Utah Shakespeare Festival’s ‘Treasure Island’ not exciting enough

Too much buckle, not enough swash. Too much tell, not enough show.

And, as a result, not quite enough to make the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s “Treasure Island” a truly transporting theatrical voyage.

Mind you, there’s fun to be had in this regional premiere (which “Metamorphosis” Tony winner Mary Zimmerman adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson’s 19th-century classic), starting with a pre-show sea chantey singalong.

And if your knowledge of buccaneer lore begins and ends with “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, “Treasure Island” provides a welcome reminder that several essential elements — from peg-legged pirates to chatty, shoulder-perching parrots and “15 men on a dead man’s chest, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum” — all started in Stevenson’s tale.

To say nothing of the prototypical pirate himself: the endlessly scheming Long John Silver (Michael Elich, dialing down the cliches — and, as a result, some of the spirit) and his brother buccaneers.

Let’s start with Billy Bones (a hauntingly shiver-me-timbers Geoffrey Kent), who wanders into the Admiral Benbow Inn, in the British port of Bristol, and immediately fascinates fatherless Jim Hawkins (relentlessly plucky Sceri Sioux Ivers) with his tales of piracy — and his fear of “a seafarin’ man with one leg.”

When Billy meets his inevitable fate, Jim and his mother (Latoya Cameron) discover a treasure map, prompting the local squire (blustery Andrew May) to finance a treasure-hunting voyage — manned by, among others, the ship’s cook, John Silver by name, who’s got more on his mind than grub and grog.

Mutiny! Murder! Great escapes! Nick-of-time rescues! Coming-of-age life lessons!

“Treasure Island” abounds in what-happens-next adventure, but this version undercuts the inherent excitement, slowing the action as characters pause to explain what they’re doing even as they do it.

Director Sean Graney never quite figures out how to lift the production out of the doldrums when it bogs down. (Jason Lajka’s unwieldy ship’s-hull set, which the actors turn to transform it from inn to pirate ship to island fortress, doesn’t help.)

As it sails its meandering course, this “Treasure Island” sometimes proves yo-ho-ho rousing. But sometimes it’s just ho-hum.

Contact Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.