With echoes of several masterworks, especially the Billy Wilder film with the similarly metered title, Sunset Boulevard, David Wiener’s new System Wonderland takes us into rich, if charted, waters. Whether it’s Wiener’s dramaturgy, a central performance, or both, the journey ends with the feeling there has been some drifting along the way.

The three-member cast in South Coast Repertory’s world premiere, directed by David Emmes from a script commissioned by the theater, must triangulate a story that wants to explore several conflicting issues: pursuit of artistic integrity in a Hollywood system that eschews it; creative collaboration and mentoring between characters out to exploit those relationships; and, perhaps most importantly, a love affair whose protection is paramount despite little evidence of it.

The biggest challenge in all of this falls to Robert Desiderio who, as Oscar® Winner Jerry Wolfe, appears to be Max to the neo-Norma Desmond of Shannon Cochran’s Evelyn Kinkade - but Jerry soon throws off any yoke of subservience. In fact, after many dry years, he is himself in need of getting back in the good graces of the studio. After submitting a new treatment to a production executive, he is sent a young film school grad to help him with his typing. Aaron, played by John Sloan, back after his debut in SCR’s wonderful production of The Retreat from Moscow, has the backstory of Jay Gatsby and the moves of John Guare's Paul in Six Degrees. 

Wiener has given this three-sided story strong legs: reasons that they stay connected yet are propelled in pursuit of their own interests. Emmes serves him well with pacing and spacing that allows the story to breath as it powers forward. He also has an appreciation for what makes both the art and business of filmmaking endlessly fascinating. Still, as Jerry appears more and more to be the key to the balance, he also feels increasingly one-dimensional. Consequently, Wiener's story begins to sink. 

Whether it's murkiness in Wiener’s script or a lead actor out of his depth, the character is not navigating these conflicting demands. When the play ends with sacrifice as the only explanation for what has gone down, we must send our memory back down the play's plotlines to determine whether Jerry was being loving or controlling.