival, why does the Wizard deafen Evan with the headphones torture? How does Evan even know his parents are in New York?

And crucially there’s this: Evan pens a “Rhapsody” that Gershwin would be proud of. We can see its intricacy via Joe Burke’s algebraic-reminiscent projection design. But who taught Evan to read and write music?

These plot holes that could be overlooked if the characters were developed beyond paper cutouts. Instead, Mancina and Glen Berger (lyrics, book) provide the thinnest of stereotypes and put them in situations that fall somewhere between fever dream and opioid stupor. In addition to Lewis, Lyla, the Wizard/Father and Evan (who changes his name to “August Rush” for reasons largely unexplored), there is a violinist named “Hope” (Leenya Rideout) who serves as some kind of spirit guide to Evan as he makes his way through a series of disconnected scenes. Throughout, director John Doyle has the cast splintering the set with their scenery chewing.

McCarthy is gifted, no doubt. His powerful, poignant “I Can Hear You” reveals a young talent who — like the character he is playing — just might be a musical prodigy. Rideout has moments as well. She makes the anthemic affirmations of “You Are a Symphony” soar. Abud brings a quirkiness and intensity to neo-folk tune “Pig in the Moonlight,” while Lyla’s “If Only I’d Known You” could be tear-jerker were it part of a better plot.

At times, it seems Doyle is aiming for magical realism. Scott Pask’s set is composed of a gleaming black grand piano that whirls across the stage alongside a series of shifting screens that alternately reflect images of stars, music notes and a kaleidoscopic vision of the title page from Evan/August’s “Rhapsody.” Joann M. Hunter’s choreography has a hallucinatory feel as the ensemble twirls around that piano. But even magical realism needs to be grounded in a compelling narrative.

Catey Sullivan is a local freelance writer.